Leclanché Funding Round includes CHF 50 Million for Acquisitions and JVs
Leclanché SA, one of the world's leading energy storage solution companies, has secured new additional funding CHF 75 million from FEFAM, Leclanché's largest shareholder, and an additional CHF 50 million facility to finance acquisitions and joint ventures in the fast-growing e-Transport and stationary grid-based storage markets.
The new funding follows Leclanché's full year 2017 results announcement on 3 May 2018 that the Company is expected to be EBITDA positive by 2020, supported by an order book of over 50MWh, contributing CHF 40-50 million of revenue in 2018, and a milestone of 100MWh of energy storage systems in operation by 2018.
In addition to the CHF 75 million committed corporate funding, FEFAM has agreed to provide a conditional CHF 50 million funding facility for acquisitions and joint ventures. The facility shall operate on the basis of a Right-of-First-Offer ("ROFO") for FEFAM.
Further, as indicated on March 1, Leclanché confirms that the Company has signed a non-binding term sheet with a potential strategic investor to increase its overall corporate funding to between CHF100 million and CHF125 million. We anticipate that negotiations will be completed, and a final agreement will be executed by Q4 2018.
Anil Srivastava, CEO of Leclanché, said: "This substantial investment fully funds our business plan through to 2020 when we expect to be EBITDA positive. We thank FEFAM for their continued strong investment support. This additional funding will allow us to capitalise on the exciting opportunities we see in the fast-growing markets of stationary grid-based storage and e-Transport worldwide.
The opportunity for Leclanché is now. We have a strong order book and pipeline, which reflects our unique opportunity in these unprecedented times for the electricity and transport industries.
We aim to use the acquisitions and joint-ventures facility to accelerate Leclanché's technology leadership through margin accretive acquisition(s); and grow market share in Europe, Asia and North American in both the stationary grid-based storage and e-Transport businesses.
We are in the process of completing the acquisition of a leading Energy Management Software solution from a company based in the USA. We are also in the advanced stage of completing an agreement to set up a joint venture with a market leader in India. This JV will give Leclanché a strong foothold in one of the potentially largest Electric Vehicles market in the world. We look forward to updating the market in the near future.
Leclanché has never been in a better position to meet the needs of both the disruptors and the incumbents who are changing the way that we produce, distribute and consume electricity and how we transport people and products, as we move towards a clean energy future."
