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I've posted ten questions for the questions and answering session at the agm inoder to clarify things or to prompt them to give us anything new
1 Are Peel likely to commit to building a second DMG unit this year or will they wait until the first unit is proven?
2 Are you working on other projects?
3 Will you be looking at increasing the size and output of the DMG?
4 Alan Bond originally invested in PHE as a means of using poor quality coal in an environmentally friendly way by using the DMG unit, is this feasible? I am thinking of China where they have multiple small coal mines, mining poor quality coal because of the need to create jobs.
5 You said that you would be concentrating solely on getting the first DMG up and running, is this to the exclusion of everything else, because you previously said that that you expected orders to be confirmed during the construction of the DMG?
6 Is the collaboration with the Spanish entity for a 50 ton DMG still in progress and where is the first order likely to come from other than from Peel?
7 Are PHE looking to build and own their own DMGs?
8 Will PHE be focusing on growing the company rather that pay dividends, or both?
9 There hasn’t been any mention of collaborations in the US, do you have any plans there?
10 I heard, rightly or wrongly that the Australian government are offering 50% grants over the next 12 months to fund renewable projects, are PHE in a position to take advantage of this?
The company believes that because its powertrain has fewer moving parts and therefore is more reliable and needs less maintenance than current technology, it offer lower running costs.
Fuel savings
Once the infrastructure that makes hydrogen readily available is established, it will also offer savings on fuel.
Together these are expected to offer running costs that are 20pc below current systems, with fuel and maintenance typically representing half of airline costs.
Earlier this week Airbus also revealed designs for aircraft powered by hydrogen, as the pan-European aerospace giant looks to the future.
The world’s first flight of a commercial-grade aircraft powered by a hydrogen fuel cell has taken place, with UK-based ZeroAvia flying a six-seater Piper Malibu plane from Cranfield University’s airport.
Val Miftakhov, chief executive of the start-up, was one of the pilots on the eight-minute flight which saw the aircraft – registration G-HYZA in a nod to its fuel source – do two circuits of the Bedfordshire airfield, reaching 1,000ft and 100 knots.
The flight was used to demonstrate the viability of the ZeroAvia’s 800-volt emission-free powertrain, which turns hydrogen into electricity to drive the Piper’s propellor.
It was also the culmination of a two-and-a-half year, £5.5m programme funded jointly by Mr Miftakhov, private investors and the British government.
“This first flight is symbolic, getting the aircraft into the air, but I’ve no nerves as we have done so much ground testing,” Mr Miftakhov said.
A hydrogen fuelled Piper Malibu plane prepares to take off Cranfield University airstrip
A Piper Malibu plane converted to use a hydrogen power source prepares to take off from Cranfield University airstrip CREDIT: ZeroAvia
The aircraft was fuelled with 4lb 6oz of hydrogen gas for the flight, which is run through a “stack” that converts it into electricity with the only byproducts being water and heat. The hydrogen-electric power system replaces the aircraft’s existing petrol-powered internal combustion engine.
Now ZeroAvia is planning a series of demonstration flights with 33lb of fuel, which should give the aircraft a range of 300 miles and performance comparable to a conventional engine.
Although small aircraft have made flights powered by hydrogen before, the company believes that putting its system into a “stock” aircraft will pave the way for a new generation in flight, with ZeroAvia at its heart.
“We are helping the authorities write the rulebook on certifying hydrogen aircraft,” Mr Miftakhov said. “It gives us an huge early mover advantage.”
A boost to UK industry
Within three years ZeroAvia, which is based at Cranfield having relocated from the US in 2019, aims to be building power systems in the UK for 20-seat regional aircraft with ranges of 500 miles, and by 2025 will have larger version suitable for 100-seat airliners.
ZeroAvia fly a six-seater, hydrogen powered, Piper Malibu plane from Cranfield University’s airport
ZeroAvia believes the global market for hydrogen-powered aircraft the size of the Malibu is worth about £3.9bn a year CREDIT: ZeroAvia
According to the company’s calculations, an aircraft the size of a Boeing 737 can easily carry enough of the gas to give it a range of 4,000 miles.
