Ann: Strategic Investment from Sichuan Hebang Biotechnology, page-227

Very good point. Inspired by your comment, I took another look at the deal from two different angles:

Board Perspective - the loan that offsets the risk of stage 2 placement not being approved demonstrates that the whole deal was structured with a long-term commitment in mind. The 12-month term indicates that the Board was looking for a pathway to keep the project moving, rather than just focusing on the placement itself.

Hebang Perspective - before the deal was struck, AEV had been sitting around a $10M market cap for a while. A loan that represents a 30% ratio of the market cap? Normally, you'd expect a big player like Hebang to insist on demanding security on the asset. Their willingness to offer it as an unsecured loan for 12 months is quite telling. This is a strong signal of their confidence in the value of the company, beyond just targeting the project asset.