United states

Risks Related to this Offering and Ownership of Our Common Stock

There has been no public market for our common stock, and an active, liquid trading market may not develop.

Before this offering, there was no public market for shares of our common stock. An active and liquid trading market may not develop following this offering or, if developed, may not be sustained. The lack of an active and liquid market may impair your ability to sell your shares of common stock at the time you wish to sell them or at a price that you consider reasonable. The lack of an active and liquid market may also reduce the market value and increase the volatility of your shares of common stock. In addition, an inactive and illiquid market may impair our ability to raise capital by selling shares of common stock and may impair our ability to acquire other business or assets by using shares of our common stock as consideration.

The price of our common stock may fluctuate substantially and your investment may decline in value.

The initial public offering price for the shares of our common stock to be sold in this offering was determined by negotiation between the representatives of the underwriters and us based upon a number of factors, including the history of, and the prospects for, our company and our industry, and may not be indicative of prices that will prevail following this offering. In addition, the market price of our common stock is likely to be highly volatile and may fluctuate substantially due to many factors, including:

 

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actual or anticipated fluctuations in our results of operations;

 

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our ability to provide products due to shipments subject to delayed delivery and deferred revenue arrangements;

 

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loss of or changes in our relationship with one or more of our customers;

 

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failure to meet our earnings estimates;

 

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conditions and trends in the energy and manufacturing markets in which we operate and changes in estimates of the size and growth rate of these markets;

 

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announcements by us or our competitors of significant contracts, developments, acquisitions, strategic partnerships or divestitures;

 

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availability of equipment, labor and other items required for the manufacture of wind blades;

 

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changes in governmental policies;

 

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additions or departures of members of our senior management or other key personnel;

 

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changes in market valuation or earnings of our competitors;

 

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sales of our common stock, including sales of our common stock by our directors and officers or by our other principal stockholders;

 

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the trading volume of our common stock; and

 

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general market and economic conditions.

In addition, the stock market in general, and The NASDAQ Global Market, as well as the market for broader energy and renewable energy companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of particular companies affected. These broad market and industry factors may materially harm the market price of our common stock, regardless of our operating performance. In the past, securities class-action litigation has often been instituted against a company following periods of volatility in the market price of that company’s securities. Securities class-action litigation, if instituted against us, could result in substantial costs or damages and a diversion of management’s attention and resources, which could materially harm our business and operating results.

A significant portion of our total outstanding shares may be sold into the public market in future sales, which could cause the market price of our common stock to drop significantly, even if our business is doing well.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market could occur at any time after the expiration of the lock-up agreements described in the section entitled “Underwriting.” These sales, or the market perception that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell shares, could reduce the market price of our common stock. After the close of this offering, we will have 32,781,263 shares of common stock outstanding, assuming the underwriters do not exercise their option to purchase additional shares. This includes the 7,250,000 shares that we are selling in this offering, which may be resold in the public market immediately. The remaining 25,531,263 shares will be able to be sold, subject to any applicable volume limitations under federal securities laws, upon expiration of the lock-up agreements with the underwriters of this offering.

In addition, as of March 31, 2016, there are 61,720 shares subject to outstanding Common Warrants, or 0.2% of our outstanding shares after this offering, 3,348,628 shares subject to outstanding options, or 10.2% of our outstanding shares after this offering, 654,120 restricted stock units, or 2.0% of our outstanding shares after this offering and 3,382,936 shares, or 10.3% of our outstanding shares after this offering, reserved for future issuance under the 2015 Plan that will become eligible for sale in the public market to the extent permitted by any applicable vesting requirements, the lock-up agreements and Rules 144 and 701 under the Securities Act. Moreover, after this offering, holders of an aggregate of approximately 25,008,038 shares of our common stock, will have rights, subject to some conditions, to require us to file registration statements covering their shares or to include their shares in registration statements that we may file for ourselves or other stockholders. We also intend to register all shares of common stock that we may issue under our employee equity incentive plans. Once we register these shares, they can be freely sold in the public market upon issuance, subject to the lock-up agreements and the restrictions imposed on our affiliates under Rule 144.

