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Held these a few years ago and clearly got in far too early. However, considering recent progress I've been following the story more closely again as I believe there is huge potential for the technology offering.
Today's news has convinced me to take a position again and I can see this moving through current resistance and surpassing 1p over the next few days.
If that happens, it's anyone's call where the next resistance point will come from for the share price.
Having said that, there are no guarantees so DYOR before buying any shares!
Sewing - have thought this several times in the past, there must be charts showing market cap as opposed to share price?! Not had the time to search properly, anyone know of a good site for this?
When we reached 14p I believe our SP was north of £250mil - anyonanyone able to confirm?
Also the psychological barrier of £200 mil market cap will be tested at c.5.95p.
Similarly to the £100 mil level, consolidating above 6p will open up the potential for many more funds to consider investing in SEE where their minimum valuation criteria is £200mil.
There are a few minor points of potential resistance or stumbling blocks at c. 6.5p, 7.5p and 10.5p but nothing significant between current price and highs of c.14p from June 2018.
If SEE can build on this current momentum by confirming significant deals in Auto, Fleet and/or Aviation in the coming days/weeks we could see a test of these levels quite rapidly in my opinion.
I wasn't able to make the event last year and was very grateful to those who shared their observations and discussions, so it was only fair for me to return the favour!
I have to say Aviation is the area where my excitement has risen the most. It appears that all options are on the table for the licensing deal and I suspect we will see some very significant news in the next few months. The potential in the consoles market is enormous and when you consider Pat's comments re: the number of people around the world sat at a desk monitoring critical equipment, the sky really is the limit!
Nice to meet you Robbiefalcon!
So they've added roughly 34.3 million shares at a cost of c. £1.6mil and there's no sign of them beinf finished yet. Maybe they will continue to build their holding all the way up to 19.99% to avoid having to make an offer for the whole company under Aussie rules......
Does anyone know if they attended on Wednesday or did anyone get to talk to them if they did?
Me – Am I right Pat in thinking you said in your presentation that the pictures for the 3 markets in Aviation were sized according to the opportunity i.e. Simulators the smallest, then Planes and Consoles/ATC being the biggest?
PN – Yes that’s exactly right. See Naomi, someone was listening! There’s a large opportunity in sims with c.4,000 in use worldwide and 120-140 new sims manufactured each year. We’re pursuing both the new sims and the retrofit into existing modules. We’re now seeing the pull from OEMs and flag carriers who have our tech in new sims wanting it retrofitted into their existing sims. Also 800k+ new pilots needed over next 20 creates a huge opportunity for us in pilot training, but we’re not looking to take on these opportunities alone as it doesn’t make sense at this time.
These sims are almost identical to the planes themselves so once we’ve cracked the sims market we can almost lift and shift the tech into planes. The tech needs to be robust to deal with turbulence etc in sims but not to the extent of the Off-road tech, although we’re leveraging our learning with Caterpillar in these markets. The only difference in sims is you may see the use of some double-sided sticky tape, it’s amazing what you can do with it!
As for consoles and ATC, the opportunity is so much bigger than just deploying in the actual ATC towers. If you think about the increasing traffic over the next decade or 2, that puts enormous strain on the control personnel. But think about how many people around the world are sitting at a desk monitoring critical equipment. That’s the size of the opportunity.
I saw Mike again briefly as we were being ushered out (the event overran massively) and he referered to our conversation in the morning, checking that I had got what I wanted from the event. Although I didn't get to talk to Paul or Tim, or any of the senior management team, I was more than happy with the time I was afforded by the company. There are several challenges ahead for Paul and the team, but I feel more confident than ever that the future for SEE is very bright.
Despite missing the lunch, I left feeling very satisfied and impressed with the efforts of the team on the day. More importantly though, the changes that have been made over the last year and the progress in Auto, Fleet and Aviation make me really excited to remain invested and add to my holding when possible.
