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PIM Plant Impact

10.45
0.00 (0.00%)
28 Mar 2024 - Closed
Delayed by 15 minutes
Share Name Share Symbol Market Type Share ISIN Share Description
Plant Impact LSE:PIM London Ordinary Share GB00B1F4K366 ORD 1P
  Price Change % Change Share Price Bid Price Offer Price High Price Low Price Open Price Shares Traded Last Trade
  0.00 0.00% 10.45 - 0.00 00:00:00
Industry Sector Turnover Profit EPS - Basic PE Ratio Market Cap
0 0 N/A 0

Plant Impact Share Discussion Threads

Showing 2901 to 2925 of 3950 messages
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DateSubjectAuthorDiscuss
04/8/2015
07:48
It's not just the CEO restricted shares, there were also 6m+ share options at 31.7.14 outstanding of which 1.375m were recently exercised. In 2014 1.2m options were granted to staff and staff numbers are growing. Thus I think we should assume about 100m shares for 2018/19 share price targets.

Taking say 55p as a base and 30% compound growth gives:

FYE 16 72p
FYE 17 93p
FYE 18 121p
FYE 19 157p

Given the strategy laid out at the AGM I think that's not unrealistic. Clearly I've simplified the growth and it maybe that some of it comes earlier or later.

I'm not sure yet who would buy PIM because they are (sensibly) spreading their risk re partners. And why couldn't they remain independent ? But I think that if someone were to do so at a price to tempt the majority of shareholders it wouldn't be for 2yrs+ i.e. when more is known about the potential for wheat.

If I'm sitting on 72p at August 2016 I will be quite happy with 25%+ over 12mths.

visionon
04/8/2015
07:15
With the added dilution, it may be that my 2 quid target is hard to achieve. For this reason I have adjusted it. Hopefully, there will be no more!

£1.90

venture traveller
31/7/2015
18:17
I was always convinced this would be taken over. What I couldn't get my head round was the CEO wouldn't want it. Now I know it will get taken out. At what price?? My guess £1.61. Anyone what to join the debate with reasonable guesses??
bigglesbingham
31/7/2015
15:12
Hi Wan

tbh I'm not really that worked up about the incentives - if one stayed away from companies that gave 'large' rewards to CEOs for performance, then you'd miss out on some great performances over the years. D S Smith for example has more than doubled in a handful of years, and there was great disquiet about CEO packages there I seem to recall. Similar at WPP - which over several decades went from being a tiny wire making company to one of the world's biggest advertising conglomerates.

Anyway I digress - as long as the share price continues its upward momentum during the period allowed for option vesting, I'm happy. It's when option prices are re-based downwards to reflect poor performance (in terms of share price, management and / or profits) I tend to sell.

I would hope that this continues on its independent way for some time yet; I've only dipped my toe in the water and will continue slowly building a stake.

I'm happy being patient and taking a 5 year view on this one - realise that most want a quick return (who wouldn't after all!) but quite happy to sit in there for longer-term gains.

cisk
31/7/2015
14:48
Well some of the target share prices will give me a multibagger, but I was buying heavily between 10 and 13p. However, most investors (including me) will be happy if their holdings multiply by less than a factor of 10, hence I have also been buying at higher levels.

Even with the dilution, if the CEO can engineer a scenario that sends the shares in a direction of the 2019 target, in my opinion it still represents a very good return on today's price of circa 65% p/a. Plus, a takeover, which I don't like to talk about much (as it implies ramping), appears a real prospect here (hence the provision in the terms) and if it materialises it could get us to the higher targets much sooner. And clearly the targets are there to be beaten, not just hit!

In short, when the management and the investment theme/rationale are this good you don't abandon your investment when you have to incentify them accordingly and especially when that also aligns with shareholders interests, even if that results in some dilution (albeit there is a limit). Also, because the shares are awarded in tranches, surely the share price targets takes account of some of the dilution en-route, in that the share price must overcome what discount the market applies.

Anyway, I have added a few more this afternoon and I will be monitoring with further intent.

Cisk...I don't disagree with your opinion on the US tax, but Perhaps PI can ultimately negotiate that tax situation into any eventual offer ;-)

wan
31/7/2015
13:21
Share price down 6% in response.

The new options potentially dilute the current shares in issue by around 6% on a rough calculation

molybdenum
31/7/2015
12:59
The awards look generous in the context of the share price today, but not compared to Nov 14.

The bit I'm not keen on is that, if the company is taken over, then the additional tax liability in the USA (as a result of the company being taken over, the gross profit hurdle disappears so there is more tax to pay in the USA apparently) is met by the company. This could be a considerable amount.

It should be met by the CEO as his tax domicile is his business and shareholders should not have money taken out of their pocket due to him being a US resident.

He should pay the tax from his own pocket.

