NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Rosetta Genomics announced after the close of the market on Thursday it has entered into definitive agreements with investors to raise $6.6 million in a direct offering.
The agreement calls for investors to purchase an aggregate of 570,755 ordinary shares at a price of $11.50 per share. The offering is expected to close on or about May 31, the Israel-based molecular diagnostic company said.
Proceeds from the offering will go mainly to fund operations and for general corporate purposes, including repayment or refinancing of existing debt, IP protection and enforcement, acquisitions or collaborations, and research and development, it added.
Aegis Capital was the exclusive placement agent on the offering.
The offering follows Rosetta's announcement last week of its plans to raise $2.2 million in a direct offering of 632,057 ordinary shares. That offering priced at $3.50 per share was expected to close on or about May 22. The company said in an SEC filing today that that offering closed.
Rosetta once faced questions about its ability to stay in business, but in the past two weeks it has seen an explosion in its stock price as the result of a one-for-15 reverse stock split and a decision by a designated Medicare contractor, Novitas, to cover Rosetta's miRview mets2 assay for all Medicare beneficiaries. The miRview mets2 test identifies tumor of origin in primary and metastatic cancer including cancer of unknown or uncertain primary.
On May 14, before the reverse stock split, Rosetta's shares closed at $.14 per share. The following day, after the stock split, shares closed at $1.62.
On Thursday, the firm's shares, which trade on the Nasdaq, closed at $16.29, up 45 percent on heavy volume of more than 8.7 million shares.