Loop Industries plunges 22% after a short-seller accused its patented plastic-recycling technology of being ‘very misleading’

• Loop Industries’ shares fell 22% on Tuesday after Hindenburg Analysis alleged the corporate’s plastic-recycling know-how is very deceptive.
• The short-seller blasted Loop’s impartial evaluate for utilizing the phrase “pure” loosely and for not offering any particulars on the financial viability of its technological course of.
• “Data on purity with out price and yield is incomplete to the purpose of being irrelevant,” Hindenburg mentioned.
• A chemistry specialist concluded that it could be incorrect to declare Loop’s course of as environment friendly and cost-effective primarily based on the data supplied in its evaluate.
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Shares in plastic-recycler Loop Industries plummeted 22% on Tuesday after short-seller Hindenburg accused the company of misleading investors over its patented know-how.

Loop launched an independent review of its course of on Monday that Hindenburg mentioned not directly confirms the ineffectiveness of its so-called pure PET plastics made out of “100% recycled content material.”

Though the evaluate was meant to spotlight the effectiveness of Loop’s know-how, a disclaimer on the finish of the submitting states the verification was not meant to validate the yields, or financial viability of the method. That, Hindenburg mentioned, exhibits its evaluation was largely meaningless.

“Data on purity with out price and yield is incomplete to the purpose of being irrelevant,” the report mentioned. Hindenburg mentioned a former Loop worker substantiated that declare, by saying the evaluate means nothing if quantitative elements of the method are absent. 

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The short-seller referred to as out Loop for utilizing the phrase “pure” too usually in its evaluate. In Loop’s second-quarter SEC filing, the corporate claims its recycling course of has “persistently excessive monomer yields, glorious purity, and improved conversion prices.”

Hindenburg famous one other veteran chemistry specialist saying that Loop’s impartial evaluate was “non-technical advertising and marketing materials” and “very deceptive.” He concluded that it’s incorrect to declare Loop’s course of as environment friendly and cost-effective primarily based on the data supplied in its evaluate.

Hindenburg published a report in October that acknowledged Loop’s “revolutionary” know-how inflates its actual capabilities. That despatched the corporate’s shares decrease by 39% on the time. The short-seller has additionally referred to as out EV-makers Nikola and Chinese automaker Kandi for deceptive buyers.

Loop Industries instructed Enterprise Insider it stands by its know-how, which was rendered efficient by impartial company Kemitek.

“These outcomes are in line with earlier trials and testing evaluations of our know-how,” an organization spokesperson mentioned in an e mail. “We sit up for transferring forward with our plans to carry our know-how to business scale with our companions.”

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