Stock Offerings: CenterPoint Energy

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- CenterPoint Energy (CNP) shares rose after the public utility company priced an offering of common stock to match Wednesday's closing price.

CenterPoint Energy priced its offering of 22 million shares of common stock at $12.90 per share. Underwriters have an option to purchase up to an additional 3.3 million shares to cover overallotments, if any.

CenterPoint shares dropped 3.2% Wednesday after first announcing the offering.

CenterPoint said it intends to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, including repayment of borrowings under its money pool and making loans to its subsidiaries, including to CenterPoint Energy Resources Corp. to fund its subsidiary's gas gathering and treating projects.

Shares of CenterPoint were lately up 1.2% to $13.06.

Elsewhere, Cereplast (CERP) shares plummeted 22.3% to $3.45 after the company said it will raise $7.5 million in registered direct financing with institutional investors.

Cereplast said institutional investors to purchase approximately 2.13 million units, each consisting of one share of common stock and one warrant to purchase 0.5 of a share at an exercise price of $4.44 per share.

Shares of Cereplast rose Wednesday after the bioplastics manufacturer said it expects to ship 16 million pounds of bio-plastic resins in 2010, quadrupling year-ago shipments.

Kid Brands (KID) shares slumped 7% to $7.24 after the children's product maker priced an offering of nearly 4.4 million shares on behalf of a selling stockholder at $7.25 per share, a discount of 7% to Wednesday's closing price.

Kid Brands noted that it will not receive proceeds from the offering as it will not be issuing new shares.

Meanwhile, several companies filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for mixed shelf offerings, including Douglas Emmett (DEI), LTC Properties (LTC), China XD Plastics (CXDC) and TransAtlantic Petroleum (TAT).

-- Written by Robert Holmes in Boston.

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