NDF also spoke very positively about the changes Paul has made and mentioned that the board meetings are now far more structured and productive. “I was getting quite frustrated a while ago, board meetings felt confused, everyone needs to know what they’re responsible/accountable for. A board that tries to micro-manage is a very bad thing. We had a board meeting 2 days ago, no yesterday, which was really positive. We now have regular Town Hall meetings and Paul takes every single person in the business through the numbers which is key. You wouldn’t want people working on the product without an understanding of what we’re trying to achieve or the key targets.”
Someone asked Nick about progress with BdMS but I can’t remember too much detail about his answer other than the units are much more expensive than a standard DMS unit. Perhaps seeingtom will remember more detail.
(I had a brief chat with seeingtom and then approached Pat Nolan and ended up getting him and Naomi to myself for a while.)
I asked Pat the question about licensing options and splitting the simulator (sims) market by Civil, Military, etc
PN: “In many ways an Exclusive deal with a large player would be great, it’s simple and it would bring in a significant amount of cash up-front. But we don’t have to go down that route. Ultimately we want the best deal for Seeing. That’s part of what Naomi will be doing now is modelling the various options to help us understand the structure that works best for us. There’s a lot of interest from several players in the simulator space and we are keeping all options on the table.”
When I played back to Pat and Naomi the comments made by the Fund Manager and Analyst from Tetton fund re: Reputation and Consistency, PN said: “That’s one of the biggest changes recently, clarity. Ken was a very good friend of mine, and he’s still a good friend, but Paul is like 6ft 5, and when he says something he says it with clarity and you know that he means it!
Paul has made sure that every single person in the business including engineers, know and understand all of the targets. Like KPIs.”
Naomi – “OKRs – Objectives and Key Results. Reviewed at Monthly Town Hall and Board Meetings. Ensures we’re all moving in the same direction and working on the right things at the right time.”
Me – I found it reassuring that Paul contradicted the Cenkos statement re new verticals and confirmed we are completely focussed on the Vehicle market and the 3 segments within that vertical. We need to be focussing on the markets that we know we have the tech and expertise for, we know how to go to market and we know who we need to be talking to. There is still concern from many investors about cash flow and burn rate and the potential for further dilution going forwards.
Naomi – We could constantly pursue new markets but there is a cost associated with that and we’re focussed on creating shareholder value.
Lunch and Networking
(I missed the Cenkos Analyst who was sat next to me but got straight into a conversation with Nick DiFiori and 2 PIs - nice to meet you seeingtom!)
Nick was very open and happy to field questions. He confirmed the slowdown in recruitment. “Imagine new engineers working on their 1st project, having to find the kitchen, toilet etc. I’m exaggerating but then imagine how much more productive they will be on their 2nd and 3rd projects. We’re still recruiting the right people but we’re not growing for the sake of it.”
I asked: “Have we pulled out or been kicked out of any RFQs?”
NDF: “No! We’ve not pulled out of any. We’ve always made it to at least the final round if we haven’t won it. We won’t go for anything unrealistic but basically any OEM win is good! We are getting towards the end of the land grab stage now.”
seeingtom asked: “If you had a wishlist for Christmas and you could choose 1, would you take a Toyota 10 year deal, an amazing tech development like reducing power usage to 1 watt, or…… (can’t remember the 3rd option), which would you choose?
NDF: “Definitely the Toyota deal! The tech is in a really good place now, but RFQs are what keep me awake at night. Not that we’re losing any, but the OEMs run on their own timescales which can make the timing quite unpredictable. The decision-making process at the OEMs can appear very political i.e. we went with Conti on the last 2 so we’re going with Mitsi on this one no matter what. (He did however confirm that we’re moving towards mass penetration)
I asked: “How many new RFQs are we expecting next year?”
NDF: It’s hard to know the exact number but I’m expecting to see at least 2 or 3 really large-scale RFQs next year.
I asked: “Currently we don’t get any driving data from the OEMs once we go live. Is there a view to harnessing even anonymised/obfuscated data from OEMs going forwards?
