THINK EXITS COURT PROTECTION - Gets new investors and production in Finland

[Richard]

We are very busy at the moment so please read the press release from Think :

OSLO, Norway, 27 August 2009 – Think,

The Norwegian electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer announces today that the Norwegian courts have approved its debt settlement plan, enabling the company to exit court protection.

Effectively, this puts Think back in business and in a position to resume normal operations in terms of the manufacture and sale of new electric vehicles (EVs), namely, its latest TH!NK City model.

Think CEO Richard Canny said: “This court ruling completes the final step in our return to normal operations. It is an important day for Think, and we would like to thank our creditors and suppliers for their continued support, and to show our appreciation to Think’s very patient and loyal customers – this means we can re-start production of the TH!NK City as soon as possible.”

The TH!NK City is the company’s latest generation EV, and is one of the few ready-to-market fully electric vehicles available in the world today. With its market-leading 180km range, class-leading 100km/h performance and safety attributes, the TH!NK City is the first vehicle of its type to be granted pan-European regulatory safety approval and CE certification.

A significant capital increase has also been arranged to enable the company to immediately get back to the business of producing and selling EVs. The company continues to be backed by a very loyal group of investors, made up of some individual Norwegian investors as well as leading venture capital and clean-tech investment firms from the USA and the UK.

In addition, some new investors have joined the shareholder group as part of the capital increase, which is worth some $47 million in total capital introduced and conversion of interim financing to equity. The equity transaction is scheduled to close next week.

Named investors are: Ener1, Inc. from the USA, Valmet Automotive from Finland and Investinor, the Norwegian Government-backed investment fund.

Ener1, Inc. is the largest of the investors in Think, and once the transaction is complete, will hold an equity stake in the company of approximately 31%. Ener1, Inc. is the parent company of EnerDel, a leading manufacturer of advanced lithium-ion automotive battery systems based in Indianapolis and an existing supplier to Think.

EnerDel and Think have agreed to enter into a long-term battery supply agreement as part of the transaction. They also intend to combine the companies’ complementary competitive advantages in the fast-growing electric drive-train business to co-manufacture and market electric drive systems.

Valmet Automotive is a leading provider of engineering and manufacturing services to the automotive industry and is joining Think as a new industrial partner with a small share in the company. Future production of the TH!NK City EV will commence at Valmet’s high-technology manufacturing base in Uusikaupunki, Finland, alongside its assembly facilities for the Porsche Boxster and Cayman models for Porsche AG.

These state-of-the-art production facilities, coupled with Valmet Automotive’s vast engineering and logistics experience make for a highly effective and complementary relationship between the two companies, with production in Finland scheduled to start sometime during the fourth quarter of this year.

Production at Think’s existing assembly facility in Aurskog, Norway, will be suspended indefinitely in light of the agreement with Valmet Automotive, resulting in approximately 85 employee positions being affected across the company.

Think however remains a truly Norwegian company, with its senior management, sales, marketing, design and engineering staff still located at the company’s Oslo headquarters.

Investinor is a Norwegian venture fund backed by the Government’s Ministry of Trade and Industry. The fund invests in Norwegian companies on strict commercial terms in return for share capital, and is investing NOK30million ($5million) in Think’s capital increase.

Richard Canny added: “With this group of shareholders offering the financial backing and support needed to get Think back into production, we are very excited about what the future holds for this company. We’d like to thank our existing investors for their continued support, and also to welcome the new investors on board.

He concluded: “Establishing production in Finland and expanding our sales organisation around Europe is going to keep us extremely busy in the coming months – but we are very confident, the TH!NK City is literally ready for sale and we look forward to delivering the first of our customers’ new cars this side of 2010.”

[Antti]

Got anything new on Th!nk? I went to the Electric Motor Show in Helsinki and they told me that they already have Th!nk City being manufactured at Uusikaupunki. I was also told that Th!nk O (or was it Ox) will not be manufactured nor there is any intention to manufacture it in the future. It was only a prototype with no crash tests done etc. Bummer.

[Speculawyer]

Well, they have some 2500+ orders already lined up. So they should be able to at least double the number of cars they have made in their entire history as a company (which is something around 2000 cars). Now I hope they can get a USA factory up & running . . . preferably in Indiana since they need the jobs, is where Enerdel is located, and is centrally located so they can deliver to both coasts. And they better make the damn 'Open' model . . . I think that would have some sales in California.

[Speculawyer]

OK . . . now open a factory in the USA!

[Tom Roy]

Reuters have added a few zeros to the production numbers. Valmet's own numbers are more believable at several thousand vehicles.

[Richard]

Oh it probably a good move for them and it mean we can finally see some more cars.

About the cell phone: We had this innovative company called Simonsen Mobil in the 80's and the people behind it inventet the NMT and GSM netstadard. When Norway was going to build a national cellular network they the deal was given to Ericson and all of Simonsens intelectual property of networkcompetence and cellular phones was sold to Nokia =)

[Christopher Jordan]

I think this is an article about a Th!nk investor:
http://puregreencars.com/Green-Cars-News/Business/ener1_takes_stake_in_electric_vehicle_maker_think_global.html

[Antti]

Well to be fair Th!nk remains Norwegian. Just the manufacturing will be done by a coachbuilder in Uusikaupunki. I am hoping they´ll be succesful enough to ramp up and start looking for other coachbuilder locations in the future. I hope they keep their eye on that excess production capacity available in Sweden. I do believe in Nordic quality so to me Th!nk made a good choise, I bet one of the options was selling out to China.

What was that about the cellphones? BTW Nokia is not particularly Finnish anymore. :-)

[Richard]

Aaah those Finns =)

First they grab our cellphone industry in the 80´s and now this

Congratulations =)

[Mart H. Shearer]

Valmet's talking about a huge increase in production, up to 100,000 vehicles per year, but it remains to be seen how many years it will take to hire and train the needed staff.

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSLR9067020090827

[Antti]

Good stuff. As the big players are starting to roll out their electric cars the niche for small players is vanishing quickly. Establishing a volume manufacturing contract helps them to stay in the game but next couple of years will show how this all plays out. I am still waiting for the possibility of buying myself a Th!nk O!