One month after laying off around thirty employees in order to reduce its financial tensions, the Montreal manufacturer of snowmobiles and electric watercraft Motors Taïga obtains a financial top-up of $5.25 million from the federal company Export and Development Canada (EDC).
This financial assistance takes the form of an addition to the “credit facility” of 15 million which had already been granted by EDC to Taïga since September 2023.
It also comes barely a year after Taïga benefited from an injection of funds totaling $40.1 million from the state-owned company Investissement Québec and the investment firm Northern Private Capital.
This time, the financial top-up of 5.25 million obtained by Matériaux Taïga from the federal company EDC comes two weeks before the announcement of its 2023 end-of-year results, on March 28.
These results still promise to be difficult for the shareholders of the company whose market value fell again by 3%, Monday, towards a new low of 60 cents per share, or barely 19 million in total value of shares in circulation.
In the opinion of Sam Bruneau, president and CEO and co-founder of Matériaux Taïga, the additional financing of 5.25 million obtained from EDC comes “at an important time” for the company, which should allow it “to better manage its working capital” and to “continue to grow its sales and activities. »
Moreover, in its financial announcement made just before the end of the stock market session on Monday, Taïga indicated that it had already “drawn 3.75 million from this additional financing” from EDC, and that a balance “up to 1 .5 million” remains available for use as needed.
In the meantime, in advance of these next quarterly results, Matériaux Taïga is trying to reassure its shareholders and its financial backers by announcing production figures for snowmobiles and electric watercraft “in significant growth” at the end of the 2023 financial year compared to 2022.
According to Taïga management, the company produced 417 of its small motorized recreational vehicles during its 4e quarter 2023, which would be “its highest volume for a single quarter. »
And for the entire 2023 financial year, Taïga indicates that its production totaled 1,056 vehicles, “which demonstrates significant growth in production capacity compared to the 133 vehicles produced in 2022”, we maintain in the press release. financial announcement.
