NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Helicos BioSciences disclosed in a regulatory filing today that it will make a $10 million pre-payment on a $20 million loan on or before Dec. 31.
The pre-payment is part of a third amendment to Helicos’ loan and security agreement signed in December 2007 with certain lenders and GE Capital.
The firm said the pre-payment can be made without it incurring any penalties. In connection with the payment, Helicos will pay a fee equal to 2 percent of the initial $10 million term loan – in lieu of the 4 percent final payment fee related to the pay down amount – payable on the earlier of Jan. 31, 2011, and the maturity date for the subsequent term loan made to Helicos pursuant to the second amendment in June 2008.
Under that second amendment, Helicos received $10 million from the lenders. It also paid GE Capital a fee of $150,000 to serve as agent for the credit facility, and issued warrants for the rights to acquire up to 110,000 shares of its common stock for an exercise price of $4.80 per share.
In addition, under this most recent amendment, Helicos’ obligations under the loan agreement are no longer secured by a cash amount of $10 million. Such obligations are secured by “substantially all of the Company's personal property, including the pledge of the stock of the company's wholly-owned subsidiary, and proceeds of any intellectual property, but not by the company's intellectual property,” according to the filing.
In early Tuesday trade on the Nasdaq, shares of Helicos were up around 1 percent at $.343.