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Acorn
Energy (Nasdaq: ACFN)
Website:
www.acornenergy.com
Making
the World a Better Place by Improving Efficiencies of the Electric Grid and
Reducing the Energy Sector's Environmental Footprint.
Overview
Acorn
Energy likes to take a stake, if not outright purchase, struggling companies
that have invested millions of dollars and spent many years perfecting their
innovations. These companies are just beginning to reach the "Tipping
Point", in other words their technology is now ready to be profitable
in the market but they may not have the cash or resources to scale up. This
method has worked extremely well for Acorn in the past, having successfully
brought several companies public and turned private companies profitable.
What does Acorn's current
portfolio of companies have in common? For starters, they're green. From
catalyst regeneration technologies and services to reduce noxious emissions
by fossil-fuel power plants, to improving efficiencies of the electric grid,
to delivering mail in Germany. There's even sonar technology that allows
owners of fossil fuel infrastructure assets such as oil rigs, pipelines and
oil terminals to protect their investments. Acorn's portfolio is one that is
focused on profitable clean tech and making the world a better place to
live.
Profile
Acorn Energy (Nasdaq: ACFN) is
a "green" holding company focused on improving the efficiency of the energy grid and
reducing the environmental impact of the energy sector.
ACFN has virtually no debt and
as of August 13, 2008, has a cash balance in excess of $19.0 million. Acorn Energy's
operating companies leverage advanced technologies to transform the existing
energy infrastructure. ACFN's strategy is to take primarily controlling
positions in companies led by great entrepreneurs and add value by
supporting those companies with marketing, strategy and business
development.
Acorn Energy is a global company with
interests in seven companies. ACFN has equity
interests in three listed companies: 552,500
shares of Comverge, (listed on the Nasdaq Global Market), 407,000
shares (31.4%) of Paketeria AG (listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange), and
15,714,285 shares (23.8%) of GridSense (listed on the TSX Venture Exchange).
Acorn has controlling or significant interests in four private
companies: CoaLogix, (85%); Coreworx (100%); DSIT (72%); and Local Power (10%).
ACFN
Investor Highlights
- ACFN has virtually
no debt and as of August 13, 2008, has a cash balance in excess of $19.0
million, including $2.5 million of restricted cash.
- Sales in the first six months of 2008
increased by $6.2 million or 359% to $7.9 million from $1.7 million in
the first six months of 2007.
- Recently announced its
CoaLogix subsidiary secured two new contracts for catalyst regeneration
totaling over five million dollars. CoaLogix's current backlog in
regeneration contracts represents about three times its entire 2007
revenue.
- These awards bring the total SCRs under
management to over 10,000 MW. The total "fleet" of SCR
catalyst in use in the United States is about 145 GW for coal plants and
about 50 GW for gas fired plants, representing a major growth
opportunity for CoaLogix.
- Recently completed
its acquisition of Coreworx of Kitchener, Ontario, provider of the
Coreworx(TM) suite, the world's leading software tool for capital
project information management and collaboration. Coreworx is
currently utilized to help manage the construction of hundreds of major
capital projects, including offshore oil production, refineries, mining
operations and power plants around the world.
- Announced that its Paketeria affiliate in
Germany has deepened its partnership with the Volksbank network with the
execution by Volksbank Meissen of an agreement to open 12
"shop-in-bank" locations in Meissen -- two in August and the
remaining ten in the fall.
- In May 2008, CoaLogix signed an agreement
to pay an upfront $2 million license fee and subsequent royalties on net
sales to obtain the exclusive worldwide commercialization and marketing
rights to Solucorp Industries' technology for the fixation of heavy
metals, such as mercury, for the electric power generation industry. The
agreement grants CoaLogix exclusive worldwide marketing rights for the
technology for a period of ten years with an option to extend for an
additional five years.
- Acorn Energy completed its
acquisition of a significant minority interest in GridSense in January
2008, providing the Company a strong foothold in Asia and the emerging
field of remote monitoring and control systems for electrical utilities.
- In February 2008, ACFN's DSIT subsidiary, a leader in the field of threat detection
for underwater energy infrastructure, announced $1.4 million in new
contracts involving the integration of subsystems developed by DSIT into
systems built by customers and opportunities to expand the projects in
the future.
- Recently announced that
its DSIT subsidiary has been awarded new development and production
projects at a total value of approximately US $900,000.
