Lightbridge Provides Business Update and Announces Fiscal Year 2019 Earnings Results. Conference Call on Wednesday, March 18, 2020 at 4pm ET RESTON, Va., March 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lightbridge Corporation (NASDAQ: LTBR), an advanced nuclear fuel technology company, today announced financial results for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, as well as the Company's corporate progress and other meaningful developments.
Seth Grae, President & Chief Executive Officer of Lightbridge Corporation, commented, “We finished 2019 poised to enter a new phase of our company's development, being awarded a voucher from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) program to support development of Lightbridge Fuel™ in collaboration with Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The scope of the project includes experiment design for irradiation of Lightbridge metallic fuel material samples in the Advanced Test Reactor at INL. The new GAIN voucher helps position Lightbridge well for further research and development activities within the U.S. national laboratory complex, which we intend to help us commercialize Lightbridge Fuel™. While bringing change to the nuclear power industry is difficult, we remain confident in our ability to succeed.”
“Lightbridge is advancing its development program, and we expect to achieve important milestones over the next 12-24 months. In the near-term, our R&D activities are focused on the development of a fabrication process for prototype fuel rods with depleted or natural uranium, experiment design and fabrication of material test samples for irradiation in a research reactor, and evaluation of our fuel for use in the CANDU reactor market.
“The US government is making historically large levels of funding and use of national laboratory facilities available to the American private sector to develop advanced nuclear technology. In December 2019, Congress voted to approve appropriations for fiscal year 2020 that includes $1.49 billion for nuclear energy programs, an increase of approximately $167 million over 2019. We believe the timing couldn’t be better for Lightbridge to benefit from this historic bipartisan support for nuclear energy from the federal government.
“The Lightbridge leadership team is dedicated to creating shareholder value, and we remain focused on our pursuit of full-scale commercialization of Lightbridge Fuel™ as quickly as possible,” concluded Mr. Grae.
Financial Highlights
The Company maintains a strong working capital position at December 31, 2019 and has no debt.
Cash Flows Summary
Cash and cash equivalents were $18.0 million at December 31, 2019, compared to $24.6 million at December 31, 2018, a decrease of $6.6 million in cash and cash equivalents, consisting of the following:
Cash used in operating activities decreased $0.7 million, from $7.4 million in 2018 to $6.7 million in 2019. This decrease was due primarily to a decrease in our research and development expenses and general and administrative expenses.
Cash used in investing activities decreased $2.0 million from $5.8 million in 2018 to $3.8 million in 2019. This decrease was due primarily to the decrease in capital contributions made to the joint venture Enfission LLC.
Cash provided by financing activities decreased $29.5 million from $33.3 million in 2018 to $3.8 million in 2019. This decrease was due to the decrease in equity offerings in 2019. Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets were $20.2 million at December 31, 2019 and total liabilities were $0.4 million at December 31, 2019. Working capital was $18.0 million at December 31, 2019 versus $24.3 million in 2018. This decrease of $6.3 million in working capital was due primarily to the factors stated above in the cash flow summary.
Stockholders’ equity was $19.9 million at December 31, 2019 versus $25.9 million at December 31, 2018. Operations Summary
General and administrative expenses for the year ended December 31, 2019 were $5.7 million compared to $6.7 million for the prior year. This decrease of approximately $1.0 million was due to a decrease in stock-based compensation of approximately $1.0 million, and a decrease in professional fees of approximately $0.2 million, due to a decrease in legal fees, accounting fees and other professional fees. These decreases were offset by an increase in employee compensation and employee benefits of approximately $0.2 million due to an increase in the number of employees. Total stock-based compensation included in general and administrative expenses was approximately $0.4 million and $1.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively.
Lightbridge’s total corporate research and development costs amounted to $2.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2019 compared to $3.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2018. This decrease of $0.8 million was due to the decrease in corporate research and development activities supporting the Enfission joint venture.
Total net other operating expenses were $2.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2019 compared to $4.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2018, a decrease of $2.2 million. The equity in loss from the Enfission joint venture decreased by $2.5 million in 2019 due to the decrease in research and development activities in the joint venture. Other income from research and development support provided to Enfission decreased by $0.3 million.
Total net other income increased by approximately $1.1 million due to the decrease in financing costs in 2019.
Net loss for the year ended December 31, 2019 was $10.6 million compared to $15.7 million for 2018. This decrease of $5.1 million was due to decreased research and development expenses, decreased general and administrative expenses and a decrease in equity loss from the Enfission joint venture. FISCAL YEAR 2019 CONFERENCE CALL & WEBCAST
Lightbridge will host a conference call on Wednesday, March 18th at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time to discuss the Company's financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2019, as well as the Company's corporate progress and other meaningful developments.
Interested parties can access the conference call by calling 877-407-3138 for U.S. callers, or 201-389-0927 for international callers. The call will be available on the Company’s website via webcast at http://ir.ltbridge.com/events.cfm.
A webcast will also be archived on the Company’s website and a telephone replay of the call will be available approximately two hours following the call, through April 18, 2020, and can be accessed by dialing 877-660-6853 from the U.S. or 201-612-7415 for international callers and using the Conference ID# 13699675.
About Lightbridge Corporation
Lightbridge (NASDAQ: LTBR) is an advanced nuclear fuel technology company based in Reston, Virginia, USA. The Company is developing Lightbridge Fuel™, a proprietary next generation nuclear fuel technology for current and future reactors, which significantly enhances the economics and safety of nuclear power, operating about 1000° C cooler than standard fuel. For more information please visit: www.ltbridge.com.
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