News: Optoelectronics
19 April 2022
BluGlass closes entitlement offer, raising AUS$3.71m
BluGlass Ltd of Silverwater, Australia – which has developed proprietary low-temperature, low-hydrogen remote-plasma chemical vapor deposition (RPCVD) technology for manufacturing devices such as laser diodes, next-generation LEDs and micro-LEDs – has closed its non-renounceable entitlement offer, raising AUS$3.71m before costs. The entitlement offer enabled eligible shareholders to subscribe for new shares on a 1:4 basis at AUS$0.03 per share; and follows a AUS$3.4m placement to US and Australian institutional funds and investors (as announced to ASX on 24 March).
Funds raised will be used to adapt BluGlass’ new Silicon Valley manufacturing facility for gallium nitride (GaN) laser diode production, as well as ongoing operational costs and talent hire.
BluGlass now has a period of three months to place all or part of the rights issue shortfall.
“The ongoing support of our shareholders is an important vote of confidence in our GaN laser diode technology, growth strategy, and new leadership team,” says executive chair James Walker. “Our acquisition of a purpose-built laser diode facility enables us to control significant aspects of the supply chain, accelerating our ability to bring new, higher-value products to market while reducing manufacturing overheads. Acquiring an operational laser diode fab at a significant discount to market rates is extremely rare and it caters to our medium- and longer-term needs,” he adds.
“We continue our primary focus to solve our reliability challenges and launch our first laser diode products in under-served and in-demand wavelengths,” says president Jim Haden. “Our methodical approach to optimizing the four key ingredients (epitaxy, metals, facets and bonds) is already delivering reliability improvements. We look forward to providing prospective customers with sample products,” he adds. “Our own fab provides us with the manufacturing and development flexibility to deliver on our value proposition of plug-and-play, easy-to-use laser light. By bringing core competencies in-house, it will enable BluGlass to create best-in-class metals, coatings and bonds to deliver brighter, high-performance better products.”
Allotment of all new shares is expected to occur on 21 April with the issue of 123,560,740 fully paid ordinary shares.
BluGlass completes acquisition of Silicon Valley laser diode fab
