Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Ceres Prices IPO

Thousand Oaks-based Ceres, the developer of specialized seeds for the biofuels market, has priced its IPO, saying that it will offer up 5,000,000 shares of its common stock at $13.00 per share. The firm will start trading today on the NASDAQ Global Market as CERE. Ceres, a biotechnology firm which is developing specialized versions of agricultural seeds specifically designed for high yields of oils for biofuel and biochemical products, had filed for an IPO in May; the firm priced below its anticipated $16.00 to $17.00 per share IPO range, after seeing a delay of a week in the expected pricing by the firm. The IPO was underwritten by Goldman, Sachs & CO., Barclays Capital, PIper Jaffray, Raymond James, and Simmons & Company International. Ceres is venture backed by Artal Luxembourg, Warburg Pincus, Ambergate Trust, Oxford Bioscience, GIMV, Oppenheimer Growth, Quantum Industrial Partners, and Monsanto.

---