Semiconductor-based components and satellite solar panel developer Emcore plans to raise around US$8m through an underwritten public offering of stock.
The company on 28 September priced an offering of 1,593,400 common shares at US$5.46 each. B. Riley…
Semiconductor-based components and satellite solar panel developer Emcore plans to raise around US$8m through an underwritten public offering of stock.
The company on 28 September priced an offering of 1,593,400 common shares at US$5.46 each. B. Riley & Co is acting as sole underwriter for the offering, which closes on 3 October with a 30-day option to acquire an additional 15% of the common stock offered.
Emcore expects to raise approximately US$8.265m from the transaction, which will be used for general corporate purposes.
The move follows a one-for-four reverse stock split in February to raise the value of the common shares. This split, which was first mooted in May 2011, saw the company reduce the number of its shares from around 94 million to 23.5 million.
As well as attracting investor interest, Emcore said the move improved its ability to comply with Nasdaq’s listing rules, such as the US$1 minimum bid price requirement, after its stock price steadily declined over the past four years. The shares closed at US$5.75 on 26 September 2012, the day before the public offering announcement was originally made.
Emcore also announced last week that it had closed the sale of its terrestrial concentrating photovoltaics (CPV) assets for an undisclosed sum. The group sold the operations, which included fixed assets, inventory, and intellectual property for the CPV product lines, to Suncore Photovoltaics, a joint venture owned 40% by Emcore and 60% by China-based San’An Optoelectronics. This deal came hot on the heels of Emcore’s sale of its enterprise product lines, and with it the company has now fully realigned to focus on its core, more profitable fibre optic and satellite solar panel businesses.
In addition, Emcore announced in an SEC filing that it had settled for around US$10m in compensation in connection with a flood in Thailand last year. The flood damaged certain property assets in the country, which Emcore said were under the custody and control of Fabrinet, the primary manufacturer for its fibre optics unit.
