Vacaville's Large Scale Biology lines up $16M in new funding

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Sacramento Business Journal - 1:38 PM PDT Monday

Large Scale Biology lines up $16M in new funding

Large Scale Biology Corp. has received a $15 million line of credit from a fund advised by Southbridge Capital Management LLC, and separately raised an additional $1 million in bridge financing from its chief executive officer and chairman of the board.

Large Scale Biology of Vacaville intends to use the proceeds for general working capital and to retire certain bridge debt.

Under terms of the three-year private equity deal, announced Monday, Brittany Capital Management Ltd. can periodically buy up to $15 million of Large Scale stock at a 7 percent discount to the market.

Separately, Large Scale received $1 million on Aug. 5 in term-loan financing in exchange for secured promissory notes issued to chief executive officer Kevin J. Ryan and Robert Erwin, chairman of the board of directors, in the amounts of $750,000 and $250,000 respectively.

The announcement comes several months after the financially ailing company ended its first quarter with just $400,000 in cash and short-term securities. Ryan loaned the firm $3 million shortly after the close of the quarter.

Large Scale took another hit Aug. 3 when its stock was delisted from the Nasdaq to the Nasdaq SmallCap Market for failure to meet shareholder equity requirements and because of its low stock price.

Shares of the company (NASDAQ: LSBC) last traded at 88 cents on Monday, up 7 cents. Large Scale is scheduled to release its second-quarter earnings Tuesday.

© 2005 American City Business Journals Inc.