Anaergia Announces Operational and Commercial Milestones, Reaffirms Guidance for 2022, and Provides Guidance for 2023

BURLINGTON, Ontario–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Anaergia Inc. (TSX: ANRG, “the Company”) today announced the achievement of several milestones. First, over the last month, two more of the Company’s European facilities have started injecting renewable natural gas (“RNG”) into the grid. Second, there have been positive developments relating to increasing the feedstock at the Company’s Rialto Bioenergy Facility in California (the “RBF”), and also in registering the produced RNG for sale. The Company has also reaffirmed its 2022 guidance and is providing guidance for 2023.

Operational Milestones in Europe

In addition to the Company’s Easy Energia facility, the second of the six Italian plants, Calimera, also started injecting RNG into the grid last month. The Company’s build-own-operate (“BOO”) project in Tønder, Denmark has also started injecting gas. The two Italian plants combined have the capacity to supply up to 232,000 MMBtu of RNG per year when fully operational. Injection of first gas in Denmark qualifies the Tønder facility for a 20-year biogas subsidy program promoted by the Danish Energy Agency. When fully operational, the Tønder facility will produce up to 1.4 million MMBtu annually.

An additional four BOO plants are still under construction in Italy, and these are expected to be commissioned later this year and in early 2023. At full capacity, three of these plants will combine to produce over 430,000 MMBtu of RNG per year, while another will produce six million kilowatts of electricity annually utilizing biogas created from animal waste.

Rialto Bioenergy Facility Developments

The Company’s confidence in continued revenue growth at the RBF is reinforced by the passing of an expected ordinance. On November 29, 2022, the City Council of Los Angeles adopted an ordinance requiring commercial and multifamily generators under the RecycLA franchise to subscribe for organic waste collection and diversion services, as required by state law SB 1383. The ordinance, which is to be signed by the Mayor of Los Angeles on or before December 9, 2022, is expected to substantially increase the amount of organic waste diverted to the RBF for conversion to renewable natural gas. The RBF is North America’s largest landfill diverted organic waste RNG facility.

In addition, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved the Quality Assurance Plan (QAP) for the RBF enabling the sale of RINs. The Company expects to receive a deemed complete Low Carbon Fuel Standard (“LCFS”) pathway from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) in 2022. As a result, the Company expects to be able to sell its RNG for transportation use in the first quarter of 2023.

CEO Commentary

“We continue to successfully execute on our revenue backlog of BOO and Capital Sales projects which now stands at $4.8 billion (up from $2.8 billion at our IPO). Three of our seven facilities in Europe are now injecting RNG into national grids in Italy and in Denmark. Getting first gas into the grid at Tønder, Denmark in 2022 was critical for ensuring the availability of Danish incentives for the next twenty years for the project. Our team did an exceptional job achieving this important milestone on schedule and in record time,” said Andrew Benedek, Chairman and CEO of Anaergia. “Year after year these facilities, along with the new ones we build, will continue to reduce and prevent methane emissions, and create renewable fuel to replace fossil natural gas. Our opportunities to build such plants are continuing to grow due to increasing incentives favouring RNG production in Europe and in North America.”

Reaffirming 2022 Guidance

Anaergia is reaffirming its previously disclosed Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA¹ guidance for full year 2022. All guidance is current as of the published date and is subject to change. For more information, please refer to the Company’s management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022 available on the Company’s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com (the “Q3 MD&A”).

2023 Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA Guidance

Anaergia is providing new Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA guidance for full year 2023. All guidance is current as of the published date and is subject to change.

The 2023 guidance is based on several key assumptions:

• The estimated revenue is subject to the receipt of an LCFS pathway and associated carbon intensity (“CI”) score for the RBF, over which the Company has no influence or control.
• The RBF is expected to ramp up feedstock during 2023, operating near capacity in the fourth quarter of 2023 with more rapid ramp up in the second half of the year as adoption of the ordinance referred to above advances. Guidance assumes that commercial and multifamily generators under the RecycLA franchise subscribe to organic waste collection and diversion services, as required by state law SB 1383, and that the ordinance is enforced.
• The Italian BOOs are expected to be fully operational by the end of the second quarter of 2023.
• Government incentives in Italy to support the diversion of organic waste from landfills and to produce RNG are available on schedule as expected following injection of first gas.
• There is significant external investment in the Company’s Tønder project to finance the construction of the second phase of this project prior to the end of the second quarter 2023.

