Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Hello all - I am still keeping the faith. The bear market is going to make fundraising more challenging now. I don't expect we'll see rapid deployment of funds. Just need to ride this out. The thesis hasn't changed. Just external conditions which have. Remember we're going to be meeting up to have lab grown meat in a restaurant in 9 year's time. ??
I actually think Agronomics is doing remarkably well given the wider macro environment. Microsoft and Google are 33% down their ATH. Tesla is 71% down. Nvidia is 100% down. A lot of growth stocks have been absolutely butchered. All indicators suggest we're entering a recession and there is seemingly no slowdown on general inflation and supply chain issues.
In comparison, ANIC is holding reasonably well after two rounds of stock dilution. I'm happy for it to just hold its price right now. And we have £40m (around that I believe) in the bank.
A vegan diet would still need to have food imported from abroad. Agronomics theoretically allows for more localised supply chains and distribution in the future. In addition, many people won't want to switch to becoming vegan and Agronomics allows for much less meat consumption by a wider population. There is absolutely no reason why gas station sandwiches and chicken nuggets should be made with real meat.
Love a little bit of debate though! Makes the board livelier.
I think it's always good to have a different perspective on things. But ultimately I feel as though ANIC has been pretty transparent.
They said they wanted to fundraise to invest in existing companies, which they have.
They said they wanted to move into whitespace companies, which they just announced.
They said they wanted to get board seats and bigger stakes, changing their strategy, which they've done.
The recent partnership and the shift to fermentation companies also shows that they are very forward thinking in this space.
All in all, it seems like a well managed fund which is only going from strength to strength. If ANIC fails, it's more a reflection on lab grown meat as an industry rather than the team behind it. I was pretty sceptical about them, especially with the first drop in SP, but now I'm content to just keep holding this as a retirement play.
Here is the Times article, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lab-grown-meat-will-feed-your-pets-without-costing-the-earth-cs2kw0h8t
Can someone with a subscription let us know if there is any other relevant information? 18 months apparently to hit stores.
Essentially 15p is Cenkos calculated NAV if you take into account the uplifts from Galy and Supermeat. If you take the uncalculated NAV into account, then 17p is a discount to that.
That said, I think the SP right now is reflective of wider market sentiment if anything else. I also think SP action from Oatly, Beyond and other alternative meats has probably contributed to the decline for ANIC.
I agree with the apples/oranges comparison. The difference between plant-based alternatives and the 1000s of food processors is the IP that will go into lab grown meat which can be protected. It's not like Kraft or Nestle can just hire people to do research in this area - the pool of academics is quite small and there is huge demand for talent. These companies are really the first movers in this area. Anyone can open a food processing plant - the barrier to entry here is much higher.
I don't think many of ANIC's portfolio companies will necessarily fail - I see it that most will be swallowed up by some of the big conglomerates. Again, this goes down to Mellon's stated strategy of investing things protected by IP and I think the recent investments and the investments in Vitro Labs are good hedges.
I'm 5,000 away from my target of 50,000. I'll maybe aim to acquire another 25,000 over the next 2 years. Feels as though a lot of thought is going into new investments and is very science based as opposed to Cult which didn't inspire too much confidence.
I am still buying. We have 5 investments in the work in which ANIC, if we are to believe their latest RNS, are acting as the lead. I'm expecting that's the reason for the current silence. Hopefully they will be worth the weight and as lead, ANIC will get more bang for its buck.