NDF: In principle, the relationship is with the Tier 1, they’re our customer. We get really interesting data from Tier 1s in some cases during trials and proofing stages.
The other PI asked about exclusivity with Tier 1s
NDF: When we start working with Tier 1s, we sign a Collaboration or Non-Compete agreement, so even if we stopped working with them they wouldn’t be able to develop their own tech/system in-house for an agreed period. Because of the speed the market moves at, this prevents any Tier 1 from thinking they can get an advantage by learning about our tech. Any internal Tier 1 programmes have to stop at the point of the agreement, but they’re not exclusive as they can work with more than one Tier 2.
I think it was seeingtom who asked about the typical time from initial engagement/conversation with OEM to start of RFQ and award.
NDF: It varies massively between OEMs. OEM 3, I think, have already gone from $25m to $75m. I’ve been amazed by how quickly they’ve moved.
Q&A - Part 2
Recruitment – How easy is it to find/keep skills?
PM – In the software engineering department we’ve gone from 20-55 people. We’re keeping the bar really high on quality/skill sets.
(Member of Snr Management Team?) – “If it’s not a ‘Hell Yes’, it’s a No! We have very low attrition/staff turnover by industry standards.”
Are you talking with Aircraft OEMs?
PN – We’re engaged with the likes of Boeing and Airbus, multiple simulator OEMs. We went to the flag carriers when we couldn’t get the attention of the OEMs. We’re in dialogue with them all now.
SEE has been around for a long time, longer than competitors. Is the current product what you would design from scratch?
TE – We’re trying to solve the same problem and we’ve got the correct solution. On software, there’s some old code that we’re throwing in the bin as soon as we can.
PM – Guardian product design would be materially different. On the chip we’ve made massive in-roads into Smart Cameras.
(There was a question about auto projects….)
NDF – There’s a number of product launches from the middle of next year. A lot of effort past couple of years from tech producer to project execution. Personnel, Auto experience. Engineering leadership. The Quality team has moved from Engineering to become a central function. There’s a process maturity expectation from Auto OEMs. Our latest Audit showed we’re meeting that expectation.
Would we consider exclusivity for use-cases such i.e. Alcohol impairment?
NDF – We’ll consider it. I generally don’t like the word exclusive. We haven’t done it yet but we’re open to it.
Aviation, Training – Recurring Revenue?
PN – The topic comes up a lot. More and more wet-lease pilot training. Annual licence, Per Hour, Perpetual licence are all options.
PM – We’re not contemplating one-off licence deals.
With the shift from significant R&D to Execution/Project focus, are we maintaining our competitive advantage?
PM – In the areas of long-run R&D we’ve slowed down. We’re rebalancing execution and R&D.
TE – We’re watching the landscape closely, engaging in Tier 3 relationships. It’s been a quiet year for R&D – execution is exactly what we need to do. We need to be confident that when we pick up the R7D again we’re doing it in the right places.
Outside of the 3 businesses/verticals – anything else on the horizon?
PM – Not really. We like to fantasise but we’re very focussed on the current 3 segments.
Statement from Cenkos note about strategic value quoted.
PM – Let’s hope he’s right! Seriously though we’re very focussed right now.
(There was a question about forward fix vs retro-fit in simulators)
PN – There’s over 4,000 simulators in use worldwide. The 1st path with L3 and Aus carrier was forward fix. With RAAF it was retro-fit x2.
Part 6
Pat Nolan – GM Aviation
I’ve been here nearly 5 years, growing the business for 4 years. Momentum is building.
Industry is highly regulated. 4 years is not a long time.
We’re ready for Aviation to be the 3rd leg of the stall.
L3 and Major Australian Airline – Operational in Sydney. Boeing 787 built in Crawley.
RAAF – we’re in 2/4 of their full mission simulators. It’s another sim manufacturer (Cenkos analyst wrote “CAE?” on his notes) although it’s a direct relationship with RAAF.
