Agribusiness firm Ceres cut the range for its initial public offering (IPO) on Wednesday to $16-$17 per share, down from the $21-$23 range it proposed in a filing last month. The number of shares set to be issued has stayed steady at five million.
None of Ceres’ institutional shareholders, which include agribusiness corporation Monsanto, appear to be divesting stock in the offering. Monsanto, with which Ceres signed a $137m discovery and development deal in 2002, will hold about 4.8% of Ceres’ shares, post-IPO, down from about 6.0%.
Additional shareholders, with post-IPO stock percentages, are Artal Luxembourg (15.2%), Warburg Pincus (12.2%), the Ambergate Trust (11.6%), Oxford Bioscience Partners (7.8%), Gimv (6.7%), Oppenheimer Funds (6.3%) and the Quantum Group (4.7%).
Founded in 1996, Ceres develops energy crops that act as raw material for biofuel, as well as supplying technological solutions to developers of food crops.
Ceres estimates it will raise proceeds of $72.2m from the flotation, and has allocated the cash to specific areas. Research and development will take $35m, $10m will go towards capital expenditures and $5m to sales, marketing and advertising, with the remainder left over for general working capital.
Underwriters for the offering remain Goldman Sachs, Barclays Capital, Piper Jaffray, Raymond James & Associates and Simmons & Company. They retain the option of purchasing an extra 750,000 shares in the 30 days following the offering.