Markets

LifeLock IPO Highlights Keating Shift from Reverse Mergers

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The proposed initial public offering of internet security provider LifeLock Inc. reflects investment from a variety of backers, including a former reverse merger sponsor that walked away from that market at its peak several years ago and completely changed its investing strategy. The company is seeking to raise as much as $207 million, according to a regulatory filing. Tempe, Ariz.-based LifeLock has been backed or advised variously by investment bank Goldman Sachs, venture investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Kleiner Perkins, strategic investor Symantec, and one-time reverse merger specialist Tim Keating’s Keating Capital. LifeLock is profiting from support from big players in the IPO business and regulatory freedom created by the JOBS Act, which conferred emerging growth status on some fairly substantial companies. “We are an ‘emerging growth company’ as that term is used in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 and, as such, have elected to comply with certain reduced public company reporting requirements,” the company said in its registration statement for the offering.

Markets

Ramco-Gershenson Properties Taps $78M ATM

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Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust (RPT) announced that it has secured up to $78.7 million in an ATM (At the Market) transaction with Cantor Fitzgerald & Company, Jefferies & Company, KeyBanc Capital Markets, and RBS Securities. The purchase price is the prevailing market price at the time of the Draw Down Notice. Placement Agent counsel was Reed Smith, and issuer counsel was Ballard Spahr. An agreement was reached on Sept. 21, 2012.

Markets

With Rodman & Renshaw Team Scattered, EPP Banking Biz Up for Grabs

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The sunset of prolific placement agent Rodman & Renshaw leaves the private placement market with a gaping void that once-rival investment bankers are hoping to exploit. “There’s obviously a vacuum that has been created,” said John Borer, the former head of investment banking at Rodman who is spearheading a more robust banking effort at New York-based Benchmark Co. “I don’t think any one entity is going to pick up those 70 to 80 deals that Rodman did . . . they’ll be spread out across the Street.”

From the beginning of 2006 through mid-September this year, when the firm notified regulators that it was ceasing operations, Rodman had a hand in facilitating 426 placements that raised nearly $7 billion in gross proceeds, according to PlacementTracker, a service of Sagient Research that tracks equity private placements (EPP) of more than $1 million.

Deals

Las Vegas Railway Express Raises Funds for Vegas to LA Train

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Las Vegas Railway Express (XTRN) announced that it has raised $2.28 million in a Common Stock transaction. The common stock was sold at $0.05 per share, an approximate 41% discount to the market price ($0.09) of XTRN at deal announcement. Issuer counsel was Sichenzia Ross Friedman Ference. The company is developing a train line between Las Vegas and Southern California. This Placement funded in multiple tranches.