Hi again
Just re-read last night's missive and I could have been a bit more 'laser-like' (was the end of a long day's toil.....yes toil......AFDs all week)
The Eicma show has thrown up a lot of issues (again) and just to re-visit some......
1. In regards to takeover offers, I figure FCL is now on pole position. I would have thought a 'non-industry' offer would have come from Rabobank. But I completely missed FCL.
2. The nature of the 'industry' that VMT is in is morphing and maybe now the "E-Mobility" sector is it and our sub-sector is "Urban E-Mobility". The rate of growth of the 'pie' will be driven in part by consumer interest but I believe the over-riding influence will be the charging networks that get put in place. Consequently maybe FCL is an 'industry' player moreso than 'Honda' etc. Which is why I am very very curious about charging networks / battery swapping stations etc.
3. Regarding growth and the $25m. Given the extent of new product frontiers the company is about to embark on some of that 'stash' will be required to fund what I expect will be a kick in prepayments, regardless of whether new or old suppliers are used. Overlap of parts usage between models is going to be important.
4. Manufacturing and Supply chain issues are paramount. And have a bearing on where stuff gets built. The company's supply chain security is impressive from the point of view of converting quarter starting booked orders to end of quarter sales volumes. The article posted the other day by Elecrick or Pods(?) concerning the Spanish market re-affirmed the importance of the company's supply network. The competitions' inability to supply product was a contributing factor in the surge of Vmoto sales. That is not to dismiss all the other factors like 'great product', 'Lorenzo's profile' etc. Nothing is black and white or binary but the result of many factors (another story re the dual listing when I get to it).
5. So how important is geography when talking about supply chain security versus the importance of relationships established by the company. I don't know. But it will have some bearing on the set-up of manufacturing sites.
Cheers
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