Ben Richardson, CEO at SulNOx, confident they can cost-effectively decarbonise commercial shipping. Watch the video here.
The good news keeps coming. iTrackIndia, our Indian Distributors have propelled themselves into the top 20 Logistics companies in India. There are some huge global companies in this group who between them account for much of the Logistics revenues earned throughout the whole of Asia and the Middle East. So that's quite an accolade to find themselves in such exalted company. Further evidence that iTrackIndia are an up and coming Logistics company in India. That's quite an accolade https://lnkd.in/eCFydD4
Here's further evidence that we may be part of the Dr Reddy's initiative. This Warehousing outfit are another iTrack customer https://twitter.com/messages/media/1397505530231406598
Finally,loads happening on the Dr Reddy's front. Will get my head around this and post more later
That's very reassuring and might i say a very positive point of view. I'm pleased to hear that your past concerns regarding finances have been addressed. I came to that conclusion a couple of months ago after detailed discussions with Igor concerning the Going Concern note included in the Annual Report. Despite best efforts to get the message across i rather suspect that many existing and potential investors have failed to appreciate the importance of this particular issue.
There's a lot happening on several fronts and understandably the company is somewhat reticent to say too much. I do think that NDA's are the reason as they're involved with several global companies who'll have their Legal departments looking to take issue with anything which in their view breaches those agreements.
However, discussions with well connected personnel within some of their larger Distributors reaffirms that message. Also, the recent actions of the BOD and NED's should give some clues that this company's on the turn. No one is going to take shares in lieu of salaries if they have concerns about the company's future. Also, the fact that Igor has chosen now to increase his shareholding is also testament, i think, to their confidence that these "irons in the fire" are about to bear fruit
Igor will not be on a huge salary package. That’s one of the benefits associated with this company as BOD aren ‘t lining their own pockets at the expense of shareholders. Also, he doesn’t have a wealthy background behind him so it’s good to see that he’s now choosing to increase his shareholding. I’m more inclined to be of the persuasion that a few potential material orders that have been bubbling away in the background are about to come to fruition.Despite Covid initially having a serious impact on this company’s fortunes, recent signs indicate Covid may be our catalyst which will transform the fortunes of this company
The intention is to administer 800,000 Sputnik doses in each of the next 2 years. Initially Pfizer initially confirmed their container boxes contained 975 doses. Working on a similar That doesn't allow for wastage and spillage of which there'll undoubtedly be quite a bit and i wouldn't be surprised in the least if that exceeded 10%.
I don't know the retail price, whether a special price has been agreed, on humanitarian grounds , or the profit margins. However, i've seen articles suggesting distribution costs might account for $1/dose. That seems high but given the fact they're retailing at approx $14/dose, that may be achievable.
Anyhow, $0.75/$1 would equate to $600/$800K /annum and there's a prospect that if Dr Reddy's are very proficient they could be granted additional distribution rights within India.
Also, India seem to be ahead of the curve in comparison with many other poor countries, such as, South America/Africa,for example. If they're successful in rolling out this programme there's every chance they could be asked to undertake a similar venture by other countries.
Dr Reddy's has already announced that it's gearing itself up to do something similar elsewhere and they do have a global presence. IF, we are their preferred partners then this venture alone could be very remunerative as according to the WHO this vaccination programme will be an annual occurrence and is likely to be with us for several years to come. Just a thought!!
And it begins to get even better.
The Chairman and CEO have exercised options in lieu of outstanding fees and salaries along with some NED's. If that's not putting your money where your mouth is then i don't know what is. The fact they've chosen to take shares in lieu of outstanding salaries should give all shareholders some comfort that they are getting behind Starcom and aligning their interests with those of their long suffering shareholders. It applies to 60% of outstanding salaries and is exercised at 0.80p which is slightly above the recent asking price, so not at a large discount, which happens regularly with many AIM companies.
The remaining 40% of salaries to commence shortly, over an extended period, "AS CASHFLOW PERMITS". That's the important bit. They're not going to deprive the company of much needed Working Capital to finance any large orders that may materialise. They're prepared to bide their time and take as and when the company can afford.
