Amaero secures $22.8M EXIM Bank loan for advanced materials manufacturing facility in Tennessee
March 11, 2025
Amaero International Limited, based in McDonald, Tennessee, USA, has executed a credit agreement for $22.8 million direct loan from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) initially announced on January 9, 2025. As EXIM agreed to reduce capitalised expenses, the loan amount was reduced from $23.5 million to $22.8 million. The loan was extended to Amaero Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Inc., a wholly owned US-operating subsidiary of Amaero.
The US federal government credit agency will provide capital equipment financing and will directly fund the loan as part of EXIM’s ‘Make More in America’ (MMIA) initiative that was established to address the longer-term weaknesses in the United States’ supply chains, the result of decades of underinvestment, outsourcing, and offshoring instead of investment in long-term security, sustainability, and resilience. The financing also falls under EXIM’s China and Transformational Exports Program (CTEP). Amaero’s loan is the sixth MMIA loan to be approved and the first MMIA loan that supports advanced materials and Additive Manufacturing.
This direct loan serves as an important signal to the capital markets and commercial customers, reinforcing that Amaero’s business is positioned at the nexus of strategically important US policy initiatives focused on enhancing the resiliency and scalability of manufacturing and supply chain capabilities. EXIM’s loan provides a demonstrable commitment by the US government that reaffirms the strategic importance of Amaero’s capabilities to national security and to economic policy.
In a prior announcement dated January 9, 2025, the company stated that the loan had received final and unanimous approval by EXIM’s bipartisan Board of Directors and that it was subject to a mutually agreed upon and fully executed the credit agreement in an expedient manner.
The company also stated that the loan terms included a condition precedent requiring Amaero to complete a capital raise prior to the first loan draw. The company is pleased to confirm that the completion of tranche 1 of the AUS $22 million capital raise announced on February 11, 2025, has satisfied this condition precedent.
The loan commitment reflects an advance of 7% loan-to-cost ratio on capital equipment that has been or will be installed in Amaero’s manufacturing and corporate headquarters in McDonald, as well as a contingency reserve and capitalised loan fees. The loan has an initial 12-month period of interest-only payments, followed by fully amortising principal and interest payments over seven years. The interest rate was fixed at 5.43% per annum on execution of the credit agreement and the total cost of the loan, including amortised fees and expenses, equals approximately 7.05% per annum.
The final credit agreement reflects the binding terms disclosed in the January 9, 2025, announcement without any material changes.
The company expects capital expenditures over the three-year period ending FY2026 to total approximately $46.5 million. The planned capital expenditures include approximately $28.5 million for capital equipment and approximately $18.0 million for facility improvements. The EXIM loan will be drawn against capital equipment purchases. The company expects to satisfy the remaining conditions precedent so that it can initially draw approximately $12 million in the June 2025 quarter. The balance of the loan is expected to be drawn during FY2026.
With proceeds from the recent AUS $22 million capital raise (assuming all shareholder approvals for the conditional tranche of the placement are received) and the expected proceeds from this $22.8 million EXIM loan, the company has fully funded its planned capital expenditures and operations through EBITDA breakeven which is expected to be achieved in FY2026.
In conjunction with the EXIM loan, the company has terminated the $5 million cash-secured credit facility with Western Alliance Bank. This credit facility was announced on December 27, 2023, and the company has not drawn on the credit facility since it was established.
The $18 million in facility improvements remain on budget and on schedule to be substantially completed by the end of FY2025. The commissioning of Amaero’s second advanced atomiser also remains on budget and on schedule to be completed by the end of FY 2025.
With the commissioning of the first advanced atomiser and with ordering the second and third advanced atomisers, Amaero is reportedly positioned to be the largest US domestic manufacturer of C103, refractory, and titanium alloy powders that are essential to Additive Manufacturing of mission-critical components for the space and aerospace sectors. Furthermore, Amaero’s experience in Powder Metallurgy-Hot Isostatic Pressing (PM-HIP) manufacturing of large, complex near-net-shape parts is well-suited as an immediate solution to supply-chain gaps resulting from inadequate United States domestic manufacturing capacity for large castings and forgings.
Amaero has provided material to several commercial parties for qualification and is advancing negotiations on several long-term commercial agreements. The company stated that it remains on schedule to transition to commercialisation in FY2026.
