Ben Richardson, CEO at SulNOx, confident they can cost-effectively decarbonise commercial shipping. Watch the video here.
This article mentions how Soy has a role in the evolving clean energy movement, with investments that support using soybean oil as a feedstock for biodiesel and renewable diesel in marine, rail and on-road applications. Biofuels are the largest industrial use for soybean oil and require investments to reach maximum potential.https://hoosieragtoday.com/indiana-usb-director-weighs-in-on-123m-budget-to-help-move-the-pile/------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saori™ is a seed treatment in soybeans for Asian soybean rust control.Uncontrolled, Asian rust can devistate crop yield by up to 90%.Saori™ kinda sells itself, especially if there's going to be a huge demand for Biofuel moving forwards.
This Edison research paper is a couple of years old but has some relevant macro data from the biotech sector.
I haven't seen it before and defo worth a read.
PHC is profiled among other companies with clickable links (towards the end of the paper).
https://www.edisongroup.com/investment-themes/agtech-feeding-a-growing-global-population/26102/
Forgive me stating the obvious as I see it.
Looks like a buy with duplicate reporting (time stamp, price & volume the same). Because price is the same, it’s probably not a rollover. I suspect one report is in error.
It’s a big position but less that 1% so probably a PI or director(s). Let’s see if there is a holding announcement tomorrow.
A director buy would be good for the SP.
AgriBusiness Global Magazine, July 20th, 2022.
A Look at the Biological M&A Market: Industry Expert CS Liew Discusses What Makes This Segment So Appealing?
ABG: Do you expect the rapid growth of biological products that we’ve seen the past several years to continue?
CSL: Absolutely!
Both biostimulants and biopesticides have double-digit CAGR prevailing. The Farm to Fork framework of the “European Green Deal” whereby they aim to reduce chemical pesticide usage by 50% by 2030 and at the same time reduce chemical fertilizers usage by 20%, is a significant driver of the continued growth.
The LATAM region is exporting more fresh produce to North America. African countries are doing the same for European consumers. The importers have zero tolerance for chemical pesticide residues and hence ensure that the farmers have to reduce their usage of chemical pesticides and hence increase the use of biological products and solutions.
ABG: You mentioned there are no (or very few) large (more than $100 million US) biological companies. Will there be and what would it take?
CSL: Science! More science and more R&D will drive product discovery and development. This in turn feeds and drives the market growth as mentioned earlier. In conjunction with that, clearer and more appropriate product registration pathways for biologicals will lead to several more companies in this sector hitting the $100 million annual sales turnover over the next 5 to 10 years.
Mergers and acquisitions within this sector over the next few years will also be a significant factor to drive the growth in sales turnover of the merged companies.
ABG: Do you see a time where the biological companies start M&A activity among themselves or is that already happening?
CSL: Yes, indeed!
As I mentioned earlier, there will be significant M&A activities in this sector. It will be mostly larger and cash-rich strategic investors, meaning major agchem companies that are already actively working on biological pesticides that will take over start-ups as well as those with a few years of good track record. Start-ups with promising technologies and products but short of resources to go global or to tackle registration and market development costs will be prime targets.
https://www.agribusinessglobal.com/markets/a-look-at-the-biological-ma-market-industry-expert-cs-liew-discusses-what-makes-this-segment-so-appealing/
https://www.**********.co.uk/articles/plant-health-care-shares-up-14-as-revenue-and-sales-soar-f05b2fa
[excerpt]
View from Vox
In H1 2022, Plant Health Care continued to see accelerated adoption of Harpin ??ß in large markets, including the US and Brazil. In South America sales soared 333%, driven by the introduction of Saori (PREtec-based) and strong demand for H2Copla (Harpin aß-based) from sugar cane processors. Nutrien, the Company's Saori distributor in Brazil, expects to treat 150,000 hectares of soybeans in 2022, expanding to more than 1 million hectares by 2025, driving $5m of revenue. Plant Health Care sees $10 million of potential sales of Saori and Harpin aß just in Brazil.
Plant Health Care has ambitious plans for its PREtec platform. After the Saori launch in Brazil, PRETec will be introduced in the US later this year. Following that mielestonee, the company expects at least one PREtec product launch in a major market every year, facilitated by its growing network of large global distributors.
