Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 25, 2024) - Elysee Development Corp. (TSXV: ELC) (FSE: QLDN) (the "Company") wishes to announce its audited financial results for the year ended December 31, 2023 ("FY 2023"). All dollar amounts are in Canadian funds unless otherwise noted.
Highlights of Fiscal 2023 results include:
Net loss of $ 4,034,438 ($0.14 per share) in FY 2023 as compared to a net loss of $2,328,192 in FY 2022,
Net Asset Value as of December 31, 2023 of $0.39 per share; and
Cash on hand as of December 31, 2023 of $849,798, with no debt.
Fiscal 2023 was a difficult year for mining stocks in general, and exploration and early-stage development companies in particular, the primary focus of Elysee's portfolio. This overall market weakness resulted in an unrealized loss on marketable securities of $1,701,237.
Management elected to take a prudent approach to the carrying value of Elysee's private equity investments, writing these down by $1,810,495. This amount includes $1,338,413 attributable to the Company's investment in US Vanadium LLC. In addition, the company realized a loss of $301,039 due to the restructuring of CareCru Inc., another private equity investment.
For the year ended December 31, 2023, Elysee recorded a net loss of $4,034,438 ($0.14 per share). General and administrative expenses declined from $755,044 to $537,436 due to lower management fees and reduced share-based payments on the granting of incentive stock options. Interest and dividend income increased from $339,681 to $521,152.
For the three-month period ended December 31, 2023 (Q4 2023) the Company's net and comprehensive loss of $2,131,366 was mainly due to a downward adjustment of the value of our private equity investments for an amount of $1,810,495 and a write-off of $134,209 on private equity.
In Q4 there was an unrealized gain of $121,310 on marketable securities and interest and dividend income of $69,135. The company realized a loss on marketable securities of $207,007.
Due to market conditions, management of Elysee did not pay any cash bonuses in FY 2023 and issued a reduced number of incentive stock options.
Dividend and NAV
The board of directors of Elysee has decided not to pay a dividend this year but prefers to keep the cash within the company to take advantage of the fact that many exploration and development companies are undervalued. "Despite the fact that gold and copper prices are on the rise, stocks of mining companies remain depressed. The discrepancy between metal prices and the evolution of share prices creates a great buying opportunity. It is management's intention to put our cash to work in the coming months," stated Guido Cloetens, President and CEO of Elysee Development Company. "The company will re-focus on its core business, investing in promising and undervalued mining projects with significant upside potential."
After paying out a $0.01 per share cash dividend for fiscal 2022 (a total of $284,506) on April 11, 2023, the Company's Net Asset Value decreased from $15.4 million on December 31, 2022 ($0.54 per share) to $11.2 million ($0.39 per share) on December 31, 2023. Cash on hand as of December 31, 2023, was $849,798, with no debt other than trade payables.
Investment Highlights
The Company's most significant investment is US Vanadium Holding Company LLC ("US Vanadium"), a US Limited Liability Corporation ("US LLC") which owns and operates two facilities in Arkansas that produce high-purity vanadium oxides and downstream vanadium chemicals for customers in the catalyst, chemical, petrochemical, titanium, and energy storage industries. As a US LLC, US Vanadium has a fixed number of capital units that always remains the same. When new investments are made, the units are re-allocated among the investors with changes to the effective amount paid per capital unit. During the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company's ownership interest held in US Vanadium decreased from 4.75% to 1.24% as a result of US Vanadium completing further investment financings in which the Company did not participate. Consequently, the Company reduced the fair value of its investment from $3,174,685 to $1,836,272 to reflect the change to its ownership interest and recognized an unrealized loss on this private equity investment of $1,338,413. For more information, please visit https://usvanadium.com/about-us/.
On December 31, 2023 Elysee's portfolio of marketable securities (excluding private equity) consisted mostly of investments in precious metals miners and exploration companies, base metal companies and energy-related equities.
The most significant publicly traded equity positions held by Elysee at the end of December 31, 2023, were Arizona Sonoran Copper Company Inc., Dundee Precious Metals Inc., Green Impact Partners Inc., Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited and Hudbay Minerals Inc.
For more information on these investments and others made during the period, please refer to Elysee's web site and the Company's MD&A dated March 22, 2024.
During the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company purchased 212,000 of its common shares at a total cost of $88,746 pursuant to a Normal Course Issuer Bid. As of December 31, 2023, there were 28,585,113 shares issued and outstanding.
On December 31, 2023, Elysee's net asset value ("NAV") was $0.39 per share. NAV is a non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) measure calculated as the value of total assets less the value of total liabilities divided by the total number of common shares outstanding as at a specific date. For the purpose of this calculation, share purchase warrants held by Elysee were valued using the Black-Scholes model calculation, as reported in Elysee's annual and quarterly financial statements. The term NAV does not have any standardized meaning according to GAAP and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. There is no comparable GAAP measure presented in the Company's financial statements and thus no applicable quantitative reconciliation for such non-GAAP financial measure. The Company believes that NAV can provide information useful to its shareholders in understanding its performance and may assist in the evaluation of its business relative to that of its peers.
The Financial Statements and Management Discussion and Analysis are available for viewing on SEDAR and at www.elyseedevelopment.com.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Guido Cloetens President and CEO Elysee Development Corp. Tel: (778) 373-1562 E-mail: info@elyseedevelopment.com
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as the term is defined in the Policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements - This news release contains certain forward-looking statements that are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from results contemplated by the forward-looking statements. When relying on forward-looking statements to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, oral or written, made by itself or on its behalf, except as required by applicable law.
