PlacementTracker Publishes PIPE Market League Tables


SAN DIEGO, Oct. 30, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Sagient Research Systems, a leading publisher of independent research for the financial services and institutional investment communities, today announced that Rodman & Renshaw, LLC ranked as the Number 1 most active investment bank in the PIPE market through the first three quarters of 2006 and Iroquois Capital, L.P. topped the list of most active institutional investors during the same period.

PlacementTracker, a flagship product of Sagient Research Systems, is well recognized as the leading provider of research, data, and analytics covering the PIPE market.

Commenting on the League Tables, Robert F. Kyle, executive vice president of Sagient Research said, "After one of the most active 6-month periods in PIPE market history, the third quarter of 2006 experienced a significant slow down. During the three-month period ended September 30, 2006, we recorded 233 transactions totaling $3.49 billion in equity and equity-linked capital raised (excluding Structured Equity Lines and Canadian domiciled issuers). This represented a transaction count decrease of 30.86% over the third quarter of 2005 and a 35.60% decrease in total amount raised during the third quarter of 2005. Despite the slowdown, we still expect the U.S. PIPE market to set a new record in 2006 for total capital raised in a calendar year. As always, we congratulate all of the active agents and investors in the PIPE market for a successful first three quarters of the year, especially those leaders who topped the League Tables. Many of these firms are long-time clients of PlacementTracker, and we look forward to continuing to provide them with industry leading data, research, and analytics to help keep them on top of this market."

PlacementTracker's dynamically updating League Tables are available online at: http://www.sagientresearch.com/pt/leaguetables.cfm.



         The 2006 PIPE Market Investment Banking League Table
             By Number of Transactions (through 9/30/06):

                                      Transaction         Total
 Placement Agent Name                    Count        Amount Placed
 --------------------                    -----     ------------------
 Rodman & Renshaw, LLC                    30       $      451,133,859
 Roth Capital Partners, LLC               23       $      335,086,709
 Cowen and Company, LLC                   18       $      774,907,100
 Midtown Partners & Co., LLC              14       $       45,765,975
 Banc of America Securities, LLC          12       $      581,532,217
 C.E. Unterberg, Towbin                   12       $      143,682,853
 Sanders Morris Harris, Inc.              11       $      204,573,910
 Piper Jaffray & Co.                      10       $      255,063,815
 Dawson James Securities, Inc.             9       $       61,606,327
 HPC Capital Management Corp.              9       $       40,313,604
 Jefferies & Company, Inc.                 8       $      431,894,750
 Oppenheimer & Co., Inc.                   8       $      149,444,350
 Ascendiant Securities, LLC                8       $       35,003,277
 Westminster Securities Corp,              8       $       18,342,500
 Lehman Brothers, Inc.                     7       $      455,352,298
 Burnham Hill Partners                     7       $       75,534,403
 Fairhills Capital                         7       $       13,000,000
 Thomas Weisel Partners, LLC               6       $      220,889,668
 Merriman Curhan Ford & Co.                6       $      127,829,000
 Brean Murray, Carret & Co.                6       $       82,861,244
 Maxim Group, LLC                          6       $       80,286,250
 Stonegate Securities, Inc.                6       $       50,550,000
 vFinance Investments, Inc.                6       $       21,562,682
 Bathgate Capital Partners, LLC            6       $       17,743,448
 Broadband Capital Management, LLC         5       $      285,873,500

Investment Banking rankings exclude all Equity Line of Credit transactions and all PIPE transactions conducted by Canadian domiciled issuers. On transactions where an investment banking firm has acted solely as Financial Advisor, that transaction has been excluded from that firm's ranking. Co-agented transactions award full transaction credit to all agents participating (regardless of status of lead agent or co-agent). Data is as reported as of 10/27/06.



       The 2006 PIPE Market Institutional Investor League Table
             By Number of Transactions (through 9/30/06):

                                       Transaction        Total
 Investor Name                            Count      Amount Invested
 -------------                            -----      ---------------

 Iroquois Capital, L.P.                    93        $     87,762,145
 Nite Capital Management, LLC              92        $     35,462,789
 Highbridge International, LLC             53        $    116,223,596
 Enable Capital Management                 50        $     74,511,455
 Downsview Capital, Inc.                   50        $     35,412,596
 Cornell Capital Partners, L.P.            46        $    224,396,490
 NIR Group, LLC                            42        $     51,209,495
 Bristol Capital Advisors, LLC             42        $     21,344,581
 LH Financial Services Corp.               42        $     18,845,376
 Heights Capital Management, Inc.          34        $     88,729,062
 SF Capital Partners, Inc.                 32        $     85,752,022
 Whalehaven Fund, Ltd.                     32        $     18,716,070
 Cantara (Switzerland) S.A.                32        $     12,012,345
 UBS Capital Americas, LLC                 31        $     75,393,767
 Magnetar Capital Master Fund, Ltd.        28        $    107,268,067
 Ramius Capital Group, LLC                 28        $     80,999,844
 Hudson Bay Capital Management, L.P.       26        $     24,822,262
 Rockmore Investment Master Fund, Ltd.     26        $     20,261,949
 Crestview Capital Partners, LLC           24        $     32,772,824
 Fort Mason Capital                        23        $     79,854,852
 Atoll Asset Management, LLC               23        $     12,041,113
 Double U Master Fund, L.P.                22        $     23,798,906
 Paramount Capital Asset Management        21        $     10,029,337
 DKR Management Company, Inc.              19        $     52,416,978
 Sandell Asset Management Corp.            18        $    114,939,364

Investor rankings exclude all Equity Line of Credit transactions and all PIPE transactions conducted by Canadian domiciled issuers. Investors classified as Corporate Investors and Insurance Companies have been excluded from this ranking. Data is as reported as of 10/27/06.

About Sagient Research Systems

Sagient Research Systems is a publisher of independent research. We develop, produce, and sell proprietary research products to mutual funds, hedge funds, and investment banks. Our business strategy is to continue to leverage our development, technology, and marketing expertise to solidify our position as a leading provider of independent research to the financial services and institutional investment communities. For more information, please visit the Sagient Research Systems website at www.sagientresearch.com.



            

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