Anyway, all this is 'Ifs and Buts' really, I don't see how it diminishes from this being a multi-bagger in the years to come.

cisk
31/7/2015
12:21
Hefty issue of share options to CEO: see e.g. investegate.co.uk/plant-impact-plc--pim-/rns/chief-executive-officer-s-restricted-share-units/201507311148447245U/

Diminishes hopes this could easily be a multibagger.

You just can't trust the AIM, can you?

molybdenum
31/7/2015
08:02
Thanks Wan. The 25%+ figure is important because the cocoa farms are generally small, therefore a large % is required to make a material amount of money. As opposed to the huge Soy farms in Brazil where just 3-5% improvement equates to a serious amount of money. It's a bit like widgets and luxury watches.

Given the world's increasing consumption of chocolate Banzai could become a serious revenue generator. Now where are those biscuits...

visionon
31/7/2015
07:29
Well worth a read -

TIME FOR ANOTHER AGRICULTURE REVOLUTION
By Sean Rickard
Published July 29, 2015

Global food demand will rise by at least 60 per cent over the next 35 years, but supplying this production will be challenged by increasingly scarce natural resources, such as land and freshwater, and the impact of climate change on production.

The implication is already apparent – over the past decade, global agricultural prices have averaged 82 per cent above their level in the previous 25 years. While action to reduce food waste could make an important contribution, it will not be sufficient and a supply-side revolution will be necessary to solve the trilemma.

Full story -


Long term investors/those who attended the investor day, will already know the theme. What]s clear is that it is not going to get better on its own and therefore PI's products should be in demand.

I was particularly impressed by the yield enhancement for Banzai (Cocoa) which is excess of 25%, which should make it a compelling purchase. On this note the following came to my attention -

15 July 2015 15:22 CET
1 Comments
Stakeholders Optimistic Of Cocoa Bumper Harvest Next Season

By Adnan A. Mohammed || The Economy Times

Read more at:

Ghana's output this season falls short of its initial forecast of more than 1 million tonnes, a fact that has rattled the global cocoa market -- given that the West African country is the world's second-largest producer behind Ivory Coast.

Investors confidence in Ghana's ability to forecast its cocoa output took a hit this year, when the regulator, COCOBOD, revised an initial prediction of more than 1 million tonnes made at the start of the season in October to around 700,000 tonnes.

Apparently, some farmers believed that the failure to make enough inputs, such as fertilisers and pesticides, available early in the season is another factor. In their absence, diseases such as black pod flourished, causing cocoa pods to wither on the trees was the major cause of the decline in output.

The shortfall and its notice with little warning has hit hard on global cocoa markets because Ghana is the world's largest producer after Ivory Coast.

However, some agriculturalists have asserted that, the rains recorded earlier in the year have yielded a good crop of the flowers that should turn into cocoa pods given the right conditions.

They are therefore anticipating that in the (next) main crop the country will experience a bumper harvest.

Douglas Amankwah, a buyer outside Kumasi in Ashanti Region had expressed that, "the application of agro chemicals last season was late so it did not have an impact on 2014/15. These agro chemicals will have the result on the 2015/16 main crop," he said.

His comment was echoed by farmers including Lawrence Adu who pointed to the budding cocoa flowers on the trees on his 13-acre farm at New Tafo, Eastern Region.

Read more at:

For those interested here are the details of the Cocoa season, which has a main and mid crop and is spread across a number of months depending on the country. So given the above commentary, success should (hopefully) be felt by PI in the current season -

The cocoa harvest is not confined to one short period but is spread over several months once or twice a year. The timing of the cocoa harvest varies from country to country, depending on the climate and the variety of cocoa. In countries with a pronounced wet and dry season, the main crop occurs 5-6 months after the start of the wet season. -

wan
28/7/2015
09:01
Most will already know that Inca, like Veritas, is based on PI's CaT technology platform. We have previously come across some very good feedback on the increased quality and increased marketable yields from users of Inca. With this in mind I was interested to note the following -

Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Bayer CropScience at the World Potato Congress in Beijing, China:
Offering integrated solutions and driving partnerships to promote sustainability in potatoes

Improved crop management around the globe is promoting continuous productivity gains. The total world production of potatoes in 2013 was estimated at 376 million tons, representing an increase of more than 20 percent over the last two decades. As the largest producer of potatoes, China accounts for more than 25 percent of the world’s production. With a comparably low average productivity rate of about 17 tons per hectare, the country still has great potential relative to Europe (30 tons per hectare) and the USA (more than 40 tons per hectare) to further enhance its yields.
Full story -


The data for Inca used on potatoes looks compelling, which we know is a very important factor -



And for other vegetables too -

wan
17/7/2015
09:24
Thanks wan.

