NOVONIX Completed $63m Equity Raising; Set To Advance Breakthrough Technologies Commercialisation
Summary
Since a month of its announcement, NOVONIX has completed $63 million capital raising- a remarkable achievement in the face of COVID crisis.
The equity raising better positions NOVONIX to establish itself as a market leading producer of competitively priced and high-grade battery anode materials for lithium ion batteries for EVs and energy storage systems.
NOVONIX’s strength is evident from its agreements with the two largest battery makers who represented 40% of the global LIB Market in 2018- Samsung SDI and SANYO Electric Co.
The Company’s mission is to support the global deployment of lithium-ion battery (LIB) technologies for a cleaner energy future.
Serving the global LIB industry by developing and supplying high-performance materials, equipment and services, NOVONIX LIMITED (ASX:NVX) operates in the USA and Canada with sales in more than fourteen countries. It is the only company to break into this market from North America or Europe.
On 30 June 2020, the Company completed $63 million Equity Raising announced on 29 May 2020 and now has new strategic and institutional investors on board, in what Chairman Tony Bellas calls an “exciting phase for the Company”.
The outstanding convertible notes have been redeemed while short-term loans from Directors and related parties have been repaid. Moreover, 40.5 million Options over new shares in NVX have also been cancelled, as part of the broader transaction.
Equity Raising Timeline
As announced on 27 May 2020, NOVONIX planned to undertake $ 58.28 million underwritten capital raising. This was inclusive of a proposed institutional placement (to raise ~$ 5.65 million), a strategic placement to St Baker Energy Innovation Fund (to raise between $ 14.72 million and $ 19.45 million), and an entitlement offer to Australian and New Zealand shareholders (to raise ~$ 37.91 million).
On 29 May, NOVONIX successfully completed institutional placement and institutional entitlement offer.
The Company further issued ~83 million new shares at an issue price of $ 0.29 per share under institutional placement and institutional entitlement offer on 5 June.
Subsequently, NOVONIX received strong support from retail shareholders for the Retail Entitlement Offer which was heavily oversubscribed on 23 June 2020.
Balance Sheet Restructure
New strategic and institutional investors are now part of NOVONIX’s share register. The Company provided an updated capital structure: Management Take
Acknowledging the current times be to an exciting phase for NOVONIX, Chairman Tony Bellas welcomed the new investors on Board.
He further stated that the capital raising process coupled with the restructuring of the balance sheet is likely to enable the Company in the execution of its strategy to be a market pioneer and produce high performance and competitively priced battery anode materials for lithium ion batteries, suitable for electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage systems (ESS).
Mr Bellas firmly believes that the Company is well placed to progress the commercialisation of its other breakthrough technologies, specifically single crystal cathode materials using the proprietary DPMG technology. Purpose of Capital Raising
Besides recapitalising its balance sheet, the capital raising was announced to commercialise PUREgraphite and DPMG- the Company’s anode material and its breakthrough low-cost manufacturing method for anode and cathode, respectively. Moreover, it was expected to offer capex and working capital to fulfil an initial SAMSUNG supply contract, redeem outstanding convertible notes and repay loans (as already adhered to), cater to general working capital purposes and increase production to 2,000 tonnes per annum while being debt-free.
NOVONIX plans to be a tier-one global supplier in rapidly growing advanced materials market. It can possibly reap benefits from its manufacturing processes, technology advantages in anode, cathode and electrolyte, core competencies across all areas of cell technology development and strong connections.
NVX quoted $ 0.880, up 1.15% on 1 July 2020 (2:26 PM AEST) and has delivered whopping return of ~266 per cent in the last three months.
NVX Price at posting:
88.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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