Private Placement A Sign of the Times?
The auto-ID and RFID industry has been experiencing massive growth over the last few quarters. A case in point comes through with the latest announcement by the Identive Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: INVE; Frankfurt Stock Exchange: INV), that subscription agreements have been entered into for a private placement that will result in a $10.35 million cash. The transaction is expected to close by week's end. Identive Group is a provider of products, services and solutions for the security, identification and RFID industries that has experienced between 10-13% organic growth over the last two quarters with significantly more growth from acquisitions. Considering the economic climate, the success of a private placement of this magnitude represents significant faith on the part of investors in the industry's continued growth. The RFID market is growing, in part, due to government programs on all levels; local, state and federal.In addition to the subscription agreements, the Company also issued warrants to the investors to purchase up to an additional 4,097,624 shares of common stock, exercisable for a period of five years, with a cash exercise price of $2.65, a premium of $0.25 per share over the NASDAQ closing price on November 12, 2010. If exercised in full, the warrants would bring in an additional $10.86 million in cash to the Company. The proceeds will be used to fund future acquisition and growth activity and for general corporate purposes. Currently the RFID market is a fragmented one. Through acquisition Identive Group could substantially consolidate the market becoming the kind of player that has a wide scope of offering.
Ayman S. Ashour, chairman and chief executive officer of Identive Group, commented, "We are pleased that our vision of building the signature company in secure ID is receiving more traction with the financial community. We remain firm in our philosophy to pursue growth opportunities that are accretive to our shareholders, whether we are paying in cash or shares. It was very important for us to raise additional cash at terms attractive to Identive and to Identive shareholders and we believe that in the current market these terms are very good indeed. We are proud that we have been able to gain this strong endorsement from existing and new investors.”
Ashour added, "The ID management and RFID markets in general are experiencing strong growth, and our industry remains highly fragmented, which creates the opportunity for further consolidation while we continue our strong organic growth.”
Morgan Joseph LLC acted as financial advisor to the Company in connection with the placement. iTell AG and Alternative Capital Management AG acted as financial advisors to the Company outside the United States. Greenberg Traurig LLP served as legal advisors to the Company.
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