GENEVA, Aug. 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Etrion Corporation (“Etrion” or the “Company”, and, together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”) released today its condensed consolidated interim financial statements and related management’s discussion and analysis (“MD&A”) for the three and six months ended June 30, 2022.
Q2-2022 HIGHLIGHTS
- Etrion closed the second quarter of 2022 with an unrestricted cash balance of US$16.1 million and a positive working capital of US$14.9 million.
- The Company sold all the solar assets in 2021 and is not developing any new project in the second quarter 2022. Subject to the possibility of the Board of Directors identifying other potential business opportunities, the Company may deploy the remaining capital into a new venture or complete its windup activities and proceed with the dissolution within approximately 36 months after the sale of the Japanese assets. Any cash remaining at the completion of the windup activities and settlement of all liabilities of the Company will be distributed to shareholders.
- As previously mentioned and most recently in the April 15th, 2021 Management Information Circular to shareholders, the Company has been in the last few years actively pursuing reimbursement of certain tax payments (Tremonti Ambiente) in Italy regarding years 2010-2013, 2014-2015 and 2016-2017 before the Italian Courts. On July 27th, 2022, the Regional Tax Court in Rome ruled partially in favor of the Company and recognized the right of refund of EUR 6 million (gross) for the 2010-2013 tax years. Having said that, the Italian Tax Authorities can still appeal the ruling of the Regional Tax Court before the Supreme Court; the appeal should be filed within 60 days from the official notification of the ruling which would consequently delay final resolution by a few years. Therefore, the Company expects to be in a position to assess the certainty / likelihood and timing of the recovery of the funds by early November 2022. At same time, on July 13, 2022 a negative ruling was issued by the First Instance Tax Commission of Rome on the refund for the tax years 2016-2017, which the Company will appeal. On the whole, litigation for the 2014-2015 and 2016-2017 years continues at various stages before the Courts and the Company will inform should positive developments arise.
Management Comments
Marco A. Northland, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, commented, “The Company going forward will maintain very limited resources; however, we will continue to explore potential opportunities for future deployment of the Company’s remaining cash or eventually proceed with a windup of the Company as previously disclosed”.
FINANCIAL SUMMARY
| Three months ended | Six months ended | |||||||||
| US$ thousands (unless otherwise stated) | Q2-22 | Q2-22 | Q2-22 | Q1-22 | ||||||
| Financial performance from continuing operations | ||||||||||
| EBITDA | (813) | (4,934) | (1,628) | (6,716) | ||||||
| Net Loss | (4,192) | (1,977) | (9,029) | (4,430) | ||||||
| Financial position | Jun 2022 | Dec 2021 | ||||||||
| Unrestricted cash at parent level | 16,155 | 20,578 | ||||||||
| Working capital | 14,912 | 18,835 | ||||||||
About Etrion
Etrion’s largest shareholder is the Lundin family, which owns approximately 36% of the Company’s shares directly and through various trusts.
For additional information, please visit the Company’s website at www.etrion.com or contact:
Christian Lacueva – Chief Financial Officer
Telephone: +41 (22) 715 20 90
The information was submitted for publication at 11:05 p.m. CET on August 2, 2022.
Non-IFRS Measures:
This press release includes non-IFRS measures not defined under IFRS, specifically earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (“EBITDA”) and Adjusted operating cash flow. Non-IFRS measures have no standardized meaning prescribed under IFRS and therefore such measures may not be comparable with those used by other companies. EBITDA is a useful metric to quantify the Company’s ability to generate cash before extraordinary and non-cash accounting transactions recognized in the financial statements. In addition, EBITDA is useful to analyze and compare profitability between companies and industries because it eliminates the effects of financing and accounting policy decisions. The most comparable IFRS measure to EBITDA is net income (loss). Refer to Etrion’s MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2021, for a reconciliation of EBITDA and adjusted operating cash flow reported during the period.
Forward-Looking Information:
This press release contains certain “forward-looking information”. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including, without limitation, statements relating to amount of funds that will be required to satisfy potential warranty claims under the sale agreements, other corporate level liabilities and anticipated expenses to cover continuing operations and windup costs, the possibility of acquiring or commencing an alternative business and the possibility that the Company may proceed to wind up its activities and dissolve following the completion of the sale of its solar assets) constitute forward-looking information. This forward-looking information reflects the current expectations or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company as well as certain assumptions including, without limitation, assumptions as to the amount of funds that will be required to satisfy future obligations and costs associated with the dissolution of the Company. Forward-looking information is subject to a number of significant risks and uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking information, and even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on the Company. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to, the risk that the Company may have insufficient funds to satisfy its future obligations, including without limitation warranty claims under the agreements pursuant to which its projects were sold; the risk that the Company may not be successful in identifying and pursuing an alternative business; and uncertainties with respect to the timing of the any alternative business venture or the windup and the dissolution of the Company.
Any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such information due to the inherent uncertainty therein.