- Acorn Energy now owns
significant interests in three listed companies: 552,500 shares of Comverge (listed on the Nasdaq Global Market), 407,000 shares (31.4%)
of Paketeria AG (listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange); and 15,714,285
shares (23.8%) of Gridsense (listed on the TSX Venture Exchange). Acorn
also has controlling or significant interests in four private
companies: CoaLogix, (85%); Coreworx (100%); DSIT (72%); and Local Power (10%).
Recent
News and Press Releases
Coreworx
Hires J. Paul Haynes as COO
CoaLogix
a Finalist for the 2008 Global Energy Awards
Acorn
Energy Announces Share Repurchase Program
Acorn
Energy to Present at the Modern Energy Investor Forum Tomorrow, September
23rd In Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Acorn
Energy's Investor Presentation in San Francisco
Local
Power Takes on PG&E
Acorn
Energy, Inc. Announces Second Quarter Results
Acorn
Energy Completes Acquisition of Coreworx, Leading Energy Infrastructure
Software Provider
Acorn
Energy and CoaLogix Subsidiary Announce Two New Orders for Regeneration
Totaling $5 Million
CoaLogix
Managing Over 10,000 MW of NOx Reduction
Acorn
Energy Equity Affiliate Paketeria AG Gets Volksbank Investment
Acorn
Energy Set to Join Russell Microcap Index
Acorn
Energy, Inc. Announces First Quarter Results
CoaLogix
Acquires the Exclusive Worldwide Licensing Rights for a Proven Mercury
Capture and Fixation Technology
Acorn
Energy, Inc. Subsidiary, DSIT Announces Award of New Project in Telemetry
For the latest Quote
and News on ACFN Click
Here.
Operations
 CoaLogix
and its subsidiary, SCR-Tech LLC, are the leading providers of catalyst
regeneration technologies and services to reduce noxious
emissions by fossil-fuel power plants.
CoaLogix is focused on providing cutting edge
services to coal-fired generating facilities to reduce their environmental
footprint through technology, optimization and efficiency improvements.
CoaLogix currently owns SCR-Tech which provides SCR (selective catalyst
reduction) services to power plants, including a proprietary technology to
regenerate catalyst, and MetalliFix which captures and remediates mercury
from coal fired plants. Currently, coal-fired power plants contain
approximately $1 billion of catalyst in their SCR systems.
In the first quarter of 2008, SCR-Tech
secured new contracts from major U.S. companies representing more than
double its entire 2007 sales. Included in these contracts are a three year
and a five year contract bundling selective catalytic reduction (SCR)
management services and time sensitive regeneration during planned outages.
The contracts represent three new and five repeat customers. SCR-Tech's
sales of $2.2 million during the first quarter of 2008 were their highest
quarterly sales ever. CoaLogix's current backlog in
regeneration contracts represents about three times its entire 2007
revenue.
In March 2008, CoaLogix announced its
CoalVision 360º strategy and the addition of a strategic partner, EnerTech
Capital III, which acquired a 15% interest in CoaLogix. ACFN currently owns
85% of CoaLogix following EnerTech's investment.
CoalVision 360º is CoaLogix's strategy for
creating value for its customers and shareholders while fulfilling the
industry's obligations to ever tightening clean air laws. CoaLogix's recent
agreement with Solucorp Industries, to obtain the exclusive worldwide
marketing rights to their IFS-2C technology for the fixation of heavy metals
is another step in fulfilling the CoalVision 360º strategy.
 Comverge
is an industry leader that provides innovative solutions that improve efficiency of the electric grid through
Demand Response. With over 500 U.S. utility clients and 4.5 million devices
installed, Comverge's "smart megawatts" technology is widespread
and in use across the nation. Acorn Energy owns 552,500 common shares
of Comverge as of August 12, 2008.
In January 2008, Comverge's Enerwise
subsidiary entered into a strategic alliance with Eaton Corporation to bring
demand response and managed energy service offerings to Eaton and its
customers. The offerings include a combination of strategic consulting and
energy efficiency solutions. The relationship establishes Eaton's Electrical
Group as a recognized channel which will offer Comverge solutions to their
customers. Eaton's Electrical Group had sales of $4.2 billion in 2006 and is
a recognized leader in electrical control, power distribution,
uninterruptible power systems and industrial automation products and
services.
In February 2008, Comverge's subsidiary,
Public Energy Solutions, was awarded a demand side management energy
efficiency contract with Con Edison aimed at reducing base load energy
requirements of commercial customers of Con Edison in Lower Manhattan.
