I agree with most of your comments. I think MF needed the cash as well. The current operation has about ~60 staff + overheads and expenses, I am guessing this operation is running at $1.25m+ per annum.
There is revenue otherwise I doubt the off-shore team will be this large. He has Charter on-board now. He now needs to make that deal work. He needs to get other dealerships on-board as well. He still needs to develop Lilly @ $1.1m. He also needs to grow the off-shore team which I am assume to service other SOAs once they are in production. I am guessing the current business is at breakeven or potentially running at either small loss or profit.
Maybe you are right on the VC point. I don't know though if raising the capital via VC would have been the best option for MF. If he was in need of cash, I imagine a VC would drive a harder bargain. He may also run the risk of interference, which I can't imagine MF would want. Also, why wouldn't you want to list if you can access the same amount of capital rather than going through a VC? At this point the operations/tech still needs development. The equity stake right now to some degrees matters little if the company doesn't make a profit. If he believes the company will succeed with access to upfront and future capital, why not take performance shares instead? The markets will reward him if he hits those hurdles with little downside risk for him personally.
I really liked your post, made me think about this latest announcement, haven't necessarily been following the debate on this topic too much
SRT Price at posting:
2.1¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)