Applied UV Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
Applied UV has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Applied UV is a publicly traded holding company with four wholly owned subsidiaries: Sterilumen, Inc., Munn Works, LLC, PURO Lighting, LLC, and LED Supply Co. LLC. Munn Works appears to be a mirror and casegoods company focused in the hospitality industry. Max Munn, the CEO of Applied UV, leads these operations.
Efforts to contact the company via the email address provided on their website which is [email protected], yielded no response. Additionally, a phone number was not found on the website.
On 6 May 2024, a Board of Directors meeting was held, during which the decision to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy was approved by a majority of four out of five directors. The following day, two of the board members who attended the meeting resigned, effective immediately.
CDE&CO holds 4,656,316 shares, the Munn Family 2020 Irrevocable Trust owns 15,000 shares, and Maxim Partners, LLC holds 2,000 shares. The bankruptcy petition reveals that the estimated assets range between $500,001 and $1,000,000, while the estimated liabilities are between $1,000,000 and $10,000,000. Our analysis of the 20 largest unsecured claims sums up to approximately $7.3 million.
Key Press Releases
As a NASDAQ-traded company, EdisonReport has closely monitored Applied UV’s earnings. Here are a few key points from our recent releases:
- 21 August 2023: Preliminary Q2 results showed an 83.6% increase in top-line revenue to $10.8 million compared to the prior year’s Q2. The full year results released today add some finer detail, showing that most of the revenue increase ($4.0M of the $4.9M YoY increase) in Q2 FY23 came from the company’s January 2023 acquisitions –PURO Lighting and LED Supply Co. The other bad news left out of the preliminary release was a net loss in Q2 FY23 of $3.0M
Key Statement: “We’ve been aggressive with cost reduction activities, including the reduction of the number of employees by over 10%, and the payroll expense reduction of even a greater amount.”—Max Munn, CEO
- 20 November 2023: Total revenues for Q3 2023 were reported at $11.4 million.
Key statement: “With continued strong revenue momentum and sustained progress on the path to profitability, we are delivering against the key milestones we laid out earlier this year. I’m proud of how our teams are executing our growth strategy,”—Max Munn, CEO
- 11 December 2023: A 1-for-25 reverse stock split was implemented to comply with the $1.00 minimum bid price requirement for maintaining the company’s Nasdaq listing. The report also noted a net loss of $2.6 million for the three months ended 30 September 2023, compared to a net loss of $2.7 million for the same period in 2022.
Your humble editor reached a customer service representative at PURO Lighting, who provided the corporate number for Applied UV. During the PURO call, I was placed on a brief hold, and the PURO audio indicated that it may not be business as usual, but they had plenty of stock. I called the Applied UV number and left a message with the automated attendant, but I have not had a callback.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy, often referred to as “reorganization bankruptcy,” is a legal process under the United States Bankruptcy Code. It is primarily used by corporations and businesses to reorganize their debts and operations while continuing to operate.
Due to the bankruptcy status, the stock symbol has changed from AUVI to AUVIQ. At the end of trading on 28 May, the AUVI stock price was $0.29. Today, the AUVIQ stock price is $0.04.
If Applied UV cannot turn things around quickly, they may need to change their email to [email protected].
