My research on the ascent capital team shows that they RARELY stay on in any management or board capacity. As it typically takes around 6-12 months to clean up a shell and back a newbie into it, these guys will understandably want their investment back with dividends - that's their business. HOWEVER, two of the four Ascent team have actually taken OBJ board positions:
DAVID STEINEPREIS – as Chairman (...a Chartered Accountant and former partner of an international accounting firm where he specialised in strategic corporate advice and taxation for listed companies.)
HUGH WARNER – Non Executive Director (...holds a bachelor of Economics Degree from the University of Western Australia and has completed post graduate studies in accounting and law. Mr Warner has been involved with a number of private and publicly listed companies in Australia, UK, Canada, involved in the oil and gas, gold, diamonds and technology sectors.)
Hugh in particular is a very very smart negotiator and business man. David is a smart and hands on strategist.
The fact that they are in and they are holding ... that's almost enough to be 3 good reasons in itself.
However I do have 2 more reasons to believe they're the goods:
No. 2
Quality management and scientific team (you can read all about them at http://www.obj.com.au/corporate.html) - in particular, technical director JEFF EDWARDS (who also created OBJ's dermaportation tech) is an award winning technology developer with over twenty years experience in technology innovations in the medical and scientific fields. He is a very smart thinker and business man (and readily available to shareholders with questions/suggestions/etc). He's also a very polite man who hasn't let his successes or authority go to his trousers!
No.3
OBJ's pending worldwide (PCT) patent application (with a priority date of November 2003). I spoke to Jeff Edwards about this and he explained that the initial/current application covers the science and methods of the Dermaportation process and that they are currently preparing a number of method invention applications covering the specific energy gradients used to mobilize the molecular footprint of a number of "commercially important" drugs.
A patent with the potential applications described above would be worth b i l l i o n s in the skincream/cosmetic/anti-wrinkle market alone. Add the pain relief market for another few billion! Add "commercially important drugs" and that's retirement taken care of.
Of course it can typically take 3 to 8 years to have a PCT patent granted (or not), so these guys need to roll out a couple of small intermediate deals in the meantime (possibly pre-arranged with the manufacturers of the "commercially important drugs"?)... and that's where Hugh Warner's contacts and nouse comes in.
And all for .031 per share!
I hold (and I bought more today at .031 - bargain).
LadyP
OBJ Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)