The hardest decisions are often not for the Pilot but the Instructor – so much information.
Helmet on, visor down, oxygen mask on – Tech validated!
The amount of time allocated to the de-brief has shortened over time.
“Want to know where the A380 pilots are looking”
(I personally love the quote on slide from Capt. Matt Gray – Head of Training and Checking at Qantas) – “In my view, all simulators of the future will be fitted with, as standard, eye tracking technology to allow enhanced and accelerated learning.”
According to PN, Capt. Matt is a “good friend of Seeing Machines” and currently studying a PhD.
PN – “We’re quite mature now in FFS space”
New pilot demand almost not possible to achieve.
Alaska RFQ didn’t just specify an eye-tracker, they wanted a Seeing Machines eye-tracker!”
“We’ve become quite annoying to the OEMs”
Paul McGlone – Recap
We’re targeting 1/3 share of Auto DMS market. Very comfortable with our position.
We’re diverse – OEMs, T1s, geographies
Regulations in our favour. Euro NCAP taking a lead role. We’re engaged with regulators, insurers etc in all markets.
We’re focussed on cash and we’re positioning ourselves as a proper business with a different operating rhythm.
Clear KPIs – line of sight from my KPIs to everyone’s goals in the business.
We now have a more balanced portfolio across the 3 verticals with long/short leads, high/low value and high/low volume.
Q&A - Part 1
Are we now at 20,000 fleet units?
PM – We’re sticking to our year-end guidance of 27-30k
We used to have 2 brokers covering us and now only 1. Are we looking for additional coverage, ideally in US?
PM – Completely agree. We’ve kicked off a programme with a US broker.
Do we have much interaction/collaboration with OEMs?
(PM/NDF?) – We engage very closely with Tier 1s, they’re our customers. We have close collaboration with OEMs, but it varies from OEM to OEM.
John Noble – Head of Advanced Engineering – We talk to OEMs at least once a week. We’re not just selling algorithms. We’re focussed on what they want us to deliver. We don’t just sell what we’ve got laying around. It’s a conversation. OEMs don’t talk to each other, Tier 1s hide strategies from each other. We talk to all OEMs and try to talk to all Tier 1s so we are able to define our tech platform in a very efficient way.
Part 5
Morning break
I spoke to a Fund Manager and Analyst from a firm I think was called Tetton? They have a minimum £20k requirement for PIs to buy in. They invested at 5p fundraising when Mike had just joined. Approximately 1.5% of their £50m fund is in invested in SEE so it’s an un-disclosable holding. They didn’t take part in the most recent placing at 3p. I pushed them or whether they had invested the maximum they were willing to invest in SEE. They explained that the fund is predominantly focussed on AIM listed tech co’s and they have funds available to invest and looking for opportunities. The 2 main reasons they didn’t take part at 3p were Reputation and Consistency. They felt that SEEs reputation is improving but they’re looking for Consistency in the board, the messaging and the growth in Fleet. I didn’t get a chance to talk to them after the event but would be interested to hear if anyone did?
Nick DiFiori – SVP Automotive
I largely agree with Colin about DMS being ubiquitous in next decade.
When I joined See 3 years ago I had 3 main concerns:
How quickly, how big will market develop?
Was SEEs tech lead sustainable?
Execution. The company was only 1/3 of its current size and it was “shaky”.
Nick (NDF) was hesitant to call the lack of outcomes from the RFQs a ‘delay’ but suggested it could be partly due to challenges regarding the location of the camera and processing.
OEM3(?) already more than tripled volume – NCAP ready product.
Market share approaching 30%, 1 OEM win away, targeting 1/3
Focus on maintaining incumbency and continuing to win profitable new business.
Expansion in Asia – Cultivating relationships in Japan – 2 years is not a long time! He knows from his time at Xilinx that once you establish trust and relationships it’s very fruitful.
