HemaCare Will Redeem its Stock Purchase Warrants

HemaCare Corp. said it plans to redeem the purchase warrants for HemaCare stock that are still outstanding May 21.

Warrants give their holders the right to buy a certain number of a company’s common shares at a certain price within a specified period. The HemaCare warrants entitled their holders to buy one share of HemaCare at $3.50 a share.

As of April 2, holders had exercised 50,985 warrants, providing the Sherman Oaks-based provider of blood-related services with $178,447. An additional 649,015 warrants remained outstanding.

The warrants are scheduled to expire on Oct. 21. But HemaCare said that under terms of the warrants, it is entitled to redeem outstanding warrants early because the price of HemaCare’s stock has remained above $5.25 a share for 20 consecutive trading days.

HemaCare’s stock price has risen sharply in recent months amid investor enthusiasm over the company’s proposed anti-AIDS plasma therapy, which is currently undergoing human trials. The cash raised from the exercised warrants will be used to fund that program, HemaCare said.