Heliogen Provides Strategic Update in Letter to Shareholders
February 16 2023 - 4:42PM
Business Wire
CEO Christie Obiaya Announces Swift and Bold
Strategic Priorities
Heliogen, Inc. (“Heliogen”) (NYSE: HLGN), a leading provider of
AI-enabled concentrating solar energy technology, today published a
letter to shareholders signaling a renewed strategic focus to
capitalize on evolving customer demand, emerging market conditions
and enhanced operational efficiency. The full text of the letter
below can also be found at investors.heliogen.com.
Dear Fellow Shareholders,
I am honored to serve as Heliogen’s new CEO and to have the
opportunity to share with you my plan to accomplish our mission of
changing the world by decarbonizing industry with our breakthrough
concentrated solar thermal technology. Since joining Heliogen two
years ago, I have been continuously impressed by our innovative,
passionate, and talented employees combined with our disruptive,
differentiated technology. But I understand talent and technology
alone are not enough. To accomplish our goals, we need to address
near-term challenges. I recognize the need for Heliogen to rapidly
take bold steps to respond to customer demand and market conditions
and to become leaner. I have also taken the time to listen and
learn from our stakeholders, who I believe will be excited about
these changes. I am more convinced than ever that our company has
the potential to be a leader in the industry and deliver
significant value to our customers and to our shareholders.
Today I am sharing with you the core pillars that will serve as
the basis for our comprehensive plan to respond to market feedback,
streamline our operations, and significantly improve our financial
condition. My top priorities are:
- Sales: Our first obligation is to respond to emerging market
conditions by prioritizing our fastest path to growing our revenue
backlog. Put simply, this is the most effective way for Heliogen to
demonstrate product-market fit and prove the value of our
technology to our investors. Our sales efforts will be focused
squarely on driving forward our industrial steam product, which is
our product with the highest level of technical readiness. This
product has a unique ability to provide zero-carbon energy for two
critical applications: providing steam for industrial processes and
providing steam for green hydrogen production when paired with
solid oxide electrolyzers. The industrial steam market provides us
with a significant opportunity while the green hydrogen market is
nascent but growing rapidly, turbocharged by the Inflation
Reduction Act.
- First installation of commercial-scale projects: I understand
the importance of having real-world operating data from commercial
projects, and my experience in developing and building large-scale
energy projects gives me a unique perspective of what it takes to
be successful in this critical phase of Heliogen’s trajectory.
Based on market feedback, we believe having data from completed
projects will unlock demand from prospective customers for whom
“operating commercial-scale project” is a must-have selection
criterion. That list of prospective customers is quite long, and we
need a different approach of converting “prospective” to
“contracted” for those who are not early adopters of technology. We
are confident that getting projects in the ground will usher in a
larger customer base, ultimately charting the path for companies
who want to license our technology and build it themselves.
- Reducing our cost structure: By aggressively cutting costs,
streamlining our operations, and focusing our efforts on driving
tangible, immediate results, we can meaningfully extend our
liquidity runway. This would reduce our need for external capital
as we drive toward funding our business with internally generated
cash flows from operations. This decision will give us the time we
need to further develop projects, putting us in a more advantageous
position to pursue a future capital raise that should take us to
cashflow breakeven. We currently believe we have sufficient funding
to meet our obligations through early 2024, and I am working on a
plan to extend this runway through late 2024.
- Regaining NYSE listing compliance: As we accomplish the goals
outlined above, we hope to create the shareholder value necessary
to regain compliance without the need for a reverse stock split.
However, we still plan to seek a shareholder vote at our 2023
annual meeting to approve a reverse stock split in case such action
is determined to be necessary or appropriate.
Market feedback indicates that successful implementation of
these priorities, along with the favorable market incentives,
should provide us with more attractive financing alternatives and
elicit additional interest from investors, to allow us to raise
additional capital in the future at potentially more favorable
terms than are currently available. I look forward to sharing the
more concrete details underpinning our plan during our fourth
quarter and full-year 2022 earnings conference call in March.
I want to thank you for your continued support and confidence in
our company. With our world-class team and groundbreaking
concentrated solar thermal technology, I am confident in our
ability to meet our strategic goals in the near-term and to
accomplish our mission of changing the world by decarbonizing
industry while delivering value to our shareholders.
Sincerely,
Christie Obiaya Chief Executive Officer
About Heliogen Heliogen is a renewable energy technology
company focused on decarbonizing industry and empowering a
sustainable civilization. The company’s concentrating solar energy
and thermal storage systems aim to deliver carbon-free heat, steam,
power, or green hydrogen at scale to support round-the-clock
industrial operations. Powered by AI, computer vision and robotics,
Heliogen is focused on providing robust clean energy solutions that
accelerate the transition to renewable energy, without compromising
reliability, availability, or cost. For more information about
Heliogen, please visit heliogen.com.
Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains
certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section
27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements that
are not historical in nature, including the words “anticipate,”
“expect,” “suggests,” “plan,” “believe,” “intend,” “estimates,”
“targets,” “projects,” “should,” “could,” “would,” “may,” “will,”
“forecast” and other similar expressions are intended to identify
forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements
include, but are not limited to, statements regarding (i) plans to
prioritize our industrial steam product; (ii) expectations for
future customer growth; (iii) our cost reduction initiatives; (iv)
regaining NYSE listing compliance; and (v) potential future
opportunities to raise capital. Forward-looking statements are
predictions, projections and other statements about future events
that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a
result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could
cause actual future events to differ materially from the
forward-looking statements in this press release, including but not
limited to: (i) our financial and business performance, including
risk of uncertainty in our financial projections and business
metrics and any underlying assumptions thereunder; (ii) our ability
to execute our business model, including market acceptance of our
planned products and services and achieving sufficient production
volumes at acceptable quality levels and prices; (iii) our ability
to access sources of capital to finance operations, growth and
future capital requirements; (iv) our ability to maintain and
enhance our products and brand, and to attract and retain
customers; (v) our ability to scale in a cost effective manner;
(vi) changes in applicable laws or regulations; (vii) the ongoing
impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential impacts of
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on our business; (viii) developments
and projections relating to our competitors and industry; (ix) our
ability to access sources of capital to finance operations, growth
and future capital requirements; and (x) our ability to protect our
intellectual property. You should carefully consider the foregoing
factors and the other risks and uncertainties disclosed in the
“Risk Factors” section in Part I, Item 1A in our Annual Report on
Form 10-K/A for the annual period ended December 31, 2021 and other
documents filed by Heliogen from time to time with the SEC. These
filings identify and address other important risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ
materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made.
Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking
statements, and Heliogen assumes no obligation and does not intend
to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a
result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230216005853/en/
Heliogen Investors: Louis Baltimore VP, Investor
Relations Louis.Baltimore@heliogen.com
Heliogen Media: Cory Ziskind ICR, Inc.
HeliogenPR@icrinc.com
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