The global market for biological products is growing at 12% per annum and is projected to reach US$19 billion by 2026. Since 2018, Plant Health Care has evolved its strategy from a focus on licensing its technology to major suppliers of agrochemicals, towards working with distributors. That strategy has paid off as today's results clearly show.
Plant Health Care's goal is to deliver $30m of sales in 2025, which is firmly on track with this update.
Investors cheered today's news and PHC shares soared c. 14% in early trading. Its shares have remained flat YTD, defying the broader downturn in equities. The company is well-funded with a $6.3m cash position to support future expansion. With steadily increasing orders, a growing network of suppliers and distributors, and currently high prices of agricultural commodities, Plant Health Care should deliver full-year results at minimum in line with expectations, and likely in excess of current expectations.
Jeff Tweedy had an optimistic outlook: "Even in current volatile economic conditions... we expect to see continued robust demand for our products in the second half of 2022. Over the longer term, sustainable agriculture is a growing sector. Farmers face many challenges, including the impacts of climate change such as drought and the need to work more sustainably. Our biological products produce better quality crops and deliver higher yield which means Plant Health Care is the ideal company to help farmers."
I like this bit
"Plant Health Care is well positioned to ride buoyant market conditions. Even in current volatile economic conditions globally markets, we expect to see continued robust demand for our products in the second half of 2022. Over the longer term, sustainable agriculture is a growing sector. Farmers face many challenges, including the impacts of climate change such as drought and the need to work more sustainably. Our biological products produce better quality crops and deliver higher yield which means Plant Health Care is the ideal company to help farmers."
In other words, despite the illogical share price, PHC is growing with a suite of safe and effective products and excellent market access. Hold on to your shares, this will multi-bag over the coming years IMO; patience required.
Thanks for the link nomlungu.
India and China are massive producers of rice. China is the world's largest producer of rice, with 207 million tons produced in 2014. China's average yield is around 6.5 tons per hectare, among the highest in Asia. India is the world's second-largest producer of rice, and the largest exporter of rice in the world. Production increased from 53.6 million tons in FY 1980 to 120 million tons in FY2020-21.
The below report, which is a few years old now (2018), shows that ProAct significantly increases rice yield, so China and India could be a massive market to expand. Patience required; hold tight.
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Plant Health Care (PHC) is a leading provider of patented, scientifically proven, biological products for agriculture, and its patented ProAct® is based on Harpin aß peptide that reduces abiotic stress and improves nutrient use efficiency. Since 2014, field trials conducted on over 30 rice varieties around the Mediterranean, have shown that ProAct® increases rice yields by an average of 10-17%, and improves grain processability as well. ProAct® is also easy to handle, transport and store. The product can be tank-mixed with most fertilizers and plant protection products, and applied with standard spray equipment. ProAct® can be stored at room temperature and has a shelf life of at least 2 years. In addition, the low application rate (150 g/Ha) leads to reduction on storage and transportation costs. (Source: PHC)
According to PHC, ProAct® is a key product for the company with sales growing steadily at a CAGR of 21% since 2013, reaching $4.8 million USD in 2017. Based on 2 sprays per year, a Return on Investment (ROI) is achieved where yields increase by over 160 Kg/ Ha. The yield improvements derived from ProAct® in rice (10-17%) therefore equate to a 5.5-8 times ROI. PHC currently targets Asian countries where rice is produced on 84 million hectares, 14 million hectares of which is intensively growing rice in China. PHC is aiming for a 5% market share of the Chinese intensive rice crop by 2023 (700,000 ha) achieving sales of $38m USD at grower level, producing 560,000 MT of extra yield with a value of $224m USD with a 6-fold ROI.
https://news.agropages.com/News/NewsDetail---28320.htm
https://theconversation.com/fertilizer-prices-are-soaring-and-thats-an-opportunity-to-promote-more-sustainable-ways-of-growing-crops-183418
"Panicked U.S. farmers facing daunting fertilizer prices are looking for options. In public comments on USDA’s fertilizer initiative, the Illinois Corn Growers Association urged the department to investigate why farmers apply fertilizers at levels higher than necessary, while others noted a shortage of agronomists sufficiently trained to guide farmers on how best to sustainably fertilize their crops."
