Update on Core Assets and Strategies
14 Juin 2024 - 8:00AM
Update on Core Assets and Strategies
Update on Core Assets and
Strategies
Cannes, 14 June 2024 8:00
Following the publication of its 2023
Annual Report and Audited Accounts, Tonner Drones (“Tonner Drones”
or the “Company”) provides this update on its core assets and
strategies.
Since new management was appointed and assumed
board responsibilities just over a year ago, the Company has
stabilized its operations and secured its future funding.
Significant cost reductions, coupled with the termination of the
Company’s dependence on legacy variable pricing financing
instruments, have ensured that Tonner Drones is in a stable
financial condition as it enters the second half of 2024.
With this financial restructuring behind it,
management is now focused on generating shareholder value through
the Company’s minority stakes in French drone companies, the
Inhibitor military drone and associated patents, Countbot,
potential acquisitions, and the legacy inventory left over from
Delta Drone. Towards those ends, the Company provides the following
updates:
- Minority Stakes in French Drone Companies.
Tonner Drones holds minority stakes of between 8% to 15% in several
non-listed drone companies located in France, including Donecle,
Diodon, and Elistair. Tonner Drones is evaluating which of these
companies it will continue to support given an alignment of
strategic objectives, and which of these companies it will sell due
to disparate strategic objectives. Following the implementation of
this strategy, the Company aims to generate between €1 million and
€2 million in cash in the next 12 months while maintaining a
portfolio that could reach valuations in excess of € 5 million in
the next years in those French drone companies.
- Inhibitor. When new management arrived on June
5, 2023, it brought with it the Inhibitor military drone technology
that had been developed since 2018 at a cost of more than £ 8
million,1 and included the associated recoil elimination technology
patent (that ensures the stability of the drone when firing a
projectile) granted in Germany, and several patents pending in
other countries. This company and its Inhibitor technology were
valued in October of 2021 at more than £ 17 million. Companies
associated with Jean-François Ott (Ott Heritage) and Bradley Taylor
(Courcelette Holdings) sold Tonner Drones SAS, the company that
owned the Inhibitor technology, German patent, and pending patents,
to the Company for only € 2 million payable in seller financing
through notes convertible into shares and associated earn outs.2
Since then, an additional recoil elimination technology patent was
granted in the United Kingdom,3 and just last week on 5 June 2024,
the Company received correspondence stating that the patent had
also been approved in Australia. The Company is dedicated to
developing and marketing this technology and its patents with local
partners and those in the regions where it has already made
inroads, including Ukraine and Niger.
- Countbot. Tonner Drones is working closely
with engineering partners to evaluate its Countbot warehouse
logistics robot with the goal of updating and enhancing its
capabilities. This robot, developed by Delta Drone prior to the new
management’s arrival, has solid potential and customer demand, but
is not currently meeting the high product standards required by the
new management team. Following the engineering audit of the
Countbot technology, the Company’s aim will be to develop the new
Countbot with our engineering partners.
- Potential Acquisitions. The Company is
regularly contacting and meeting with various companies, in France
and internationally, operating in the drone and drone-related
technology space, to discuss potential acquisitions or reverse
takeovers. At present, despite numerous constructive and promising
discussions, Tonner Drones has not entered into any term sheets or
letters of intent with any of these potential targets but aims to
close on at least one transaction before the end of 2024.
- Legacy Parts Inventory. Over the past few
weeks, Tonner Drones has successfully consolidated the legacy
inventory that it inherited from Delta Drone when new management
arrived in June of 2023, and that was located in various places,
into the Company’s central facility in Cannes. This now allows
Tonner Drones, along with its engineering partners, to evaluate the
inventory in a single location to determine what inventory
continues to be of use and what inventory is obsolete or of no
strategic use to the Company such that it can be sold. The
Company’s aim is to strategically reduce the amount of stored
inventory it currently holds through the sales of redundant assets,
ultimately supplementing its short-term operational cash
requirements.
As set forth in its press release of 4 March
2024,1 Tonner Drones became the controlling shareholder of the
Swiss company Aero41 via the conversion of its outstanding debt
into equity. Aero41 was another company that Delta Drone had
invested in prior to new management’s arrival and was encountering
financial difficulties. Tonner Drones hoped there was a possibility
of turning Aero41 around. Unfortunately, Tonner Drones has
determined that Aero41 does not have sufficient turnaround
potential. As such, Aero41 will enter into bankruptcy
proceedings.
Finally, Tonner Drones is pleased to confirm
that after being briefly placed on the Euronext penalty bench on 7
June 2024, once it published its annual report and audited
financial accounts on 12 June 2024, it exited the Euronext penalty
bench on 14 June 2024.
End of press-release.
About Tonner
Drones: Tonner Drones (formerly Delta
Drone) develops UAVs and associated technologies for the defense
and homeland security sectors. Tonner Drones holds valuable stakes
in some of France's leading civilian and military drone
manufacturers. Tonner Drones’ strategy is to leverage its
shareholdings in these companies through active asset management, a
private equity fund, and by teaming up with other private equity
funds to become a significant industry consolidator. Additional
revenues can be achieved through royalties from patents held by
Tonner Drones to recognized manufacturers. Tonner Drones does not
plan on owning a factory; however, it is determined to retain
R&D for its products and systems in France.
Tonner Drones’ shares are listed on Euronext
Growth Paris (ISIN code: FR001400H2X4).
More information at www.tonnerdrones.com
If you would like to find out more, or if you
are interested in a partnership: contact@tonnerdrones.com
Tonner DronesDiede van den
OudenCommunication
financièreinvestors@tonnerdrones.com
Tonner DronesFabrice
AstreRelations avec la
pressepress@tonnerdrones.com
Warning
Regarding the merits of any transaction or the
making of any investment decision. It does not constitute or
include any confirmation or commitment by Tonner Drones (or any
other person) regarding the present or future value of
TonnerDrones' business, its securities, its subsidiaries or any
other assets of TonnerDrones.
This press release contains forward-looking
statements based on current beliefs and expectations regarding
future events. These forward-looking statements may include
projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions,
statements regarding plans, objectives, intentions and/or
expectations regarding future financial results, events, operations
and services. and product development, as well as statements
regarding performance or events. These statements are generally
identified by the terms "expect", "anticipate", "believe",
"intend", "estimate", "plan", "project", "may", "should" or the
negative form of these and other similar expressions. These
statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject
to inherent risks, uncertainties and assumptions regarding
TonnerDrones and its subsidiaries and investments, trends in their
businesses, future capital expenditures and acquisitions,
developments relating to contingent liabilities, changes in global
economic conditions or TonnerDrones' principal markets, competitive
market conditions and regulatory factors. The realization of these
events is uncertain; their outcome could turn out to be different
from that envisaged today, which is likely to significantly affect
the expected results. Actual results may differ materially from
those anticipated or implied in these forward-looking statements.
Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release are
made as of the date of this press release. Except as required by
applicable law, TonnerDrones undertakes no obligation to revise or
update any forward-looking statements, taking into account new
information or future events.
1https://tonnerdrones.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024-03-04_TonnerDrones-devient-actionnaire-majoritaire-dAero41_EN.pdf
1
https://tonnerdrones.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/DeltaDrone_CP_EN_20.07.2023_VD.pdf
2
https://tonnerdrones.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/DeltaDrone_CP_closing_07.06.2023_VD.pdf
3https://tonnerdrones.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/BT-2023-09-20_DeltaDrone_UK-patent-for-Recoil-Elimination-Technology_EN_Vdef.pdf
- Update on Core Assets and Strategies
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