CFU (ASX) lot's of if's and but's

Originally posted by beachtrade ↑

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I am no expert, but I suspect there are quite a few more important patents in that list marked "granted" than you suggest. I agree that many of the earlier ones may now be superseded by some of the later ones, but looking at the titles I get the feeling that you couldn't make a copy of our fuel cell stack until about 2023 at least without infringing our patents.

There is plenty of value in those patents, but only if there is any value in the fuel cells themselves. If there isn't a market, it makes no difference.

The circumstances here are quite frustrating. Clearly, there should be a source of good funding from the Clean Energy Fund or even the Future Fund. Even if there isn't cash from CEFC, we might be able to secure a loan guarantee to avoid granting security over the IP.

Industry Fund Management has invested long term in Super money in operations like Pacific Hydro which must have been a really long term investment. Ironically, we have a Pacific Hydro person on our board.

I would be happy to live with significant dilution if the company was to receive adequate capital to invest in larger scale production to rapidly move it down the cost curve. The proposal we have will simply pay salaries for a few months, not provide much working capital for inventory build and ultimate put the value of the company at risk.

I know CFU has been slow to get traction, but it is an absolute indictment of our massive superannuation industry that no funds see opportunities to invest directly in an operation like CFU to shift up the curve to generating good returns. The lazy buggers simply buy the index. A $20 million strategic investment in CFU is a risk, but in the grand scheme of many of these funds its nothing. Australian super funds, like Australian Govt, think too short term. Maybe we should be touting CFU to Temasek or those Canadian Teachers' and Public Servants' Pension Funds.

CFU's problem isn't a lack of market. THere is a good market for the fuel cells at the right price. We just can't get to that price point because we don't have sufficient capital to tied us over!