Camco Clean Energy - a clean slate

Tuesday, 30th September 2014 09:54 - by Moosh

Jam today? Well, not yet with Camco Clean Energy (TIDM:CCE).¹ This one is still a ‘jam tomorrow’, but you know, jam takes a while to make.

Clearly I am diverging away from my initial ‘jam today’ opportunities since there aren’t many undervalued profitable companies to choose from these days so I do have to stretch the boundary a little and seek something a little outside of my comfort zone. I have been a long term investor in CCE since 2010 and I was caught buying on weakness when ‘buying on weakness’ was my then favoured buying strategy (which, I hasten to add, isn’t my current choice of strategy!). Unfortunately I wasn’t really focussed on fundamentals at that time so I was completely oblivious to the major bearishness in the European carbon markets and the impact this had on the financials of CCE (formerly Camco International, TIDM: CAO). However, it was a useful experience regarding both the buying strategy and figuring out what the carbon market is all about. I’m honestly still a bit fudgey about carbon emissions, which I don’t mind admitting to, so I am watching tentatively but in the meantime I still have a holding in CCE so it’s important I keep up with their ongoing activities.²

One question I had in mind when the price of CCE was around 1p, was ‘How is CCE going to turn this around?’ The company isn’t new – it has been around for over 20 years and has extensive experience in setting up and advising on ‘clean energy’ projects around the world, but as an investor who has seen the value of his investment sink to nearly rock bottom, I want to see if the company can dig itself out of this price low. So....can it?

To be fair, it is still early days, but CCE have a variety of projects in their portfolio, such as Biogas facilities in America, to Solar Power projects in Africa, as well as more recent developments in their energy storage division, via REDT alongside a current project partner, Jabil Circuit Inc, and together they provide me with enough to keep my interest piqued to see if they can build on these over the next few years.^3-6  CCE has recently got a placing out of the way at 4p and the price has already started to rise again as the story unfolds, especially with respect to their REDT/Jabil joint venture which the company has given a clear timetable for over the next year so investors will certainly have a medium term run of news flow to look forward to, as well as any extra pieces of news from the variety of other projects they are involved with.⁵ I still have hope here and clean energy is obviously something that the future will need to be ready for as fossil fuels continue to decline. As long as CCE keeps making the right sounds, then I am willing to not just hear them, but listen, and listen up good.⁷

References

1. http://www.camcocleanenergy.com/
2. http://www.camcocleanenergy.com/blog/camco-on-bloomberg-tv-refining-the-business-approach-to-carbon-emissions-
3. http://www.camcocleanenergy.com/american-clean-gas/
4. http://www.camcocleanenergy.com/africa/
5. http://www.camcocleanenergy.com/blog/redt-energy-storage-production-update
6. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27829874
7. http://www.camcocleanenergy.com/investors