In Monday premarket trading, FirstEnergy Corp. (FE, Financial) gained more than 10% after the company announced a $2.5 billion investment, which includes $1.62 billion in mandatory convertible preferred equity and $850 million of common equity.
The preferred equity has an initial conversion price of $27.42 per share and will receive dividends on an as-converted basis and will be mostly non-voting.
The common equity will be priced at $28.22 a share. The funds will be used to reduce debt and search for growth opportunities.
FirstEnergy will form a restructuring working group to guide the company's transformation into a fully regulated utility.
The investors are affiliates of Elliott Management Corp., Bluescape, GIC and Zimmer Partners LP.
"We are pleased that these premier investors are demonstrating confidence in our plan to transform FirstEnergy into a fully regulated utility,"Â President and CEO Charles E. Jones said.
Shares of Juno Therapeutics Inc. (JUNO, Financial) skyrocketed on news it is being acquired by Celgene Corp. (CELG, Financial). Celgene is paying $87 per share, bringing the deal's total value up to $9 billion. Both boards approved the deal.
“The acquisition of Juno builds on our shared vision to discover and develop transformative medicines for patients with incurable blood cancers,” Celgene CEO Mark J. Alles said.
Juno Therapeutics President and CEO Hans Bishop lauded the passion of his company's focus on ”finding cures by creating cell therapies that help people live longer, better lives.”
Freeport-McMoRan Inc.'s (FCX, Financial) stock fell after analysts at CIBC downgraded the company to neutral from outperform.
Disclosure: The author holds no positions in any stocks mentioned.
