Stock Offerings: Navios Maritime

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Navios Maritime Partners (NMM) shares fell on increased volume after the drybulk transportation company announced a public offering of 4.5 million shares of common stock.

Navios Maritime said it will offer 4.5 million shares of common stock at $17.84 per share, representing limited partnership interests in a public offering. Underwriters were granted a 30-day option to purchase an additional 675,000 common units to cover over-allotments, if any.

Navios Maritime said it will use the net proceeds from the public offering to fund its fleet expansion and/or for general partnership purposes.

Navios Maritime shares were losing 6% to $17.71. Share volume topped 2.24 million shares after two hours of trading Friday, compared to the average daily share volume of 347,000.

Elsewhere, Energy Income & Growth Fund (FEN) said it has agreed to sell 1.7 million shares of common stock at a price of $24.20 per share. Underwriters were given a 30-day option to buy an additional 255,000 shares to cover over-allotments.

Energy Income & Growth Fund said it expects net proceeds from the offering of approximately $39.3 million, which will be used to make additional portfolio investments. Shares of Energy Income & Growth Fund were down 4.9% to $24.10.

AspenBio Pharma (APPY) announced a registered direct common stock and warrant offering of $10 million. AspenBio will sell an aggregate of 2.4 million units to new and existing institutional investors. Each unit consists of one share of common stock and one warrant to purchase 0.285 share of common stock.

The investors have agreed to purchase the units for a negotiated price of $4.15 per unit, AspenBio said. The per share exercise price of the warrants is $4.82. AspenBio Pharma shares were sliding 12.9% to $4.

Columbia Banking System (COLB) said it has priced a public offering of 9.6 million shares of common stock at $21.75 per share. Underwriters were granted a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1.44 million shares of the company's common stock to cover over-allotments, if any.

Columbia Banking said net proceeds from the offering of approximately $199.2 million will be used to support opportunistic growth and the bank's capital needs. Columbia Banking shares were sliding 2.4% to $22.73.