Ontario’s Clearford Water Systems Inc. announced that it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Sustainable Water Investments Inc. (SWI), a Vancouver-based investment vehicle.
SWI was formed and capitalized by a European bond issuance platform. Through the bond, SWI has agreed to arrange the financing, up to 100 per cent of the capital costs, associated with the implementation of qualified water and wastewater-related infrastructure development projects. Projects could include ongoing operations and maintenance contracts, under Clearford’s Pay-for-Performance (P4P) delivery model, up to a value of $100 million.
The MOU supersedes and expands on funding terms previously agreed with Clearford to include Canadian private developments, in addition to municipal, with adequate credit rating and/or collateral value to service long-term financial obligations under the P4P delivery model for the Design, Build, Operate, and Maintain offering of water and wastewater systems. Under the terms of the MOU, SWI was granted a right of first refusal on the financing of each qualified DBOM project until February 28th, 2020. The Project Finance Facility will support the execution of the strategic business plan originally announced by the Company on June 22, 2017, and supplements the Company’s recent acquisition of Koester Canada Inc. (now Clearford-Koester) and its subsidiary, Team Aquatic Operations Group (now Clearford Waterworks).
“In the space of only three months since acquiring Koester-Canada, Clearford has taken control of the value chain critical to its market penetration,” said Kevin Loiselle, president and CEO of Clearford. “It has also identified advanced sales opportunities, with increasing margins, generating steady cash flows from utility-like operations of water and wastewater systems”.
The Company is also providing an update on its activities in the North American market. Clearford-Koester recently moved into a nearly 3,000 square metre manufacturing and office facility in Hamilton, Ontario, which, along with integrated business and engineering support from other members of the Clearford group of companies, will allow the Company to triple its production capacity for fabricating containerized and skid-mounted treatment solutions.
“The support we have received since joining Clearford has enabled us to accelerate the sales and delivery of our packaged M-brane plants, particularly in New York State where the Koester brand is well recognized for its quality,” said Richard Nie, formerly president of Koester Canada Inc. “The sales backlog in New York State alone currently stands at US$1.4 million, while interest from customers in the United States as a whole is growing due to Clearford-Koester’s newly enhanced value proposition.” Clearford has signed conditional contracts totally CAD $8.3 million, under these contracts clients have the right to delay or cancel all future obligations at their discretion.
Opportunities in Ontario also continue to develop after the first two M-brane plants were delivered under DBOM contracts for the Fetherston mobile part servicing project in late 2015, and the $1.2 million Ontario landfill leachate treatment facility in 2017.
“The sales pipeline in Ontario is strengthening with $1.5 million in signed contracts for execution in 2018 and $5.5 million in awarded contracts, which are currently going through governmental approval processes,” said Nie.