Ok, the Chairman and CEO are taking up some options which will dilute existing shareholders interests and the NED'S may do something similar at some future point, but if ,in return, Starcom receive large orders which help to boost the sp then i'm all for that, as it's reward for effort and let's be fair, the BOD have not bled this company dry with large salaries and benefits packages which frequently occurs with other AIM companies. As far as i can see ,they've always acted honestly, with integrity and with the companies best interests at heart .
Furthermore,they're proposing to receive Ordinary Shares for part of their fees for the next 12 months. The details of these proposals and any future options are still to be finalised by the Board and further announcements will be made in due course. Provided the terms are reasonable i don't have any issue with this. Again it indicates they're prepared to be patient and wait for their rewards until such time as the company can afford without compromising it's ongoing position.
All in all, that looks to be a reasonable deal for shareholders. What's more i suspect some very good news is about to be imparted to us and if" all our irons in the fire" come to fruition then i'm inclined to think the company has a very favorable outlook and within 12 months from now it will be in a much different place accompanied by a much needed boost to it's sp.
More information on another front, last mentioned , approx 2 months ago:
https://twitter.com/andybalc/status/1396740401197895684/photo/1
Things are beginning to hot up, at last
A further update on the very fluid Sputnik vaccine story:
Dr Reddy's are currently engaged in discussions to bring the single-dose vaccine Sputnik Light to India.
Last week, Dr. Reddy's commenced a limited pilot soft launch of the Sputnik V vaccine in Hyderabad, which is expected to ramp up over the next few weeks and extend to other cities as well.
"The pilot is intended to help test our -18 degrees cold storage, CoWin integration, track-and-trace and other arrangements before the expected commercial launch in mid-June. They are exploring partnership possibilities with all stakeholders, public as well as private,"
India’s Covid-19 tracing app Aarogya Setu has been integrated with the vaccine registration app CoWIN. This will allow users to download their vaccination certificates and get other information about the vaccine drive from the Aarogya Setu app itself
The supply of the Sputnik V vaccine will commence from Indian manufacturing partners and further consignments of doses are expected over the next few months. The availability of the vaccines will ramp up in the next quarter for the Made in India product. Around 60 to 70 per cent of the vaccines will be made in India and most of it will be used in the country itself. On the issue of production capacity, the Russian Ambassador to India,Nikolay Kudashev added, "We expect that its production in India will be gradually increased to 850 million doses per year. Looking forward to further expanding our bilateral and multilateral cooperation with India to stop the pandemic."
I forgot to mention in my haste that apart from Maxim Perry (referred to earlier), iTrackIndia (our Indian Distributor), Zubair Chopra, (iTrackIndia's Head of Sales),Jose Cuperman, Starcom's head of South American Sales and Luis Zambrano, (Operations Director at VTS Solutions) were all promoting that Dr Reddy’s tweet which was withdrawn last week. Why should that be so, unless Starcom are possibly involved in their Distribution Supply Chain. Call me paranoid, by all means, but i think something's afoot and all we need is an RNS to put us out of our misery
This morning on LinkedIn VTS Solutions, our South American Distributors,are again promoting Kylos Air/ Connect IoT device for Covid-19 Vaccine cold chain monitoring in real-time with any temperature range deviation from -200C to +200C which can source country and target country , local health points, inter modal transportation(truck,train,shuttle/ferry) etc..etc..etc.. which cover pharmaceutical regulations,local refrigeration centres, terrestrial cargo and local point of care, temporal point of care, location of any fixed or portable vaccine container etc..etc..etc.. and it’s connectability to Tetis R for real-time cold chain management
I think they’ve updated their literature as it’s entirely focused on Covid-19 vaccine and transportation etc…..
and it appears to have been modified/updated and is now specifically related to all things Covid.
It also shows the interaction between the Kylos family of products and Tetis R. This would be sufficient to provide full transparency from leaving the manufacturer to administration of the vaccine, in any location. A complete blockchain for safe transportation and delivery, avoiding theft/tampering/counterfeiting along the supply chain etc...etc...
https://bit.ly/2SkO4h2
Maxim Perry, Starcom's Head of Sales was again promoting this link, yesterday, on LikedIn. Why would he do that if it doesn't in some way impact upon Starcom.
Sputnik V covid vaccination to start in few weeks in India: Dr Reddy's
The first consignment of Sputnik V vaccines from Russia today arrived in Hyderabad. (ANI)
1 min read . Updated: 01 May 2021, 07:44 PM IST
Staff Writer
The vaccine will be available in a few weeks after it has gone through statutory clearances, Dr Reddy's said.
