Gordon Stein, CFO of CleanTech Lithium, explains why CTL acquired the 23 Laguna Verde licenses. Watch the video here.
Kalan, focus is on the oil and gas collaboration from June, linked to the 12kg order. Seems likely to get news on that in the next month or so. There are other US collaborations too. They did RNS BP Polymers (not linked to BP). In the US don’t underestimate the advantage VRS have in being the only certified Graphene producer - US companies will want the real thing, given how litigious they are no sane company will risk using uncertified Graphene/graphite.
Hi Kalan,
On your two points I wouldn’t worry too much about market cap to net assets. VRS is valued on its potential, not its historical performance. If you have doubts over the potential of Graphene then I wouldn’t invest. If you feel it’s got enormous potential and VRS are clear market leader, as I do, then take a view on this future potential.
In terms of cash I think the management team have been pretty clear in interviews that there is plenty of cash for 15 months + from Sep19.
To fund expansion of the business there are two possible Chinese strategic investors that seem keen to invest to secure c15% of the business at a premium to current share price. I don’t think you’ll see the classic discounted placing from VRS.
This could still be a few months away from agreement but it seems to be on track.
You should read the AGM statement and interim results statement to get the latest on this.
Given the recent share price performance it seems a great time to invest. If VRS has been on your radar a lower risk approach might be to drip feed purchases over the next few months rather than opt for all now or all in 6 months.
Hope that helps.
The China 'news' is promising and in line with the AGM statement - I take it this is why they haven't RNS'd it today. Given the recent share price drop I think it's worth remembering that no news is not the same as bad news. VRS is by far my largest holding and I never have any doubts over this. They are yet to release any bad news. Every RNS is a re-enforcement of their long term strategy. I'm pretty sure when they do RNS the next China update it will further demonstrate they are delivering on this long term strategy.
It is refreshing to have a management team so clearly focussed on the long term development of the business rather than chasing short term revenue/profit opportunities to make headlines but distract from the long term (and normally much greater) opportunity.
Just hold and watch this one play out.
and both major Chinese Aerospace firms too.
Share price is just volatility from trading and nothing for long term holders to worry about. As soon as any major contract from this list drops we'll pick up, including BIGT.
I don’t think Neill can win here. If the language is really positive people say he’s being too over excited and delivery becomes an issue against over ambitious announcements. If it’s measured language people say it reads as negative and we’re in trouble. Fact is that the other areas are all progressing well, textiles and concrete in particular. China deal is progressing but still feels a little way off and they’re having to update due to previous over ambitious time lines. With most companies you wouldn’t get to hear about any of the progress steps, just when the deal is announced. Sounds like textiles contract will be the next RNS (apart from the AGM resolutions passed RNS).
Unfortunately I can’t get to the AGM as I’m no win Berlin for a few days. Any reports from the day would be greatly appreciated. Of course, graphene is never far away and whilst browsing the BA business life magazine, September issue, on the plane out there was an article on the next 100 years of flight and part way through a page or so on graphene!
“While many of the technologies being mooted in aviation’s future have digital DNA, the tech that will enable air travel to make the leap into the 22nd century will depend not just on ones and zeros but also on a mastery of new materials – ones to cope with the sizzling heat generated by travelling at Mach 5+ and to protect passengers from the deep freeze of outer space. And ones that are lightweight to save fuel and recyclable at the end of the aircraft’s service life, to conserve resources.
The past 100 years have demonstrated that the deployment of successive generations of more capable materials is key to advancing the operational performance of aircraft…. And if you’re wondering how BA’s 787 can fly 14 hours non-stop it’s because aviation is now in the Carbon Composite Age. Composites in the 787 shave 20% off its weight compared to its metal predecessor. But, in the next 100 years of flight, it’s looking as if we’ll be in the age of 2D materials, with graphene leading the way….
‘We’re working with the aerospace sector, looking at how graphene and other 2D materials might be incorporated.’ Says James Baker, CEO of Graphene@Manchester...’near term there are many opportunities, such as adding graphene into rubber to make the aircraft’s tyres last longer. Over the next 5-10 years we’ll use graphene in passenger seating and in the aircraft’s non-structural elements. Adding graphene into manufacturing processes reduces cure time, which lowers costs and improves productivity…. If we can add graphene to carbon fibre instead of using 7 layers of carbon fibre for a wing we can maybe do it with 4, reducing weight, cost, improving aircraft range and fuel efficiency.’
‘Looking further forward, things get really exciting when, as well as making wings lightweight, we can stop them absorbing water when they fly through clouds, making the aircraft more efficient because it isn’t carrying the water that’s absorbed by conventional composites. Beyond that, things get more revolutionary. By exploiting graphene’s thermal management properties, instead of having a heavy, expensive de-icing system, we can channel heat from the engine through the graphene enhanced wings to de-ice them in flight.’
Even further into the next 100 years timeline, though Baker says it’s too early to say when this will happen, he sees graphene being used for the aircraft’s lightning strike protection and says that a graphene wing could, conceptually, be used for electricity storage and potentially act as a supercapacitor enabling aircraft to deploy a burst of energy when required, during take-off and climb.
