Got to say Im extremely dissapointed here, ironic that ECS is my biggest holding, the company that I have done the most research for, I feel like I know the industry and the company inside out and yet ECS is the worst performer of all stocks I hold. Just goes to show even with all the research proving that ECS is the largest listed cultivator, with the lowest cost of production and extremely undervalued compared to its peers, it still comes down to management, who are they? How to do act, do they treat shareholders with respect and part of the company? do they communicate to market? Etc, management is the piece of the puzzle I should be looking at the most, and to be honest I ignored their shortcomings with ECS based on just way they were performing on paper, but CEO Alex Keach's inside deals, easy performance rights awarded to himself, Cap raise after cap raise with no regard for shareholders and no communication on direction and state of the company unless forced (in way of legal quarterlies) perhaps I should be blaming myself for not putting more weight on these red flags.
Needless to say , but yet I will as always, communication has been dismal, it does come down to management at the end of the day, buck stops with them.
I really cant help but feel sorry for Nan at the moment, think she got screwed out of this deal. Had she just kept trading Murray Meds as a private company, just a few of the deals she has making without any of ECSs help, for example the deal last month of $4.5 mill etc would have been all for her company and she would have done better than her ECS holdings, however now she now has to share with ECS and her networth is going down because of it.
Her shares in ECS are now valued at $3.3 million, down $1.7 million from the 5cent issue price, and thats after she has done such a great job with Murray Meds, its Alex's side of the business that is letting her down. I would be furious if I was her, she would be a richer woman had she not done this deal and wouldnt have the dead weight of Alex Keach whos contributed SFA to her success.
As far as price action goes, I called the dumping when I saw it on this thread, started at 4cents, and been the same seller dumping on market in the 500k parcels. It has to be a top 20 holder based on the volume gone through however can not be a significant holder (Alex, Nan, Guy Banducci) otherwise they would have to report, and I think its Xcel capital dumping their holdings, they are under a substantial holder classification (5%) but yet still hold around 18 million shares, so it makes sense.
Why would they be selling now, well could be a number of reasons, but these were free shares, so selling at any price is profit for them, reading between the lines too, if Xcel are the joint lead managers, so who ECS uses for capital raisings, perhaps they are aware or have been approached by ECS that with only a year left of cash ECS will need to do yet another raise, so why not offload what they have before being diluted yet again.
Ive got a plan in place to trade my way through this, I already hold millions of shares of this stock, still believe in long term potential but not happy with Alexs treatment of shareholders and communication to the market. And with only a year of cash left (based on last quarterly) and already two capital raisings within the last 12 months , why would he go increasing costs with staff appointments (who have delivered SFA themselves in terms of announcements.) if he knows its got the potential to lead to a capraise and dilute holders further ? If I was Nan I would take control of the ship, would be welcomed by shareholders.
Despite all doom and gloom here, there are devils advocate arguments to all the above, such as perhaps the 4 mill in cash remaining can see us through cash positive as most of the expense last quarter was expenditure for plant and property which is not ongoing once plant is established, the sellers dumping the 500k should be out of shares soon (if not they would be a significant holder and broken laws by not reporting) , ECS follows the cannabis ETFs overseas and at some point will be seeing another flow of cash coming into the sector with MORE Act, so just a matter of time, just a matter of how much pain you can take before hand.
As share holders I feel we should be contacting the CEO and letting him know we want better communication. Perhaps monthly updates, would take an hour of his month and yet provide shareholders and the market in general with a clearer picture of what is happening with the business. As of now we really have no idea whats happening, what level is the plant at? Do we have extraction machine up and running? How much stock do we have? When are the next harvests being planted and how much yield is expected? etc etc. If enough of us contact him and request this , it will happen, I mean he is a human at the end of the day, surely he has to feel some level of responisbility to the market that is paying his 200k pa salary, given him $4 million worth of shares and performance rights, whilst none of the investors themselves have made a single cent investing in him.
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