There are no fees payable by investors in addition to their initial investment. The Company provides for external distribution and intermediary charges of up to 6% of the funds raised. There are no annual ‘fund management’ fees, neither are there any success fees. The management team does not draw salaries either, until the company is revenue-generating and profitable. The management team members are incentivised by their respective equity stakes in the company, and therefore their goal is completely aligned to that of any investor, i.e. a profitable exit upon refinance or sale.

The company is targeted to finish development of the technology suitable for use in the automotive industry in 2020. Based on the projections described in the IM, the potential gain for investors in this fundraising Stage is estimated at between 10 and 300 times their initial investment.
See page 25 of the IM.

The Company intends to licence the developed technology to major: commercial vehicle (trucks, buses & coaches), and automotive manufacturers. This will take the form of up-front payments, development fees and licence fee per device /vehicle, manufactured.
See pages 13 to 15 and page 24 of the IM for more detail.

Legislation is forcing manufacturers to reduce C02, NOX and particulate emissions in all of their engines, diesel and petrol, and today they do not have a solution. Failure to do so will result in significant fines, as has been seen with Volkswagen, Hyundai & Kia in the US.
See pages 24 to 25 of the IM.

Most manufacturers do have large R&D departments and budgets. However, manufacturers are now using external third-parties to help in developing the new technologies required to hit the legislated targets. They recognise that they are not flexible enough, they are not quick enough, and they are not entrepreneurial enough to deliver the solutions required within the timescales allowed by the legislation and its requirements. One example is Ford using Ricardo to assist in the development of the new generation of HyBoost and Eco Boost engines.

Once the KERB TS technology has been successfully developed and tested with the proposed on-engine static test rig to the required TRL6, the Company will have the potential for a sale to an interested OEM or similar company. Notwithstanding this potential opportunity, the company has the target of 2020 for the first licence sales.
See pages 20 to 21 and pages 24 to 25 of the IM for more detail.

The Directors plan an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of shares in the Company between 2020 and 2022. A trade sale may be considered, as the Directors target will be to derive the maximum possible gain for investors. A third option now available is the use of Asset Match, (see www.assetmatch.com).

Legislation has been put in place by Governments’ around the world in order to reduce C02, NOX and particulate emissions created by Internal Combustion Engines, (ICEs). Both diesel and petrol ICEs are targeted, in particular in the commercial vehicle and automotive markets. Failure to meet the targets will result in significant fines for manufacturers, as has been seen with Volkswagen, Hyundai & Kia in the USA.

The VN-KERB-TS technology is complementary to the ‘Hybrid’ as, assuming the technology can be made cost effective enough, it has the potential to be fitted to a ‘Hybrid’ engine, making a ‘Hybrid’ even more efficient and reducing emissions even further. The only competition today is the Volvo PowerPulse, although it requires a more complex engine design and infrastructure, as well as more weight. See page 20 of the IM.

Today, VN-KERB-TS has the only technology solution that is able to take kinetic energy from braking events on a car and use this energy to spin-up a turbo charger to reduce turbo-lag and to potentially increase fuel efficiency, and reduce the emissions. See page 16 to 17 of the IM.

There are also a number of operating principles embedded in VN projects that make VN KERB TS completely different from the competition, namely:

• No salaried management team, and no success fees.
• The team is incentivised on equity position and therefore focused on making the technology as efficient and profitable as possible for the IPO or sale to enable a profitable investor exit.
• No money management fees, VN-KERB-TS is not a fund neither do the management team act or charge as one.
• The management team includes individuals with experience of creating, developing and managing small, medium and large companies through to exit.
• Complete financial transparency on the project, development Opex etc. and on equity distribution and gains at exit.

A novel hydraulic-based, kinetic energy recovery boosting system has been designed, analysed and tested. The basic results obtained indicate the promise of the system for future passenger cars. The results indicate the potential to help initially spin-up a turbocharger, with shaft speeds similar to those found in turbos in cars today, and similar to typical conditions encountered in real-world conditions.

An investment in the Company is speculative because, although it has access to a substantial amount of research and data which has been compiled regarding the VN-KERB-TS project and has a full IP exploitation licence granted by the IP owner, the VN-KERB-TS has not been proven.

Mitigation
The Company’s Technical Director and major shareholder is Professor Al Cairns, formerly of Brunel University, and who is now Head of Automotive Propulsion at Nottingham University. The company will be utilising him and the facilities at Nottingham University for research and development, where everything required for the testing and development to TRL5/6 enabling Stage 2 of the project, is onsite.

Whilst the engineering principles and theories being utilised to enable the VN- KERBS-TS solution to be technically successful in an ICE or Hybrid engine, it is not proven in this environment.

Mitigation – The R&D work performed thus far involved theoretical and experimental studies of the hydraulically assisted turbocharger system for future automotive applications. The system is based upon use of relatively lightweight parts, where kinetic energy is recovered during vehicle braking, stored in a hydraulic accumulator and used later on to rapidly accelerate the engine’s turbocharger. The turbocharger is fitted with a replacement housing including a small impulse turbine, powered by a jet of hydraulic fluid. The overall aim of the work was to improve fundamental understanding of the operation and capabilities of such a system for future passenger cars. Fundamental hydraulic system calculations were undertaken and a simple rig was produced including a miniaturised Pelton wheel, a disc (of inertia equal to the target turbocharger), mounting shaft and hydraulic supply circuit. The system was capable of generating shaft speeds of ~80000rpm within less than 1 second and the peak oil pressure and flow rate were ~200bar and ~9.5 l/min respectively. This underpins the theory with evidence that the technology has the potential to deliver in the real-world, and subsequently a pre-prototype has been designed and built ready for testing on a static rig to be built in this first phase of testing and development.

The market uptake for this type of technology is unproven. Whilst this project is driven by legislation forcing the Automotive Industry by 2020 to reduce emissions by 30% more, and increase fuel efficiency by another 20% from where it is today, there is no guarantee that the VN-KERB-TS will become one of the industry’s ‘preferred solutions’.

Mitigation – Developing an independently third-party tested solution using the Automotive Industry’s Technology Readiness Level framework, gives VN KERB TS the best chance of success by aligning the requirements of the industry to the deliverables of the project.

Estimates of potential value and costs may not be reliable. The potential licence income values are illustrations only, based on available comparable industry information. These illustrations are subject to market input variables that cannot be determined until the unit is developed and ready for market.

Mitigation – The Directors of VN KERB TS have used extremely conservative, industry reference-able figures in the projections and estimations of market penetration and uptake. Furthermore, the Directors have used industry recognised metrics and multiples for valuations and shown how these estimates and projections are put together.

The illustrations of potential income value in this Information Memorandum may, accordingly, not be reliable despite the Directors best efforts to judge them accurately.

Mitigation – The Directors of VN KERB TS have used extremely conservative, industry reference-able figures in the projections of income and estimations of market penetration and uptake.

Either put your questions in an email, or request a call from one of the management team to discus
your requirements in more detail.

Download the High Net Worth self-certification form and the VN-KERB-TS investor application form, fill them in with your investment amount and personal details, sign at the bottom and then either scan and email them to investors@vn-cp.co.uk, or take photocopies and then send them along with your cheque to VN Capital Partners, 7/10 Chandos Street, London W1G 9DQ.