 

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In the future, we may also issue our securities in connection with investments or acquisitions. The amount of shares of our common stock issued in connection with an investment or acquisition could constitute a material portion of our then-outstanding shares of our common stock. Any issuance of additional securities in connection with investments or acquisitions may result in additional dilution to you and may cause the market price of our common stock to drop significantly.

The exercise of options and warrants and other issuances of shares of common stock or securities convertible into common stock under our equity compensation plans will dilute your interest.

Under our existing equity compensation plans, as of March 31, 2016, we have outstanding options to purchase 3,348,628 shares of our common stock and 654,120 restricted stock units to our employees and non-employee directors. From time to time, we expect to grant additional options and other stock awards in accordance with the 2015 Plan. The exercise of options and warrants at prices below the market price of our common stock could adversely affect the price of shares of our common stock. Additionally, any issuance of our common stock that is not made solely to then-existing stockholders proportionate to their interests, such as in the case of a stock dividend or stock split, will result in dilution to each stockholder by reducing their percentage ownership of the total outstanding shares. If we issue options or warrants to purchase our common stock in the future and those options or warrants are exercised or we issue stock, stockholders may experience further dilution.

Our executive officers, directors and their affiliated entities will continue to have substantial control over us and could limit the ability of other stockholders to influence the outcome of key transactions, including changes of control.

Our executive officers, directors and their affiliated entities will, in the aggregate, beneficially own approximately 77% of the outstanding common stock after this offering, based on 32,781,263 shares of common stock outstanding after this offering. Our executive officers, directors and their affiliated entities, if acting together, will be able to control or significantly influence all matters requiring approval by our stockholders, including the election of directors and the approval of mergers or other significant corporate transactions. In addition, certain of our stockholders are affiliated with certain of our customers. These stockholders might have interests that differ from yours, and they might vote in a way with which you disagree and that could be adverse to your interests. The concentration of common stock ownership could have the effect of delaying, preventing, or deterring a change of control of our company, could deprive our stockholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their common stock as part of a sale of our company, and could negatively affect the market price of the common stock.

As a new investor, you will experience immediate and substantial dilution in net tangible book value of your shares of common stock.

If you purchase common stock in this offering, you will pay more for your shares than the amounts paid by existing stockholders for their shares. As a result, you will experience immediate and substantial dilution of approximately $12.66 per share, representing the difference between the initial public offering price for our shares in this offering and our pro forma net tangible book value per share after giving effect to this offering at an assumed public offering price of $16.00, the mid-point of the range on the cover page of this prospectus. If the holders of outstanding options to purchase our common stock exercise these options in the future pursuant to our current or future stock option plans, you will incur further dilution. If we raise additional equity by issuing equity securities or convertible debt, or if we acquire other companies or technologies by issuing equity, the newly issued shares will further dilute your percentage ownership and may reduce the value of your investment.

If equity research analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or if they issue unfavorable commentary or downgrade our common stock, the price of our common stock could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will rely in part on the research and reports that equity research analysts publish about us and our business. We do not control the work performed by these analysts. If

 

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no securities or industry analysts commence coverage of our company, the trading price of our common stock would suffer. In the event we obtain securities or industry analyst coverage, demand for our common stock could decline if one or more equity analysts downgrade our stock or if those analysts issue unfavorable or inaccurate commentary. If such analysts cease publishing reports about us or our business, we could lose visibility in the market, which in turn could cause our share price and trading volume to decline.

We do not currently intend to pay dividends on the common stock, which may hinder your ability to achieve a return on your investment.

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock. The continued operation and expansion of our business will require substantial funding and thus we currently intend to retain any future earnings and do not expect to pay any dividends in the foreseeable future. Accordingly, you are not likely to receive any dividends on common stock in the foreseeable future, and your ability to achieve a return on your investment will therefore depend on appreciation in the price of the common stock.

Our management will have broad discretion over the use of the proceeds we receive in this offering and might not apply the proceeds in ways that increase the value of your investment.

