CMR Fuel Cells PLC - AIM Prospective Admission

1632 words
16 December 2005
07:00
Regulatory News Service
English
(c) 2005
RNS Number:7698V CMR Fuel Cells PLC 16 December 2005  

16 December 2005  

CMR Fuel Cells plc  

("CMR" or the "Company")   

Placing of 5,852,273 million new ordinary shares at 176p per share (the "Placing Price") raising £10.3 million for the Company ("the Placing")  

CMR Fuel Cells plc announces the underwritten Placing and the expected admission of its share capital to trading on the AIM market ("AIM") of the London Stock Exchange. The Company will on Admission have a market capitalisation of £35.7 million at the Placing Price. Admission to AIM should take place on 22 December 2005.  

Investec Bank (UK) Limited has underwritten the Placing and is acting as Nominated Adviser and Broker to the Company.  

CMR Chief Executive Officer, John Halfpenny said "We have new technology which has the potential to deliver commercially viable mass-market fuel cells. Our arrival on AIM accelerates us strongly towards our goal of delivering long-running and cost effective fuel cells to the consumer electronics industry".  

Background to the Company  

CMR is a fuel cell development company. CMR has developed a new platform approach to the design and operation of fuel cell stacks which has the potential to offer substantial reductions in the size, weight and cost of fuel cell stacks. While CMR's technology can be applied to various types of fuel cells, CMR has chosen to focus initially on the development of Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) stacks for portable applications. The Directors believe that the portable applications market sector is likely to be amongst the earliest where fuel cell applications may be adopted on a commercial scale. To exploit this opportunity, CMR has assembled a team with a combination of commercial, fuel cell technology and design expertise and experience. CMR is based in Cambridge in the United Kingdom.  

Key Strengths  

The Directors believe that CMR's key strengths and key opportunities include:  

• Its novel and broad technology which they believe has the potential to address some of the key challenges facing the commercial development of fuel cell technology, including:   
• increasing the volumetric energy density of fuel cell stacks and reducing their size;
• reducing the cost of producing fuel cell stacks;   
• increasing the reliability of fuel cell stacks; and   
• eliminating fuel cross-over as a performance limitation issue.   
• The substantial market opportunity for the supply of fuel cell power for portable applications, which the Directors anticipate will arise because of the rising demand for power for consumer electronics and portable applications, set against the slower rate of improvement in the energy density of conventional battery technologies.   
• Commercial relationships with a number of companies interested in the development and exploitation of fuel cells including collaboration agreements and relationships with original equipment manufacturers.   
• Its core competencies in the science and design of fuel cells.   
• The potential use of CMR's technology to most other types of fuel cells including, in particular, solid oxide, proton exchange membrane (PEM) and alkali fuel cells.   
• The scale of the potential opportunities in other market sectors such as combined heat and power and automotive sectors, if fuel cells are commercially adopted for these applications.   
• The breadth and status of CMR's patent and patent application portfolio which, the Directors consider, puts the Company in a strong position to protect and exploit its technological innovations.   
• Its management team which combines fuel cell expertise with experience of creating novel intellectual property and designing products for market entry.  

Awards  

This year CMR has received a number of prestigious accolades for its technology including:  

• Winner 2005 Carbon Trust Overall Innovator of the year award   
• Winner 2005 Carbon Trust Individual and Small Businesses award   
• Selected by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer for 2006   
• Selected by Harvard Business School as one of 25 companies 'most likely to change our world by 2010'  

CMR's mixed reactant, flow though technology  

Central concept  

CMR's technology has the potential to reduce substantially the cost, complexity and size of fuel cell stacks, to improve volumetric and weight energy density and robustness and to allow certain components to be removed. These factors have the potential to allow the fuel cell stack production process to be simplified by the use of mass production techniques such as printing or roll-to-roll assembly. This coupled with the removal and modification of certain components could reduce production costs substantially.  

CMR has developed a new approach to the geometry, materials and operation of any fuel cell type whereby the fuel and oxidant enter and pass through the fuel cell mixed together, rather than separated as is the case for existing fuel cell technologies. This involves the combination of two primary concepts: mixed reactants and flow-through porous cell structures.  

In a CMR fuel cell, selective electrocatalysts are used, enabling the fuel and the oxidant streams to be mixed together. A mixture of gaseous or liquid fuel and oxidant flows axially through the solid state CMR stack. The anode catalyst reacts selectively with the fuel and the cathode catalyst reacts selectively with the oxidant, creating the required reaction at the anode and the cathode.  

Reasons for Admission and use of proceeds  

The purpose of the Placing is to raise equity finance for the Company. The net proceeds of the Placing to be received by the Company amounting to approximately £9.2 million after expenses will be used principally to continue the technical development of its fuel cell products and progress potential manufacturing alternatives, to allow the Company to build relationships with partners, to develop and protect the Company's intellectual property rights and for general working capital purposes.  

The ordinary shares will trade on AIM under the RIC code "CMF".  

Placing Statistics  

Admission

For further details:  

CMR Fuel Cells plc   

John Halfpenny, Chief Executive Officer          Tel: +44 1223 875295

Michael Priestnall, Chief Technology Officer     Tel: +44 1223 875295                                          

Investec

Michael Ansell                                   Tel: +44 207 597 5190

Daniel Adams                                     Tel: +44 207 597 5190

Hansard Communications

Andrew Tan                                       Tel: +44 207 245 1100

Copies of the AIM Admission Document published by CMR today will be available for a period of one month from the offices of Taylor Wessing, Carmelite, 50 Victoria Embankment, Blackfriars, London EC4Y 0DX.  

All definitions in this announcement have the same meaning as terms defined in the 'Definitions' and 'Glossary' sections of the AIM Admission Document.  

The Company accepts responsibility for the information contained in this announcement. To the best of the knowledge and belief of the Company (who has taken all reasonable care to ensure that such is the case) the information contained in this announcement is in accordance with the facts and does not omit anything likely to affect the import of such information.  

Investec Bank (UK) Limited ("Investec"), which is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Services Authority, is acting exclusively for CMR in connection with the flotation and no-one else. Investec will not be responsible for providing advice to any person in relation to the flotation and/ or the associated share offer, the contents of this announcement or any other matter referred to herein.  

This announcement is directed only at persons who (i) are outside the United Kingdom or (ii) are in the United Kingdom and either have professional experience in matters relating to investments or are high net worth companies, unincorporated associations etc for the purpose of Article 49 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). This announcement must not be acted on or relied on by persons who are not relevant persons. Any investment or investment activity to which this announcement relates is available only too relevant persons and will be engaged in only with relevant persons.  

This announcement does not constitute an offer of, or the solicitation of any offer to buy, any of the ordinary shares which are proposed to be offered (the "Ordinary Shares") to any person in any jurisdiction to whom or in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful. The distribution of this announcement in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law and therefore persons into whose possession this announcement comes should inform themselves about and observe any such restrictions. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of such jurisdiction. The Ordinary Shares have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 (as amended) and may not be offered or sold, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration. There will be no public offer of securities in the United States.  

This announcement does not constitute or form part of an offer, or any solicitation of an offer, for securities and any purchase or application for shares in the placing should only be made on the basis of information contained in the formal admission document to be issued in connection with the placing. The value of shares can go down as well as up. Past performance is not a guide to future performance. Potential investors should consult a professional adviser as to the suitability of an investment in the shares of CMR for the individual concerned.   This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange   

Document RNS0000020051216e1cg0005g