Year-End Report 2019

ChromoGenics increases its business volume and completes preferential share issue for SEK 100.6 million, guaranteed to 75 percent, for accelerated growth

Fourth quarter of 2019

• Net sales for the period amounted to SEK 8.1 (6.8) million and earnings to SEK -23.2 (-22.9) million, which corresponds to earnings per share of SEK -0.06 (-0.53). Deliveries of backlogged customer orders for dynamic products were delayed during the quarter, which has meant that net sales have been postponed.
• Gross profit amounted to SEK -6.5 million, which is a decrease of SEK -1.6 million compared to the corresponding period in 2018. Lower income had a negative impact on the development.
• Cash and cash equivalents amounted to SEK 24.8 (7.5) million on December 31.
• The installation of two sputtering machines in the company’s premises in Uppsala to ensure in-house sputtering capacity and reduce ChromoGenics’ production costs is progressing according to schedule.    
• Order intake amounted to SEK 3.1 million during the fourth quarter. The total quote stock amounts to approximately SEK 350 million as at the reporting date. Order volume for Q1 2020 amounts to SEK 9.5 million.
• Three orders totaling SEK 1.4 million were received from Vasakronan in October.
• ChromoGenics is currently participating in the R&D program Switch2Save within Horizon 2020 that is being financed by the EU. ChromoGenics’ share is EUR 1,035,000, of which half has been received. 
• On November 15, the Board of Directors convened an extraordinary general meeting to be held on December 18 to enable and create preparedness for future long-term financing of ChromoGenics. The extraordinary general meeting held on December 18, 2019, resolved to adopt new by-laws in which the limits for the number of shares in the company and the company’s share capital were amended. The meeting also resolved to authorize the Board of Directors to decide on one or several occasions during the period up to the next annual general meeting to increase the company’s share capital through a new share issue

Events after the end of the period

• The Board of Directors decided February 7^th on a preferential share issue of SEK 100.6 million pursuant to authorization granted by the extraordinary general meeting on December 18, 2019.
• After year-end orders of totaling SEK 6.2 million were received  from Vasakronan, Humlegården and for production of a new school in Enköping.

Preferential rights issue

The Board of Directors, pursuant to the authorization granted by the extraordinary general meeting on December 18, 2019, decided on February 7 to conduct a preferential share issue (“Preferential Issue”) in accordance with the following:

• The preferential issue amounts to approximately SEK 100.6 million through the new issues of shares with preferential rights for the Company’s existing shareholders.
• Each share held in the Company on the record date of February 14, 2020, will receive one (1) subscription right. One (1) subscription right entitles the owner to subscribe to one (1) new share.
• The issue price is SEK 0.25 per newly issued share. Subscription is made through simultaneous payment.
• The subscription period for the Preferential Issue is February 19–March 4, 2020.
• The Preferential Issue is guaranteed up to 75.0 percent of the issue amount, corresponding to approximately SEK 75.4 million, through subscription obligations and issue guarantees from existing shareholders and external investors.

• Net cash, assuming full subscription of the Preferential Issue, will amount to approximately SEK 86.5 million and will primarily be used to finance ChromoGenics imminent market establishment of ConverLight^®, investment and loan-related payments.

Main timetable for the Preferential Issue

February 12, 2020                Last trading day in the share including the right to participate in the    

                                             Preferential Issue

February 13, 2020                First trading day in the share excluding the right to participate in the Preferential Issue

February 14, 2020                Record date for participation in the Preferential Issue

February 14, 2020                Estimated date for publication of the prospectus

February 19 – March 2         Trading of subscription rights

February 19 – March 4         Subscription period

February 19 –                Trading with paid subscribed shares (“BTA”) until the Swedish Companies Registration Office registers the Preferential Issue, which is estimated to occur Week 13, 2020

March 9, 2020                       Estimated day for the publication of the outcome of the Preferential Issue

Comments from the CEO  

The market is starting to become increasingly aware of ChromoGenics’ glass technology, which was developed in Uppsala over a period of almost two decades. We are noticing that several of our customers that are large property owners are placing repeat orders for our products. The key to ChromoGenics’ success as a company is gaining customers’ trust for our pioneering and unique offer in performance glass for buildings. The Company works constantly to meet customers’ demands on function, quality, environmental gains, and property-related financial gains. This is what holds the entire operations together and is a determining factor in ChromoGenics’ future development.

