FLC (ASX) Fluence China

@bridog I can absolutely understand your misgivings, but you also need to understand the opportunity. BEWG is the considered the #1 in China in terms of water SoE's.

As @ywtoh has said above, IP protection has been one of the biggest concerns going into China. There are ways for Chinese companies to steal IP, but publicly entering into this type of partnership with Fluence is not the way to do it. You would tell Fluence that the partnership is strictly confidential, to not release any documentation. I'll go into it a bit more later, but look very closely at who is involved. They don't need to do anything by stealth, they could just buy 30% of Fluence for $50 million AUD. Then have access to all the IP, plus future profits on any sales. If they bought 30% of Fluence for $50 million AUD, and used MABR for all their future decentralized projects, they would make back that $50 million very easily.

Last year they made about $500 million AUD in profit from their sewage/reclaimed water business.
Do you think they can't afford to buy part of Fluence if they really want the tech. Fluence are cheap for what you get, BEWG would get all sorts of interesting tech to use in China.

As @ywtoh also said, the list of SoE's that Fluence is partnering with is growing. I think they must have over 40 partnerships by now, and the ones buying are either provincial leaders, or national leaders. After 3 Gorges, China Rail, iTEST, Hunan Kaitian, Zhejiang Tiandi, why do we not think that BEWG and every other water company are taking notice? Fluence have been winning awards at every major trade show in China as an outsider. With awards in tow, and surrounded by powerful partners who are also in attendance, they are then able to showcase MABR to more and more influential partners.

Even outside of China, Fluence deal with the largest conglomerate + water company in the Philippines, have the largest biological treatment plants in Cambodia, and have been selling plants to the USDA in the USA. At some point, it has to not be a fluke every single time, since every single partner seems to be saying the same thing, that compared to other tech MABR just works to produce a high quality effluent, and saves money on OPEX at the same time. Don't sleep on the 15 year guarantee that Fluence also provides on the MABR spirals, I have not seen this on other tech in China, nobody is that confident in their product.

Now, lets look at why BEWG is looking at Fluence.

BEWG want to work with Fluence with R&D models to target the above thinking. To make standard products that fit directly in to village and town sewage scenarios. The lady pictured above is the one we will be working with. She is highly recognized as a industry leader.

Hang Shijun is leading this R&D project with Fluence. Her m/o is applied research & design, which is then built into actual wastewater treatment plants. I think if this was a theft plan, this is the wrong woman to do it. I think she'll be interested in working with Fluence as a partner to take MABR, and make it an accepted standard in China. This is what is already happening with Zhejiang Tiandi and the Hangzhou Municipal Housing bureau. I think Hang Shijun is Zhejiang based, so she or an associate may have sat in on one of the many sessions that they have had and recognized it as something that BEWG needs to adopt for the rest of China.

This one is from 2019, but there have been many meetings since for the different districts in Hangzhou.

Overall I feel this is a great opportunity for Fluence. Other than 3 Gorges Group, there is no better representative of what Beijing wants that BEWG. If Fluence work directly with BEWG to work out a way of applying MABR for decentralized projects around the country that fit into village and town sewage projects, then you can be assured that it will fit into exactly what is required to meet the guidelines of the 14th 5year plan. If this R&D partnership works, Fluence MABR could be THE gold standard in China, and other partners will come knocking.