Japan – currently several Gen 1 systems similar to prior situation in Europe.
He’s excited about Japan, expecting RFQs early in 2020 calendar year. Already attending workshops with OEMs and Tier 1s.
Some RFQs have only come online in the last month or so.
“Pipeline is pretty healthy, more coming.”
DMS opportunities not yet on our radar.
“Opposite of delay – OEMs getting very active”
OEMs looking for suppliers they can trust to deliver whatever NCAP may throw out in the future.
“OEMs not just sitting, waiting for NCAP”
Expect NCAP protocol towards the end of this year. With the festive season it’s possible it will be early next year but I think that’s unlikely.
Needed to streamline the supply chain. We were into year 4 of 5 year agreement with Xilinx so needed to renew. Reduced risk to SEE as reduced cost for us, no need to invest in Direct Supply Chain.
Part 4
Colin Barnden – Semicast
Independent Analyst – focussing on IR camera-based DM
Electrical Engineer
Alluded to multiple NTSB investigations into Tesla’s AutoPilot crash deaths.
His slides have been removed from the presentation so will try and capture as much as possible but will be relying on others to correct me if I’ve remembered or heard it wrong!
Referenced Robo-Taxi companies who offer Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) such as Cruise, Uber, Waymo.
70% DMS penetration in 2026 – Forecast
1.5bn light vehicles in use worldwide – vast majority are Level 0
Could reduce accidents/fatalities by 90-95% with relatively simple ADAS & DMS.
NCAP – DMS assessments “will evolve around how reliably and accurately the status of the driver is detected”……….
……..“detect impaired and distracted driving and take effective action.”
Time-on-task (coffee cup) in 2020 moving to Vision-based DMS 2022.
Colin’s (CB) research at Frankfurt Motor Show suggests many OEMs are already moving towards Safety DMS ahead of NCAP or other regulation.
His theory is that the delays in the RFQs are technical and not regulatory.
CB then talked through his approach to saving on costs. Front and Interior facing cameras should both be in the rear view mirror assembly. All the vision processing should take place in the rear view mirror assembly to avoid having to transport data/video around the vehicle. Integrate all processing onto a single chip.
He then went through the available options from NVIDIA, Xilinx et al and ruled them all out for various reasons as none of them could offer a single chip solution AND a front and interior camera AND meet the maximum 6 watt requirement.
He’s observed a “Massive U-turn by OEMs away from Self-Driving and towards L2, L2+ and L3-“
Mobileye having to reduce functionality of forward facing camera to enable interior processing on a single chip @ 6 watts or less.
Next Generation – Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale + MPSoC – Conti and Xilinx – Superb piece of engineering, ready to move interior camera into rear view mirror to enable mass market penetration.
Conti supplies Toyota. Next time you’re in a Toyota dealer, check out the Arris, Avensis, Yarris 2017+ modules on the windshield.
Mobileye currently has 60% market share – Tier 1s such as Aptiv, Magna and ZF
Xilinx currently has 25% market share – Bosch, Conti, Veoneer
“Mobileye set to lose market share. NVIDIA developed the wrong product.”
“The only Tier 2 developing DMS for Xilinx FPGAs is SEE”
“35-40 million km of naturalistic driving data gathered per week. Guardian is the R&D platform.”
Better auto algorithms means exponentially growing technology lead.
2022 – 1. SEE – 40-45% market share - 6 Tier 1s
2. Mitsubishi – 15-20% market share – Gen 1 DMS in Japan – Renesas R-Car
6. SEYE – 5-7% market share – Aptiv, Visteon. ‘Hardware agnostic’
Aptiv working with (Eyesight?)
Smarteye look to have a completely different strategy to every
Part 3
Prof. Mike Lenne – SVP Fleet and Human Factors
Mike (ML) explained that the joining of Fleet and Human Factors was a stroke of genius by PM.
As you can see the presentation quoted 3,147,872,634 km yesterday and today we’re at 3,185,876,587 so a jump of c.38mil which follows the guidance given yesterday of 35-40mil km per day.
