Member Info for fatherelmer

Krispy, as you say plenty to like (at last) though the plant is actually about 3 years late and 3 times over budget....
Hopefully the next update will resolve the financing and that it may also contain some more detailed production and sales news. Would be especially nice if this were to happy at around / just before year end to fit in with the previously mentioned quarterly reporting.

Fossiebeer, this was the obvious first step from Zimbabwe (and personally long overdue) we know from the time the licences were issued (back in late September) that a number of domestic, and international, routes were awarded, and today's RNS also hinted at this by suggesting further routes in 2020 (hopefully early in the year).
There is also, potentially, a South African launch in 2020 (using the FedAir AOC).

Weave, I'm as intrigued as everyone else as to what occurred in China last week, and what it all means.
The items (both now and previously) that I am talking about relate to something else, that may be as significant in it's own way.

From looking at the booking engine, for now, it looks like BUQ-JNB will be the first of the new routes, though no start dates are obvious.

I guess the company want to control news release as it may be linked with some other news (that I can only speculate about - though if I'm correct I think we'll all be quite happy about it).
The end of year timescale that I mention by the way is my guesstimate and shouldn't be used to 'beat up' VRS or NR if it doesn't come to pass by then.

Hi Max, I could also tease with some imminent news that I found on the net (but having done so previously for something similar, and being asked by NR to stop talking about it) I'm not going to say anything more apart from it should all become clearer before year end.
This is different to the news BurtonS is referring to which relates to an article (with photo and video) from the Chinese press last Friday which has a certain Mr Christopher Leigh, front and centre, at a signing / launch ceremony for Graphene Incubation Hubs.

The other point I forgot to mention, and always comes up relates to the childish 'mines better than yours' claims about Graphene.

The point is both sides are both right AND wrong at the same time...

- not all Graphene(s) are the same
- the standards bodies have allowed a wide range of materials to be termed as Graphenes (which is not really as helpful as it should be)
- verification processes only confirm that you produce what it says you do
- due to the wide variety, within the standards, many companies can, and do legitimately, claim to produce Graphenes
- some Graphenes are easier, and cheaper, to produce than others
- all Graphene(s) have different properties (some beneficial, some not)
- the key is how they are applied / functionalised

All of the above-mentioned, therefore, make comparison between companies, Graphenes and end products difficult, if not pretty meaningless.

I see the dearth of news (or more correctly the 'right type' of news) has brought out all the gloom and doom merchants on the other board. It has to be said that they are quite clever in the points that they raise, as the newsflow, to date, does allow them to raise plausible doubts, which they want you to refute with facts (not that they themselves really have any). Some of their favourites are as follows:

- Copper Foam business is a disaster, yet in 2018 Versarien Technologies Ltd had sales of ca £1.2m and this is without a sales focus
- The company only spends ca £400k on R&D
- The sales of Graphene(s) are limited

I'll take these two together, the Company has said that they don't give Graphene(s) away all are sold to support the various Collaboration Agreements. Have they thought through that perhaps they are sold at little above cost in exchange for a share of the IP that is done by the Partner (thus showing partly why, along with University links) R&D spending appears so low?

Also Graphene(s) sales may be masked by Inter-company sales to make Graphink or Polygrene - where these are probably also close to cost price.

Another favourite is BIGT and the fact that either it doesn't exist because it has no discrete web presence of its own or that no deal was signed by the time of the AGM. In terms of the AGM they conveniently forget that the reason for that date being mentioned was that the resolutions (from the previous AGM) that allowed for share issuance expired at the next one, hence if it could be done in time then the Board already had authority to do it, was only a procedural nicety, as a similar resolution was passed to cover the next 12 months.

Would I like the share price to be higher yes, but such is life, and the current malaise is as much to do with Brexit and Global Markets / Economies as it is with VRS progress (or not).

In terms of SP, one of the ADVFN posters is always saying that he wants a Takeover but never quotes what he considers a fair value / take out price, I wish he would so that when the SP crosses his rubicon he'll be gone.

