VANCOUVER, BC–(Marketwired – November 23, 2016) – BioteQ Environmental Technologies Inc. (TSX VENTURE: BQE), a leader in the treatment of mine impacted waters, releases its financial and operating results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2016. Further information on the quarterly results can be obtained from the Company’s Q3 2016 Interim Consolidated Financial Statements and Management’s Discussion and Analysis (“MD&A”).
To ensure clarity and comparability with historic results, certain statements in this news release and in the MD&A are characterized as BioteQ’s “proportional” share, which means the effective portion of results that BioteQ would have reported if each of its joint ventures had been reported in accordance with past accounting standards. For further details, please see “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” in the Company’s Q3 2016 MD&A.
Q3 and Year-To-Date 2016 Financial Results
The Company reported the following results for the third quarter:
- Revenues as reported under GAAP were $1.3 million compared $1.6 million in Q3 2015. Year to date, revenues were $2.4 million, consistent with the prior year;
- Proportional revenues were $2.4 million compared to $3 million in Q3 2015. Year to date, Proportional revenues were $6.1 million, consistent with the prior year;
- Net income as reported under GAAP was $117,000 compared to $279,000 in Q3 2015;
- Adjusted income before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (“adjusted EBITDA”) was $414,000, marking a second consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBIDTA;
- Adjusted EBIDTA of $414,000 was virtually unchanged from 2015. Year to date, adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $102,000; an improvement over the prior year’s loss of $119,000. The improvement is despite a 14% drop in copper prices compared to 2015.
- Proportional revenue and adjusted EBIDTA are highly sensitive to changes in copper prices. Despite the decline in copper prices, BioteQ was able to improve total copper recovery and reduce its average cost per pound;
- Cash and cash equivalents reported under GAAP as of September 30, 2016 was $1.8 million compared to $1.4 million at December 31, 2015; and
- Proportional cash and cash equivalents and short term investments, which includes our share held in joint ventures, as of September 30, 2016 was $3.2 million compared to $2.1 million at the end of 2015.
Financing
During the quarter, BioteQ completed a convertible loan (“Loans”) for gross proceeds of $1.5 million. The Loans are secured and bear interest at a rate of 8% per annum. Upon repayment of the Loans, each lender may elect to convert all or any portion of the repaid principal into BioteQ common shares at a conversion price of $0.06 cents per share.
The proceeds of the Loans will be used to fund general operating expenses and ensure BioteQ has the financial resources to continue executing on its longer term growth strategy.
Water Treatment Operations
- During the quarter, BioteQ continued its 13th season of water treatment operations at the Raglan Mine site in Quebec. During the quarter, BioteQ treated 715,000 cubic metres of water. In mid-November, BioteQ completed water treatment services for the season. BioteQ is currently discussing an extension to the operating contract; and
- BioteQ’s joint venture in China with partner Jiangxi Copper Company (“JCC”) operated three plants during the quarter. Two of the plants are located at the Dexing Mine site and the third at the Yinshan Mine site. Both mine sites are owned by JCC. The joint venture treated a total of 4.8 million cubic metres of water and recovered 891,000 pounds of copper from all three plants during the quarter.
Sales and New Technology Development
The following is an update on key sales opportunities in progress:
Design, Construction, and Commissioning Services
In Q3 2016, BioteQ continued providing services for a water treatment plant at the Silvertip project in Northern BC.
Consulting
During the quarter, BioteQ continued to provide consulting services to several mining projects in Canada, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. The services covered a broad spectrum of activities including permitting support, development of site specific water management strategies, and various stages of water treatment assessment for the removal of metals, sulphate, and selenium. BioteQ expects that these activities will continue over the next several quarters and may lead to new activities as water management measures proceed to implementation.
Zinc and Copper Recovery – Joint Venture
BioteQ completed its detailed technical and economic assessment of a new treatment plant to be installed at an active smelter in China. The proposed new treatment plant has completed environmental permitting and BioteQ is working closely with a potential new partner on forming a joint venture to deliver the treatment plant for the smelter under a Build-Own-Operate business model. Once final terms are agreed upon, BioteQ expects to commence construction in Q1 2017 and to begin commissioning and operations in late 2017. Under current terms being negotiated, BioteQ expects to receive a fixed-fee, technical support contract and an ongoing share of the profits from the operation.
Selen-IX™ Pilot Operation
Subsequent to the end of Q3, BioteQ secured a contract with a Canadian resource company for a pilot scale demonstration and evaluation of its Selen-IX™ technology to remove selenium from mine impacted water. The pilot follows a successful laboratory campaign completed earlier in the year directly at the client’s site and will utilize BioteQ’s existing mobile Selen-IX™ pilot plant. The objectives of the pilot campaign are to: demonstrate selenium removal to reach discharge targets on a continuous basis, generate design criteria for a full scale plant, and develop a preliminary capital and operating cost estimate. The pilot campaign is expected to be completed by the end of this year and results will be reviewed with the customer in early 2017 to determine the advancement of the project. The total value of the contract is comparable to past pilot campaigns.
