Homebuilder surges on amended credit facilities

Stockhouse U.S. Small and Micro-cap Stock Report for Tuesday, September 30, 2008  

TORONTO (SHfn) – Shares of a California homebuilder soared Tuesday on amended credit facility news, while a biopharma stock climbed after a financing agreement. 

Shares of California Coastal Communities (NASDAQ: CALC, Stock Forum) surged 103.7% to $2.18 Tuesday after the company announced that it has completed amendments to its $210 million of credit facilities with two bank syndicates managed by KeyBank. The residential land development and homebuilding company, which operates in Southern California, says the amendments defer $25 million of debt payments which were due at the end of 2008 and preserve an additional $75 million of borrowing capacity between now and September 2009 by deferring loan amortization and commitment reductions. In exchange for the additional flexibility, California Coastal Communities notes that it will pay higher interest rates on both its revolving credit line and term loan. 

New Jersey-based Unigene Laboratories (OTC:BB: UGNE, Stock Forum) announced Tuesday that it has entered into a financing agreement for $20 million three-year non-convertible, senior secured term notes and up to 1,500,000 shares of common stock. An entity managed by Victory Park Capital Advisors is the only investor in the transaction. Unigene, a biopharmaceutical company, says it will draw down $15 million at closing and have an option for an additional $5 million within two years of the closing. Shares of Unigene Laboratories climbed 39.7% to $1.09 Tuesday. 

Shares of California-based Conexant Systems (NASDAQ: CNXT, Stock Forum) climbed more than 39% to $4.01 Tuesday, after the company reported that its core operating income and core net income for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 will exceed the guidance provided by the company in July. The semiconductor company also said it expects fourth fiscal quarter revenues to be within the range provided in July, which was $120 million to $125 million. The company’s chairman and CEO noted that that Conexant now expects to deliver core operating income in the range of between $19 million and $20 million, resulting in core net income of 24 cents to 26 cents per share. Expectations for the fourth fiscal quarter set out two months ago anticipated non-GAAP core operating income in a range between $14 million and $16 million, and core net income of 13 cents to 17 cents per share, says the company. 

A.P. Pharma. (NASDAQ:APPA, Stock Forum) shares tumbled 34.8% to 75 cents Tuesday after the specialty pharmaceutical company announced results from its Phase 3 study comparing its APF530 drug with Aloxi for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. A.P. Pharma says the 10mg dose of APF530 achieved complete response rates that were numerically higher than Aloxi across all four assessments, and the results met the primary endpoint of "non-inferiority" for three assessments, but did not achieve the primary endpoint of superiority for the highly emetogenic delayed onset assessment. The company says that APF530 was generally well tolerated, “with a side effect profile consistent with previous human use of granisetron”, but also noted that there was one serious adverse event reported as possibly attributed to APF530. A.P. Pharma says it plans to submit a New Drug Application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the fourth quarter.