HINGHAM, Mass., Feb. 8, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Evercel, Inc. (Pink Sheets:EVRC) today released a report to shareholders from CEO Garry Prime and Chairman James Gerson on the company's progress during 2006:
2006 was a good year for Evercel. We made substantial progress in increasing values for our shareholders and insuring our future viability. There is more to be done.
Following are some of the successes:
1- We completed our merger with Sontek Industries Inc. on March 31, 2006. Through this merger we acquired a profitable crab processing business (New England Crab Co.), a small medical device business (Sontek Medical Inc.) and over $1.7 million in cash and cash equivalents. 2- Our large investment in Zipcar, Inc. has shown great promise. Zipcar revenues have grown in excess of 100 percent. New operations were recently started in San Francisco, Toronto, Chicago and London. On December 30, 2003 Evercel, Inc. invested $2 million in Zipcar. In November 2006, Zipcar raised $25 million at a share price more than five times greater than our original investment. 3- We have invested $250,000 in Julia Therapeutics, LLC with a commitment to invest another $150,000 upon the achievement of certain milestones. We will then own 15 percent of Julia. Julia is a very early stage company which has several significant patents in the use of ultrasound to reduce skin wrinkles. Early indications are promising and the market is very large. We expect to have early test results in the third quarter of this year. 4- We were successful in causing the liquidation of Everplore LLC, a Chinese JV. Our 24.5 percent interest netted us $176,000 which approximates our original investment. 5- We have engaged a nationally known accounting firm to complete the audits of 2004, 2005 and 2006. We hope to have their report during this quarter.
There is much more that we must do. As a critical step, we must address our capital structure. The existence of our Preferred Stock makes it impractical to effect a substantial merger with an operating company or raise additional capital on acceptable terms. We intend to shortly offer our Preferred shareholders an exchange offer for Common Stock which we have designed to be very fair to both Common and Preferred holders. Please carefully consider this proposal when you receive it.
We would like to take this opportunity to welcome our former Sontek shareholders. We also welcome Mr. Richard Perkins to our Board of Directors. Dick has been a Sontek Director for more than 20 years. His wisdom, insight and patience have been invaluable to Sontek and we look forward to his continuing participation. We would like to acknowledge, with gratitude, our Sontek and NECC employees for their successes last year.
About Evercel
Hingham, Mass.-based Evercel is a multi-industry company whose operations include crab processing for both fresh and frozen markets, and sale of a disposable valve used in the treatment of critically ill patients on respirators. Evercel's investments include Zipcar Inc. (car sharing) and Oxygen SpA. (light electric vehicles).