Ships US$250,000 of LFS Crystals & Internal Strategic Review Zecotek Ships over US$250,000 of LFS Scintillation Crystals and Announces Internal Strategic Review
Vancouver, September 24, 2018 - Zecotek Photonics Inc. (“Zecotek” or the “Company”) (TSX-V: ZMS, Frankfurt: W1I, OTCPK: ZMSPF), a developer of leading-edge photonics technologies for healthcare, industrial and scientific markets, is pleased to announce that it has shipped an additional US$250,000 worth of its patented LFS scintillation crystals from recently announced orders. This shipment of LFS crystals and the US$225,000 shipment announced on September 11, 2018 are for a new line of positron emission tomography (PET) medical scanners.
The Company also announces that the board of directors and the senior management team have initiated a strategic review focused on maximizing shareholder value. Management believes that current market conditions surrounding the Company's listed securities do not adequately reflect the recent investment backed valuations of its subsidiaries, nor do they reflect the associated underlying value of their respective portfolio of patented and patent pending technologies and products.
“Management recognizes that Zecotek is significantly undervalued by the public markets and has announced a strategic review to optimize the structure of Company and to maximize shareholder value,” said Dr. A.F. Zerrouk, Chairman, President, and CEO of Zecotek Photonics Inc. “We are making tangible progress on all front of our business including the shipment of an additional US$250,000 of our patented LFS scintillation crystals for a new line generation positron emission tomography medical scanners and shipments will increase as the new facility in Shanghai ramps up crystal production. The long wait to close the gap between the Company’s advanced technologies and industry’s adoption time has impacted shareholder sentiment. This gap is now closed and industry has caught up with our technologies. We will continue with our progress towards becoming a leading supplier of state-of-the-art technologies and look forward to taking on larger markets as our manufacturing capacity increases.”
The strategic review shall examine a variety of potential alternatives that may add shareholder value including, but not limited to: a) a restructuring of the Company; b) the sale of assets held by the Company; c) the sale of a division of the Company; d) a strategic partnership with another company; and/or e) strategic equity investments at the divisional level. The Company has no plans of completing an equity offering in the foreseeable future and is in no need of doing so.
The Company does not intend to set a definite schedule to complete its evaluation or process and cautions that there are no assurances or guarantees that the process will result in a transaction or, if a transaction is undertaken, the terms or timing of such a transaction.
Management and the Board of Directors are committed to acting in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders and believe the strategic review is in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders.
Zecotek Imaging China, a subsidiary of Zecotek Imaging Systems (Singapore), is commercializing patented LFS scintillation crystals through its new production facility in Shanghai, China. Zecotek Imaging China is poised to become a leader in large-scale production, cutting and polishing of scintillation crystals grown by the Czochralski method in China. Using a proprietary manufacturing process, very large-diameter boules with uniform properties and without cracks are produced resulting in high element output with lower unit costs.
The ISO certified LFS Crystal Production Facility has sufficient capacity to meet the delivery schedule of our Tier 1 clients and will be expanded to meet growing demand in late 2018 and early 2019.
The LFS series of scintillation crystals are known to be uniquely qualified for components in PET medical scanners. LFS crystals have the fastest decay parameter in their category, the best energy resolution and competitive pricing, which are key attributes for the new configurations of high resolution Time Of Flight PET scanners. PET OEMs have conducted comparative tests with other many other scintillation materials and recognize Zecotek’s LFS crystals to be superior for specific designs of PET medical scanners.
Cutting, polishing and array assembly will also be done at the production facility in Shanghai. Zecotek has developed a proprietary automated manufacturing process that uses robotics to assemble the LFS crystal arrays. The automated process will translate into faster manufacturing of arrays and improve the performance of the arrays with repeatable uniformity and much greater accuracy.
Zecotek’s LFS series of scintillation crystals are protected in China and jurisdictions around globe by a worldwide patent (including US patent No. 7,132,060). The crystals cover a wide range of emission wavelengths which can be tailored to match the spectral sensitivity of various photo detectors including Zecotek’s own solid-state MAPD/T photo detector arrays.
Zecotek is focused on of becoming a leading supplier of scintillation crystals and other key photonic components in China and around the world.
About Zecotek
Zecotek Photonics Inc. (TSX-V: ZMS; Frankfurt: W1I; OTCPK: ZMSPF) is a photonics technology company developing high-performance scintillation crystals, solid-state photo detectors, 3D displays and related technologies for applications in medical, high-tech and industrial sectors. Founded in 2004, Zecotek has three operating divisions: Zecotek Imaging Systems, Zecotek Optronics Systems, and Zecotek Autotronics with labs located in Canada, Korea, Russia, Singapore and U.S.A. It is commercializing over 55 patented and patent pending novel photonic technologies directly and through strategic alliances with the Shanghai EBO Optoelectronics Technology Company (China), Hamamatsu Photonics (Japan), the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Switzerland), NuCare Medical Systems (South Korea), the University of Washington (United States), and National NanoFab Center (South Korea). For more information visit www.zecotek.com and follow @zecotek on Twitter.
For Additional Information Please Contact:
Zecotek Photonics Inc.
Michael Minder
T: (604) 783-8291
ir@zecotek.com