Business update from Eternali CEO - summarizing 2023

Jan 29, 2024

As I mentioned earlier, 2023 was an eventful year for us at Eternali. Our main goal for the year was to complete all the preparatory work to start our operational activities and be able to deliver our fantastic wood fibre to customers. And we achieved all the work that we could influence ourselves. We have great access to the raw material. We have a solid and verified logistics plan. And during the fall, we received our first delivery order from BSL. What remain is to get the FSC-certification done for our plantations, which is ongoing and carried out by independent parties. This will be completed in the spring.

Laying the solid foundation has been our focus for 2023, and still customer interest for our products has been very high, which motivates us extremely much when our operations now start. It gives us a strong belief in a positive development for Eternali going forward. We know that many of these potential customers are awaiting our first delivery, our pilot, and we look forward to getting this shipment done as soon as the FSC-certification process is finalized.

It was a good feeling to end 2023 not only with a firm delivery order but also with a growth loan from Almi, as we have previously informed. It is a fantastic milestone and proof that what we are doing is right and passes external evaluation. From the start, we knew that a lot of preparatory work is required before we can start our deliveries and generate revenue, and we have invested significant resources and time in ensuring access to raw materials, extensive logistics planning, dialogues with shipping companies and sales agents, certifications of wood and land, and everything else that needs to be done. As any start-up our need for development capital is vast, and especially due to the characteristics of the business we are in and all the preparatory work we need to invest in. The Almi loan is a good addition, but also comes with a counterclaim of raising own capital. The first part of the Almi loan is now completed but we embark on the same journey of raising new capital again to follow our scale-up plan. Therefore, we will need to work as hard on capital acquisition as we do on operational activities. Our success in this area will be just as crucial for our development as our logistical planning and to be able to grow our business in the right way.

In addition to the work on capital acquisition and our first deliveries to customers in Europe, we know that our excellent network and competent team in Brazil often are presented to new opportunities for Eternali in the form of assets and contracts that could potentially generate quick cash flow. We have, and will, continuously evaluate these possibilities to see how they can fit in to our growth plan.

So, if 2023 was an eventful year, 2024 is expected to surpass it by leaps and bounds. Our focus for the year is exclusively on providing our customers access to our raw material. We have a strong foundation with the work that has been carried out and are truly looking forward to the next phase for Eternali.

/Andreas Forssell, CEO Eternali