Q3 2016 COMMENTARY AND 2016 OUTLOOK
BioteQ’s results for the first nine months of the year reflect continuing positive changes to the company coinciding with a further drop in the price of copper and continued challenging environment for the resource industry globally. Specifically, the company achieved:
- a second consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBIDTA;
- adjusted EBIDTA improvement over 2015 despite a 14% drop in copper prices compared to 2015; and
- significant contracts booked for Q4 2016 and Q1 2017 that are expected to generate higher revenue and cash flow than comparable, prior year quarters.
So far this year, BioteQ has won new contracts for a broad range of water management and water treatment services. Furthermore, Q3 2016 financials do not reflect any of the “booked” revenue resulting from these small contracts that will contribute to revenues in the next few quarters including the new selenium pilot project announced in October 2016. Based on this, the management expects that the year end 2016 results will bring a significant improvement over 2015 and the current sales pipeline will help improve performance further in 2017.
Q3 2016 Financial Highlights Summary
For a complete set of Financial Statements and Management Discussion and Analysis, please go to www.bioteq.ca
| (in $’000 except for per share amounts) | 3 months ended. Sep. 30 | 9 months ended. Sep. 30 | ||||||
| 2016 | 2015 | 2016 | 2015 | |||||
| $ | $ | $ | $ | |||||
| Revenues | 1,356 | 1,620 | 2,390 | 2,418 | ||||
| less: Plant and other operating costs (excluding depreciation) | 494 | 740 | 1,078 | 1,520 | ||||
| 862 | 880 | 1,312 | 898 | |||||
| General and administration | 410 | 472 | 1,301 | 1,454 | ||||
| Sales and development | 356 | 248 | 973 | 899 | ||||
| Stock-based compensation | 30 | 1 | 76 | (18) | ||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 60 | 57 | 176 | 164 | ||||
| Share of results of equity accounted joint ventures | (160) | (55) | (351) | (581) | ||||
| Income (loss) from operations and joint ventures | 166 | 157 | (863) | (1,020) | ||||
| Finance income, net | (56) | (8) | (54) | 34 | ||||
| Foreign exchange gain (loss) | 7 | 14 | (1,435) | 41 | ||||
| Bad debt recovery | – | 116 | 7 | 268 | ||||
| Net income (loss) for the period | 117 | 279 | (2,345) | (677) | ||||
| Translation gain on foreign operations | 22 | 287 | 1,048 | 691 | ||||
| Comprehensive income (loss) for the period | 139 | 566 | (1,297) | 14 | ||||
| Net loss per share (basic and diluted) | 0.00 | 0.00 | (0.02) | (0.01) | ||||
| Proportional Revenues1 | 2,411 | 3,010 | 6,066 | 6,226 | ||||
| Adjusted EBITDA1 | 414 | 496 | (102) | (119) | ||||
| at Sep. 30 | at Dec. 31 | at Sep. 30 | ||||||
| 2016 | 2015 | 2015 | ||||||
| Working capital | 1,103 | 871 | 35 | |||||
| Total assets | 7,825 | 7,451 | 9,420 | |||||
| Total long term liabilities | 1,358 | 9 | 11 | |||||
| Shareholders’ equity | 4,888 | 6,029 | 6,970 | |||||
| (1) See “Non-GAAP Measures” in Q3 2016 MD&A |
BioteQ Corporate Profile
BioteQ is a service provider that specializes in treating mining wastewater and specific hydrometallurgical streams with a focus on reducing Life Cycle Costs while achieving compliance and introducing sustainability into water management. We have extensive expertise in the removal, recovery, and/or recycle of a broad range of metals, sulphate, selenium, cyanide, ammonia and other nitrogen species. Over the past 16 years, BioteQ has developed and commercialized several new water treatment technologies and subsequently designed and commissioned plants at mine sites around the world working for leading organizations including Glencore, Jiangxi Copper, Freeport-McMoRan, and the US EPA. A key part of our business is our involvement in the ongoing operation and maintenance of treatment plants. We currently operate six plants under long-term contract and provide operations support to other plants globally. The plants comply with the required regulatory discharge limits while reducing or eliminating the production of waste sludge or by-products and/or recovering valuable metals from waste streams for sale. BioteQ is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol BQE. Please visit www.bioteq.ca for more information
The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or the accuracy of this release.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
Certain information contained herein may not be based on historical fact and therefore constitutes “forward-looking information” under applicable Canadian securities legislation. This includes without limitation statements containing the words “plan”, “expect”, “project”, “estimate”, “intend”, “believe”, “anticipate”, “may”, “will” and other similar words or expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the Company’s dependence on key personnel and contracts, uncertainty with respect to the profitability of the Company’s technologies, competition, technology risk, the Company’s ability to protect its intellectual property and proprietary information, fluctuations in commodity prices, currency risk, environmental regulation and the Company’s ability to manage growth and other factors described in the Company’s filings with the Canadian securities regulators at www.sedar.com (including without limitation the factors described in the section entitled “Risks and Uncertainties” in the Company’s MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2015). Given these risks and uncertainties, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All forward-looking information contained herein is based on management’s current expectations and the Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update such forward-looking information to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by law.
For further information please contact:
BioteQ Environmental Technologies
Suite 1000 – 1050 West Pender Street
Vancouver BC Canada V6E 3S7
David Kratochvil
President & CEO
dkratochvil@bioteq.ca
Paul Kim
CFO
pkim@bioteq.ca
t 604.685.1243 or 1.800.537.3073