UQM terminates stock deal with Hybrid Kinetic

LONGMONT — UQM Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UQM) has terminated a stock purchase agreement with Hong Kong’s Hybrid Kinetic Group Ltd. that would have sold a controlling stake in the Weld County company for $48 million in cash.

The deal was terminated after shareholders failed to approve key provisions of the transaction at a shareholders meeting Dec. 21. BizWest first reported Dec. 22 that the deal was in jeopardy, after shareholders failed to issue enough new stock for Hybrid Kinetic to purchase, and another that would have made it easier for Hybrid Kinetic to amend the company’s articles of incorporation in the future.

“Without the stock, we don’t have a deal,” UQM’s president and CEO, told BizWest at the time. Mitchell said then that he held out hope for a deal, with the company scheduled to reconvene its meeting of shareholders Jan. 10.

But UQM, which manufactures electric motors, opted to terminate the deal in the interim.

“While a majority of our shareholders voted in favor of the investment transaction with Hybrid Kinetic, our shareholders were sufficiently concerned about the reduction in voting threshold on key corporate actions that Proposal Three was soundly defeated even after adjourning and reconvening our annual meeting two times to allow us further time to solicit votes to approve this change,” Mitchell said in a prepared statement. “We have cash and an asset base to meet our anticipated liquidity needs for the near future. Pending orders from key customers will help to fill our pipeline over the next several months.

“We have already re-engaged our investment banking advisor BDA Partners, and with the activity we have recently seen in the electric vehicle market, we are optimistic that we will be able to secure partnership opportunities to execute on our global strategy to obtain volume production contracts leading to increased revenue flow and profitability.”

The statement said that UQM’s board “believes that approval of the proposal to increase the number of authorized shares of UQM common stock is still in the best interest of UQM for future potential partnerships even though the Agreement with Hybrid Kinetic was terminated.”

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