Charlotte, N.C., Dec. 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Akoustis Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKTS), an integrated device manufacturer (IDM) of patented bulk acoustic wave (BAW) high-band RF filters for mobile and other wireless applications, announced today that it has issued a redemption notice to the holders of the Company’s outstanding $10,000,000 aggregate principal amount of 6.5% Convertible Senior Notes due 2023, pursuant to the indenture governing the Notes. The Company will redeem all Notes that continue to be outstanding on February 1, 2021.
The Company will pay holders of the Notes that are redeemed a redemption price equal to 100% of the aggregate principal amount of Notes being redeemed, plus accrued and unpaid interest as well as an interest make-whole payment with respect to those Notes that are redeemed. This redemption price will include $10.833 of accrued and unpaid interest for each $1,000 principal amount of Notes being redeemed and $184.167 as the interest make-whole payment for each $1,000 principal amount of Notes that are redeemed. The make-whole payment may be paid by the Company in cash or freely tradeable shares of its common stock so long as the volume weighted average price of the Company’s common stock for the ten trading days ending on and including January 29, 2021, multiplied by 0.95, is not less than $5.01 per share.
Alternatively, holders of the Notes may elect to convert the Notes into shares of common stock of the Company at a conversion rate equal to 196.08 shares of common stock per $1,000 principal amount of Notes (equivalent to a conversion price of approximately $5.10 per share). This conversion right will terminate at the close of business on January 29, 2021.
Jeff Shealy, founder and CEO of Akoustis, stated, “I am pleased to report that we will be improving our balance sheet through the elimination of this convertible debt.” Mr. Shealy continued, “The elimination of these notes will result in a go-forward reduction in cash interest of $650,000 annually and should give us greater flexibility in the future.”
The details concerning the terms and conditions of the redemption are fully described in the redemption notice, a copy of which will be filed with the SEC in a current report on Form 8-K on December 7, 2020. This press release is not a notice of redemption. The redemption will be made solely pursuant to the redemption notice.
This announcement does not constitute an offer to buy or sell, or the solicitation of an offer to sell or buy, securities in any jurisdiction.
Akoustis’ high frequency, high performance XBAW® process and filters are experiencing growing interest as the Company has entered production in multiple markets in calendar 2020, including 5G network infrastructure, high-band WiFi and phased-array radar applications.
Akoustis has added 15 filters to its product catalog including a 5.6 GHz WiFi filter, a 5.2 GHz WiFi filter, a 5.5 GHz WiFi-6E filter, a 6.5 GHz WiFi 6E filter, three small cell 5G network infrastructure filters including two Band n77 filters and one Band n79 filter, a 3.8 GHz filter and five S-Band filters for defense phased-array radar applications, a 3.6 GHz filter for the CBRS 5G infrastructure market and a C-Band filter for the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) market. The Company is also developing several new filters for the sub-7 GHz bands targeting 5G mobile device, network infrastructure, WiFi CPE and defense markets.
About Akoustis Technologies, Inc.
Akoustis® (http://www.akoustis.com/) is a high-tech BAW RF filter solutions company that is pioneering next-generation materials science and MEMS wafer manufacturing to address the market requirements for improved RF filters - targeting higher bandwidth, higher operating frequencies and higher output power compared to incumbent polycrystalline BAW technology deployed today. The Company utilizes its proprietary XBAW® manufacturing process to produce bulk acoustic wave RF filters for mobile and other wireless markets, which facilitate signal acquisition and accelerate band performance between the antenna and digital back end. Superior performance is driven by the significant advances of high-purity, single-crystal and associated piezoelectric materials and the resonator-filter process technology which drives electro-mechanical coupling and translates to wide filter bandwidth.
Akoustis plans to service the fast growing multi-billion-dollar RF filter market using its integrated device manufacturer (IDM) business model. The Company owns and operates a 120,000 sq. ft. ISO-9001:2015 certified commercial wafer-manufacturing facility located in Canandaigua, NY, which includes a class 100 / class 1000 cleanroom facility - tooled for 150-mm diameter wafers - for the design, development, fabrication and packaging of RF filters, MEMS and other semiconductor devices. Akoustis Technologies, Inc. is headquartered in the Piedmont technology corridor near Charlotte, North Carolina.
