So, we need to check out the next indicator of a 100 bagger:
It must be relatively unknown.
Well, First Graphite hasn't been around for long. In fact for most of the time that it has been chasing crystalline vein graphite in Sri Lanka it was disguised as MRL, who came into existence a couple of years earlier to hunt for coal in Mongolia.
I remember that the first time I noticed the company we now know as FGR here on HC, it had a thread title involving graphene, with voluminous posts and lots of interesting links, It was under the ticker MRL, and my immediate thought was "are they going to make it out of coal"?
The activity in Sri Lanka started just three years ago, and the tech side only much more recently than that.
And how many people do you know, (apart from the tragics who visit here?) that don't look quizzically at you when you mention graphene, let alone FGR? While many thousands of patents involving the applications of this magic material have been applied for and granted over recent years, the masses, in large part, don't have a clue about the impending revolution in materials technology, and the disruptive effects it will bring to so many parts of our lives .
The change of name to First Graphite has brought some recognition to that part of the group of investors who follow carbon materials, but the public and market announcements by the firm until recently have hardly said "Look at me,... look at me".
The directors explain their approach by saying they do not believe in hyperbole. They wanted the market to judge them by their results rather than their noise. Well, they were certainly fairly quiet. Even though they very expeditiously racked up the impressive list of developments in only three years, (see my previous post),
not many in the market seemed to know about it, or appreciate it.
Their announcements that followed each reportable event were usually quite perfunctory, sometimes ambiguous, and even included reporting on three quite different aspects of their operations in the same release to the ASX. Very little understanding of PR if they wanted to garner attention.
I recall one announcement; the topic was the results from a University, testing for the resistivity of the G produced in the FGR module. After a few fairly tame posts, one poster dared to ask what it meant (I think that was spid). He asked for advice from anyone in the electrical engineering field who could explain it.
One qualified person did respond - he couldn't be of much help, because the data provided was insufficient. Obviously the person who wrote the announcement really didn't understand what the University researchers had determined (which was actually very important). But do you expect an accountant to have any conceptual linkage between resistivity and electrical conductivity ?
In fact, do you know any firm trying to gain attention that would choose their accountant to be their PR operative? or their website manager?
(If you are getting the picture that I have not been impressed with FGR's announcements, website, or shareholder engagement over earlier times, well,... you'd be right !).
Thankfully, that is beginning to change. How many noticed that the most recent announcement just the other day was released to the ASX on "Sydney time" rather than "Perth time". I , and some others who contacted me, certainly noticed an improvement in clarity and purpose in the document. Lots of information, easy to follow. An overall impression "things are going to happen soon".
While First Graphite personnel had their heads down putting that impressive list of achievements together, they got very little media attention - they didn't seek it. Until the announcement of the BEST battery deal with Swinburne U T got a few mentions in the press, and even then it was over in days,
But as the company has "lined up all it's ducks", prepared for production both in Sri Lanka, and on the graphene front, and especially since Warwick Grigor has taken the lead, things are changing. At the Annual meeting last November, in his Chairman's address, WG told shareholders "It's time we made some noise".
And just in late January of this year, after the CR, Managing Director Craig McGuckin, (hardly known for his outlandish claims or attention seeking), commented;
"This is the year that we make people stand up and take notice."
(well, if you know Craig, maybe you might think WG wrote his copy for him !)
While FGR has been active, over the last couple of years, at local and international mining conferences and graphite/graphene trade shows, the general public, even the investing public, has very little knowledge of this ASX listed micro cap that is now set to enter centre stage as the "G revolution" steadily builds.
A certain Space Bear coined the phrase "stealth marketing" to describe the promotional approach of FGR.
So I guess we can tick that one off
It must be relatively unknown.
But maybe that's about to change.
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