Ballard – BLDP – Transaction to Acquire Select IdaTech Assets Closes

Ballard Power Systems (NASDAQ: BLDP) announced that the agreement to acquire key assets from IdaTech, including the Company’s fuel cell product lines for backup power applications, distributor and customer relationships, as well as a license to intellectual property, in return for $7.7 million of Ballard common shares at a price of $1.08 per share, has successfully closed. Additional details of the agreement were provided in a press release issued by Ballard on July 25.

On July 25^th  2012, Ballard Power Systems (BLDP) announced signing of an agreement to acquire key assets from IdaTech, including the Company’s fuel cell product lines for backup power applications, distributor and customer relationships, as well as a license to intellectual property. Payment for the acquisition of these assets will be made through the issuance of $7.7 million of Ballard common shares, at a price of US$1.08 per share. The shares will subsequently be transferred to IdaTech’s principal funder, Investec, a South African specialist bank and asset management company (www.investec.com). The transaction is expected to close on or about July 31, subject to TSX approval and other closing conditions.

BLDP has worked closely with IdaTech over the past several years, supplying fuel cell stacks for its systems, as IdaTech has developed markets, built key customer relationships and proven the commercial robustness of its direct hydrogen and methanol fuelled products. IdaTech’s methanol fuelled product line has proven its strong value proposition to customers such as AXIS in Indonesia, Telcel in Mexico and Vodacom in South Africa. These markets, which require frequent and extended run time backup power, have seen a strong preference by IdaTech’s customers for deployments of methanol fuel cell systems to replace traditional diesel generators.

John Sheridan, Ballard President and CEO said, “This transaction gives Ballard key benefits immediately, both financial and strategic. Financially, the transaction is expected to be accretive for Ballard’s revenue, EBITDA and cash flow in 2012 and beyond. Strategically, it provides Ballard with additional product capabilities with methanol fuelled systems and key customer relationships in leading markets for fuel cell commercialization, such as Southeast Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America as well as South Africa.”

About Ballard Power Systems – BLDP

Ballard Power Systems (BLDP) provides clean energy fuel cell products enabling optimized power systems for a range of applications. Products deliver incomparable performance, durability and versatility.

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Post Written By: Ed Liston Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.