Evercel Issues Letter to Shareholders
April 21 2004 - 8:30AM
PR Newswire (US)
Evercel Issues Letter to Shareholders HINGHAM, Mass., April 21
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Evercel, Inc. (EVRC.PK), today released
the following letter to shareholders from Chairman James Gerson and
CEO Garry Prime: Dear Fellow Shareholders, 2003 has been a
disappointing year. Our sales of nickel-zinc batteries have been
quite limited and we have incurred substantial losses. As a result
we have taken several steps to attempt to both preserve our assets
and embrace opportunities for future corporate value. The steps
included a drastic reduction in expenses, investment in an
unrelated business, continued efforts to exploit our nickel-zinc
technology and exploration of other business opportunities. 1.
Expense reductions: We have reduced our payroll to one part-time
engineer and our rent expenses to nil. Virtually all our efforts
are being conducted by our officers and Chairman on a part-time,
uncompensated basis. In the U. S. we have moved to much smaller
space which we share with another company. In China our fixed
overhead has been substantially reduced and we run our production
line only when there is appropriate demand. Furthermore, we have
withdrawn our public registration of securities. Our securities are
now traded through the "Pink Sheets" and we no longer have the
compliance and filing expenses of an SEC publicly registered
company. Nevertheless, we plan to continue to obtain audited
financial statements. 2. Investment in unrelated businesses: As
previously reported we invested $2.0 million in series C preferred
shares of Zipcar, Inc., an innovative and very rapidly growing,
hourly car rental company. Zipcar has operations in Boston, New
York and Washington D.C. It is one of the largest companies of its
kind in the U.S., has significant proprietary technology and is
advancing a business model which is already proven to be very
successful in Europe. Zipcar's website is http://www.zipcar.com/.
3. Continued efforts to exploit our nickel-zinc technology: Our
technology has proven itself to be a successful solution for
several electric vehicle manufacturers. Clearly, it has been very
challenging to get customers to design products using our
technology given our size and financial condition. Our largest
customer, Oxygen SpA, remains committed to our products and is
projecting substantial orders over the next several months. We
intend to supply batteries for these orders if economically
appropriate. Our lease in Xiamen expires in October, we have been
able to negotiate a Letter of Intent (LOI) with a very successful
private building products manufacturer which is supported by the
local government and which may enable us to continue manufacturing
should we receive appropriate order flow. In general, the LOI
provides that our JV partner will provide $4.4 million for 44% of
the new company and we will provide $600,000, exclusive and non-
exclusive licensing in certain Far East countries and our know-how
for 56% of the new company. 4. Exploration of other business
opportunities: We are continuing our dialogue with other battery
manufacturers with a view to possible combination of our efforts.
In addition we are entertaining other proposals from non-battery
manufacturers. All of these discussions are very preliminary at
this point. Since our liquid financial condition is very limited
our expectation is that with a qualified opportunity we will raise
additional financing if required. We expect to have our audited
financial results by the end of May and we will then make them
available to our shareholders. Needless to say it is not pleasant
to report our current lack of success. We can assure you, however,
that we had and continue to have a very dedicated, creative and
loyal group of employees. On behalf of all our shareholders we
would like to thank them for their efforts. In addition we assure
you that we intend to remain dedicated to the preservation and
enhancing of Evercel and its technology. James Gerson., Chairman
Garry Prime, CEO & President April 21, 2004 DATASOURCE:
Evercel, Inc. CONTACT: Investor - Anthony Kiernan of Evercel,
+1-781-741-8800; or Media - Bill Baker of Baker Communications
Group, LLC, +1-860-350-9100, for Evercel
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