• Leclanché SA successfully conducts a private placement and the
  issuance of mandatory convertible notes to existing and new investors
• Additional private placement to be potentially conducted in
  January/February 2016

Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland, 16 December 2015 – Leclanché SA announces that its Board of Directors has decided to conduct a further capital raise for the Company to support its growth plans. The raise shall be done in two phases.

In the first phase, the share capital of Leclanché is increased in the context of a private placement following the subscription by existing and new investors of 1,894,445 new registered shares out of authorized capital. The subscription price has been set at CHF 2.40 per new registered share. This subscription price is 1.7% above the closing price on the SIX Swiss Exchange on 15 December 2015. Once
issued, the new shares will be immediately freely tradable.

The first trading day and the delivery of the 1,894,445 new registered shares are planned for 23 December 2015. The new registered shares will rank equal with the existing registered shares. After closing of the capital increase 37,902,974 fully paidup registered shares with a nominal value of CHF 1.50 each will be in issue.

In addition, investors subscribed to mandatory convertible notes amounting to CHF 2.4 million due 15 December 2016. The non-listed notes carry an annual nominal interest rate of one per cent and are mandatorily convertible into new shares of Leclanché at the conversion price of CHF 2.40 per new registered share.

In the second phase due in January/February 2016, Leclanché is aiming at a further increase of its share capital out of authorized capital to be subscribed for by existing and new investors.

Leclanché intends to use the net proceeds primarily to support growth investments in projects, in particular to manufacture, install and commission the first part of a large Grid Ancillary Services project, which was presented by the Leclanché CEO during the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on 6 October 2015. It will also use part of the
proceeds to pay remaining amount to complete the M&A transaction with ads-tec GmbH announced on 13 August 2015.

In the first phase, Leclanché has secured solid backing from most of its larger shareholders as well as a new significant private equity investor, ACE & Company. Founded in 2005, ACE & Company is a global private equity group based in Geneva, Switzerland. The group has five offices globally and invests across the various stages of private equity, from business angel to buyout acquisitions, including growth
capital and special situations.

Commenting on the new partnership with Leclanché, Adam Said, CEO and founder of ACE & Company, said: “ACE is proud to support Leclanché in its efforts to become a market leader in energy storage solutions. Energy storage is an enormous market in the making that is still underappreciated by most analysts and investors. This iconic Swiss company is the largest producer of battery cells in Europe today and has unique technologies time tested through a century of innovation in battery systems. Leclanché’s lithium-ion technologies have proven to be significantly more efficient, with longer lifecycles and higher power capacity, than its alternative technologies for large scale storage solutions. Most importantly, the new management has shown its ability to capitalize on the company’s unique resources
by winning landmark projects and new financings. We are confident that the research, engineering, and technical teams at Leclanché are best able to serve the increasing demand of clients for fully integrated and specialty battery systems. We are looking forward to participating actively in the journey ahead!”

Anil Srivastava, CEO of Leclanché, commented: “I wish to thank all our shareholders for their continued commitment to our business and for their valuable investment; we are in particular grateful to our existing shareholders Recharge, Bruellan and Logistable for their support. I am glad to welcome ACE & Company, a recognized global private equity group as a new partner in the Leclanché. We very
much look for their support to accelerate growth of Leclanché. The proceeds provide Leclanché with sufficient liquidity to fund most of its growth investments.”

We would like to further notify that Leclanché SA has become aware that 50% of its share capital and legal reserves are no longer covered by net equity. The development is due to an increase of the nominal share capital and the legal reserves as a result of the conversions of the convertible loan granted to Leclanché by Recharge A/S and the operational loss incurred by the company in the first half of year 2015. As a consequence, the Board of Directors has resolved to conduct the
above mentioned private placement in lieu of the rights offering resolved at the extraordinary general meeting held on 6 October 2015. In addition, Leclanché will invite for an extraordinary general meeting as required by law (Art. 725 Sec. 1 CO). At the meeting the company will propose to set off the its losses that have been accrued over the years with capital contribution reserves. In addition, it will also
propose a replenishment of the Leclanché’s authorized capital and conditional capital to support its further growth. The invitation to the extraordinary general meeting with its full agenda will be published in due course.

For further information:
Voxia communication
Claude-Olivier Rochat, phone: +41 79 203 52 19 – co.rochat@voxia.ch
Rohan Sant, phone: +41 79 120 00 28 – rohan.sant@voxia.ch

About Leclanché

Headquartered in Switzerland, Leclanché SA is a leading provider of high-quality energy storage solutions designed to accelerate our progress towards a clean energy future. Leclanché’s history and heritage is rooted in over 100 years of battery and energy storage innovation and the Company is a trusted provider of energy storage solutions globally. This coupled with the Company’s culture of German engineering and Swiss precision and quality, continues to make Leclanché the partner of choice for both disruptors, established companies and governments who are pioneering positive changes in how energy is produced, distributed and consumed around the world. The energy transition is being driven primarily by changes in the management of our electricity networks and the electrification of transport, and these two end markets form the backbone of our strategy and business model. Leclanché is at the heart of the convergence of the electrification of transport and the changes in the distribution network. Leclanché is the only listed pure play energy storage company in the world, organised along three business units: stationary storage solutions, e-Transport solutions and specialty batteries systems. Leclanché is listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX: LECN).

SIX Swiss Exchange: ticker symbol LECN | ISIN CH 011 030 311 9

Disclaimer

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to Leclanché’s business, which can be identified by terminology such as “strategic”, “proposes”, “to introduce”, “will”, “planned”, “expected”, “commitment”, “expects”, “set”, “preparing”, “plans”, “estimates”, “aims”, “would”, “potential”, “awaiting”, “estimated”, “proposal”, or similar expressions, or by expressed or implied discussions regarding the ramp up of Leclanché’s production capacity, potential applications for existing products, or regarding potential future revenues from any such products, or potential future sales or earnings of Leclanché or any of its business units. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views of Leclanché regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. There can be no guarantee that Leclanché’s products will achieve any particular revenue levels. Nor can there be any guarantee that Leclanché, or any of the business units, will achieve any particular financial results.

Contacts Leclanché

Media Switzerland /Europe:

Thierry Meyer

T: +41 (0) 79 785 35 81

E-mail: tme@dynamicsgroup.ch

Media North America:

Henry Feintuch / Ashley Blas

T: +1-914-548-6924 / +1-509-494-4053

E-mail: leclanche@feintuchpr.com  

Media Germany:

Christoph Miller

T: +49 (0) 711 947 670

E-mail: leclanche@sympra.de

Investor Contacts:

Anil Srivastava / Hubert Angleys

T: +41 (0) 24 424 65 00

E-mail: invest.leclanche@leclanche.com