ZEOWW Zeo Energy Corporation

On August 19, 2024, the Company filed Amendment No. 1 (“Amendment No. 1”) to the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2024, originally filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on May 16, 2024 (the “Original Filing”) to restate its unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements as of and for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2024.

During the preparation of the Company’s unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2024, the Company’s management identified the following misstatements, to the Company’s financial statements:

Therefore, on November 13, 2024, the audit committee of the board of directors of the Company, after discussion with the Company’s management, concluded that (i) the Company’s audited financial statements, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation and unaudited pro forma combined financial information for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 included in the Company’s Form 8-K as filed with SEC on March 20, 2024, as amended on March 25, 2024 and August 19, 2024, (ii) the Company’s unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements for the three months ended March 31, 2024 included in the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q/A as filed with the SEC on August 19, 2024 (the “Q1 10-Q”), (iii) the Company’s unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements for the three and six months ended June 30, 2024 included in the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q as filed with the SEC on August 19, 2024 (the “Q2 10-Q”, and together with the Q1 10-Q, the “10-Qs”) and (iv) the financial statements noted in items (i) through (iii) above included in the Company’s Registration Statement on Form S-1, as amended, which was declared effective by the SEC on October 1, 2024, should no longer be relied upon due to the misstatements described above.

As such, the Company is filing this Amendment No. 2 (“Amendment No. 2”) to the Q1 10-Q to restate its unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements as of and for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2024.

After re-evaluation, the Company’s management has concluded that the errors arose due to its previously reported material weaknesses in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting relating to ineffective controls over period end financial disclosure and reporting processes, including, (i) not timely performing certain reconciliations and the completeness and accuracy of those reconciliations; (ii) lack of effectiveness of controls over accurate accounting and financial reporting and reviewing the underlying financial statement elements; and (iii) recording incorrect journal entries that did not have sufficient review and approval. The Company’s remediation plan with respect to such material weakness is described in more detail in Item 4 of Part I to this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q/A.

The only changes to Amendment No. 1 are those related to the matters described above. Except as described above, this Amendment does not amend, update or change any other item or disclosure in Amendment No. 1 and does not purport to reflect any information or event subsequent to the filing thereof. As such, this Amendment speaks only as of the date Amendment No. 1 was filed, and we have not undertaken to amend, update or change any information contained in Amendment No. 1 to give effect to any subsequent event, other than as expressly indicated in this Amendment. Accordingly, this Amendment should be read in conjunction with the Original Filing and Amendment No. 1.

Prior to the Closing, the Sellers transferred 24.167% of their Sunergy Company Interests (which were thereafter exchanged for Seller OpCo Units and Seller Class V Shares at the Closing, as described above) pro rata to Sun Managers, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (“Sun Managers”), in exchange for Class A Units (as defined in the Sun Managers limited liability company agreement (the “SM LLCA”) in Sun Managers. In connection with such transfer, Sun Managers executed a joinder to, and became a “Seller” for purposes of, the Business Combination Agreement. Sun Managers intends to grant Class B Units (as defined in the SM LLCA) in Sun Managers through the Sun Managers, LLC Management Incentive Plan (the “Management Incentive Plan”) adopted by Sun Managers to certain eligible employees or service providers of OpCo, Sunergy or their subsidiaries, in the discretion of Timothy Bridgewater, as manager of Sun Managers. Such Class B Units may be subject to a vesting schedule, and once such Class B Units become vested, there may be an exchange opportunity through which the grantees may request (subject to the terms of the Management Incentive Plan and the OpCo A&R LLC Agreement (as defined below)) the exchange of their Class B Units into Seller OpCo Units (together with an equal number of Seller Class V Shares), which may then be converted into Zeo Class A Common Stock (subject to the terms of the Management Incentive Plan and the OpCo A&R LLC Agreement). Grants under the Management Incentive Plan will be made after Closing. As of March 31, 2024, no such grants have occurred.

As of the Closing Date, upon consummation of the Business Combination, the only outstanding shares of capital stock of the registrant were shares of Zeo Class A Common Stock and Zeo Class V Common Stock.

