Aqua Metals Retires Veritex Loan, Now Debt Free
December 15 2020 - 8:00AM
Aqua Metals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AQMS) (“Aqua Metals” or the “Company”),
which is reinventing lead recycling with its AquaRefining™
technology, announced the Company has retired its $9.0 million debt
obligation with Veritex Bank, leaving Aqua Metals essentially debt
free. Further, the Company has received an additional progress
payment of $0.8 million from its insurance provider. Insurance
payments received to date now total $23.4 million. The Company
anticipates collecting additional insurance proceeds for the
replacement value of its damaged assets and potential business
interruption recovery proceeds.
“The retirement of our loan with Veritex Bank is
yet another positive step for Aqua Metals as we have accelerated
our transition to a capital light business model. With this action,
our team has achieved our previously guided goal to retire the debt
by year-end. Eliminating our debt significantly strengthens the
balance sheet and completely removes the burden of restrictive loan
covenants. In addition, this step improves the Company’s cash burn
rate by eliminating $0.9 million annually in debt service payments,
including $0.6 million in interest expense. We are also pleased
with the continued progress made in recovering losses through our
insurance collection efforts,” stated Judd Merrill, Chief Financial
Officer.
About Aqua Metals
Aqua Metals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AQMS) is reinventing
lead recycling with its patented AquaRefining™ technology. Unlike
smelting, AquaRefining is a room temperature, water-based process
that emits less pollution. The modular systems are intended to
allow the Company to vastly reduce environmental impact and scale
lead acid battery recycling production capacity by licensing the
AquaRefining technology to partners. This could help meet the
growing demand for lead to power new applications including
stop/start automobile batteries which complement the vehicle’s main
battery, lead acid batteries which are in electric vehicles,
Internet data centers, alternative energy applications including
solar, wind, and grid scale storage. Aqua Metals is based in
McCarran, Nevada. To learn more, please visit
www.aquametals.com.
Aqua Metals has used, and intends to continue
using, its investor relations
website (https://ir.aquametals.com), in addition to its
Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube accounts
at https://twitter.com/AquaMetalsInc (@AquaMatalsInc), https://www.linkedin.com/company/aqua-metals-limited
and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvxKNWcB69K0t7e337uQ8nQ
respectively, as means of disclosing material non-public
information and for complying with its disclosure obligations under
Regulation FD.
Safe Harbor
This press release contains forward-looking
statements concerning Aqua Metals, Inc. Forward-looking statements
include, but are not limited to, our plans, objectives,
expectations and intentions and other statements that contain words
such as "expects," "contemplates," "anticipates," "plans,"
"intends," "believes", "estimates”, "potential“ and variations of
such words or similar expressions that convey uncertainty of future
events or outcomes, or that do not relate to historical matters.
The forward-looking statements in this press release include our
expectations for the sale of the land and building at our McCarran
facility; the sufficiency of any sale proceeds coupled with any
further insurance recovery to fund our operations and the
development and completion of our V1.25 electrolyzer; the benefits
of the V1.25 electrolyzer; and the future of lead acid battery
recycling via traditional smelters. Those forward-looking
statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors that could cause actual results to differ materially. Among
those factors are: (1) the risk that we may not be able to sell the
land, building and non-core equipment at our McCarran facility on a
timely basis, (2) the risk that we may not realize the sale
proceeds we hoped for from the sale of the land, building and
non-core equipment, (3) the risk that the terms of any such sale
may include indemnities or other provisions that pose potential
contingent liability to Aqua Metals, (4) the risk that we may not
be able to complete the development of our V1.25 electrolyzer; (5)
the risk that we may not realize the expected benefits from our
V1.25 electrolyzer; (6) the risk that our insurance recovery from
our claims relating to the November 2019 fire at our TRIC facility
and proceeds from the sale of legacy assets will not be sufficient
to fund our accelerated licensing strategy; (7) the risk that we
may not be able to satisfactorily demonstrate to potential
licensees the technical and commercial viability of our V1.25
electrolyzer and AquaRefining process; (8) the risk that licensees
may refuse or be slow to adopt our AquaRefining process as an
alternative to smelting in spite of the perceived benefits of
AquaRefining; (9) the risk that we may not realize the expected
economic benefits from any licenses we may enter into; (10) the
risk that we will have to engage in additional sales of our equity
securities in order to fund our future operations; (11) the risk
that further funding, by any means, may not be available at all;
(12) the fact that we have not generated any significant revenue to
date, thus subjecting us to all of the risks inherent in an
early-stage company; (13) the risk that our patents and any other
patents that may be issued to it may be challenged, invalidated, or
circumvented; (14) the risk that we may not be able to successfully
conclude our proposed joint development agreement with Clarios or,
if we do, realize the expected benefits of such agreement; (15)
changes in the federal, state and foreign laws regulating the
recycling of lead acid batteries; (16) our ability to protect our
proprietary technology, trade secrets and know-how and (17) those
other risks disclosed in the section "Risk Factors" included in our
Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on October 22, 2020 and
subsequent SEC filings. Aqua Metals cautions readers not to place
undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. The Company does
not undertake, and specifically disclaims any obligation, to update
or revise such statements to reflect new circumstances or
unanticipated events as they occur, except as required by law.
Contact: Glen Akselrod, Bristol Capital(905)
326-1888, Ext. 1glen@bristolir.com
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