Plug Power Announces Acquisition of General Hydrogen
07 Maggio 2007 - 2:18PM
PR Newswire (US)
Acquisition broadens electric lift truck portfolio following recent
acquisition of Cellex Power LATHAM, N.Y.; RICHMOND, British
Columbia, May 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Plug Power Inc.
(NASDAQ:PLUG), a leader in providing clean, reliable on-site energy
products, today announced the acquisition of General Hydrogen
Corporation, a leader in the development and commercialization of
fuel cell power units that provide motive power for electric lift
trucks and other mobile industrial equipment. Plug Power paid
approximately USD 10 million, consisting of approximately USD 7
million in cash and the assumption of USD 3 million in senior
secured loans previously made by Plug Power to General Hydrogen,
for all of the outstanding capital stock of General Hydrogen. In
addition, the shareholders of General Hydrogen received warrants to
purchase up to 571,429 shares of Plug Power Common Stock. The
warrants become exercisable when Plug Power's Common Stock trades
at a volume weighted average price of USD 7.00 or more for 10
consecutive trading days. The warrants carry an exercise price of
USD .01 per share and expire four years from the date of issuance.
General Hydrogen is located in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada,
within close proximity to Cellex Power Products, Inc., another top
supplier of fuel cell power solutions for electric lift trucks,
which Plug Power acquired last month. Plug Power plans to integrate
the two companies into one operation managed by Chris Reid, Cellex
Power's current President. "By acquiring both General Hydrogen and
Cellex Power, clear leaders in their industry, we expect to realize
significant technology and operational synergies as we pursue
high-value applications in the material handling market," said Dr.
Roger Saillant, Plug Power's President and CEO. "Further, we
anticipate that higher volume commercial product manufacturing
activities will be established in Plug Power's Latham, N.Y.
facility." General Hydrogen's initial product focus has been on the
larger class 1 sit-down lift trucks that are typically used in
manufacturing operations. Cellex Power has focused its initial
product initiatives on class 3 rider pallet trucks primarily used
to transport and select goods within large distribution centers
before delivery to retail stores. Both companies are developing
fuel cell power units for class 2 stand-up reach trucks, which
provide flexibility and maximum floor space utilization for large
distribution centers. General Hydrogen and Cellex Power are
targeting the estimated USD 1.5 billion motive power market in
which lead-acid batteries are the incumbent technology. Fuel cell
power units allow users to increase productivity and reduce
operating costs through a quick hydrogen refueling process that
eliminates the need to change batteries repeatedly throughout the
day. They also eliminate the environmental and safety issues
traditionally associated with lead-acid batteries. "We intend to
leverage Plug Power's existing commercial infrastructure and expect
to avoid some of the expenditures typically associated with the
transition from a pre-commercial to commercial enterprise," said
Dr. Saillant. "Given Plug Power's financial and operational
strength and the combined fuel cell expertise of the three
companies, we expect to accelerate product development for all
three classes of electric lift trucks. This enhanced scale and
breadth of applications will increase the economic value delivered
to our customers while improving our ability to realize meaningful
sales volumes." Large lift truck fleet users typically operate at
least two of the three electric lift truck classes in their
warehouses and therefore require a battery handling system and
associated maintenance labor to meet their throughput requirements.
Having all three electric lift truck classes in its product
portfolio would enable Plug Power to create a much more compelling
value proposition by allowing customers to convert the motive power
requirements for their entire fleets to proton exchange membrane
(PEM) fuel cell technology. Coincident with the acquisition of
General Hydrogen, Plug Power has entered into a two-year agreement
with Ballard Power Systems Inc. for the purchase of fuel cell
stacks for Plug Power's commercial needs with respect to electric
lift truck applications, replacing the previous agreement between
General Hydrogen and Ballard. The General Hydrogen and Cellex Power
products were designed around the Ballard stack and have generated
tens of thousands of operating hours to validate reliability and
performance. Under the new agreement, Plug Power and Ballard will
work together to drive reliable, low- cost solutions that are
expected to significantly improve the outlook for fuel cell
commercialization of material handling applications. With the
Cellex Power and General Hydrogen acquisitions, Plug Power has
positioned itself to engage both telecommunications and material
handling as attractive near-term markets and central components of
the Company's revenue growth strategy. About General Hydrogen
Corporation General Hydrogen, which was founded in 1999, is
headquartered in Richmond, British Columbia, near Vancouver, and
has a sales and service center in Gallatin, Tennessee. It is a
private, Delaware-registered company that develops and
commercializes fuel cell power units and hydrogen fueling solutions
to address the motive power requirements of a variety of electric
lift trucks used in material handling applications in indoor
manufacturing operations and large-scale distribution centers.
General Hydrogen uses fuel cell stacks made by Ballard Power
Systems Inc. as a component of its fuel cell power units. For more
information, please visit http://www.generalhydrogen.com/. About
Plug Power Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ:PLUG), an established leader in
the development and deployment of clean, reliable, on-site energy
products, currently integrates fuel cell technology into backup
power products for telecommunications, utility and uninterruptible
power supply applications, as well as motive power products for
material handling applications. The Company is actively engaged
with private and public customers in targeted markets throughout
the world, including North America, Europe, the Middle East,
Russia, South Africa and South America. For more information about
how to join Plug Power's energy revolution as an investor,
customer, supplier or strategic partner, please visit
http://www.plugpower.com/. Safe Harbor Statement This press release
contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including but not
limited to the expected benefits of the Cellex Power and General
Hydrogen acquisitions. We believe that it is important to
communicate our future expectations to our investors. However,
there may be events in the future that we are not able to
accurately predict or control and that may cause our actual results
to differ materially from the expectations we describe in our
forward- looking statements, including, without limitation, the
risk that the General Hydrogen acquisition is unsuccessful or that
the anticipated synergies of the Cellex Power and General Hydrogen
acquisitions are not realized, that unit orders will not ship, be
installed and/or convert to revenue, in whole or in part; Plug
Power's ability to develop commercially viable on-site energy
products; the cost and timing of developing Plug Power's on-site
energy products; market acceptance of Plug Power's on-site energy
products; Plug Power's ability to manufacture on-site energy
products on a large-scale commercial basis; competitive factors,
such as price competition and competition from other traditional
and alternative energy companies; the cost and availability of
components and parts for Plug Power's on-site energy products; Plug
Power's ability to establish relationships with third parties with
respect to product development, manufacturing, distribution and
servicing and the supply of key product components; Plug Power's
ability to protect its intellectual property; Plug Power's ability
to lower the cost of its on-site energy products and demonstrate
their reliability; the cost of complying with current and future
governmental regulations; the impact of deregulation and
restructuring of the electric utility industry on demand for Plug
Power's on- site energy products and other risks and uncertainties
discussed under "Item IA-Risk Factors" in Plug Power's annual
report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006,
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on March
16, 2007, and the reports Plug Power files from time to time with
the SEC. Plug Power does not intend to and undertakes no duty to
update the information contained in this press release. DATASOURCE:
Plug Power Inc. CONTACT: Media, Cynthia Mahoney White of Plug Power
Inc., +1-518-782-7700 ext. 1973, Mobile: +1-518-527-1172, ;
Investors, Deborah K. Pawlowski of Kei Advisors, +1-716-843-3908,
Mobile: +1-716-310-3949, , for Plug Power Inc. Web site:
http://www.plugpower.com/ http://www.generalhydrogen.com/
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