The limited program build out will begin in
the third quarter of 2008 followed by a full scale roll out of the program
in 2009 through 2012. If the contract is performed as contemplated, Comverge
is expected to recognize revenues of approximately $67 million over the
installation and build out phase as customers sign up and equipment is
installed. Public Energy Solutions, a Comverge company, is responsible for
customer solicitation, assessment of energy reduction potential, and
equipment and its installation.
In April 2008, Comverge entered into a
Virtual Peaking Capacity(R) (VPC) contract with Southern Maryland Electric
Cooperative (SMECO) to provide up to 75 megawatts of clean electricity
capacity. With a demand response program in place, SMECO will be able to use
the program to reduce its peak capacity needs and better control the energy
costs that it charges to its retail customers. This contract brings the
total contracted revenues for Comverge to $357 million and total megawatts
to 1,880.
 GridSense
is an industry leader that provides remote monitoring and control
systems to electric utilities and industrial facilities worldwide. These
solutions which include outage management, power quality monitoring, trouble
shooting, capacity planning and demand response, provide network operators
with the intelligence to improve efficiencies of grid operations.
Electric companies deploy these systems
primarily in metropolitan, suburban, and rural electricity grids for the
detection, prevention, and mitigation of disturbances and irregularities in
the supply of electricity. Through its wholly owned subsidiaries in
Australia, CHK GridSense Pty Ltd. and GridSense Inc. in USA, GridSense has
been serving a growing base of customers for over 25 years. With operations
currently in Australia, Asia, North America, and Western Europe. GridSense
is a reporting issuer in British Columbia and Alberta and trades on the TSX
Venture Exchange under the symbol "GSN."
In January 2008, ACFN participated in a
transaction where it was the lead investor in a private placement by
GridSense Systems Inc., acquiring 15,714,285 shares for C$1.1 million (approximately $1.1 million). The 15,714,285 shares
acquired by ACFN in the placement represent 23.8% of GridSense's issued and
outstanding shares.
In January 2008, GridSense announced that it
entered into an asset purchase agreement, subject to regulatory approval, to
acquire 100% of Transformer Contracting, Inc., a California corporation
specializing in transformer and substation monitoring. As consideration for
this transaction, Gridsense agreed to deliver cash and a promissory note for
a combined total of approximately $325,000 and to issue 3,000,000 shares of
GridSense common stock.
The acquisition combines GridSense's proven
transmission and distribution offerings and its global utility distribution
channels with the commercial-ready, advanced monitoring systems developed by
Transformer Contracting, for transformers and substations.
 DSIT's
AquaShield® sonar
technology allows owners of fossil fuel infrastructure assets such as oil
rigs, pipelines, and oil terminals to protect their investments at a small
fraction of their replacement cost. DSIT has established itself as a leader
in the field of threat detection for underwater energy infrastructure and
has won the first contract for such an installation.
Other services offered
include software consulting and development services that focus on
naval solutions, including Diver Detection Sonar(DDS) systems that protect
critical marine and coastal infrastructures from threat of terror attacks;
Harbor Surveillance System, which incorporates DDS sensors with above-water
surveillance sensors to create above and below water security system; Mobile
Acoustic Range that measures radiated noise of submarines and surface
vessels; Generic Sonar Simulator for training of anti-submarine warfare,
submarine, and mine detection sonar operators; and Underwater Acoustic
Signal Analysis system, which processes and analyzes acoustic signals
radiated by various sources and received by naval sonar systems.
Paketeria AG
Acorn Energy owns a 31% equity interest
in Paketeria AG, a company registered in Germany and headquartered in Berlin
that innovated the "Super Services Market", a retail concept that
promotes savings in logistics and transport, two of the largest consumers of
fuel worldwide. Paketeria's stores and franchises are located throughout
Germany.
Paketeria's network of owned and franchised
stores has doubled since ACFN's initial investment in August 2006.
Paketeria provides green services by delivering mail by bicycle and offering
recycling services such as eBay merchandising and toner cartridge refilling.
The stores also provide office supplies, photo processing, photocopy, and
Internet pharmacy services in Germany. Paketeria was established to take
advantage of the privatization and subsequent substantial reduction in
retail outlets of the German post office, which has stranded many
communities without convenient access to postal services.
In December 2007, Paketeria's shares were
listed under the symbol "AOSTYL" on the Open Market (Freiverkehr)
of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and became eligible for trading.
In April 2008, Paketeria announced that it
would shortly open five new branches in a trial project together with the
Association of the German Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken (BVR) to compete
with the Deutsche Post. The purpose of this project is to fill the gap left
by Deutsche Post when it closed their branches.
