DroneShield hits back at critics, raises $120 million

Drone Detection and countermeasure manufacturer DroneShield (DRO) has replied to its critics emphatically with the successful completion of its approximately $120 million fully underwritten placement at a price of $1.15 per New Share.

DroneShield shares have come under pressure with the latest raising, and a placement that raised $75 million in April, confirming strong institutional support for the company, which is active in the Ukraine market.

DroneShield’s shares were marked down 16 percent on the ASX on the news.

Net proceeds raised from the Placement will be used to fund the development of priority R&D programmes as well as strategic bolt-on acquisitions to accelerate the development of DroneShield’s new Artificial Intelligence products and software capabilities.

DroneShield CEO Oleg Vornik said: “This placement is enabling us to undertake a number of rapid R&D programmes in response to end user requirements, over the next 12-24 months.

“This favourably positions DroneShield to fuel its revenue growth and further increase its margins, due to anticipated increase in AI SaaS offerings and higher sales pricing for the underlying hardware, as the C-UxS (counter unmanned systems) market continues to rapidly grow, supported by the current tailwinds through drones being used extensively for nefarious purposes globally.”

According to the company, investment to extend R&D into new products and new generations of existing products will:

• Entrench DRO’s position as the market leader in the rapidly expanding C-UxS market
• Enable DRO to expand into new markets and products as the drone and counterdrone warfare evolves
• Expand gross profit margins as the revenue mix shifts toward AI enabled software solutions supported by DRO’s market leading hardware solutions
• And accelerate software as a service(SaaS) revenues.

Further reading:
DroneShield to raise $75 million to fuel growth
DroneShield continues to lose investor support

Picture: DroneShield