"I believe now is an opportune time for USDA to offer incentives for adopting biologicals, as well as practices that organic farmers use to replace synthetic fertilizers, such as crop rotation, composting and raising crops and livestock together. A first step would be to deploy technicians who can advise farmers about sustainable practices and biological products. The department recently announced a new $300 million initiative to help farmers transition to organic production; this is the right idea, but more help is needed."
"The agency could also provide one-time payments to farmers in exchange for reducing their use of synthetic fertilizers, which would help to compensate them as they shift their production methods. In the longer term, I believe the USDA should develop new crop insurance tools to protect farmers from the risks of transitioning to more sustainable options. In my view, this kind of broad response would yield more value than a taxpayer-funded, status quo approach to synthetic fertilizers."
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Well that would help with the adoption of sustainable alternatives; roll on US licensing for PHC279.
Meanwhile the manic-depressive stockmarket needs a dose of sertraline.
nomlungu
I agree the share price is a rollercoaster, but every other aspect of the company is looking good, so I ignore the illogical price. It's also comforting to trace out the triangle on the quarterly period chart which dates back to 2017. The triangle completes in the next quarter, so a breakout is coming one way or another. I've been adding little bits as funds allow.
PHC products continue to be sold globally.
I wasn't aware that ProAct and a version of Saori called 'Messenger' were being sold in Africa by DuxAgri.
https://duxagri.com/
ProAct is being applied to roses with excellent effect on bud size.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reHWsDYFUg0
(Good job they don't apply it to venus flytraps, they'll eating small birds).
So, I attended the AGM at the Walkie-Talkie building. My take of the meeting and a couple of pointers.
Notable attendees were: Jeff Tweedy (who must be jet lagged after travelling to Brazil, through the US to the UK); Chris Richards, and Richard Webb. There were the usual support staff and a broker from Cenkos (I think). There were just two private investors including myself, apparently that’s two more than last year. So rather than the usual top table and rows of seats, we gathered around a boardroom table. So it was quite an open and pleasurable meeting where you almost felt part of the team, free to ask questions and make suggestions. Great views of London in the background too!
Directors and support staff were welcoming and once the voting was out of the way, their focus switched to chatting with shareholders. I got the impression that the directors get on as a team. They are all impressive, but I was particularly impressed with Jeff Tweedy who, from the answers he gave to questions, has excellent business instincts. The other directors are quick to credit his leadership and richly deserved promotion to Chief Executive Officer. Chris Richards and Richard Webb, also excellent.
I asked a number of pretty searching questions and Jeff and Chris did their best to answer candidly without overstepping. There were occasional snippets of information that I hadn’t heard or read before, but these will remain under my hat – since I made the effort to attend. It’s also not right to speculate without the full facts (which I don’t have).
Based on stuff we already know, it seems the board are preparing the interims and there will be a couple of interviews planned (‘Investor Meet Company’ and ‘Vox’). Oh, and I asked what would be the most important company news moving forwards to which Jeff said it would be achieving or exceeding targets. There is genuine confidence (palpable) of reaching profitability within current cash reserves.
In conclusion, this was one of the most pleasurable shareholder meetings I’ve attended. We have a great team running our company who are aligned with shareholder interests but also determined to make our company succeed. We have safe and efficacious agricultural products with an almost magical ability to transform crop yield; and they’re rolling out headlong into a global food crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Happy to be invested long-term here – good luck to them.
Highlight for me is production cost decrease for ProAct will improve profits for PHC and value for customers.
Also moves production to one place which is likely to result in other cost saving synergies. I expect PHC to be profitable ahead of 2025.
Well done BoD
Recent PHC interview about the use of H2Copla in Brazil. Put the auto translate on in the settings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UEe4THhvVs
[youtube.com - if needed]
Background on H2Copla
H2Copla, which contains Plant Health Care’s patented Harpin aß technology, is marketed and sold exclusively on sugarcane in Sao Paulo state by Coplacana since 2018. Plant Health Care’s Harpin aß technology has been extensively tested in sugarcane in Brazil and in other parts of the world and provides consistent yield increases. H2Copla works by improving sugarcane’s plant vigor, resulting in increased yields, potentially as much as 10 MT per hectare or 12% for the grower*. H2Copla has a very favorable human and environmental safety profile.