On the slide titled ‘Advanced Safe Truck Concept’ ML referred to “The World’s Largest driver simulation exercise” and The World’s biggest/largest something else (someone with better hearing may be able to fill in the gap). He then stated the intention to start presenting the outcomes of these studies at (international?) events next year.
We’re looking very closely at internal processes such as Quality Management, Continuous Improvement etc and we’ve seen a reduction in the number of Support Tickets from customers. We see a significant scaling opportunity in the coming years.
21% saving came earlier than expected.
Cost-to-serve ongoing focus for Continuous Improvement.
Distributors make up c.70% of sales.
We’re talking to new distributors in all regions. We mentioned in the RNS this morning the new distributor in Turkey (AUSIS). “Also in this part of the world” (UK/EU?)
We’ve signed an agent in APAC (RNS says Australia) for Oil and Gas thanks to the CAT amendment to Fields of Use.
Insurance organisations and corporations are now recognising our tech as an effective way of gauging risk. (No mention of the “advanced conversations with others in three additional geographies” from the RNS).
Able to offer a Euro NCAP level after-market Fleet product. (ML clearly very happy about this!)
ATSB and EC looking at using tech to help manage scheduling etc. Very important to Heavy Goods.
Revised commercials – more favourable cash flow.
Cost reduction is a game changer!
Part 2
Timothy Edwards – CTO and co-founder
Tim (TE) gave a brief overview of an early system from 2003. The system was part of a Level 2 vehicle that was driven around the ANU campus. As you can see on slide 4, it’s a miracle the driver could see out the windscreen considering the size of the unit. Shows how far we have come though from a concept/prototype!
TE explained how initially they wanted to be Roboticists and be a Robotics company. They realised that the 1st mass-produced robots would be cars, and the car would need to protect the drivers from themselves.
The biggest challenge was finding the pupil amongst the Non-Stationary Noise from just 6 pixels, with the camera up to 1.5m away. The tech needs to be applicable across all demographics and be able to manage occlusion of the face.
1st customer came in 2007. When an incident occurred in a gold mine and they had to close for the day, it cost them $20mil. They were willing to pay almost anything for a solution.
Programmes on the way include Aviation and FDM Chip, which are in the late stages of delivery. The chip enables fast integration at a low price.
When asked about the functionality of the chip vs DME Gen 2, TE confirmed the Chip has additional features.
When asked if we can see if a driver is impaired by alcohol, TE said: “It’s hard for me to go into a lot of detail with this audience. There’s a lot of commercial confidentiality involved with this. We can determine if the driver is impaired.”
“It’s at the point now where it’s being considered an essential tech for all vehicles.”
“It’s going to be like the next airbag.”
“A lot of you haven’t met me before and there’s a reason for that. I’ve been really busy!”
“I’m happy now that we’re ready to scale and I’m in a comfortable place as an investor in this business.”
Part 1
I’ll start with a disclaimer/apology: my hearing isn’t great and it was a fairly noisy event, hence the vast majority of the comments from management and other stakeholders are paraphrased. Happy to be corrected on anything, there's a lot of it so apologies in advance.
First impressions, the venue was very impressive, but with my investor hat on (literally) I had to question whether it was a bit overkill. However, when it became apparent so many investors, analysts, journalists, fund managers and brokers were in attendance, it felt like a worthwhile expense.
Whilst getting myself a drink I met a fellow private investor, whose shareholding, when combined with her partner’s, made mine feel like a drop in the ocean. Like me, she’s not a regular poster on here but enjoys the quality research that is shared on a daily basis. Nice to meet you! We were approached by Mike Lenne (ML) who was more than happy to chat with us both until we were called through. I hadn’t realised from his videos but he’s a giant!
Paul (PM) opened the presentation by talking about the strategic shift in focus and the intention to license our technology/IP in order to expedite our shift into the Aviation space.
