Stock Offerings: Center Bancorp

BOSTON (TheStreet) -- Center Bancorp (CNBC) shares are trading lower Wednesday after the bank holding company priced two separate offerings of common stock at a discount to the previous session's closing price.

Center Bancorp said it will sell an aggregate of 1.71 million shares of its common stock for net proceeds of approximately $11.4 million. Center said it is offering 1.43 million shares of common stock at $7 per share, with Stifel Nicolaus Weisel as the underwriter. Concurrently, Center is offering 285,000 sshares of common stock to several company directors at $7.50 per share.

Center said net proceeds from the offerings will be used for general corporate purposes, including the contribution of a portion of the proceeds to Union Center National Bank as additional capital.

Shares of Center Bancorp were down 15 cents, or 2%, to $7.38. Nearly 25,000 shares changed hands early in Wednesday's trading session, more than doubling the average daily share volume.

Elsewhere, Alexandria Real Estate Equities (ARE) shares are falling after the company priced an offering of 4.5 million shares of common stock at $69.25 per share. Originally, Alexandria RE said it would offer 4 million shares of common stock.

Alexandria RE said net proceeds from the offering will be used to reduce the outstanding balance of its borrowings on its unsecured line of credit, including borrowings that were applied toward completed acquisitions. Shares of the company are down $2.95, or 4.1%, to $69.96.

Shares of Winthrop Realty Trust (FUR) are dropping by 8.6% to $12.66 after the company priced an offering of 5 million shares of beneficial interest at $12.25 per share. Proceeds from the sale will go towards additional investments and general corporate purposes, the company said.

Meanwhile, Sequenom (SQNM) said in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it intends to offer up to $150 million in securities, including common stock. Shares of Sequenom are sliding by 2.8% to $6.85.

-- Written by Robert Holmes in Boston.

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