Mr Miftakhov said: “We chose to set up in the UK because in Europe there is a better understanding of sustainability than in North America.
“There is a great ecosystem here, with technology, industry and a government which is backing environmentally friendly aviation.
“In the UK we have the Je
from my experience of placings, the company always say that the shares have been placed with an international institutional fund, but the purpose of the fund is to purchase the shares then dump them on the market at a huge premuim and no doubt Turner Pope will be dumping their shares on the market at the first opportunity so I'll be emailing DR to clarify this.
I am recently invested here, this is an extract from IG report which maybe new news,
Last on our list is Symphony Environmental Technologies, which has developed various technologies for plastics. The first range, d2w, covers technology that helps make products, such as plastics, more environmentally friendly by making them biodegradable.
The second range, d2p, covers a suite of masterbatches for plastics that provide extra protection for packaging, such as a pest control measure or flame ******ant.
Mexican outfit Grupo Bimbo, the world’s largest bakery firm, is among those that are using Symphony’s products. It is worth noting that it also sells traditional, non-degradable, flexible plastic products, which may reduce the appeal to some ethical investors.
It sells its products directly to customers but is increasingly getting it out there through distributors and agents, which is a quicker, cheaper and easier way of expanding the reach of its offering.
The company reported a dip in revenue and sank to a pre-tax loss in 2019, but has already suggested that 2020 will be a year of progress. Revenue in the first three months of the year was up 53% and it has said that it has ‘not been materially affected by Covid-19’.
I'm quiet excited at the idea of owning or co-owning our own DMGs in Asia, if they can build them in four months and much cheaper then the pay back per module should be much sooner. I am pleased that everyone can participate in the fund raise, some companies you only know about a fund raise after it happens.
the rise could be because BWNG have sold Hadfield to Clippers, or so I've heard, if so then this is good news. I think that the sale will more than cover the cost of buying Shop Direct warehouses (unless they decide to rent) and consolidate everything in Shaw. Shop Direct wanted to expand in Shaw but Oldham council refused them planning permission, so they built a warehouse in Leicester.
Looking at the movement of the share price and volumes over the last three days does suggest forward selling of shares, this does give people the opportunity to top up cheaply knowing that the sp should rebound, so maybe there will be a placing. Regarding New World placing,
This case centres around the practice of “forward selling”, a practice which is not unusual at present. So, what is forward selling? Forward selling occurs when a company agrees to issue shares to a third party and that third party sells those shares in the market, prior to actually receiving them.
What are the motivations behind this practice?
The motivations for the forward sellers are pretty obvious: they can make an almost* guaranteed profit by selling shares at market prices, when they know that they are going to acquire the shares at below market prices. By selling the shares before they receive them, they are taking no risk that the price might decline after the issue process has completed. The practice also benefits brokers and advisers, who generate fees or commissions from the share issuance.
From directors’ point of view, permitting forward sales may make it easier for them to issue shares, thus raising finance which supports the business (and supports the payment of their salaries). This is a particular issue for businesses that are not generating profits, including early stage businesses and pre-production natural resource companies – many of which regularly need to raise fresh capital.
If they constructed a DMG unit in Asia it would be much cheaper and could be built in four months as opposed to ten months here, although DR said that he was going to concentrate on Protos there must be an urgency to roll these out, perhaps the White brothers will have an influence here.
I expect that with all the interest that the DMG is attracting, and this will only increase once construction begins, PHE will need to increase their staff, but the wording of the fund raise this does not sound like dilution to me.
In truth, most online markets are already far more crowed than their offline equivalents – after all, it is usually far cheaper to build a digital store than a real one – and traditional businesses don’t usually have anything new to offer. Typically, they will simply get lost in a wave of online noise.
Next, a digital business requires very different skills. Haggling with landlords, motivating staff, and making a space attractive? For most physical businesses those are crucial capabilities but for an online business none of them matter. It will come down to technology, ease of use, warehouse management, and lots of savvy online marketing.
You will have to learn those skills in the blink of an eye, and while that may not be impossible, it will not be easy. Even worse, you will be weighed down by all the costs and baggage of your struggling physical business, while your start-up rivals, helped along by a ton of venture capital money, can concentrate purely on their digital offering.
