Nanophase Announces $6M Financing

ROMEOVILLE, Ill., March 05, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nanophase Technologies Corporation (OTCQB: NANX), a leader in minerals-based and scientifically-driven health care solutions across beauty and life science categories — with innovations that protect skin from environmental aggressors and aid in medical diagnostics —announced today that it has concluded an equity financing in the amount of $6M with Strandler, LLC, an affiliate of its largest shareholder, Bradford T. Whitmore. The structure of the financing was in the form of convertible preferred stock. Strandler has purchased 15,000 shares of Nanophase Series X preferred shares, each of which will be convertible into 1,000 shares of Nanophase common stock. Pending shareholder approval of additional authorized common shares, and assuming conversion of all preferred shares, this will result in a total of 15,000,000 shares of Nanophase common stock being issued at an equivalent price of $0.40 per share. As part of the consideration for this deal, Strandler has agreed to hold the newly issued common shares for one year from the date of conversion, and, as additional consideration, Strandler, LLC and Beachcorp, LLC have both agreed to extend the maturity of the Company’s two existing revolving loans and one existing term loan to October 1, 2025. Both companies are affiliates of Bradford T. Whitmore, the Company’s largest shareholder.

“Our product suite remains strong, we continue to win innovation awards, and demand for our Solésence products is excellent,” commented Jess Jankowski, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nanophase and Solésence. “For a series of reasons, which we will explore further during the annual investor call, November and December financial performance fell short of our expectations. The Q42023 loss this created, combined with expanded working capital demands, had us starved for operating cash. The first few weeks of January compounded these issues, with shortages of critical raw materials causing production delays. At this point, we felt it would be of greater benefit to the Company and all of its stakeholders to seek funding to keep our growth strategy on track, rather than choosing the other option of aggressively cutting expenses and re-shaping our organization. Although we have a driven bias toward growth, we are also committed to continuing the measured cost reductions we began in the fourth quarter,” added Jankowski.