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  "documentTitle": "Plug Power Inc. (PLUG)",
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  "authorName": "Spruce Point Capital Management",
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      "text": "With PLUG's customers appearing to pressure the Company into supporting lease financing which it was ill-equipped to support, Spruce Point considers the (continued) shift towards operating lease-backed sales growth as a signal of deteriorating economics at PLUG.",
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      "text": "Did PLUG's new lease arrangements facilitate faster top-line growth? Again, per PLUG's 2014 10-K, ~25% of company sales came through its operating lease agreements with major customers such as Walmart and Volkswagen. However, with these customers already established business partners of PLUG's, it is not entirely clear that these arrangements supported incremental growth, at least in the near term. Rather, these arrangements may have simply been forced upon PLUG by major customers which the Company could not afford to lose. Importantly, PLUG reported in 2015 that its sale/leaseback partners required the Company to secure its leases in full: cash received from operating-type sale/leasebacks would be committed to restricted cash and released over the term of the lease. This in many ways defeated the purpose of the financing arrangement by withdrawing the immediate cash flow benefit that it would have otherwise recognized from the sale/leaseback.",
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      "text": "This in many ways defeated the purpose of the financing arrangement by withdrawing the immediate cash flow benefit that it would have otherwise recognized from the sale/leaseback. — PLUG 2015 10-K",
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      "text": "The Shift To Direct Financing: Growth Comes At The Price of Deteriorating Company Economics",
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