Just spent 20 mins on the phone to Meir about the CR.
Tried to get a feel for how firm the "soft book of investors" is. Basically he said read the prospectus because he has to be very careful what he says in this heightened non-disclosure period. Tried to press him, but to no avail.
The number of satellites they are intending to launch in the first batch under this prospectus is definitely 8. The only reason they show launches of fewer satellites is because they had to show what they intended to do if they had to scales things down due receiving a lesser amount.
Asked if they have to go through the lengthy CD process again. Apparently, the 6U's as as off the shelf as you can get with this type of technology. Of course, there will be some customisation, but that will be minimal. The software is the IP.
Asked why the satellite build amount in the prospectus of $4.8m for 8 satellites doesn't match up with previously published figures. The $4.8m is only the amount allocated from the CR for the build. It doesn't include any "additional inflow" from other sources such as grants and rebates like the $2.6m they just received. They have, or will be, putting in for other grants, etc, from UK, Poland and Europe and hope to obtain additional funding via that path. He even talked about scaling up instead of down if things went their way with possible funding sources.
Asked about the 2018 SPP where, when asked "Will the funding from this SPP enable the first batch of 20 Pearls to go up?" and he replied "In short, yes". He said "plans change". Told me to read the CTO Update announcement where all the advances in technology were detailed and how much work had been put into the highly complicated software that had to deal with all the differing regulatory regimes in the various countries. Said they were doing stuff that no-one else had and that they were leading the pack in this area.
I noted that they had stated that they could scale down to 1 or 2 satellites if the level of funding available made it necessary. I hesitantly asked about using one or two of the 3D's to generate much needed revenue. I know he is sick of getting this question and he was a little impatient (understandably) about being asked this again. But, I pushed the point and he said that any revenue from the 3D's would be immaterial and they they are still constantly being used as demonstrators and as R&D and training platforms for SAS staff.
Asked why Michael Malone resigned. Wouldn't go there.
He sounded up beat and was saying "when" not "if" it all comes together. Said he felt that SAS would be a billion dollar company in the not-to-distant future.
I said I was nervous about putting more money into SAS in case insufficient funds were raised. He said he was going to personally (along with the other founders) put as much as they could afford into it. He stated he wasn't a wealthy man as he used to work for the government. Said they did put into the last CR, so I assume they didn't pull it out again. I didn't ask that.
For my part, I was hoping to get a better feel for how firm the "soft book of investors" was, to give me an idea if they were likely to get the $15m they needed for a full launch. It would have given me more confidence to put in some more - maybe. Unfortunately, that wasn't possible, so I am still in a bit of a quandary on what to do...
SAS Price at posting:
1.6¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
