The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
CFA combined with work meant i had no life for precisely 21 months of my life so best of luck with the results- L2 was easily the hardest paper so thankfully you are past that Sergi!
WRT Ethernity, In the context of the modern day investor mindset, it is important for the company to keep reminding the market of where they are on their journey and where they potentially think that their journey can take them. I remember a few years ago David Levi piqued my interest by simply throwing out a statement “10s of millions of dollars” when asked a question on revenue guidance by a proactive presenter when the market cap was c.£10-£15m.
I also went to an event in London where ENET were presenting- Whilst David wasn’t a natural presenter (I see him as more of an entrepreneurial CTO) but he got to a point in the presentation (about 5 minutes after he had lost the entire audience of potential investors through use of a multitude of unexplained acronyms) where he was physically agitated with excitement at the opportunities ahead for the company. This made me feel like i was on to something special.
I am not typically a tech sector investor, however in 2018, on the basis of the decent exposure that the company were trying to facilitate, the future projections given, and the fact that David in that moment appeared the smartest man in the room I decided to then do follow up research and add more to subsequently build what for me was a decent position in the company.
I believe I represent the very investor that skid was referring to. Fast forward 3+ years, to Tracy’s point the company have not done enough to get the message across to encourage newer investors to commit to researching and investing. Not only that, my guess is that were it not for the very informed research from a few excellent posters here I might be doubting the validity of the investment case 3 years on and after what was a car crash fundraising and now a murky drawdown agreement which keeps the sp anchored.
The company can easily do more to engage with present and future shareholders- I was almost annoyed at the coincidence with which the UEP contract was announced on a Friday the business day prior to the AGM. It smacked of “well we have to give them something”. They currently produce newsletters, publish articles etc that require internal scrutiny but might not have the investor reach so I don’t buy the argument that they are full tilt with workloads and that is why they can’t provide more comprehensive and frequent updates to get the message out there.
That was my put through trade gents (similar to B&I)- Have been trying to keep the faith as the product family clearly has a wide and potentially lucrative application, even if mgmt are trying to hide that fact from the masses...
Joe- I agree that this company is cheap, however an acquisition of the chennai plant for c.£90-95mm ($120m) would not leave much left once the term loans are repaid (we have c.£40-50m of debt and ongoing impact of covid still to be fully quantified). Strategy should be to pay down debt and then at a minimum the current EV of c.£90-£100m should be reflected in the equity valuation. Given that theoretically we should have a much improved risk profile in 2 years (due to debt pay down strategy) and that we will not have the large interest burden on the TLs and listed debentures (c.8-10% on £50mm) free cashflow should become very appealing. Hoping for 30-35p Value p/s in that timeframe related to chennai and maybe a bit more in the SP for the Karnataka solar etc.
I also remember that the directors have a number of options that only vest in the 20s/30s. They are also motivated to get us to north of 25p at least.
Might be slightly on the conservative side given potential margins given low coal prices (maybe worth a bit of hedging at current prices). Would be interested in peoples price targets for end 2022.