Our product categories are dynamic glass that alters its coloring depending on the solar radiation, static glass with built-in solar protection, and design panel glass with integrated solar panels. The products are marketed under the name ConverLight^®. Through our business idea and total facade concept, we create conditions for more climate-friendly and attractive buildings with greater property value through improved indoor comfort and energy performance. 

After our preferential issue in the third quarter, the main objective of which was to finance the acquisition of two sputtering machines as well as two smaller research machines for sputtering, we have placed a lot of focus on the assembly and installation process. During the fourth quarter, the assembly process progressed according to plan toward the goal of final, refined production of sputter-deposited electrochromic film during the first six months of 2020. Through this investment, ChromoGenics gains its own primary sputtering capacity with qualified machinery. This serves as the basis for ChromoGenics’ dynamic products. Our entire production process and the dynamic products also become significantly more sustainable from an environmental perspective. The investment in sputtering machines will enable ChromoGenics to control the entire production process, which creates conditions for developing into the natural first choice for the central component in the dynamic glass of the future. Our current external supplier of sputtered film will function in the future as a secondary source. By doing this, we are creating a stable industrial structure with a focus on delivery of laminated performance glass.

ChromoGenics’ unique business idea compared to our competitors is to produce and deliver dynamic sputtered film to various production units/glass producers for installation into and delivery of final glass products to end customers. We are now building up a partner network around this concept. Strict process and quality control and a significant capacity for own production make rapid international expansion possible. The main focus in the immediate future will be on Scandinavia, where we have an established sales organization, Although several initiatives have also targeted the rest of Europe.

In mid-September, we were forced to communicate to the market that we had quality problems with incoming material and this would delay income of around SEK 30 million in 2019 compared to the original target. This has also impacted our new sales and net sales of the dynamic products during the fourth quarter of the year. Therefore, a review of costs and strengthen of the quality organization is on-going.

The lesson we learned from 2019 was that we must internally control the entire production process and the internal demand for material in order to be able to guarantee complete in-house production.  The impact of our delivery problems has been unfortunate for ChromoGenics and shows the vulnerability in our previous working method, which relied on a single foreign supplier of sputtered material. Our supplier’s production has been upgraded, and we implemented better process controls. It is our assessment that our supplier (second source) of sputtered film has now resolved its production problems.

Through the current issue, we want to give ChromoGenics the financial resources to achieve our long-term goal of annual deliveries of at least 100,000 m2 of ConverLight® dynamic electrochromic film. Given the current market demand, the Company’s comprehensive facade concept, the technology’s competitive economies of scale, and the secured long-term, in-house production capacity, I consider it to be reasonable that we will achieve this goal.

We are seeing an increased interest and greater acceptance of both our dynamic and static solutions, and we will have a strong focus on sales in 2020.

Jerker Lundgren, CEO

Contact:

Jerker Lundgren, CEO
Lars Ericsson, CFO and Head of Communications
Tel: +46 (0)18 430 0430
E-mail: info@chromogenics.com

This information constitutes such information that ChromoGenics AB (publ) is obligated to disclose in accordance with the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted by the above-mentioned contact persons for publication on 7 February, 2020, at 08:30 CET.

Every care has been taken in the translation of this document. In the event of discrepancies, the Swedish original will supersede the English translation.

About ChromoGenics
ChromoGenics offers dynamic glass with controllable heat- and light transmission and static glass with world leading performance. The company’s unique technology ConverLight® provides sustainable solar control for increased indoor comfort and energy efficiency. ConverLight also contributes to Green Building certifications. In 2016 the company started commercial sales to real estate projects in Scandinavia.

ChromoGenics is located in Uppsala, Sweden, and the technology is derived from the world leading research center at Ångström Laboratory at Uppsala University. The plant has been partly financed by a conditional loan from the Swedish Energy Agency. ChromoGenics share (CHRO) is listed on Nasdaq First North Growth Market with Erik Penser Bank as Certified Adviser e-mail: certifiedadviser@penser.se, tel: +46 (0) 8 463 83 00. www.chromogenics.com