Please take this with a grain of salt. My inside source said that he helped teach them how to setup and operate them, gave them everything.
So this isn't just my interpretation, nor would I swear by it. However, going to a competitor that does exactly what you do seems to be the most desperate act now that I think about it.
> what was the alternative in trying to have a relationship with a company in China?
The alternative is to pursue relationships with customers of your product.
I think what you gloss over
@adent is the fact the company RFX wants to have a "relationship" with is a R&D company exploring zinc-bromine batteries. ie, your direct competitor in a country that can manufacture it faster, cheaper and have a cultural and local advantage over you in the biggest market in the world. Why?
In his latest interview, I paraphrase:
"We think Asia is a important large market opportunity for us, but we're going to focus on Australia, NZ and SA."
Why? He said nothing of any short, medium or long term strategy. He's spent his whole career in telcos so he's going after phone towers.
They are raising every year to keep the lights on. The revenue generated is a fraction of the operating cost. CRs are being under subscribed for the first time. Last year was a big year of lay offs to reduce cost, some of them cut into the engineering aspects ( my insider and this is how I came to own shares now seeing the product ).
These guys are losing money and confidence fast. Their runway is short and even if the new Gen3 batteries are cheaper, it's unproven in the field so there's no understanding of the maintenance cost related or cost to mass produce these.
So regardless of their screw up in China (my opinion), I think they're desperately trying to raise some revenue which won't cover the operating costs but will give them more positive news for the next round of CR. They burn through 10 mil last few yrs and have $150k revenue. If the Gen3 are 30% cheaper to produce, then *very* optimistically they have to increase revenue by at least 1000% and raise another 5-8mil... to keep the lights on.
And a minor point, The CEO owns less than 0.1% shares in the company and has had his salary quadrupled from 100k to 400k+ between end of 2018 to 2019. Does not give me much confidence of where his interests are aligned.
In fact the whole exec board owns less than 1% of the shares of the company.
(20min delay)