Finally, forget about your brand helping. It won’t. Ignore all the charts and Powerpoint presentations from your advertising agency. Occasionally food brands can shift from one product to another. But with the possible exception of Next, which has built a decent online offering, on the internet customers generally want something new.
We buy books from Amazon, not Waterstones dotcom, and fashion from Asos, not the TopShop website. In truth, your brand is probably more of a handicap than an asset. You would be better off starting again from scratch.
The titan
Line chart with 139 data points.
Amazon’s share prices has soared this year
View as data table, The titan
The chart has 1 X axis displaying Time. Range: 2019-12-28 23:31:12 to 2020-07-22 00:28:48.
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying values. Range: 1500 to 3500.
End of interactive chart.
In truth, shareholders should be clear with chief executives. When they start unveiling plans to cope with Covid by re-inventing themselves as a digital business there should be a simple message. If you are not online already there is no point in starting now.
It would be better to simply squeeze cash from your offline business by managing it as efficiently as you possibly can, and hand back any profits you can make to shareholders to invest in Netflix or Boohoo instead. All you are going to do is waste tens of millions on a project that was doomed to failure from the start – and that won’t help anyone.
From the Telegraph
Mike Ashley is spending £100m to take his business online. Marks & Spencer is about to launch its joint venture with Ocado – a move many hope will finally turn around a retailer that often looks in terminal decline.
Restaurants are creating apps that will allow them to switch to home delivery, banks are embracing every form of contactless payment, gyms are launching online fitness classes, and film studios are getting into streaming as an alternative to empty cinemas. Just about every major business is suddenly trying to reinvent itself on the internet.
But hold on. It is much, much harder than it looks. Sure, we can understand why businesses are desperate to transform themselves into internet companies. But the harsh truth is that it is way too late to start now. They would be better off simply managing what they have, and handing the cash back to shareholders to invest in Tesla or Zoom – because most of what they spend is simply going to be wasted.
Amid some tough competition, it is hard to say exactly what the most wildly optimistic “digital transformation” strategy of the year so far is. Ashley’s determination to ramp up digital sales for his Sports Direct and House of Fraser chains certainly seems hopeful, to put it mildly. If anyone wants some cut-price trainers there is not exactly a shortage of places to buy them online already.
M&S is investing a lot of hope in Ocado, but then by now it is probably at the stage of praying something will turn up to rescue it. Beauty giant L’Oréal deserves full marks for pushing its e-commerce strategy, but lipstick and perfume mean more in the physical than the virtual world. And while Disney is being brave with its shift into streaming, it is going to be a challenge to replace the revenues from cinema seats and theme park tickets.
As for Poundland’s plans for home delivery, outlined last month, well the less said the better (but, er, have they heard of eBay?).
True, with many of us working from home, and a second wave of Covid-19 looking possible, it is easy to sympathise with companies that have decided they must beef up their online presence. In some cases, survival is at stake. In others, it is the only way of making up for sales that are 20pc to 30pc down.
Two decades ago, a few of these ventures might have stood a chance. But in 2020, it is going to be very difficult.
First, most companies are way too late. Thousands of internet retailers have been launched already, selling a bewildering range of products. There are fintech companies for every conceivable niche, and apps for any task you can think of have been built over a decade or more.
Online shopping as a proportion of all shopping in the UK has rocketed during lockdown
Line chart with 3 lines.
Online retail sales as a proportion of all retail sales
View as data table, Online shopping as a proportion of all shopping in the UK has rocketed during lockdown
article perhaps PHE should be targeting Italy,
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-italy-garbage-dips-with-coronavirus-lockdowns-but-plastics-rise/
Clippers are renting a large unit at Hadfield from N Brown and there are rumors Amazon are looking to take space. N Brown recently vacated a mill in Shaw which they were renting, ( believe it or not, from the local Chinese chip shop) it looks to me that N Brown are going to acquire the warehouses vacated by Shop Direct and consolidate most if not everything in one place in Shaw. Just my opinion.