Markets
Michael Vasinkevich

Former Rodman Exec Vasinkevich Revs Up H.C. Wainwright

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A pair of April registered direct offerings placed by a retooled H.C. Wainwright & Co. marked the return of former Rodman & Renshaw principal Michael Vasinkevich to the PIPE market. Wainwright served as lead agent for a $3.17 million offering from Wave Systems Corp. (WAVX) and as exclusive agent for a $10 million offering from Northwest Biotherapeutics (NWBO). In addition to Vasinkevich, FINRA records show, principals of the resurrected Wainwright include former Rodman executives Vincent Sarnatora and Mark Viklund, along with former Digital Lightwave (DIGL) chief exec and Scientologist Bryan Zwan.

Markets

Growth Equity Offerings Increase in Q1

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Growth companies raising capital in equity private placements during the first quarter continued to benefit from an investment trend that is focused on fundamentals, one that is supplanting a market once dominated by funds bent on arbitrage and structured investments. While first quarter capital-raising activity usually slows in relation to traditionally busy fourth quarters, the confluence of Hurricane Sandy, the presidential election and fiscal cliff uncertainties late last year managed to upend the norm. Issuances of 102 growth equity private placements (EPPs) in the first three months of 2013 exceeded 2012’s fourth period total by 11 deals, according to PlacementTracker, Sagient Research’s research tool that tracks equity private placements of more than $1 million. Deal activity in the first quarter this year was on par with the period a year earlier, when companies completed 105 growth EPP transactions. (Growth EPPs are defined here as private placements of a least $1 million of stock or equity-linked debt that feature fixed purchase, conversion and warrant exercise price terms, issued by public emerging growth companies with market capitalizations of between $10 million and $1 billion and a common share price of $1 or more at the time of the deal’s close.

Markets
VC

Sponsors Step Back from Market in Q1

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Sponsored growth equity private placements - deals backed by long term investors such as venture capital, private equity, corporations, endowments, pension and mutual funds, generated significant deal flow in the first quarter of 2013, but at rates well below the same period a year ago. In the first quarter such investors included pharma buyout specialist Frost Group, energy investor Natural Gas Partners, storied tech VC Kleiner Perkins, multi-stage VC firm Oak Investment Partners, long-biased hedge fund Aspire Capital, business development company Hercules Technology Growth Capital (HTGC), the Janus and Legg Mason mutual funds, and China sovereign fund CITIC Capital. A quick look at the numbers suggests that sponsored private placements in the first quarter represented a much smaller portion of the overall PIPEs market than they did in the first quarter of 2012, but the limits of disclosed data make a direct comparison problematic. In the first quarter of 2012, some $3.3 billion from 66 sponsored PIPEs accounted for 24% of the deal activity and 48% of total PIPE volume as 278 deals brought in total capital of $6.8 billion. In the first quarter of 2013, A total of 26 sponsored deals raised only $480 million, representing just 10% of the deal activity and  less than 7% of the capital raised in the broader EPP market of 252 offerings that raised $7.23 billion.

Markets
Energy

Energy Deal Pricing Turns on Trading Dollar Volume

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Energy companies have consistently been among the busiest equity private placement issuers over the past several years, particularly in light of the growing ability to tap stubborn shale reserves, the rise of income-generating master limited partnerships that process, store and transport fuel, and the continued push for alternative energy. While the booming sector to date has largely failed to dissuade investors from ignoring liquidity realities when structuring energy growth equity private placements (GEPPs) and PIPEs, in some cases buyers have nonetheless pursued aggressive gambles on the smallest and most unproven and illiquid issuers, according to a review of such deals. Using Sagient Research’s market monitor PlacementTracker, Growth Capital Investor analyzed energy private placements over 24 months ended March 15. In addition to surveying only unregistered common stock transactions, the focus was limited to energy companies with market capitalizations of $1 billion or less, and issuers were further divided by their 30-day average trading dollar volume, industry focus, and share price. Over that time, energy issuers in the sample raised $1.3 billion in 67 transactions for an average deal size of $19.4 million.