In July 2008, Paketeria announced that its
that it has deepened its partnership with the Volksbank network with
the execution by Volksbank Meissen of an agreement to open 12
"shop-in-bank" locations in Meissen -- two in August and the
remaining ten in the fall.
 Local Power is a creator of
Community Choice Aggregation, a revolution in renewable power and retail
markets for electricity. Local Power's services enable a community to adopt
a new green energy infrastructure, diversifying their electric power away from
fossil fuels and nuclear power while achieving energy independence.
Over the past months, Local Power has
developed several previously identified business opportunities. In Sonoma
County, Local Power has recently been retained by the Sonoma Climate Action
Campaign (SCAC) to procure for a CCA data request from PG&E. Local Power
has proposed another contract with the Sonoma County Water Agency. Local
Power also has a number of significant contract proposals outstanding in San
Francisco for which they expect to be retained for either monitoring or
implementation contracts in the coming quarters.
 Coreworx
In August 2008, ACFN completed its
acquisition of Coreworx formerly Software Innovation, of Waterloo, Ontario.
Coreworx(TM) is a world-leading
software tool for capital project collaboration. Coreworx is currently
utilized by more than 50,000 engineers to manage the construction of
hundreds of major capital projects, including offshore oil production,
refineries, mining operations and power plants around the world. Customers
include Chevron, Hyundai, Fluor among others.
The acquisition is part of
Acorn's goal of improving the productivity of global energy
infrastructure.
Three
Month Chart
Management
John A. Moore - Director and Chief
Executive Officer
Mr. Moore has been a director and Chief
Executive Officer of Acorn since March 2006. He also serves as a director of
Voltaix and as Chairman of Optimer, Inc. He was previously a Director of
Comverge and served on its IPO committee. He serves on the Advisory Council
of EnerTech Capital a $350 million energy technology fund. Mr. Moore was
formerly President and founder of Edson Moore Healthcare Ventures, a $150
million biotechnology holding company. At the same time he was Chairman and
EVP of ImaRx Therapeutics and Chairman of Elite Pharmaceuticals.
Michael Barth - Chief Financial
Officer
Mr. Barth has been Chief Financial Officer
since December 2005. For the six years prior, he served as Deputy Chief
Financial Officer and Controller of DSIT. Mr. Barth is a Certified Public
Accountant in both the U.S. and Israel and has 18 years of experience in
public and private accounting.
Hal Davis - Director of
Strategy
Mr. Davis
was founder and CEO of BlueGill Technologies. Founded in 1996, the company
grew to dominate the Internet billing software industry and was sold to
CheckFree for $250,000,000 in early 2000. Previous to BlueGill, Hal held
executive positions at technology companies including Interface Systems
(acquired by Tumbleweed Communications), KMS Fusion, and Covalent
Technology, Inc.
Hal is an active community
volunteer focused on environmental issues and performing arts. He serves on
the board of numerous corporations and non-profit organizations including
Janeeva Inc., Spirit Shop, Arboretum Ventures, University Musical Society,
The Ark, and the Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for
Entrepreneurial Studies. Hal received his MBA from the University of
Michigan.
What to Look For
- Dramatically increasing revenues.
- Acquisitions of
companies that compliment its product offerings in the clean tech
sector.
- Strengthening
of its position in the energy and software arena.
- Expansion into Asia.
- Further improvements in the productivity of global energy
infrastructure.
- Awarding of contracts from individual
cities for monitoring or
implementation of green energy infrastructure projects and diversifying their electric power away from
fossil fuels and nuclear power.
- Continued growth from Paketeria.
- More contracts from DSIT, which has established itself as a leader
in the field of threat detection for underwater energy infrastructure and
has won the first contract for such an installation.
- Continued growth from GridSense as it
consolidates its purchase of Transformer Contracting.
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Continued expansion by Comverge via its
existing programs and its subsidiary Public Energy Solutions, which was
awarded a demand side management energy
efficiency contract with Con Edison.
CoaLogix to gain additional
customers and continue its record breaking sales pace and strong
backlog. Also look for CoaLogix's new CoalVision 360º strategy to
further create value for its customers. In addition, look for CoaLogix
to take advantage of its recently acquired worldwide marketing rights to
the technology for the fixation of heavy metals.
Contacts
Acorn Energy
4 West Rockland Road 1st Floor
PO Box 9
Montchanin, DE 19710
Phone: 302-656-1708
Fax: 302-994-3086
cmiller@acornenergyinc.com
SEC Filings
ACFN filings with the SEC can be found here.
All Fillings are current and the Company is fully reporting.
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