About Anaergia

Anaergia was created to eliminate a major source of greenhouse gases by cost effectively turning organic waste into renewable natural gas (“RNG”), fertilizer and water, using proprietary technologies. With a proven track record from delivering world-leading projects on four continents, Anaergia is uniquely positioned to provide end-to-end solutions for extracting organics from waste, implementing high efficiency anaerobic digestion, upgrading biogas, producing fertilizer and cleaning water. Our customers are in the municipal solid waste, municipal wastewater, agriculture, and food processing industries. In each of these markets Anaergia has built many successful plants including some of the largest in the world. Anaergia owns and operates some of the plants it builds, and it also operates plants that are owned by its customers.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation, which reflects the Company’s current expectations regarding future events, including statements relating to our business plans, growth strategies and ESG initiatives. Forward-looking information is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company’s control. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the factors discussed under “Risk Factors” in the Company’s annual information form dated March 28, 2022 for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 (the “Annual Information Form”). Actual results could differ materially from those projected herein. Anaergia does not undertake any obligation to update such forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required under applicable securities laws.

The targets disclosed above under “Reaffirming 2022 Guidance” and “Adjusted EBITDA Guidance” do not constitute a forecast or projection. There can be no assurance that the Company will achieve these targets and actual results may vary materially. The Company’s ability to achieve the targets referred to in these sections above is subject to a number of risks, challenges and uncertainties, including those described under the headings “Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information” in the Q3 MD&A and in the “Risk Factors” section of the Annual Information Form, all of which may cause actual results to vary materially from those set out in the targets. There can be no assurance that any or all of the potential projects described above will go forward on the terms we expect, or at all, or be completed as anticipated. If the amount or type of future awards of new business to the Company fall short of management’s expectations or are inconsistent with management’s past experience, the Company may not achieve the referenced targets. In addition, delays or other issues relating to the Company’s performance under its contracts may require the Company to incur additional costs, which may have a material adverse effect on the Company’s revenues and Adjusted EBITDA. The targets referred to above also reflect the Company’s assumptions regarding the number and type of opportunities for new business awards that will arise in the future, which in turn reflect management’s assumptions regarding the general growth and direction of the waste-to-value industry over the next two-year period.

Non-IFRS Measures

This press release makes reference to certain non-IFRS measures. These measures are not recognized measures under IFRS and do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Rather, these measures are provided as additional information to complement IFRS measures by providing further understanding of our results of operations from management’s perspective. Accordingly, these measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of the Company’s financial information reported under IFRS. Management uses non-IFRS measures to provide investors with supplemental measures.

Management also uses non-IFRS measures internally in order to facilitate operating performance comparisons from period to period, prepare annual operating budgets and assess our ability to meet the Company’s future debt service, capital expenditure and working capital requirements. Management believes these non-IFRS measures and industry metrics are important supplemental measures of operating performance because they eliminate items that have less bearing on operating performance and highlight trends in the core business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on IFRS financial measures. Management believes such measures allow for assessment of the Company’s operating performance and financial condition on a basis that is more consistent and comparable between reporting periods. Management also believe that securities analysts, investors and other interested parties frequently use non-IFRS measures in the evaluation of public companies.

Definitions of non-IFRS measures and industry metrics used in this press release are provided below.

“Adjusted EBITDA” is defined as net earnings before finance costs, taxes and depreciation and amortization adjusted for our normalized proportionate interest in our BOO assets and one-time or nonrecurring items, stock-based compensation expense, asset impairment charges and write downs, gains and losses for equity-accounted investees, foreign exchange gains or losses, restructuring costs, ERP customization and configuration costs, litigation and other claims settlements, gains and losses resulting from changes in certain balance sheet valuations (such as derivatives and warrants), acquisition costs and costs related to our initial public offering, including estimated incremental auditing and professional services costs incurred in connection with our initial public offering. For further details, refer to “Non-IFRS Measures and Industry Metrics” and “Reconciliation of Non-IFRS Measures” in the Q3 MD&A.

For further information please see: www.anaergia.com

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¹ “Adjusted EBITDA” is a non-IFRS Measure. See “Non-IFRS Measures”.