Hope people find that int
If there was going to be a profit warning for FY19 they would have had to issue it by now. Any Board has to issue a warning as soon as it is apparent to management. For a HY ending June they know the numbers by now.
It is possible that they are at the lower end of concensus but I don’t see that they could be more than 5% off the concensus numbers.
Share price will be driven by both the outlook and any evidence of organic revenue growth I believe.
I was disappointed they didn’t issue a trading update in July, which I had interpreted as the numbers being soft. Waiting for the official results will let them get more of the integration complete and offer areas to focus the future outlook and opportunities on.
Ultimately it’s never clear cut with this company, could go either way!!
Hopefully Berenberg will be more active researching and promoting the business. Would be good to see a broker note and forecasts for the business. Never been able to get hold of a copy of the Canaccord note that supposedly went out in March/April.
Yes, great to see it going public. Amazed anyone is selling any shares. Many more similar positive releases to come. I’m sure at some stage there will be a setback but no hint of anything but further strong news flow over the coming weeks.
Very happy with my holding here.
Agree with that Franco. Only other but I would add is that to me it appears that TW just wants to publish his views and not have them challenged. Most CEOs are remote and view shareholders as getting in the way of their lifestyle. One thing I like about VRS is Neill’s engagement with shareholders generally and that he is happy to challenge the negative stuff. I put that down to him having the best long term interests of the business and shareholders in mind.
The fact that all TW’s rubbish gets challenged is a pleasing irritant, one which TW can’t move on from.
I’m pretty sure every shareholder bought in not because of the historical revenues and losses but the future potential of the business. This you cannot value by simple accounting ratios as TW and his cronies only seem capable of doing.
Interesting tweet from Neill a few hours ago. Trying to get same terms for IIs and PIs. Didn’t realise he might be trying to get any IIs on board.
Also he had previously been saying PIs wouldn’t want to be involved as strike price would be above market price. That was when we were at 90-95p.
I’m hopeful that we’ll get a 15-20% premium for bigt taking such a large holding.
Not long to wait.
Looks like something either about to go horribly wrong there or the management team want to buy the company. Just hope it isn’t us buying them and not tying the management team in given Neill’s recent comments on M&A activity!
Capt, I was one of those with Arm. Bought early pre share split at the equivalent of 40p. Thought I’d done brilliantly when sold out at £1.20!!
I’m later to the party with VRS, avg of £1, but determined not to make the same mistake again and will hold a significant stake for a very long time.
Aiming to chuck in working in 4 years and hope this will help that become a reality, got just over 700k shares in the Sipp. Far too heavy a weighting but in the do not touch drawer for 12 months as a minimum as I can’t find a better prospect. Will need some boring income stocks at some point.
Agree Aqua, plenty more news coming before the BIGT news by the looks. Every piece of news remains clearly on a positive trajectory. Of course we'd all like big orders but it is worth remembering that with a new product development lifecycle of c3 years and all our collabs being less than 2 years people shouldn't expect material revenues for at least another 12 months. They will come though and be very significant in my view.
It remains the nearest company to resemble ARM and that got taken out for £24bn! Listed in 1998 acquired in 2016. It's designs went up 10 fold in 5 years from 1998 and by 300 fold in the period up to acquisition.
Once the pipeline starts producing for VRS the revenues will grow very quickly and over a sustained period.
Agree fish, I can't find a better share at the moment to be in that should perform over the next 3-5 years. I'll hold certainly for this period though will no doubt take some profits at some stage (though not before £3). This week has been very enjoyable. Normally when I boost my holding in a company materially the price tanks. The 460k bought since 1st May at £1.04 average looking good tonight though.
At the AGM the Finn cap guy said there may not be a July trading update as they put info in to the post Uber update which they obviously weren’t planning to do!
I agree, a good update with clear progress over the year and post year end.
What a business can't do is rewrite history and when you compare the comments on each of the CAs from Jul18 and Dec18 it is clear that none have been quietly dropped off, all are still present. All demonstrate clear progress (apart from Sky/Ineos) with the older ones showing the most progress. If you bear in mind many have talked about 3-5 years to get new products to market the oldest of these CAs is not quite 2 years. The progress is impressive.
I'm sure the company will never be able to progress at the rates we'd all like but demonstrable progress is clear and the revenues and profits will come here and build quickly I suspect.
Yes I'd like to see more detail on the key 5 areas, sales, margins etc but am prepared to trust the management to deliver here. If we'd seen CAs dropping off that would have been a red flag.
VRS will not have a monopoly on graphene, it's going to be a hugely competitive market that will sustain a number of competitors given likely market growth. The fact they continue to reach agreements with major global companies and not seem to get any competitors encroaching on their space is testament to the quality of this business.
Quality businesses will survive and thrive in growth markets. Onwards an upwards from here.
Agreed, few companies anywhere on the stock market seem to have such a clear strategy, well communicated to shareholders, and then deliver against that strategy in such a planned and meticulous way. Further evidence that Neill and the team know what they're doing to create a major company for the long term. This looks more and more like the next ARM, building to a multi billion market cap company.