Ceres, a US-based seller of grass seeds to produce feedstocks for energy production backed by peer Monsanto, plans to raise $100m in its Nasdaq flotation.
Monsanto owns 6.4% of Ceres, which raised $20m in its series G round in June last year by selling shares at $6.50 each. Monsanto had bought 3.3 million shares in Ceres’s E round last year at $6.50 per share following a $137m collaboration signed in 2002 applying genomics technologies to identify genes that provide improvements in corn, soybean and certain other row crops, according to its regulatory filing.
Previously, Ceres raised $75m in September 2007 in a round led by private equity firm Warburg Pincus.
Investment banks Goldman Sachs and Barclays Capital are co-lead underwriters of the initial public offering for Ceres, which posted a $11.3m loss on $3.3m in revenues for the six months to February 28.