Markets
AMRS

Patient Investors Fuel Amyris

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An emerging growth company can never have enough friends, especially when its stock price has plunged 70% since the beginning of the year and its burn rate has nearly doubled in a matter of months. But lucky for Emeryville, Calif.-based Amyris (AMRS), an alternative energy issuer that can claim the aforementioned stats, it has a lot of faithful followers, including a sheikh, a staunch venture capitalist and French behemoth Total Group. The company is developing a technology that involves reprogramming living cells like yeast to perform chemical transformations on an industrial scale. Amyris has biotechnology roots, and lately it has been spending like a biotech. It went through $154 million over five quarters ended March 31 this year, up from $85 million over the previous five quarters.

Deals
XNPT

Synta, XenoPort Deals See Double Digits

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Independence Day was followed by dramatic stock price jumps from a couple of pharmaceutical issuers, XenoPort (XNPT) and Synta Pharmaceuticals (SNTA). Both recorded gains of over 10% between the time of their July offerings and the end of the month according to PlacementTracker data. XenoPort agreed on July 25 to issue $40 million in common stock to undisclosed investors in a CMPO placed by Credit Suisse Securities and RBC Capital Markets. The $6.50 per share deal was priced at a 4.27% discount to the close on July 25, when the agreement was announced after the close. Share rose 29% the next day to close at $8.40, then fell back to end the month at $7.88, up 21.2% since the announcement.

Deals
Rosetta Genomics

Registered Direct Deals Power Rosetta Genomics Roller Coaster

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The price of stock in Rosetta Genomics Ltd. (ROSG) shares moved up dramatically after it issued a $2.2 registered direct private placement in mid-May, but the market reacted less enthusiastically after a $6.57 million issuance at the end of the same month. (Aegis Capital Corp. placed both registered directs with undisclosed investors.)

Still, a dramatic overall increase of 90.3% from early April through the end of the second quarter testifies to optimism over new genetic diagnostic testing work - and contrasts with the plunge the stock took after it announced a $1.38 million registered direct offering on the morning of April 12. That announcement was followed by a decline of 55% from the previous day’s close.

Markets

Cowen Leads Q2 Growth Capital Deal Making

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Cowen & Co. (COWN) is reemerging as a leading PIPE placement agent, just as market participants are becoming more focused on identifying promising small issuers and providing them with non-toxic growth capital. The New York-based investment bank facilitated 24 unstructured equity private placements (EPPs) valued at $915.7 million in the first half of 2012 for companies with market capitalizations between $10 million and $1 billion, according to PlacementTracker, a service of Sagient Research. In the full year of 2011, Cowen facilitated 10 such deals valued at $274.6 million. Mutual fund manager Fidelity Management & Research Corp.