Currently, we anticipate using the net proceeds to us from this offering for general corporate purposes, including funding the costs of our corporate, operating and expansion activities. Accordingly, our management will have broad discretion over the use of our net proceeds of this offering. You will be relying on their judgment regarding the application of those net proceeds. While our management intends to use our net proceeds in a manner that is in the best interests of our company and our stockholders, they might not apply the net proceeds in ways that increase the value of your investment. The market price of the common stock could fall if the market does not view our use of our net proceeds favorably.

Provisions of Delaware law or our charter documents could delay or prevent an acquisition of our company, even if the acquisition would be beneficial to our stockholders, and could make it more difficult for you to change management.

Provisions of Delaware law and our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated by-laws, which will be effective upon the completion of this offering, may discourage, delay or prevent a merger, acquisition or other change in control that stockholders may consider favorable, including transactions in which stockholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares. These provisions may also prevent or delay attempts by stockholders to replace or remove our current management or members of our board of directors. These provisions include:

 

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a classified board of directors;

 

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limitations on the removal of directors;

 

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advance notice requirements for stockholder proposals and nominations;

 

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the inability of stockholders to act by written consent or to call special meetings;

 

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the ability of our board of directors to make, alter or repeal our amended and restated by-laws; and

 

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the authority of our board of directors to issue preferred stock with such terms as our board of directors may determine.

The affirmative vote of the holders of at least 75% of our shares of capital stock entitled to vote, and not less than 75% of the outstanding shares of each class entitled to vote thereon as a class, is necessary to amend or repeal the above provisions that are contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. In addition, absent approval of our board of directors, our amended and restated by-laws may only be amended or repealed by the affirmative vote of the holders of at least 75% of our shares of capital stock entitled to vote.

 

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In addition, upon the closing of this offering, we will be subject to the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which limits business combination transactions with stockholders of 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock that our board of directors has not approved. These provisions and other similar provisions make it more difficult for stockholders or potential acquirers to acquire us without negotiation. These provisions may apply even if some stockholders may consider the transaction beneficial to them.

As a result, these provisions could limit the price that investors are willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock. These provisions might also discourage a potential acquisition proposal or tender offer, even if the acquisition proposal or tender offer is at a premium over the then current market price for our common stock.

We are an “emerging growth company” and will be able to avail ourselves of reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies, which could make our common stock less attractive to investors.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act, and we intend to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and shareholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We cannot predict whether investors will find our common stock less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions. If they do, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile. We may take advantage of these reporting exemptions until we are no longer an “emerging growth company.” We will remain an “emerging growth company” until the earliest of (i) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have total annual gross revenues of $1.0 billion or more; (ii) the last day of our fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the date of the completion of this offering; (iii) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in nonconvertible debt during the previous three years; or (iv) the date on which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer under the rules of the SEC.

Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can also delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have irrevocably elected not to avail ourselves of this exemption from new or revised accounting standards and, therefore, will be subject to the same new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not emerging growth companies.

 

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This prospectus contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this prospectus, including statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, business strategy and plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. In many cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “may,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “could,” “intends,” “target,” “projects,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other similar words. Forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus include, but are not limited to, statements about:

 

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growth of the wind energy market and our addressable market;

 

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our future financial performance, including our net sales, cost of goods sold, gross profit or gross margin, operating expenses, ability to generate positive cash flow, and ability to achieve or maintain profitability;

 

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the sufficiency of our cash and cash equivalents to meet our liquidity needs;

 

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our ability to attract and retain customers for our products, and to optimize product pricing;

 

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competition from other wind blade manufacturers;

 

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the discovery of defects in our products;

 

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our ability to successfully expand in our existing markets and into new international markets;

 

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worldwide economic conditions and their impact on customer demand;

 

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our ability to effectively manage our growth strategy and future expenses;

 

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our ability to maintain, protect and enhance our intellectual property;

 

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our ability to comply with existing, modified or new laws and regulations applying to our business; and

 

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the attraction and retention of qualified employees and key personnel.

These forward-looking statements are only predictions. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to materially differ from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. We have described in the “Risk Factors” section and elsewhere in this prospectus the principal risks and uncertainties that we believe could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements. Because forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as guarantees of future events.

