Cream Minerals, Apogee raise capital in tough market; Silverjet gets new investor; Infosmart arranges loan

By Kenneth Lim

Boston, May 5 - Cream Minerals Ltd. plans to raise between C$2 million and C$2.6 million through placements of stock and warrants as it seeks to aggressively develop its current projects.

Meanwhile, Apogee Minerals Ltd. announced a non-brokered C$3 million private placement of units that it hopes will tide it over through the next half-year.

Silverjet plc announced a £12.66 million stock placement and loan agreement with investor Viceroy Holdings LLC, while Infosmart Group Inc. negotiated a $4 million loan from two investment funds.

Cream eyes up to C$2.6 million

Cream Minerals said it plans to sell stock-and-warrant units in two private placements.

The first deal involves flow-through units of one flow-through share and one half-share warrant at C$0.40 per unit. Each warrant is exercisable for two years at C$0.60.

The second deal involves units of one common share and one half-share warrant at C$0.32 per unit. Each warrant is exercisable for two years at C$0.40. Cream Minerals common stock (TSX: CMA) closed at C$0.285 on Monday, lower by 5%, or C$0.015.

The company will sell one flow-through unit for every two non flow-through units.

Cream Minerals, a mineral exploration company based in Vancouver, B.C., said proceeds will be used for exploration and development.

"We're trying to raise C$2 million to C$2.6 million right now," Cream Minerals president and chief executive Frank Lang told Prospect News.

Cream Minerals has a number of projects in the exploratory stage. Its nickel property in Manitoba will be the target of the flow-through financing.

"We drill blasted there in June [2007], reported in July ... so we're funding a geophysical survey on that to determine where else to drill," Lang said.

The non-flow through funds will be channeled to the company's silver and gold project in Mexico, to its marine diamond mining project in Sierra Leone and for working capital.

"The main purpose here is to get that drilling done in Mexico," Lang explained. "We'll build towards the resources. We're very close to the reserves, so we want to put some thermals underground to get to the proper grade."

"Because most of our requirement is for working capital and Mexico, we're insisting that people by two of the hard-money, the non-flow through units, to get one of the flow-through, soft-money," Lang said.

Lang said he was "thoroughly dissatisfied" with the pricing of the deal.

"It's just such a tough market here, so much competition, it's hard to raise money here," Lang said. "I've never seen a year like this. I held back on the fundraising on purpose, because I thought that in January and February I'd be able to take advantage of higher demand, but thanks to your subprime market, that screwed everything."

Lang is hoping that gold and silver prices go up while the company continues to perform exploratory studies on its properties.

"It would be nice to raise money at some higher price," he said.

Apogee raises for six months

Apogee Minerals said it plans to issue C$3 million worth of units in a non-brokered private placement.

The units comprise one common share and one warrant at C$0.40 per unit. Each warrant is exercisable at C$0.50 for two years. Apogee common stock (TSX: APE) slipped 5.33%, or C$0.02, to close at C$0.355 on Monday.

Proceeds will be used for development.

Toronto-based Apogee is a producer of silver, zinc and lead.

"We're raising to continue with our exploration program at the Pulacayo-Paca project [in Bolivia]," Apogee chief executive David Gower told Prospect News. "We are nearing the end of our drilling campaign, and this will help us to get resource estimates. We will be moving to make some feasibility studies. It's a rather modest financing at this point, so that we can commit to projects related to that work, with the idea that once we have some estimates we can have a better idea of how much more we need to do."

Like Cream Minerals, Apogee encountered a tough market for fundraising, Gower said.

"Obviously, we would like to finance at a higher price than we did," he said. "But the pricing reflects what the market is willing to pay. It's not the easiest market right now, but for us the timing just coincides fairly well with the program. We initially thought that we would just wait for the resource estimates to be ready, but this should take the work through the summer."

The current financing should last Apogee for the next half-year, Gower said.

"This financing will take us well into the fall and possibly beyond," he said. "We would hope to at least get some scoping of this new resource done before we look beyond that, really to get the information that we need to plan what the future of the project will look like. We wouldn't be going back to the market in the next six months, I don't think."

Silverjet raises £12.7 million

Silverjet said it will raise about £12.66 million through a private placement of shares and a loan agreement with investor Viceroy Holdings LLC.

The company will sell 25.1 million shares at 17p each for £4.26 million. Silverjet common stock (AIM: SIL) closed unchanged at 15.25p on Monday.

Silverjet also secured £8.4 million in a loan with Viceroy. Drawings under the facility will carry a coupon of Libor plus 200 basis points and will be repayable in May 2011.

Proceeds will be used to restore Silverjet's working capital and enable it to continue to develop its business.

Silverjet is an airline with headquarters in Luton, England.

Viceroy is a unit of Viceroy Fund, an international luxury development fund based in the United States and the United Arab Emirates. As part of the deal, it will also appoint two non-executive directors to Silverjet's board.

"I am delighted to confirm that following the announcement on 30 April concerning the memorandum of understanding, Silverjet has now entered into a binding conditional agreement and secured the commitment of a high quality, long-term strategic investor," Silverjet chief executive Lawrence Hunt said in a statement. "Viceroy is committed to the development and expansion of Silverjet, and proposes to inject further capital to develop the Silverjet proposition."

"This investment means that Silverjet is now well placed, both financially and strategically, to exploit the opportunities which exist in the airline and all business class market - a market which we now dominate," he stated.

The April 30 announcement said Silverjet had entered into a memorandum of understanding with an investor, now identified as Viceroy, to initially invest $25 million in the airline. Viceroy also plans to inject a further $75 million into Silverjet, and negotiations regarding that amount are continuing, Silverjet said.

Hunt also told media over the weekend that Silverjet has received signs of takeover interest from three other parties - none of them Viceroy - and a bid could come in the next couple of months.

Infosmart borrows $4 million

Infosmart Group said it took in $4 million from a loan agreement with Professional Offshore Opportunity Fund Ltd. and Professional Traders Fund, LLC on April 30.

Infosmart will receive $4 million at a 20% original issue discount from the $5 million principal. The loan is evidenced by a $4.4 million secured debenture and a $600,000 secured debenture, which are secured by all of the company's assets, for up to $12 million, subordinate only to bank debt.

The investors also received five-year warrants for 19,083,970 common shares, exercisable at $0.262. The warrants also have a cashless exercise provision that the investors may use after six months.

Infosmart common stock (OTCBB: IFSG) closed flat at $0.24 on Monday.

Based in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong, Infosmart develops, manufactures, markets and sells recordable digital versatile disc media and recordable compact discs.

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