In March, Liquidmetal Technologies, Inc. (OTCQB: LQMT) closed on a financing transaction outlining an investment of up to $63.4 million from Professor Lugee Li, chairman and majority stockholder of DongGuan EONTEC Co., Ltd. Initial closing related to this transaction occurred on March 10, 2016, in the amount of $8.4 million, with Li committing to an additional $55 million investment pending shareholder approval of an increase in authorized shares. Late last week, Liquidmetal announced that, at its annual shareholder meeting, the company’s shareholders approved an increase in its authorized shares from 700 million to 1.1 billion, allowing Liquidmetal to issue common stock to facilitate the remaining $55 million investment and dramatically strengthen its cash position.
“With the increase in authorized shares, we are now poised to close on the remaining $55 million investment committed by Professor Li,” Thomas Steipp, president and chief executive officer of LQMT, stated in last week’s news release. “We are very excited about the ongoing partnership we are building with EONTEC and look forward to finalizing the investment transaction.”
In addition to the financing transaction, Liquidmetal also entered into a parallel licensing agreement with EONTEC to cross-license the two companies’ respective technologies. Liquidmetal’s amorphous alloy technology, which enables the development of unique materials that can retain random structures following solidification, is expected to offer a number of operational synergies with EONTEC’s precision die-casting operations in the consumer electronics, medical, automotive and industrial fields.
“EONTEC’s capabilities complement LQMT’s focus on production of high-performance parts, allowing LQMT to address a broad range of market opportunities from automotive, medical, and industrial customers,” Li added in a news release. “This partnership positions LQMT well to support design and production globally at a vastly increased pace.”
A post on the Liquidmetal blog (http://dtn.fm/I0WdX) from earlier this year gave investors a glimpse of the possibilities of the company’s innovative technology in addressing a range of automotive applications. In particular, the author states that the use of Liquidmetal alloy may offer “greater design freedom than ever before… [providing] an opportunity to access unique properties with the design freedom of a molding process.” In terms of critical attributes for automotive applications, including precision and corrosion resistance, the blog states that Liquidmetal alloys can “often beat the most precise CNC machining operations” and “have significantly outperformed stainless steel in several corrosion tests.”
As the only company currently producing amorphous alloys in commercially-viable bulk form, Liquidmetal is strategically positioned to make a splash in a wide array of industries moving forward. Look for the company to benefit from both its cross-licensing agreement with EONTEC and its strengthened cash position following the impending finalization of Li’s $55 million investment as it sets its sights on the establishment of a truly global market in Liquidmetal alloy solutions through which to market its core offerings.
“This investment and partnership recognizes the significant advancements in technological and commercial capabilities that Liquidmetal has forged over the last five years,” added Steipp. “EONTEC and Liquidmetal each bring significant capabilities to this partnership, and we believe that result will be a much larger market that develops much more quickly.”
For more information, visit www.liquidmetal.com
