"Completing the separation of the international assets allows us to focus all efforts to become a pure-play vertical farming company in the United States and concentrate our investments into existing farms and growing customer segments, where we see strong growth potential," said Jim Leighton, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Kalera.
Kalera Public Limited Company announced that in the course of the court-supervised process in Germany over Kalera GmbH, the Kalera International business has been acquired by Growy Holdings BV.
As mentioned in an earlier published news release on January 27, the sale includes the headquarters in Germany, the farm in Kuwait, and the farm under construction in Singapore. Kalera had announced its intention to divest its international business on October 18, 2022.
Increasing capacity in Houston and Denver
"We look forward to continuing increasing capacity utilization at our Houston and Denver farms enabling consistent quality and quantity to our customers to drive profitable growth and deliver long-term value to our shareholders," added Jim.
He continued by expressing gratitude that their international business was acquired by an international company that shares our passion for vertical farming and the role it serves in our ever-changing world. Jim mentioned that Kalera is also pleased that the acquiring company will employ a number of highly passionate people working in Germany, Kuwait, and Singapore.
According to Kalera, the transaction allows for maintaining a clear focus on the company's core markets, creating value for customers, shareholders, other stakeholders, and associates.
Photo credits: Michael Hart
Other specifics
Through a pre-existing licensing agreement, Kalera retains an irrevocable, perpetual, and sublicensable right and license to Kalera GmbH's intellectual property, excluding the &ever®, Dryponics®, and HappyNest® trademarks owned by &ever GmbH prior to its acquisition by Kalera group.
Kalera expects to classify the international business as discontinued operations for the current and historical periods in Kalera's consolidated financial statements. The net proceeds, which were received by the court-appointed administrator, will be applied by the administrator to partially repay Kalera's outstanding Secured Convertible Bridge Promissory Note, as well as towards covering the costs of the court-supervised process and Kalera, GmbH's other existing liabilities.
In an additional effort to accelerate bringing Kalera to cash flow positive, the company continues the process of divesting Vindara, its seed genetics business, and expects to close prior to the end of Q1 2023.
For more information:
Kalera
[email protected]
www.kalera.com