nasdaqThe Supplier That Makes This Smart-Glass Tech Is Back in Business

Gauzy makes the film that sits inside Research Frontiers' smart glass. A debt crisis had stopped production. On September 8, a court in Tel Aviv approved the deal that clears the path back.

Shares closed 68.49% higher at $0.6513 after Research Frontiers released the news on September 18, on dollar volume of about $70 million.

Research Frontiers holds the patents and signs the licensing deals, but it does not make the film that its licensees put in cars, aircraft and buildings. Gauzy does. When Gauzy's debts overwhelmed it and production stopped, every licensee waiting on film was waiting on Gauzy — and Research Frontiers' royalty stream went with it.

The settlement that ends that wait had near-unanimous backing. Creditors holding 98.96% of voting claims approved the plan, and 100% of Gauzy's secured lenders voted in favour, according to the Research Frontiers release. Gauzy said in its own September 18 announcement on GlobeNewswire that the settlement resolves about $61 million in pre-petition debt and that $7 million in new capital has been committed to support operations going forward.

Film production at Gauzy's German factory and emulsion production at its Israeli site are both restarting. Research Frontiers CEO Joseph M. Harary said in the release that "activities and funding" are already flowing to both locations.

The restart also removes the block on products that were waiting behind the shutdown. Harary said production needed to resume before black SPD film and products aimed at the architectural retrofit market could move forward. Both can now.