Member Info for Bantham

Thanks Ollie. I have read these posts for at least 2 years - when i started to buy. But i have never posted before on this or anything else. I have explained i am underwater on a very substantial investment ( my recent buys are just a small top up.....) so to date it’s clear i haven’t made the best calls. So I can understand the emotion! But emotion isn’t of great interest to me. If you took anything substantive from BF’s post it was about delays and failures to meet timetables. I agree. But i see the problem as follows - this company has been undercapitalised to achieve its aims. It has had to resort to CLN - but that doesn’t solve the funding due to interest payments.I think the BOD has spent half its time trying to manage one cash crisis after another. But i think that changed in the last 12 months - not least when MR persuaded CLN holders to take dividends in paper rather than cash which is of considerable help to AEG’s cash burn.

I think they have built a proper business with value in Lumberton - and i think they were very creative in how they acquired and funded that site. I also think that’s a first for AEG! And it looks like that business is highly scaleable.

We are being told that this funding allows the plant to be built - and then we will know if its product has a market. If this doesn’t happen as promised, then i think very fundamental questions will need to be asked of the Board.

So - whatever the emotion around this - i can’t see the objective reason not to back the Board at this particular moment. As i think you are saying.

As i said at the start of this thread i was interested in carefully considered objective views - positive or negative.

I think there has been a good debate these last few days - with both positive and negative views and a bit of humour.

You make some points with which i agree - specifically the time this has taken ( although difficult to do things quickly with no money ....) . However, your post is fundamentally a preposterous emotional personal attack on all the directors suggesting you have knowledge of possible fraud and Share price manipulation. In effect, you are saying this is a ponzi scheme set up to benefit ‘ insiders’. If you had evidence for any of your accusations I hope you would have written in your own name to the Board and the FCA - and maybe the police - setting out your charges. If you have not done so, i think the sensible thing to do here is to ignore what you have to say.

Agree with you entirely Stifler. Although the B and Q comment is quite funny....... :)

On the issue of the share price. As we all know, the share price for this company is driven by things unrelated to long term value. Several years back at 3 or 4p it was levitating miles above the reality because people were sold a dream and didn’t care to look carefully at at least one very bad loss making business in a country probably best to avoid...... This last week its been driven by a surge of very large sells. Sells which just couldn’t have been accommodated even a year ago. So that tells you liquidity is improving but still isn’t exactly great. So i compared that price with my view of long term value and bought nearly 1m shares at a touch over the placing price. Time will tell if my judgement was right - my guess is i will know by Spring / summer 2021.

I am not sure abut that. Share prices do strange things. Was the share price right a few weeks ago above 1p or is it right today at nearly half that? And was MR doing a good job when it got to 1p.......? I think you have to form a view on whether the underlying businesses / strategy is moving forward or not. I think it is. I want the company to raise the money and build the machine - we will then all be very clear whether there is something of real value here or if it was just a mirage. But if the money isn’t raised we will all just sit in limbo.

So those commenting so far seem to feel the business is sound with good potential. There is then a question of how that potential is best realised. For myself, i like the way MM put it - the company should leverage the connections / expertise of the NEDs ( although i had assumed that’s what they had been doing ). I see the EV as reasonably supported by the developing Wood businesses at Lumberton - and in a year or two if things progress then there is potential for the EV to be underwritten by those activities. If that’s the case then CS Is now becoming the icing on the cake. As i said earlier- i don’t like the Placing price but it has thrown up opportunities to invest on the back of what i see as an improving investment case - with funding assuming the placing goes through. On that basis i bought another 500,000 yesterday at .635p ( shows as a sell at 3.30pm ). Can someone give me the downside case please? From what’s been written here i see the main risk is that the Placing is voted down.......

Thanks very much Guvnor. I don’t know the in’s and out’ of the more personal stuff here - from my perspective the business has moved forward significantly with MR and, to be fair, i guess those NEDs you mention came on board because of him / at his instigation? So he must have made some decent calls! Anyway - i am very interested in your view ( that i share ) that this could be a winning formula here.

I agree - dilution is a very big issue.

As for do we need the cash now. The RNS states pretty clearly that without the raise the machine will be delayed..... And i don’t understand why the BOD would go down the Placing route if there were better alternatives? That would be madness! So - i would love to hear what alternatives there are which have been missed.

As for being a mess - i can see this has been painful over quite a time. I have experienced the pain. But that’s why i am interested in the practical rather than the emotional........

Thanks. So you you think the business is actually better positioned now? Or that its not possible to say yet? I think Lumberton is a really substantive change.......

As for the vote - why would anyone rationally ( rather than emotionally ) vote against? I agree - i don’t like the price. But for me, this is the first time, in reality, that this machine can be built and we can really see if there is demand for the product. What is the alternative funding route?

I am a long only investor in AEG with a fairly substantial holding. I started investing a couple of years ago at prices between 2.5p and 0.4p. Unsurprisingly i am underwater. I have not posted before but i have been watching comments by others throughout my investment. It seems to me there’s way too much emotion around this stock ( maybe that’s normal for AIM - i don’t know ). That shows itself either in over-optimism and hope or in some fairly cynical / unpleasant personal comments. I am hoping to get some objective views on where we are - it would be interesting to me and, i hope, to others.

Here’s some headline thoughts on what I’ve seen.

Honestly - at the start of my investment i thought the Newfoundland thing sounded mad. How could a tiny company like this make money in a difficult place like that? I saw what Newfoundlander posted - whilst i didn’t much care for his tone, he was informed on the great difficulties of pulling something off there. Before this we had Ukraine - again a far off project in a difficult territory. And then we had the constant promises - i must admit i thought CS was more developed when i first invested....... Oh - and there was no sales, no profit, no cashflow and no money. So - not smart to invest then i think........

Where are we today? First they have a proper strategically positioned commercial base in the US - a place where you can do business - which they appeared to buy for a good price. And they have built a real business there from nothing in quite short order. And it looks like that simple business is pretty scaleable. Second they appear to have dropped the mad schemes of the past. Then it looks like they are much better at saying what they are going to do and then doing it: Delivering this license was a massive milestone for the company and then the price drops. Communication is a lot better - although i recognise the whole question of the original license / steam etc wasn’t perfect. And they have for the first time the ability and the funds to build a proper machine. As i said - they have / will have funds to execute the plan. I don’t like the placing price either BTW - but in my opinion you raise the funds when you can to deliver your plan.

So it’s interesting that the share price is 25% of when i stated to buy in. Some of that is dilution of course. But aren’t we invested in a far better company than existed 2 years ago. I think its incomparable.

Very interested in thoughtful views.

Good point.