Minesto plans EUR 11m rights issue to back commercial roll-out

Swedish marine energy developer Minesto AB (STO:MINEST) today said it has resolved to proceed with a SEK-120.5-million (USD 11.7m/EUR 10.8m) rights issue, subject to stockholder clearance, to support the ongoing commercial roll-out of its flagship kite-like device.

Minesto’s participating shareholders will receive one unit right for each share held in the company as of the record date on March 15, 2024. Twelve unit rights entitle the holder to subscribe for one unit, each of which consists of three newly issued shares and one warrant of series TO4. The subscription price is set at SEK 9.0 per unit, corresponding to SEK 3.0 per share.

Pending approval at an extraordinary general meeting scheduled for March 13, the subscription period will run from March 19 up to and including April 2, 2024. About 83% of the rights issue is already covered by way of subscription undertakings and guarantee commitments.

The company said it intends to use the net proceeds of the transaction for several purposes, including to secure and verify production data from the recently-commissioned Dragon 12 device, to continue the development and execution of project financing and sales, to ensure customer delivery capability focusing on product customisation, service assets and production development, and to finance customer orders.

The aforementioned Dragon 12 device is a 1.2-MW tidal power plant in the Faroe Islands that was commissioned earlier this month. Last Thursday, the company reiterated that the device’s functionality has been verified after two weeks of testing and that power production performance is satisfactory and as projected.

The announcement of the rights issue was accompanied by the early release of the company’s financial report for 2023. According to it, Minesto booked an operating loss of about SEK 28.7 million last year compared to SEK 23.7 million the year before. It blamed the negative result on business development and administration related to technology development and noted that it includes costs such as personnel and consultants. Total operating income was almost unchanged at SEK 45.6 million and mainly included capitalised development work.

Minesto estimates that for every planned and ordered megawatt, it generates sales of about EUR 1 million (USD 1.09m), which translates into EUR 200 million when applying the same logic to the proposed buildout of 200 MW in the Faroe Islands.

(SEK 10 = USD 0.971/EUR 0.895)

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.085)

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