What a year for Fluence

On 3 Jan 20, FLC closed at 45 cents with:
- 624,854,034 shares on issue or A$281.2m market cap
- US$21.9m cash on hand, with US$3m debt (net cash of US$18.9m/A$27m @aud/USD 0.70)

On 3 Jan 21, FLC is at 25.5 cents with:
- 624,854,034 shares on issue or A$140.6m market cap or exactly 50% lower market cap compared to 12 months ago
- Estimated US$76m cash on hand (US$96m actual cash - estimated quarterly cash outflow of US$20m, due to restructuring + IC commencement), with US$22m debt (estimated net cash of US$54m/A$70m @aud/USD 0.77).
- First SUBRE installation in Cambodia worth US$7m (Mar20)
- China Rail pilot commenced (Mar20)
- Three Gorges Group (Yangtze river) pilot commenced (May20)
- US$20m debt facility secured, can be increased to US$50m if required (Jul20)
- US$3.2m desalination project win in Egypt (Sep20)
- SGA down 22% (@q3 compared to YTD19)
- Restructuring of business to focus on SPS and Richard (2nd largest shareholder + Chairman) now CEO
- Ivory Coast construction commenced (Dec20)

Above is a quick snapshot of some of the key developments and a quick point to point comparison of market cap and cash position when we look at today compared to exactly 12 months ago. While our market cap has halved in the past 12 months, our NET cash position has increased +260% to approx A$70m vs A$27m last year (or +286% in USD terms to US$54m compared to US$18.9m last year).

Fluence did not raise capital at all during the year, so no dilution... and managed to increase its closing cash by approx A$43m / US$35.1m. Fluence didn't just get through one of the toughest years any of us have seen/experienced... it damn right came out in a much stronger/more focused position.

Fluence managed to close out the Ivory Coast project worth a whopping US$190m, with approx US$54m already received. So in the next 24 months, we can expect to receive US$136m in revenue ... and that doesn't even include the O&M that will come once construction is complete.

There has been a restructure of the business to close non-core business units and focus purely on the SPS business going forward (specifically in China, SE Asia, the Middle East and Egypt)... while the outgoing CEO was good, his background and focus was on large custom engineered projects (Ivory Coast / San Quintin) ... and while we successfully closed out the Ivory Coast project, we are likely going to lose the San Quintin project, and both have consumed an extraordinary amount of management time and resulted in countless delays and frustration.

Going forward Richard is going to be the CEO and Chairman of FLC (also one of the largest shareholders), having someone who is aligned to shareholders at the helm, with a clear business strategy and ability to execute their plans and allocate company resources with the support of the Board, will only be good for business.

Fluence have also managed to get two critical pilot projects away in China, one in Inner Mongolia for a Rail project which if successful, will pave the way for a brand new market segment in China for Aspiral. The Three Gorges Project pilot is also underway and that is a very high profile and highly lucrative prize if Fluence are able to secure that in 2021. Behind the scenes Fluence have continued to hire staff in China in the latter part of 2020.

Had to look at our market cap again, yep it's still A$140.6m or US$108m.