Edgewater Capital Enters into Agreement to Sell Partial Equity Stake in NeoGraf to Northern Graphite
Cleveland, OH – February 2023 – Edgewater Capital Partners (“Edgewater”) and NeoGraf Solutions, LLC (“NeoGraf”) are pleased to announce they have entered into an agreement with Northern Graphite Corporation (the “Company” or “Northern”), regarding Northern acquiring an ownership interest in NeoGraf. NeoGraf is a leading provider of specialty, value-added products manufactured from natural graphite and has a strong intellectual property portfolio and a blue-chip customer base.
NeoGraf is one of Northern’s largest customers and this partnership will enable NeoGraf to backward integrate in the supply chain to provide surety of supply to continue to develop cutting-edge solutions for a number of high-growth markets including lithium-ion batteries/EVs, fuel cells, graphene and nanomaterials, thermal management in consumer electronics, smart building products, and fire retardants.
Hugues Jacquemin, Northern’s CEO commented, “the NeoGraf transaction is a major step toward integrating downstream to capture a greater share of the value chain and creating an industry leading mine-to-market natural graphite company with a low carbon footprint product ambition.” He added that “We are very pleased to be partnering with Edgewater which will enable us to complete the transaction in a very capital efficient manner. The combination of Edgewater’s performance materials expertise and our knowledge of the graphite industry will help enable NeoGraf to achieve its full growth potential.”
“We are very excited to partner with Hugues and the Northern team. Their investment in NeoGraf clearly demonstrates their ‘mine-to-market’ strategy and enhances the certainty of supply and value that NeoGraf provides to its blue-chip customer base. Further, the collaboration between the organizations will serve to accelerate and expand the breadth of unique solutions which ultimately enable our customers’ commercial success“, commented Robert Girton, partner at Edgewater.
Drew Walker, CEO of NeoGraf commented, “Similar to NeoGraf, Northern is a noted thought leader in the worldwide graphite industry, an industry which sits at the center of several megatrends that will drive outsized opportunity for our products. Together, Northern and NeoGraf will be a powerful combination in the development of high- performance technical solutions that address our customers’ specific application needs. Additionally, Northern provides NeoGraf with greater certainty of supply and expands the geographic regions in which we source our graphite. This will be a key in advantage as we execute our shared vision for growth.”
The completion of Northern’s investment is subject to the finalization and execution of definitive agreements, as well as the receipt of all required third party and regulatory approvals including, if applicable, approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.
About Edgewater Capital Partners
Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Edgewater Capital Partners is a sector-focused private equity firm investing in lower middle-market performance materials and services businesses. Edgewater has extensive experience investing in the people, technology, and facilities to accelerate the growth trajectory of niche manufacturers of engineered components, life science, advanced materials, and specialty chemicals. Over twenty years of industry-specific investing has allowed the firm to develop a deep understanding of the complexities and nuances common to these businesses. For more information on Edgewater Capital Partners, visit www.edgewatercapital.com.
About NeoGraf
Headquartered in Lakewood, OH, NeoGraf is a technology leader in specialty graphite solutions and material science serving applications in electric vehicle, graphene and nanomaterials, alternative energy, electronic thermal management, industrial seals and gaskets in flow control, petrochemical, and nuclear applications, building and construction, and flame retardancy sectors. For more information about NeoGraf, visit www.neograf.com.
About Northern Graphite
Northern is a Canadian, TSX Venture Exchange listed company that is focused on becoming a world leader in producing natural graphite and upgrading it into high value products critical to the green economy including anode material for lithium ion batteries/EVs, fuel cells and graphene, as well as advanced industrial technologies.
Northern is the only significant graphite producing company in North America and will become the third largest outside of China when its Namibian operations come back online. The Company also has two large scale development projects, Bissett Creek in Ontario and Okanjande in Namibia, that will be a source of continued production growth in the future. All projects have “battery quality” graphite and are located close to infrastructure in politically stable countries.
For additional information
Please visit the Company’s website at http://www.northerngraphite.com/investors/presentation/, the Company’s profile on www.sedar.com or contact the Company at (613) 271-2124.