In connection with entering into the Business Combination Agreement, ESGEN and the Sponsor entered into a subscription agreement, dated April 19, 2023, which ESGEN, the Sponsor and OpCo subsequently amended and restated on January 24, 2024 (the “Sponsor Subscription Agreement”), pursuant to which, among other things, the Sponsor agreed to purchase an aggregate of 1,000,000 OpCo preferred units (and be issued an equal number of shares of Zeo Class V Common Stock) (“Convertible OpCo Preferred Units”) concurrently with the Closing at a cash purchase price of $10.00 per unit and up to an additional 500,000 Convertible OpCo Preferred Units (together with the concurrent issuance of an equal number of shares of Zeo Class V Common Stock) during the six months after Closing if called for by Zeo (the “Sponsor PIPE Investment”). Prior to the Closing, ESGEN informed the Sponsor that it wished to call for the additional 500,000 Convertible OpCo Preferred Units at the Closing and, as a result, a total of 1,500,000 Convertible OpCo Preferred Units were issued to Sponsor in return for aggregate consideration of $15,000,000.

Accounting for the Business Combination

The Business Combination was accounted for as a reverse recapitalization with ESGEN being treated as the acquired company since there was no change in control in accordance with the guidance for common control transactions in Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 805-50, Business Combinations - Related Issues (“ASC 805-50”). Accordingly, the financial statements of the combined entity will represent a continuation of the financial statements of Sunergy with the Business Combination treated as the equivalent of Sunergy issuing stock for the net assets of ESGEN, accompanied by a recapitalization. The net assets of ESGEN were stated at historical cost, with no goodwill or other intangible assets recorded. Operations prior to the Business Combination were those of Sunergy.

Sunergy was determined to be the accounting acquirer based on evaluation of the following facts and circumstances;

Based upon the evaluation of the OpCo A&R LLC Agreement, OpCo is considered to be a Variable Interest Entity (“VIE”) and ESGEN is considered to be the primary beneficiary through its membership interest and manager powers conferred to it through the Class A Units. For VIEs, the accounting acquirer is always considered to be the primary beneficiary. As such, Zeo will consolidate OpCo and will be considered the accounting acquirer; however, further consideration of whether the entities are under common control was required in order to determine whether there is an ultimate change in control and the acquisition method of accounting is required under ASC 805.

While Sunergy did not control or have common ownership of ESGEN prior to the consummation of the Business Combination, the Company evaluated the ownership of the new entity subsequent to the consummation of the transaction to determine if common control existed. If the business combination is between entities under common control, then the acquisition method of accounting is not applicable and the guidance in ASC 805-50 regarding common control should be applied instead. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) ASC does not include a definition of common control. In practice, entities with a common parent entity, as determined under ASC 810, Consolidation, are generally considered to be under common control. Emerging Issues Task force (“EITF”) Issue 02-5, “Definition of ‘Common Control’ in Relation to FASB Statement No. 141 (“EITF Issue 02-5”)”, which was never finalized or codified, has also been applied in practice to determine when entities are under common control. EITF Issue 02-5 indicates that common control would exist in any of the following situations:

Prior to the Business Combination and the contributions to Sun Managers, Sunergy was majority owned by five entities (the “Primary Sellers”):

Each of the above parties entered into a Voting Agreement, dated September 7, 2023. The term of the Voting Agreement is for five years from the date of the Voting Agreement. The consummation of the Business Combination with ESGEN occurred within the term of the Voting Agreement.

Prior to the Business Combination and the contributions to Sun Managers, the Primary Sellers had 98% ownership in Sunergy. Immediately following the Business Combination, they owned 83.8% of the Common Stock of the registrant through their Zeo Class V Common Stock that have voting interests. The Voting Agreement constitutes contemporaneous written evidence of an agreement to vote a majority of the Primary Sellers’ shares of the registrant in concert. Accordingly, the Primary Sellers retain majority control through the voting of their units in conjunction with the Voting Agreement immediately prior to the Business Combination and their shares following the Business Combination and, therefore, there is no change of control before or after the Business Combination. This conclusion is appropriate even though there was no relationship or common ownership or control between Sunergy and ESGEN prior to the Business Combination. Accordingly, the Business Combination should be accounted for in accordance with the guidance for common control transactions in ASC 805-50.

Additional factors that were considered include the following:

For common control transactions that include the transfer of a business, the reporting entity is required to account for the transaction in accordance with the procedural guidance in ASC 805-50. The C Corporation (ESGEN) is considered to be a substantive entity, the LLC (OpCo) is a business and VIE, and the C Corporation is considered to be the accounting acquirer since it is the primary beneficiary of the LLC. In a transaction that is a combination of entities under common control, the acquirer (ESGEN) should recognize the acquired entity (OpCo and Sunergy) on the same basis as the entities’ common parent.