India received its first lot of Sputnik V vaccine on Saturday. The first batch of Russia-developed vaccine was delivered in Hyderabad as India battles a vicious second wave of covid-19 infections.
Dr Reddy's said that the vaccine will be available in a few weeks after statutory clearances. ''Today, we have received 1,50,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine here in Hyderabad. The vaccine will be available in a few weeks after it has gone through statutory clearances. The price will also be announced then,'' Deepak Sapra of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories said as quoted by ANI.
This is the link that was removed a week ago https://www.linkedin.com/posts/itrackindia_sputnik-v-covid-vaccination-to-start-in-few-activity-6794512816201109504-rnBx
I'm saying there are a lot of positive signs. Maybe, in their own way the Distributors are trying to show us what is happening in the background because Starcom has been limited in relation to what information they can publicly release. Now that Dr Reddy's has gone public and everyone has some indication of their plans they might not be as commercially sensitive as they may have been before the vaccine had been approved, supplies were available, agreements were in place with the Indian government etc.. etc..etc..
Hopefully, if Starcom are involved they should be able to converse with their shareholders now that we've got past that commercially sensitive point. I'm an optimist. I'm satisfied that the Tech is of a high standard and at the cutting edge. Unless the company have been holding back there's nothing to fear.
Silence creates fear and paranoia even though there's neither good or bad news to release. As the really wealthy investors have said on many occasions it's the waiting that deters many investors and why they sell out before the good news arrives or can't hold sufficiently long enough to maximise their gains. I've not heard or seen anything to suggest that any adverse news is coming so i'm prepared to place my trust in the BOD as they want the same thing as us and aren't prepared to sell out on the cheap. That's a positive for me and a good sign
Yet more intrigue in relation to an article that appeared on LinkedIn , last week end, from VTS Solutions, our South American Distributors.only to be withdrawn within 12 hours. Possibly, because NDA's have been agreed as it was a very commercially sensitive issue until it recently became public knowledge.
Starcom Systems continues to be present in the fight against COVID-19 worldwide.
Introducing the Kylos Air Connect Intelligent IoT Solution, a portable GPS that together with BLE temperature and humidity sensors allows you to track the cold chain of vaccines in real time and know their location. In the event of a deviation from established temperature or humidity ranges, manipulation or theft, the system sends a real-time alert to the platform and a mobile application, allowing the correctives to operate and take the correctives in the shortest possible time.
Suitable for ground and air transport of vaccines.
This is an earlier comment on Starcom's Facebook page which implied they could be involved in the distribution supply chain for dealing with Covid.
https://twitter.com/messages/media/1396131532763504646
If my recollection of events is correct we first became aware of Kylos Forever Connect Units at the latter end of 2020. We were told they had been developed following discussions between a Distributor and a potential customer and Starcom announced “We are very excited and proud to be involved in the world wide effort to eradicate the Covid-19 pandemic . Our smart IoT Kylos Forever Units are already in use for real time monitoring of temperature and humidity in static vaccine refrigerators at health centres as well as mobile transport boxes for the delivery of the vaccine.”
Maybe that implies we were already involved in a pilot study to test the reliability of the technology in the field. Also, note how similar the tone of the language is to some of the statements recently made by Dr Reddy’s. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything in itself but is just one of those nagging similarities that gives some credence to the possibility that Starcom are a participant in the Dr Reddy’s initiative
The commercial launch of Sputnik V vaccines is expected by mid-June after cold storage studies are concluded . Dr Reddy’s are brand custodians of the Russian jab in India and have sole distribution rights of the first 250 million doses(first and second dose components) of the vaccine in India.
They are responsible for pharmacovigilance , post vaccination tracking , quality integration and quality management . The vaccine is currently stored at -18* C temperatures in India . They have finally put in place cold storage logistics as well as track and trace arrangements for the vaccine . These are designed to protect the safety and quality of the vaccine .
Stability studies on storage of the vaccine are ongoing at +2 to +8 C and have not yet been competed. Really hope that Starcom are a participant in this initiative
Bit of a catch up on various fronts as this is a very fluid situation. It's a bit like a large jigsaw puzzle, finding all the relevant pieces and trying to put them in the right places.