There’s not many shares in free float, won’t take much for this to catapult upwards. We’re waiting for the US license, that’ll be the catalyst. Hold tight for two years and this will multibag. In the meantime, try to stop looking at the share prices everyday - which can be illogical.
There’s a big changing of the guard going on right now, selling is being snapped up.
Just finished watching the conference Webinar with Jeff Tweedy.
As always, it’s the Q&A that’s most revealing. Even Jeff Tweedy was keen to get there.
Jeff mentioned that the potato fertilizer mentioned on the slides is part of the PreTec platform and uses PreTec products (so maybe something different to the ProAct Fertilizer combo already in use). In addition he mentioned that AGRII already sell ProAct for potatoes in the UK and that AGRII also distribute products to Poland which grows 10x the amount of UK potatoes. So, there's untapped(?) sales potential in Poland also.
Nice to hear Jeff repeat what Chris Richards said about not needing further shareholder capital with the company able to grow organically (seemed very confident that profitability is coming in the next year or two).
I was surprised that Jeff mentioned how busy the Bio-stimulant space is with plenty of M&A activity (unprompted as I remember). He mentioned that the company continues to keep an eye on corporate events in the sector and that PHC was an attractive proposition given its proven products and unrivalled global access to the market. Thus Jeff sees PHC as more of a TO target then.
Jeff was asked what the company means when it says it wants to show 'returns' to investors for previous £25m input. Apparently 'returns' means future share price growth.
China Harpin production will be moving to Europe at some point.
The presentation was short and sweet. Jeff Tweedy answered all the questions openly and honestly in my view (always appreciated).
Fundamentals look good so it's a waiting game over the next 2-3 years.
GLA
ps: I asked the company if they could provide some ProAct samples for investors attending the AGM. Not heard back on this.
If you look at the quaterly bar chart over the last 5 years there's a lovely triangle forming.
Trace the triangle top from Q3 2017
Trace the triangle bottom from Q1 2020
The triangle ends in the next quarter, and you know what they say: The longer the triangle takes to form, the bigger the breakout.
In the meantime we ride out these BS shareprice wobbles as rich sharks fill the seats vacated by wavering plebs. Nice 500k buy reported late. Like no-one noticed yeah? Volume building, hold fast peeps.
Couldn't tell you where, but I thought PHC were working on a fertilizer/ProAct mix. I note there is no registeration or launch required which suggests ProAct.
Developing a product which reduces the use of fertilizer (given the cost) and combines with an established PHC product seems like a smart move.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/plant-health-care-plc-present-145200996.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAI8nzCZ0mIdSwpd4IAXhzG-5cI5DYK5hJpesY6jWAqs8qnF_LLTHZRhBRbki8t_dtXtkQ6-P9aFBm6_lpRHh-OSLPUfdTRKl3p-o7HAfXNQMxsD9oQ1oObOTBrCCNU-L5KVCT51MUKMThFLAYZ05U2h1a2iu0NymMJd8fu5zIiwk
............ finance.yahoo.com ................. (if you need to insert this)
Company Description
Plant Health Care is a leading provider of biological products, helping farmers to feed the world sustainably. The company shares are listed both in the UK and in the USA. Plant Health Care's core patented products act as "vaccines for plants", making plants healthier, better able to resist disease and stress, thereby improving crop yield and quality. Plant Health Care's Commercial business is driven by sales of Harpin aß, a recombinant protein which acts as a powerful biostimulant, promoting the yield and quality of crops. Sales of the Group's Harpin product increased by 55% in 2021, as market shares grew in core markets; the Commercial business is profitable and cash generative. Plant Health Care's PREtec (Plant Response Elicitor Technology) platforms are generating numerous promising products. The Group is currently focusing on three products targeting very large market opportunities with a value of more than $5 billion. These products are currently under evaluation with six potential commercial partners. The Group also continues to evaluate further candidate products from its robust pipeline of development candidates for additional crops and indications.