Lots of awesome feedback from the AGM today. i haven't had a chance to digest my notes until now. Just a few things to add. Great to catch up with a few at the AGM today as well. Hope the lunch was good @prowiz. Some of us had to go back to our day jobs which i still need until the EMC rocket really launches!!
From the talk (just a few points not already mentioned)
- Rationale for RWL was that EMC was the disruptive tech that they needed that will really improve their bottom line. Obviously worth it to offer a company that has to be worth conservatively $500M for less than $100M.
- China still the big near term opportunity, but whereas before they had to put anything else - like Latin America on hold, now it is all in scope in the near term.
- The big boys like Veolia cant compete with Fluence because of their flexibility and ability to implement a project to full completion in such short time frames.
- Fluence can now obviously cover the whole water cycle. Not just waste water treatment that EMC was looking at.
- EMC and RWL both understand the value of recurring revenue model.
-Financing for this middlemarket traditionally difficult but with RWL on board this problem goes away.
Caught up with Richard Irving after the AGM and had a good chat.
Few things i can remember are:
- that i couldn't wipe the smile off my face when i read the capital structure and governance of the deal. If i recall, the last CR saw about 50M shares issued. Sure it was an important equity injection but if you think of what value is now coming into the company with only dilution of another 100M shares, shows me what a good aquisition deal they have made. Richard is very pleased with it. Only Exec of the quality of Richard and Ross could land a deal like this.
- Richard said they are unlikely to duel list in the US until 2019. They want significant revenues prior.
- Richard very comfortable with IP protection in China - through using different suppliers for each component of the plant that comes across. But primarily because all of the real secret stuff is driven through a control system running in the cloud which they can remotely shut down as soon as anyone is trying to access it.
- SUBRE is an important step forward in Tianjin. It brings an additional treatment protocol in that it pulls nitrogen out - which is important when releasing to waterways as nitrogen is a significant cause of algal blooms.
- EBR on track for 2018. If anything Richard suggested that RWL can assist in bringing this to market faster.
- Only negative was that certification on Wuxi is still ongoing. The other three demo sites are shipping now and will be operating by end of Q2. Certification Q3. I got the impression that certification will occur for all four demo plants about the same time.
-But having said that, China being China means that there is nothing to stop them making some moderate sales (say ~5 plants) prior to certification.
What an amazing company we all have ownership in. Hope my notes are helpful and add a few points to the quality posts already there.
FLC Price at posting:
94.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)