Just found the following interesting snippet. The CEO at Dr Reddys Laboratories is Erez Israeli who was educated at Bar llan university in Israel. Prior to his appointment he was CEO and President, Growth markets at Teva Pharmaceutical in Israel. His skills as as a strategic thinker includes operational and commercial decision making and structured business processes.His past experience includes global sales and marketing,manufacturing including business development , supply chains,project development and research and development. He’s been in his current position for 3 years 2 months so would have been at Teva when they were testing Various Starcom product offerings back in 2018. What’s the likelihood that he’s aware of what Starcom can offer and more so that he actually knows the senior personnel at Starcom given his background and Israeli education?.
The commercial launch of Sputnik V vaccines is expected by mid-June after cold storage studies are concluded . Dr Reddy’s are brand custodians of the Russian jab in India and have sole distribution rights of the first 250 million doses(first and second dose components) of the vaccine in India.
They are responsible for pharmacovigilance , post vaccination tracking , quality integration and quality management . The vaccine is currently stored at -18* C temperatures in India .
They have finally put in place cold storage logistics as well as track and trace arrangements for the vaccine . These are designed to protect the safety and quality of the vaccine . Stability studies on storage of the vaccine are ongoing at +2 to +8 C and have not yet been competed.
Really hope that Starcom are a participant in this initiative
Just found the following interesting snippet.
The CEO at Dr Reddys Laboratories is Erez Israeli who was educated at Bar llan university in Israel. Prior to his appointment he was CEO and President, growth markets at Teva Pharmaceutical in Israel. His skills as as a strategic thinker includes operational and commercial decision making and structured business processes.His past experience includes global sales and marketing,manufacturing including business development , supply chains,project development and research and development.
He’s been in his current position for 3 years 2 months so would have been in situ at Teva when they were testing various Starcom product offerings back in 2018. What’s the likelihood that he’s aware of what Starcom can offer and more so that he actually knows the senior personnel at Starcom given his background and Israeli education?. Just asking.
This doesn't provide any definitive confirmation of Starcom's involvement in the Sputnik V supply chain but the known associations with and links to Starcom via Teva Pharmaceuticals certainly makes it an intriguing possibility
I engaged with Starcom a couple of days ago to inquire why there has been no communication with Investors. The response was that NDA's are preventing the company from acknowledging what projects they're currently involved with but that they hope to enlighten Investors, very soon. Again no direct reference but plenty of intrigue. Also, i wouldn't be surprised if iTrackIndia weren't also bound by the same NDA's and that might again explain why there's so little news leakage on this
subject. We'll just have to be patient and continue to live in hope
Furthermore links with RDIF ,referred to below, have completely disappeared from the LinkedIn accounts of iTrackIndia, Zubair and Maxim Perry. Bit of a mystery is that. Have no idea why that should be the case unless someone is concerned that it may be in breach of NDA’s There's no direct reference to Dr Reddy's on the LinkedIn accounts of iTrackIndia but why make reference to that particular article. It's possible they were asked to take down these links as they disappeared within 12 hours of initially being posted.
With its Covaxin supply almost exhausted , the Delhi Government has reached out to Dr Reddy’s laboratories [DRL) seeking 6.7 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine, to increase the pace of the inoculation drive in the city
Also, New Delhi drug firm Shilpa Medicare has entered into a 3 year definitive agreement with DRL for the production-supply of Sputnik V vaccine. Targeted production for the first 12 months is 50 million doses from commencement of commercial production . Under the agreement Shilpa will be responsible for manufacturing with DRL responsible for distribution/marketing of the vaccine in its marketing territories.
3 days ago Dr Reddy's announced that the Apollo Hospitals network will be used nationally for storing, monitoring and administering the vaccine. Rollout has begun today in Hyderabad and will be extended to other metro cities from yesterday. 8-9 States have now approached DRL for procurement of Sputnik V .
DRL is working with hospitals in metros that can handle -18*C storage for the vaccines. There's a supply commitment of 36 million doses from RDIF in the next 2 months.
In summary, there's lots going on and that's without reference to other avenues that are beginning to open up. However, there's lots of unanswered questions but hopefully enough to suggest that it's going to be a very interesting period over the course of the next few months