Member Info for dustofnations

Golly, Manu's style of dripping sarcasm is rather reminiscent of Kempster, isn't it. Hi, Tim, been a while! Guess he forgot which persona he was using when he claimed to be a LTH this time, having previously purported to be a recent joiner on the same account.

Lots of insightful posts today. It's really the case that we've been provided the company with the best possible chance of executing, and it's up to them now.

They have the money,
They have the projects,
They have the luck (for once, they were in the right place at the right time with the institutional fundraising),
They have the local agents/presences
They have marine
They've had the enduring support of private investors for well over a decade when others didn't believe
They have a technology in both MSAR and bioMSAR that is in the right place at the right time
They have the regulatory advantage (re: health-affecting pollutants & carbon)
And the covid situation is starting to get under control in the territories they are working in...

So, I don't see how they have any reason *not* to execute.

Yes, they are operating under the usual 'QFI calendar' that seems to have a few extra months in it that we're not aware of. Slovember, Slugcember, T'othertober, etc, ;-).

But you get the point. As always the risk is high with any pre-commercial AIM company, and I would never recommend my friends or family risk their money on AIM, but I certainly see the pipeline is making progress that appears to be pushing us towards where we need to be.

Anyway, let's see what they finally tell us... Hopefully no more bizarre surprises.

Tuckman, completely agree.

We do need an update soon, though. Even if it's just a "everything is going fine" holding message. We've all grown accustomed to QFI sailing past timeline guidance, but at a certain point we still need a bit of insight into what's going on across the portfolio.

As, I think likely very accurately pointed out by others, QFI's level of silence on the key topics suggests to me that something is rumbling away in the background. Securing supply seems the most likely reason, but given QFI's propensity to surprise even the most seasoned amongst us, I don't want to stick my neck out!

Certainly people are happy to be patient for now (including me).

As a preface, I think we need to wait for the end Ramadan and Eid celebrations. Evening of 13th May is the official end date, but as I understand it, it'll be a few more days at least before 'business as usual' resumes (if that phrase can ever be used during Covid). Maybe those who have conducted business in muslim-majority countries can comment on this.

If I had to guess, the bottleneck will simply be the ability to access the site. There are the obvious ever-changing government restrictions, but the biggest one is that client must be comfortable with our guys travelling out there onto their site.

From JM's comments, the location for the industrial trial was selected because it's more remote and less dense with employees. So all indications are that they are on board but I'm not sure what the exact timings will be.

May be some slight delays with how busy sea shipping is, but I reckon that should be pretty simple.

I'm certainly hoping we'll get an update soon, especially on MSC LONO and fuel supply.

Some good questions here, but unfortunately we have not got enough info to answer them with any certainty.

I would *guess* QFI don't want to manufacture the fuel excessively far in advance as Power MSAR does have a limited lifespan (it is tuned by design to keep costs low and optimise combustion properties). Typically you don't expect something for a power application to hang around for months and months in containers!

By comparison, Marine MSAR has proven years of stability if desired. But it's got more surfactants and polymers, so it's more expensive to manufacture.

My guess would be that QFI will manufacture the fuel when they have a clear timeline for accessing the site. For example, it's trivial for them to ensure Power MSAR retains peak quality for a few weeks or a month.

As pointed out correctly by another poster, the full-size MMUs can produce 1k tpd. So they could churn out the required fuel in short order, I think the greater challenge is to get the logistics organised for the ISOTANKs, shipping, transport to site, access to country and site, starting the trials, etc.

My opinion is that we will not be bottlenecked by fuel production, anyway.

I realise that doesn't answer the question directly (i.e. an "it depends" answer). But hopefully a logical way to think about the situation.

That is my understanding also. The numbers quoted for Morocco only include the existing agreed applications of MSAR. There are a wide array of additional applications within the company and within the country should these trials be successful.

Initial workloads are predominantly drying/calcinating. But future applications in Morocco could include power plants (grid and remote), cement manufacture, rock crushing, etc.

BarkingCrazy -- MK has been asked about this one before, and forward selling is explicitly forbidden in their contract with Bergen. So the first shares on the market should genuinely be at the admission date mentioned in the RNS.

Higher quality finance wasn't available to us at the time the initial Bergen deal was struck, and they helped underpin the fundraising-before-last. We wouldn't have made it to the nice position we are in today without their money. This second tranche was taken as insurance in case the recent raise did not progress as successfully as it did; I agree tranche 2 seems unnecessary in retrospect, but given what they knew at the time it wasn't insane. I still would have preferred not!

I think you can make arguments that they should have done alternatives, but we should present credible alternatives rather than just saying "it's rubbish".

To be clear, this type of finance and financiers are fundamentally usurious, but Bergen are better-than-average operators for this type of finance (really!).

