JV Formed to Support Expanded Turkish Business Model
PHOENIX, AZ , Nov. 14, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Taronis Technologies, Inc., (“Taronis” or “the Company”) (NASDAQ: TRNX), a leading renewable fuel producer serving the global industrial gas markets, today announced the formation of a new joint venture within the Republic of Turkey. The new Turkish company is called Taronis Fuels Turkey Gas Enerji Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Şirketi (“Taronis Turkey”). This new entity is domiciled in Ankara, and is currently owned 74% by Taronis Fuels, Inc, and 26% by MC Consulting Teknoloji Enerji Danişmanlik Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Şirketi (“MC Consulting”). It is expected that a third party will enter into this joint venture prior to year end, reducing Taronis Fuels stake to approximately 48%.
The purpose of this new joint venture will be threefold. First, this is a precondition to the commencement of an existing $165 million purchase order for thirty 300KW Venturi plasma arc gasification units. The contract dated July 17, 2019 between Taronis Fuels and TA Grup Medya Enerji Sanayi Ticaret Anonim Şirketi (“TA Grup”) is scheduled to be assigned to MC Consulting. No other aspects of the existing $165 million contract would be affected by the assignment.
Second, the new joint venture is expected to significantly expand the scope of operations within the Republic of Turkey. The government of Turkey has asked the joint venture to consider a radical expansion of the scope of operations to support a comprehensive safety program in Turkey. To accomplish this, the joint venture would be responsible for forming additional commercial relationships for the purpose of launching manufacturing facilities in Turkey for the production of ancillary equipment required for the daily use of MagneGas as a replacement for existing metal cutting fuels such as acetylene, propylene and propane. This would include, but not be limited to the valves, regulators, torches, hoses and cylinders currently approved by Taronis for the use of MagneGas in the US today.
Lastly, the newly formed joint venture would partner with the various Turkish regulators to form a compressed gas, welding and metal cutting safety institute. The purpose of this organization would be to provide ongoing training and safety inspections to ensure the global best practices for the safe handling of compressed gases, including MagneGas, are adhered to across the entire industry. The Turkish metal cutting fuels market is very large, estimated at over $200 million in annual consumption by tens of thousands of laborers. Due to the sheer scale of this industry, without the implementation of globally recognized safety practices, thousands of Turkish laborers are impacted by fires and explosions each year.
“With our recent meetings in Anakara from November 8th to the 12th, we completed a series of legal requirements to meet the expanded scope of operations at the request of the Turkish authorities,” commented Scott Mahoney, CEO of Taronis. “We are expected to complete the formal incorporation process over the next week. With that complete, we anticipate that we will be given final approval, and can commence with operations under Taronis Turkey, including the invoice and payment of the initial five unit $18.75 million order under the existing contract.”
“We estimate that in order to meet the metal cutting fuel demands of the Republic of Turkey, approximately 100 300KW Venturi® plasma arc gasification units will need to be deployed. We have already seen our partner’s new 100,000 square foot facility outside of Polatki, which is a town just outside of Ankara. This facility can readily house 25-30 gasification units, with adequate space to handle the ancillary bottling, cylinder testing and other operations required to support the region’s metal cutting fuel demands, with a priority on initially servicing the Istanbul-Ankara industrial corridor first. We are in the process of identifying additional facilities to accommodate another 70 units over the next two years.”
“The Republic of Turkey is the 19th largest economy in the world. It is growing, and heavily industrialized, with a clear need for superior metal cutting fuel products. We are very pleased that the government there has recognized the environmental, safety and economic benefits of implementing MagneGas as a vastly superior metal cutting fuel solution. We are honored to have this partnership and take the next steps with MC Consulting to make this happen,” concluded Mr. Mahoney.
About Taronis Technologies, Inc.
Taronis Technologies, Inc. (TRNX) owns a patented plasma arc technology that enables two primary end use applications for fuel generation and water decontamination.
The Company’s fuel technology enables a wide use of hydrocarbon feedstocks to be readily converted to fossil fuel substitutes. The Company is developing a wide range of end market uses for these fuels, including replacement products for propane, compressed natural gas and liquid natural gas. The Company currently markets a proprietary metal cutting fuel that is highly competitive with acetylene. The Company distributes its proprietary metal cutting fuel through independent distributors in the US and through its wholly owned distributors doing business as “MagneGas Welding Supply”. The Company operates 22 locations across California, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida.
The Company’s technology can also be implemented for the decontamination of waste water, including sterilizing water, eradicating all pathogens. The technology is being tested to determine if it can completely eliminate pharmaceutical contaminants such as antibiotics, hormones and other soluble drugs suspended in contaminated water. Lastly, the technology process is capable of reducing or eliminating other contaminants, such as harmful metals, as well as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium levels that trigger toxic algae blooms. The technology has prospective commercial applications in the agricultural, pharmaceutical, and municipal waste markets. For more information on Taronis, please visit the Company's website at http://www.TaronisTech.com.
Taronis also owns a controlling interest in Water Pilot, LLC. The WATER PILOT® System immediately reduces water consumption and provides you with live remote consumption monitoring for long term leak protection and water asset management. An integral, client based alarm and notification system that reports to any mobile device. Water Pilot may be appropriate for a wide range of businesses or properties with a water meter. For more information, please visit our website at www.gowaterpilot.com/
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined within Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements relate to future events, including our ability to raise capital, or to our future financial performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond our control and which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects our current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to our operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. We assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.
For a discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Our public filings with the SEC are available from commercial document retrieval services and at the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov.
Investor Contacts:
Michael Khorassani
IR@TaronisTech.com