They also claim that there are plenty of other Graphene producers out there (all producing, and selling, in significantly greater volumes than VRS). This is true (to a degree) eg DCTA, XGS, NANO, FGR yet rather than investing in these companies they insist they are in VRS, or focus their ire only upon VRS, if they believed what they spouted they'd invest in these companies instead and leave VRS alone, but for some reason they can't - unless they are shorters something just doesn't add up.

Rant over - have a good weekend all.

Whatever happened to the final $2m due from SPMP for the IP??

I guess by screwing up the operation of the plant - how late, and over budget, is it now? - they had no cash to pay what was owed.

….of any type with this morning's RNS.

Mozambique was always marginal and with the entry of Ethiopian always looked doomed to me.

Strategy now has to be, as really it always has / should've been, is to become a stable, growing, profitable company in a single country / market and grow outward from their rather than trying to set up multiple operations simultaneously. FJET are just too small to compete with government backed / supported opponents such as ATCL, EQ, AK.

Good to see things moving in the right direction - though those improvements took 2 months! - hopefully the next announcement will include some actual revenue......as without that this SP is not going to move much (IMHO). Based upon the two months timescale (and that the company has stated Q1 next year for 50% throughput) hopefully this announcement will be a nice Christmas present.

https://www.britishplastics.co.uk/materials/versarien-pioneers-robust-graphene-enhanced-polymers-for-lar/

quercursrobor, the point is there is more money going in, though this time not from the shareholders, hence my point about increasing debt load (and the ensuing change to the profit profile of the project affecting future dividends).

I also agree that there are teething problems will projects such as this, however the delays, and increased expense to date, and on-going issues as expressed in the RNS appear to me to be much more than just teething problems but rather have required large scale redesign. Remember the plant is already 2 years late and at least double the original budget.....

OsakaKobe, I agree with you lots NOT to like in that RNS - yet more money required, another year lost (must be up to about 3 in total now). Any dividends will be now well into the future (if at all, given the ever increasing debt load). It would be nice to have some positive news for a change.

Given all the faults in the design / implementation I hope Worley Parsons (as I think they were the consulting engineers / project managers) have good Professional Indemnity Insurance as a claim wouldn't surprise me.....

The Interim's are due either tomorrow or on Monday and so hopefully we'll get some form of update then.....

Brassneck, people also need to understand that the reason for the 'original' BIGT deadline (and the fact that the amount was up to 15%) was that this was what the company was authorised to do at last years AGM, and that this authority expired today. It is also why one of the motions proposed was in effect to (re)authorise the same again (for another 12 months).

The company only had authority to issue up to 15% of it's equity, this expired today (hence the original predicted BIGT deadline) and why one of the motions to be passed, at today's AGM, was to (re)authorise the company to issue up to 15% of it's equity again, at any point over the next 12 months (ie until the next AGM). To seek to issue more than the authorised 15% would require then an EGM.

All seem very tourism orientated (apart from BUQ-JNB) which is no bad thing though it would've been nice to see some other routes that were not so reliant upon tourism such as CPT, DUR.

Suspect they would also require another aircraft to pull this all off. I guess time will tell, though it will be nice to see the route map filling up once again.

I wonder if there is / are any options for Mozambique too (eg MPT-JNB or MPT-HRE)?

https://atcnews.org/2019/08/28/zimbabwe-civil-aviation-authority-grants-more-regional-routes-to-fastjet-z/amp/?fbclid=IwAR1uaW7SogWVaRsSiAg6cwJvIIKY5EfrIltKMgQT8kkB1zGyOoSUKLPJSZM&__twitter_impression=true

Maun, Krueger and Kili in addition to increased frequencies on other routes, with Vic Falls as a hub. Be interesting to see how quickly this all comes to pass.

fjetcrazy, about time they plied that route - the interesting thing about the story for me was the hint that other (regional?) destinations had also been approved......I wonder what they are?

Also nothing on the Fastjet website about the new route (or any others) yet.