“The business today is entirely focussed on Delivery”.
PM talked about the move towards large scale, big ticket implementation and stated that Customer Retention is the single biggest opportunity we have. “We’re in pursuit of profitable business, not all business.” He also alluded to being totally focussed on the internal rate of return.
In terms of Automotive, he mentioned that the focus has been on premium models, up until NOW. “The move to profitability and cash is a serious change in our internal dialogue.”
PM explained the focus on 3 verticals within the Vehicle segment are “very valuable” to Seeing.
Auto – high volume but the issue is long lead times. This is not unique to us, it’s seen through the vehicle industry/supply chain.
Fleet – Short lead time, medium volume, and recurring revenue. Good balance with Auto.
Aviation – The industry is acknowledging our offering: Flag carriers, military, crew training simulators – low volume, but in comparison “Extremely high value”, recurring revenue stream.
https://www.investegate.co.uk/shearwater-group-plc--swg-/rns/brookcourt-solutions-secures-eur-0-5-m-contract/201910300700265443R/
Brookcourt Solutions secures €0.5 million contract with leading multinational telecommunications company
Shearwater Group plc, the organisational resilience group, announces that its group company Brookcourt Solutions has secured a €0.5 million contract with a leading multinational telecommunications company for the extension of its recent Pan-European Data Protection Project.
This new contract extends Brookcourt Solutions original €4 million contract win 18 months ago where the business was commissioned to deliver data protection capability that enabled the customer to achieve GDPR and SOX compliancy.
Under the terms of the new contract, Brookcourt Solutions will ensure that the data protection platform delivered is transitioned into the customer's operational teams, which are located both in the UK and Northern Europe.
Phil Higgins, CEO of Shearwater, commented:
"We are delighted to be part of this design and integration programme with one of the world's leading converged video, broadband and communication companies.
"The opportunity to deploy a data security platform across the UK and Northern Europe is a good example of how we can leverage a combination of our technologies, services and solutions to provide an enhanced data protection environment for the customer and overall service experience."
I've had my place confirmed so look forward to meeting you guys there and hopefully hearing the team talk us through the news that will be released between now and then.
I'm inclined to believe Seeing now has even greater confidence in news being released before the 6th November, otherwise they surely would have cancelled or at least moved the date to the new year.
If the news is a CAT-style licensing deal in Aviation as many expect, has anyone had any further thoughts on how PMs comments on the results webcast re 'Mutual Exclusivity' tally with Cenkos' comment "the company could be in a strong negotiating position in discussions with the two major simulator manufacturers for a license".
Could it be that L3 and CAE are/were in a bidding war for exclusivity? Of course SEE partnered with L3 back in Dec 18 "to deliver integrated eyetracking capabilities into their Full Flight Simulator (FFS). The first device with this functionality will be delivered to a major Australian airline in 2019."
https://www.investegate.co.uk/seeing-machines-ltd--see-/rns/collaboration-with-l3-to-deliver-eye-tracking/201812120700031775K/
This first device was widely believed to be for Qantas, however Qantas and L3 parted ways in March 19 after failing to come to an agreement.
https://www.airlineratings.com/news/qantas-pilot-academy-still-track-despite-loss-partner/
This may have been partly responsible for SEEs change in approach to Aviation, with a view to leveraging the company's IP via licensing rather than trying to stand up a whole new team. I agree with those who say that all the FFS manufacturers will need our tech, but for SEE it would be much easier and more lucrative in the short to medium term to sign 1 or 2 major global license deals and let the licensee(s) worry about sublicensing our IP.
Maybe SEE are tendering for one global license deal to cover all FFS types and applications. Or maybe they have split the market by Boeing/Airbus or even Passenger/Freight/Military.
One thing is for sure, we have plenty of news due over the coming weeks and months, including but hopefully not limited to:
Aviation
RFQs
DMS legislation
2 x Non-Exec appointments
All in my opinion so do your own research.