You might have heard recently that Hardinge completed our follow-on stock offering in late April and raised $55.9 million in new capital to support our business going forward.  During the road show presentations I was able to personally meet with and discuss Hardinge with over 70 major institutional investors across North America.  It was a joy explaining our investment case to these people since it allowed me to share both the history of Hardinge and our plans for the future.  In the equity offering we initially planned to sell 1.65 million new shares, but we were ecstatic to learn that due to the strong demand driven by our strong investment case we were able to increase the size of the equity offering and sold 2.553 million shares.  This investment interest reiterated to us just how strong a company Hardinge has become, but what does this equity offering mean for our customers? 

With this equity offering Hardinge was able to strengthen our financial position which allows us much more flexibility to continue our strategy of expansion of our product lines, expansion of our customer base, expansion of our engineering and manufacturing operations and expansion of our customer services.   At Hardinge over the last few years we have significantly expanded our product offering and global operations and today we offer the most comprehensive machines product lines available from any one supplier for turning, milling and grinding parts within a part cube size of one meter.  Our machine products, coupled with our vast product offering in the workholding and industrial products area, positions us for continued worldwide growth.  Our ability to serve the needs of customers from virtually any industry that cuts material positions Hardinge unique in the industry.  We are the only supplier to provide a complete range of turning and milling products that span from standard machines sold on price and delivery to the highest accuracy, most technically advanced production machines available in the market today.  Our vast product offering allows Hardinge to provide our customers one place to find solutions for their machining needs for turning, milling or grinding.   Hardinge will continue to push towards our goal of becoming a full solutions provider in all areas of turning, milling, grinding and workholding / industrial products for the material working industry and our new capital will allow us to execute this strategy at a faster pace providing increased opportunities to meet more of our customer’s needs.