AMSC to offer 4 million shares of common stock

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Devens-based AMSC Thursday announced it would offer 4 million in common stock in an underwritten public offering.

AMSC has priced its common stock at a public offering price of $6.00 a share. The company expects net proceeds to be about $22.3 million.

AMSC expects to close the offering on or about April 29. Net proceeds from the public offer will be used for general corporate purposes, including to fund working capital. The current market price for the stock Thursday morning fluctuated around $7 a share.

The wind energy equipment maker, whose stock has been trading at less than $1 per share for four months, issued a 1-for-10 reverse stock split in March. However, the company’s stock shot up by more than 30 percent this week after the company — formerly known as American Superconductor — announced an expanded relationship with the U.S. Navy.

AMSC said the Navy had sought out the company for its high temperature superconductor (HTS) equipment, which a contract expected to be signed after April 28.

“In fiscal year 2014, we put pieces of the business into place to drive sustainable future growth,” AMSC President and CEO Daniel P. McGahn said in Thursday’s statement.

AMSC also provided preliminary financial results for the quarter and fiscal year completed March 31. Revenues were in the range of $24 million to $25 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014. Results are in the upper end of its previously guided range, AMSC said.

For the full fiscal year 2014, revenues are in the range of $69 million to $70 million. In addition, AMSC said it expects to end the fiscal year with $24.5 million in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash, which reflects payment made to Ghodawat Energy during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 in final settlement of an arbitration claim.

In a separate matter, the company reported Thursday on the progress of a trade secret and two copyright infringements cases in China.

AMSC reported that the first substantive hearing of a $450 million trade secret case is expected to be heard in a Beijing court on or about May 11. As well, AMSC said Thursday, the same court, Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, dismissed AMSC’s software copyright infringement case.

AMSC said it would immediately appeal the case to the Beijing Higher People's Court. The case, along with a $200,000 software copyright infringement case in another Chinese court, in Hainan, had previously been appealed up to China's Supreme People's Court on jurisdictional issues. In February 2014, the China's Supreme People's Court found in AMSC's favor.

“Given the importance of protecting the intellectual property of U.S. companies, we look forward to continuing to work with the U.S. government to protect our interests," McGahn said.

The trade secret infringement case, filed in September 2011, alleges Sinovel's and certain of its employees' unauthorized use of portions of the company's wind turbine control software source code developed for Sinovel's 1.5 MW wind turbines, Thursday’s statement from AMSC said.