Announcement
PLACE: WDT: Institutional placement of 31 million ordinary shares
08:51am
WDT
21/01/2008
PLACE
REL: 0850 HRS Wellington Drive Technologies Limited
PLACE: WDT: Institutional placement of 31 million ordinary shares
Wellington Drive Technologies Ltd Agrees
New Capital Raising to Drive Growth
The Directors of Wellington Drive Technologies Ltd ("Wellington") are pleased
to announce that they have accepted an offer for an institutional placement
of 31 million ordinary shares with UBS Global Asset Management ("UBS") in
their SRI Global Innovator Fund. At the agreed price of 41.5 cents per
share, this raises just over $12.8m in new capital. After the transaction,
UBS will own 9.2% of the shares on issue.
As outlined at the Annual Meeting announcement in November 2007, the Board
and management have been considering several opportunities to develop the
business and further accelerate the commercialisation of the Company's energy
efficiency and electricity-saving motor technologies, particularly within the
appliance market. Two major contracts that require special-purpose
Wellington "Total Integration" designs have been announced subsequent to the
Annual Meeting; current order levels for standard motors and fans for
supermarket refrigeration, domestic ventilation systems and other
air-handling equipment are also pleasing. As a result of these customer
commitments, together with expected additional sales growth, the Company is
confident that further expansion is merited.
Wellington's Chairman, Shawn Beck, said "The investment from UBS will be of
great assistance as we push further into the global marketplace.
Institutional support of this type is a great compliment to the success of
Wellington's energy saving technology and permits us to move forward with our
plans to build global scale even more quickly".
The new funds will be used to;
- Strengthen sales, marketing and in-market support within the sales
organisation, primarily overseas;
- Improve the Company's ability to deliver products in volume rapidly,
including the establishment of a stator manufacturing facility in Singapore
and the implementation of systems and processes appropriate for high volume
supply direct to leading appliance manufacturers in North America, Asia and
Europe ("Tier 1" supply systems);
- Reduce the time taken to move new standard and special-purpose Total
Integration designs from prototype to full production status
- Bring forward the next generation of research and development to
extend Wellington's innovation lead and to access new market areas.
The Company will therefore invest more heavily this year under its revised
plans and that the previous forecast breakeven in the second half of calendar
2008 will be delayed by an estimated 12 months. Breakeven is now budgeted to
be during the second half of calendar 2009. The additional investment is
expected to yield substantially superior returns from 2010 onwards, as the
Total Integration projects currently in progress move into scale production
and product sales increase more rapidly.
For further information, please contact:
Matthew Cawte
Chief Financial Officer, Wellington Drive Technologies Ltd.
+64 9 414 6590
End CA:00159497 For:WDT Type:PLACE Time:2008-01-21:08:51:02
Click here
to view related attachments.