The forward-looking statements in this prospectus represent our views as of the date of this prospectus. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our views to change. However, while we may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or developments after the date on which the statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events except to the extent required by applicable law. You should, therefore, not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date after the date of this prospectus. Our forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, joint ventures, or investments we may make.

 

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USE OF PROCEEDS

We estimate that the net proceeds from our sale of 7,250,000 shares of common stock in this offering will be $102.9 million, assuming an initial public offering price of $16.00 per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated offering price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. If the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares from us is exercised in full, we estimate that our net proceeds would be approximately $119.1 million, after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

A $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed initial public offering price would increase or decrease the net proceeds to us from this offering by approximately $6.7 million, assuming the number of shares offered, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. Similarly, each increase or decrease of one million in the number of shares of common stock offered by us would increase or decrease the net proceeds that we receive from this offering by approximately $14.9 million, assuming the assumed initial public offering price remains the same and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

We intend to use the net proceeds to us from this offering for working capital and other general corporate purposes, including the financing of our existing manufacturing operations and the expansion in existing and new geographies as well as approximately $13.8 million to finance the repayment of certain indebtedness, as described below. However, these potential alternatives for the use of proceeds could change significantly depending upon the amount of cash generated by our operations, competitive and industry developments, market opportunities, the rate of growth, if any, of our business, and a variety of other factors. Although we currently have no agreements or commitments for any specific acquisitions, we may also use a portion of the net proceeds to us to expand our current business through strategic alliances or acquisitions of other businesses, products or technologies.

We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering to pay off approximately $10.0 million of indebtedness plus accrued interest of approximately $1.8 million issued pursuant to our outstanding Subordinated Convertible Promissory Notes. The Subordinated Convertible Promissory Notes bear interest at a rate of 12% per annum and will automatically mature and be due and payable on the earlier of the completion of any change of control or qualified initial public offering, or at the election of the holders of the notes at any time after the occurrence of an event of default. We have previously used the proceeds from this indebtedness for working capital purposes. We also intend to use the net proceeds from this offering to repay a $2.0 million advance from GE Wind. See “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions—GE Wind Customer Advance” for additional information.

Although we currently anticipate that we will use the net proceeds from this offering as described above, there may be circumstances where a reallocation of funds is necessary. The amounts and timing of our actual expenditures will depend upon numerous factors, including our sales and marketing efforts, demand for our products, our operating costs and the other factors described under “Risk Factors” in this prospectus. Accordingly, our management will have flexibility in applying the net proceeds from this offering. An investor will not have the opportunity to evaluate the economic, financial or other information on which we base our decisions on how to use the proceeds. Pending the application of our net proceeds, we intend to invest our net proceeds in U.S. government securities and other short-term, investment-grade, interest-bearing instruments.

 

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DIVIDEND POLICY

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on shares of our capital stock. We currently intend to retain earnings, if any, to finance the development and growth of our business and do not anticipate paying cash dividends on the common stock in the future. Any payment of any future dividends will be at the discretion of the board of directors, subject to compliance with certain covenants in our loan agreements, after taking into account various factors, including our financial condition, operating results, capital requirements, restrictions contained in any future financing instruments, growth plans and other factors the board deems relevant.

 

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CAPITALIZATION

The following table describes our cash and cash equivalents, as well as our capitalization, as of March 31, 2016 on:

 

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an actual basis;

 

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a pro forma basis to reflect the automatic conversion or redemption of all outstanding shares of our convertible and redeemable preferred stock (which will be triggered by this offering as provided in our certificate of incorporation) into an aggregate of 21,110,204 shares of common stock and the conversion or redemption on a net issuance basis of our Series B warrants into an aggregate of 182,572 shares of common stock upon the closing of this offering, as if such conversion or redemption had occurred on March 31, 2016; and

 

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a pro forma basis as adjusted further to reflect (1) the pro forma adjustments set forth above, (2) the sale and issuance by us of 7,250,000 shares of common stock in this offering, based on an assumed initial public offering price of $16.00 per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated offering price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us and (3) the repayment of a $2.0 million customer advance and $10.0 million of indebtedness plus accrued interest of approximately $1.5 million pursuant to our outstanding Subordinated Convertible Promissory Notes.