Greatcell Solar announces bankruptcy

The Directors of Greatcell Solar have sadly announced that a decision was taken to appoint administrators to the Greatcell Solar group of companies following sustained, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempts to secure re-financing for its activities.

Greatcell Solar Limited, Greatcell Solar Industries and Greatcell Solar Australia were placed into voluntary administration. The decision follows a series of unfortunate and unwelcome developments in recent weeks, including the untimely death of Chief Scientist, Dr Hans Desilvestro in a mountaineering accident on 10 November.

The most recent ASX update provided by the Company referred to short-term initiatives based on the issue of a secured convertible note of $600,000 and grant support of $425,000 from Australian government funding agencies. These payments resulted in an additional $1,025,000 being made available to the Company to achieve key R&D milestones that supported its scale-up objectives, maintained its workforce in Australia and internationally, as well as helped meet statutory obligations.

As previously indicated, the Company has also been seeking more substantial, long-term funding to undertake its Major Area Demonstration (MAD) prototype project as a critical validation step towards successful commercialization. This project is valued at $25 million and was expected to be funded with a mix of equity investment and government grants. Despite a global search and chasing down every potential funding opportunity, GSL has not been able to attract sufficient long-term equity investment.

The situation has been exacerbated by the position of Tasnee, its strategic shareholder, which has recently advised that it is not in a financial position to contribute to the Company's ongoing endeavors. This is an extremely disappointing outcome for Greatcell Solar, its directors, employees and shareholders given the considerable investment already undertaken over many years to achieve an advanced, pre-commercialization status for its 3rd generation photovoltaic technology.

The Company is widely considered amongst its international peers to be pre-eminent in the field of Perovskite Solar Cell technology. We, at Perovskite-Info, also feel sorry to hear these news and see one of the finest perovskite technology companies stumble into such hard times.

With the appointment of Administrators, BRI Ferrier, the outlook for GSL's shareholders is uncertain at best.

The Company does not believe that the operations of its 50% subsidiary, Greatcell Solar Materials, a manufacturer of specialty chemicals, will be affected by these developments.