The following writeup covers a VRS investor event (Transport Infrastructure Technology Preview Event – 24th July 2019) and was originally published on ADVFN by “RogerTheGrouch”.
Hi all, long day and a long drive home but cobbled some notes. Absolute fantastic day, great to meet some other shareholders and the management team.
The day started at the Bristol aerospace, home of the last flown Concorde. Bristol is also the home of the suspension bridge and other game changing engineering. This provided the perfect backdrop. Concorde was developed by a group of European engineers in the face of naysayers that said supersonic commercial flight could never happen and there were similar doubts about IKB, both proved revolutionary and game changing.
After marvelling at the Concorde and a few quick photos we were invited in for a debrief where we signed NDA that restrict what we are allowed to communicate to protect the client’s advantage as it looks pioneer the use of graphene within a customer proposal. (Note this was client NDA and not VRS)
There were a collection of representatives from several nations including China, South Korea and Japan as well as 12 investors. Also at the event was Doc holiday and some analysts. It was a pleasure to meet every one of them.
We boarded a coach to take us to the client site where we got to see a full sized prototype of their product enhanced with Versarien graphene.
On the face of it, you are just looking at a very ordinary, almost boring product but what you’re really looking at is the beginning of the graphene revolution. This is the first product at a commercial scale to contain Graphene. It was a full scale prototype set up on a testing rig to carry out the final stages of test before it is potentially rolled out for commercial use. The scale of that commercial use was fairly apparent and offers significant opportunity and would mark the first use of a Graphene technology at a industrial scale and within in a very large sector.
We headed back for Q&A. Key points:
- Not looking for the vanity projects but focused on projects that solve real world engineering challenges that are sustainable and offer deep longevity
- VRS is one of the only, if not the only, Graphene producer that is truly global. There are a couple of other companies that do minor exporting however Matt believes VRS is the only company with a truly global strategy
- Tremendous story for the UK government Graphene. Discovered in UK (Manchester), developed in UK universities, commercialised with UK company listed on UK stock exchange, invested by UK investors and supported by UK government to serve the UK market with only verified product in the world to then expand to serve foreign markets through mechanisms like BIGT
- BIGT isn’t so much about the cash although this would accelerate growth and opportunities but it was more about being plugged in to China market. There are some 300 Graphene companies in China but the BIGT want to work with little old the VRS which speaks volumes.
- The objective is to still get the BIGT deal across the line prior to the AGM due to the 15% authority, however if this is delayed by a couple of weeks then it is not such a problem because there would be next years allocation available. Also, should any further authority be required then an emergency General meeting could be conducted to pass that motion.
- Regarding the verified Graphene producer program Neill sees this quite rightly as a significant advantage over our competitors and although there are other companies attempting to pass it, none have yet been successful and suggested any company starting the process now would take a pretty long time to pass, if pass it at all.
- Neill stated something like…’today is absolutely the most important day in our history because it validates our business model – It’s a commercial product that is predicted to be at production levels’
- He felt that now that VRS have proven they can do it they will come under big pressure from the universities and researchists as they will want to commercialise their ideas with Versarien (a proven entity, the only proven entity). Steve’s job is to select the best opportunities from the university startups – only the best qualify
- Aspiration to become the leading 2d company (presumably to continue to be). Want to grow both vertically and horizontally. Vertically by continuing to move up the supply chain and horizontally by introducing many more to 2D products both carbon based and non carbon-based
- Encourages us to evaluate all the collabs and projects in flight and then consider the cashburn. Quite remarkable how carefully costs have been managed and a credit to chris as CFO but also highlights what a great partnership the CEO and CFO make
- Discussion about moats and whether these may start to dry out. No, they will only get deeper
Overall a great day. I feel very privileged to have witness first hand a real world application of Graphene and owe Ernie a beer for selecting me.