Ceres goes public at $13
Ceres, the Thousand Oaks-based energy crop firm, has gone public on the Nasdaq priced at $13 a share, raising up to $65 million in the sale of five million shares. The stock was up nearly 15 percent to $14.90 in mid-day trading on Feb. 22.
Ceres struggled to push through its deal. Initially slated to go public on Feb. 9, the company delayed its offering twice and lowered the targeted price from $21 to $23 a share to $16 to $17 and finally $13.
The company’s seeds for switchgrass and sorghum are designed to grow energy crops where food production is infeasible.
After tough news of a Brazilian drought that might hurt its crop this year, Ceres announced that its existing investors, which include Monsanto and private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Artal Group, indicated they would buy as much as a fifth of the IPO shares.
Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Barclays Capital acted as joint book-running managers for the offering, according to a release from Ceres. Piper Jaffray, Raymond James and Simmons & Company International acted as co-managers, the company said.