Of course, I am very very glad to see them gone and our balance sheet cleaned up! But it's important to be clear about why it happened.

You can faintly hear the sound of a flushing lavatory in the distance.

Thanks for your excellent contribution on this topic Crusader5, I must admit I was not very familiar with this relatively obscure aspect of company accounting. Your worked example was very helpful.

And I hope you'll keep contributing!

For those more inclined to use LinkedIn, here's the corresponding QFI announcement on there - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/quadrise-international-ltd_qfi-maritime-shipping-activity-6790928154723672064-Cp1R

There is some kind of server issue with tapatalk; you can retry at the normal address over the course of the day - I'm sure they'll fix it fairly quickly. Seems to be working intermittently.

Sometimes it redirects you to an error page that will show the same failure message even if you refresh - make sure the normal forum address is in the address bar.

Demon_G -- Agree re: strategic thinking. Cathal's role isn't to worry about day-to-day fluctuations of the market, but instead to maximise return for shareholders in combination with the best outcome for staff, etc. That may mean that we don't get a blockbuster DIM deal imminently; a more slow-paced process, including launch, promotion, and various negotiations is likely to give us a better result long term (plus, more slow-and-steady SP increases).

I know that doesn't quite provide the endorphin hit, but it's a sound business strategy and probably better for the heart and nerves anyway!

Oh, and they finally added instant bank transfers/top-ups, which was really irritating me before where it took hours to appear from your bank into your corresponding brokerage acct. On occasion I used II when I wanted to move on something fairly quickly when I'd have preferred to use FT; that should be simpler now.

I've found Freetrade great. If you use the 'Plus' platform it unlocks a wider range of stocks and trading options in addition to including ISA; and standalone ISA fees are very reasonable if you don't need the plus stuff (£3). I'm a long holder so it suits me fine. Freetrade also has a much tighter spread on forex than most other brokers (with the notable exception of IB, which sadly does not offer an ISA).

Interactive investor, my current broker in addition to Freetrade, is absolutely abysmal on forex (1.5% fee that scales back progressively for larger amounts). It's a shame, because UK investors tend to invest in overseas markets less than they should because of forex costs.

The downside of FT is that it doesn't support more complex stuff (e.g. if you have participated in a raise that gives you some warrants) and is phone app-only. Execution speed hasn't been an issue for the trades I've done, so I can't really weigh in on that area.

If you're an investor, then a lock-in period really should not seem onerous.

Especially in fresh and early-stage AIM companies "share flipping" (often by institutions) is a huge cause of volatility both in SP and sentiment. Lock-ins help prevent that sort of nonsense. I'm perfectly happy to be held to that same high standard as Cathal, and demonstrate to the market that this is not a flash in the pan to grab some cash, but a serious investment opportunity.

AIUI, they could air freight the samples -- I don't know whether they will, as it will depend on how much they want to send as to whether it makes sense. Heavy oil/bitumen samples are usually not considered a huge risk as it has a very high flash point and ignition temp. SGS are the go-to people for air freighting these kinds of potentially hazardous substances.

If we decide to remain on AIM, FTSE AIM 100 and FTSE AIM UK 50 are also possibilities. Similar benefits apply, albeit certainly less widely used.

At that point, one would also hope that CF would also reconsider a Nasdaq listing. But, we shall see.

Some companies are now not bothering to move to the main market any more, preferring the lower cost and regulatory base of AIM (e.g. ASOS, Fevertree, Draper Esprit, etc) - and that decent indexes are available on AIM these days (see above).

It's an argument we should be glad to have if/when it comes to that time.

Food for thought: it is also worth considering that if we continue on this upward trajectory we'll ultimately get ourselves onto the FTSE250 index. Excluding a few outliers that are likely to be evicted shortly due to severe negative performance, we're looking at around £400-450M market cap to get onto the bottom of the list.

Some consistency over time and other gate checks are required before we get onto it, but mcap is a primary factor.

That would change the game for Open Orphan, as many more 'boring but stable and huge' funds would invest in the company, with many index trackers they would be required to purchase ORPH.

So, if things continue as CF is anticipating that should be eminently achievable and a very clear and notable milestone.

You can suspend certain solids in emulsions, that's one of the major tricks that Quadrise can pull off with their surfactant package.

If you consider that many of the fossil residues are solid below 150C, they are likely in a solid-like state when suspended in the emulsion at room temperature. The magic of MSAR is that they are able to stabilise these fuels and stop the various phases separating out, whilst ensuring a good distribution of particles that are resistant to swaying and sedimentation (especially in marine that needs long period of stability). They use secondary surfactants and a kind of 'gelling' polymer to achieve that (see the QRF article I wrote some time go).

So, I wouldn't rule it out.