Mr. Chu will succeed Issa Nakhleh, who will be resigning from the Company after nearly five years to pursue other interests. Mr. Nakhleh will remain as CFO until the Company has filed its annual financial results for the year ended December 31, 2016, after which point Mr. Chu will take over the role. Until such time, Mr. Chu will participate in the transition process as a consultant to the Company. After his resignation, Mr. Nakhleh will continue with UrtheCast under a consulting arrangement to assist with the transition and to bring certain projects to completion.
Mr. Chu brings extensive experience in financial management, business development and capital markets to UrtheCast. Prior to joining UrtheCast, Mr. Chu served as the Chief Financial Officer of Vancouver-based Seaspan Corporation (NYSE: SSW) where he played a key role in its growth from a $500 million-enterprise value, privately-held company to a New York Stock Exchange-listed company with an enterprise value in excess of $7 billion. During Mr. Chu's twelve year tenure at Seaspan, it became the largest container ship lessor in the world, raising over $10 billion in capital through a series of innovative transactions to support its growth. Prior to joining Seaspan, Mr. Chu was the Corporate Controller at TSX-listed Datawest Solutions Inc., which is now part of Fiserv Inc. Mr. Chu qualified as a Certified Management Accountant in 1990 and as a Chartered Accountant in 1992 having articled with KPMG's Vancouver office.
"Sai brings to UrtheCast a wealth of experience in sourcing and structuring complex financings and managing high-growth global companies. We are extremely pleased to have him as the new CFO of our Company," said Wade Larson, President and Chief Executive Officer of UrtheCast. "With Sai's experience and successful track record in leadership roles with publicly-traded companies, we are confident that UrtheCast has secured a highly-qualified CFO to complement our management team and help us achieve our short and long-term objectives.
"On behalf of our Board of Directors and senior management, I would like to thank Issa for his many contributions in helping us grow the Company to this point, and as colleagues and friends, wish him all the best in his future endeavors."
Mr. Chu commented: "I am excited to join UrtheCast during a pivotal time, as the Company is poised to accelerate its growth. I am impressed with UrtheCast's team, its technologies and its growing customer base. I look forward to working with my new colleagues to execute the Company's strategic plan and to create long-term value for UrtheCast's shareholders."
UrtheCast also reports that its 2016 non-IFRS revenue is expected to be approximately $50M (2015 - $26M). The guidance previously disclosed by UrtheCast for this figure was a range of $55M to $60M. For its 2016 adjusted EBITDA, UrtheCast expects to be near the top end of the previously disclosed range of $4.2M to $6.2M. During the fourth quarter of 2016, UrtheCast also wrote down, as a non-cash asset impairment charge, its International Space Station-based sensors by a further $3.1M, bringing the closing balance sheet amount to $9.4M. Year-end cash balances were approximately $8M. UrtheCast's preliminary view for 2017 is for growing non-IFRS revenues and expanding adjusted EBITDA margins over 2016 with similar seasonality to that of 2016.
ABOUT URTHECAST CORP.
UrtheCast Corp. is a Vancouver-based technology company that serves the rapidly evolving geospatial and geoanalytics markets with a wide range of information-rich products and services. The Company operates Earth Observation (EO) sensors in space, including two satellites, Deimos-1 and Deimos-2, to produce imagery data that is displayed on UrtheCast's cloud-based web platform and distributed directly to partners and customers. Through its subsidiary Deimos Imaging, UrtheCast processes and distributes imagery data and value-added products on behalf of the PanGeo Alliance, a network of eight satellite operators with a combined 15 medium- and high-resolution EO sensors. UrtheCast is also developing and anticipates launching the world's first fully-integrated constellation of multispectral optical and SAR satellites, called OptiSAR™, in addition to its planned UrtheDaily™ Constellation, which the Company believes will together revolutionize monitoring of our planet with medium- and high-resolution, high-coverage and high-revisit imagery in all weather conditions, any time of day. Common shares of UrtheCast trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange as ticker 'UR'.
For more information, visit UrtheCast's website at www.urthecast.com.
Non-IFRS Financial Measures
The Company prepares its financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"), as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board. This release includes certain non-IFRS financial measures, such as non-IFRS revenues, EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA. Non-IFRS revenue excludes the non-cash revenues associated with our arrangement with our ISS partner, as it is a better indicator of cash inflows to the Company. Adjusted EBITDA is calculated based on EBITDA, or earnings before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, and further adjusted to exclude the non-cash revenues and expenses associated with our arrangement with our ISS partner, share based payments expense, foreign exchange gains and losses and items of an unusual nature that do not reflect our ongoing operations. The Company uses these non-IFRS financial measures as supplemental indicators of its operating performance and financial position. These measures do not have any standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS and therefore are unlikely to be comparable to the calculation of similar measures used by other companies, and should not be viewed as alternatives to measures of financial performance calculated in accordance with IFRS or considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. These non-IFRS financial measures should be read in conjunction with the Company's financial statements and accompanying MD&A.
Forward Looking Information
This release contains certain information which, as presented, constitutes "forward-looking information" or "forward-oriented financial information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information involves statements that relate to future events and often addresses expected future business and financial performance, containing words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", and "expect", statements that an action or event "may", "might", "could" or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions and includes, but is not limited to: UrtheCast's expectations with respect its current sensors and proposed OptiSAR™ and UrtheDailyTM constellations; updated financial guidance for the 2016 financial year and outlook for the 2017 financial year; its plans for and timing of expansion of its product offering and value-added services; its future growth and operations plans; and the acceptance by its customers and the marketplace of new satellite imaging content, technologies and solutions. Such statements reflect UrtheCast's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by UrtheCast, are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors could cause UrtheCast's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, among others: any delays or failures in the design, development, construction, launch and operational commissioning of the proposed OptiSAR™ or UrtheDaily™ constellations; the decline of key relationships in, or termination of, the PanGeo Alliance of EO satellite operators; the Company being unable to convert the remaining Memoranda of Understanding in respect of funding of the OptiSAR™ constellation into binding, definitive agreements; interruptions to or failures of UrtheCast's infrastructure; failures aboard the International Space Station or the Deimos-1 or Deimos-2 satellites; legal and regulatory changes; uncertainties and assumptions in UrtheCast's revenue and EBITDA forecasts, as well as those factors and assumptions discussed in UrtheCast's annual information form dated March 29, 2016, (the "AIF"), which is available under UrtheCast's SEDAR profile at
www.sedar.com. Forward-looking information is developed based on assumptions about such risks, uncertainties and other factors set out herein, in the AIF, and as disclosed from time to time on UrtheCast's SEDAR profile. UrtheCast undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by Canadian securities laws. Readers are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.