£2.00

venture traveller
17/7/2015
07:08
IC coverage of PI's Open Day (video) -
wan
09/7/2015
08:48
I recall that somewhere in my research files I have something else on this development (Arysta and Cocoa), I will see if I can find it over the next few days and I will post it if it's relevant/gives any new insights etc.
wan
09/7/2015
08:23
wan. very useful post. if people also look at the article on the same page entitled "What happens in Ghana…" it talks of problems with harvest and black pod disease.

Given the world's increasing liking for chocolate Banzai could be very timely.

visionon
09/7/2015
06:47
Timbo...Very interesting comment about combinations with 'other' products, which I assume is applicable to the latest product launch, Banzai. FYI some very interesting information on Banzai and the Alethea technology -

Stress Therapy For Cocoa Trees

wan
07/7/2015
19:58
I'm also relaxed about the IP situation Wan and that is a good point you make concerning compatibility with other products.

Whilst I remember: Steve Adams said that PIM had conducted studies with Veritas in combination with fungicides from Syngenta, Bayer and BASF and he singled out Syngeta's fungicide as showing an enhanced fungicidal effect (against rust) when used with Veritas.

timbo003
07/7/2015
08:14
Timbo...Thank you for your comprehensive coverage of the Open Day it is very much appreciated. You might recall my recent comment from post 576;

"One area that I am particularly interested in, is what might be spawned from the contact and the resulting relationships at Rothamsted, which is something we have yet to see the evidence and the full benefit of. The possibilities of this is something that I have been looking into, and I am more than intrigued by what is potentially on offer. Watch this space!"

There was a particular reason for that comment (from my own research), which PI have now alluded to, so I expect some very interesting developments to emerge.

I would also add that I am more relaxed about the IP than some, and surely compatibility with and 'enhancement' of 'existing' products offers another material layer of protection, especially if combined/mixed. If anyone cares to look at Bayer's recent patent applications, there is a vey noticeable trend for compositions/combinations (I have, v/long reads).

wan
06/7/2015
16:24
Timbo003 and BigglesBingham - thank you very much. Comprehensive, well written and very encouraging. Obviously I'm very pleased at the release of the development of Banzai but the ongoing attention to ensuring the intellectual property is retained is probably more crucial.

Regarding the "Buy Out" discussion, I'd agree with the comment that it is not high on John Brubaker's agenda. From my two meetings with him, I think he will go to near the very top of this industry and wants a full and complete success in his first CEO role. As well as my/our own selfish interest in the "fruits" of his success, he seems a good Guy and I wish him well. As for Venture Traveller's £2.00 target, I remember smiling at Peter Bleazard predicting a Market Cap of 200 million but that's about where I see PIM's new board to be aiming and they have a genuine opportunity to do so.

Thanks also for reminding me of "Agextpert" and his predictions of doom for us all with "PIM being built on sand". If ever there was an example of "doing your own research" and ignoring insidious mischief making it was his 'input'. I'm being overly polite here...

horace_h
06/7/2015
10:04
Tim good to put a face to name. Excellent appraisal. I would two other points. The standard of the employees and organisation is undoubtably top notch, they seem to be cherry picking the best from all the major players. With regards to their next major partner (likely to be wheat) Brubaker suggested they would have to think carefully implying he is wary of too close a tie in to one company which implied to me that a but out is not high on his agenda . I would suggest Syngenta if I was to read between the lines of what was said.
bigglesbingham
06/7/2015
08:53
Thanks timbo, good job.

VT
£2.00

venture traveller
06/7/2015
05:28
Thank you timbo003.
freddie01
05/7/2015
19:10
much appreciated timbo003 as I was not able to make it this year
cerrito
05/7/2015
18:07
The 2015 Plant Impact (PIM) shareholder investor day was held on Friday 3rd July at their HQ, which is located on the Rothamstead Research Centre campus at Harpenden.


The campus has had quite a lot of building work completed during the last 12 months and it now boasts a number of new purpose built facilities including a conference centre which was used for Fridays event:


There were four presentations, each lasted about 20 minutes, then we had a very short Q&A session (time for 4 questions only), this was followed by a guided tour of the facilities which took around 45 minutes and then it was lunch.

Before reading further, I should draw attention to the tabular summary of PIM’s technologies and products at the end of this post which should help make all the trade names and technology names a bit less confusing when I refer to them later.


David Jones (Chairman) gave the introduction and the first talk. He began by introducing the new hires, two of whom are the subject of this recent press release:


David went on to outline Plant Impact’s raison d'être. He illustrated this by referring to the work of the 18th/19th century scholar Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus, who gave his name to the Malthusian catastrophe theory on population growth, this basically postulates that in times of plenty, populations increase geometrically while food supply increases only arithmetically, but ultimately this self corrects in one way or another, sometimes catastrophically.


Two hundred years later and the human population has expanded many fold, yet food supply has kept pace with the expanding population and there has been no correction (yet). This has been largely attributed to bulk fertilisers and improvements in agricultural methods. There are now signs that food supply is plateauing, yet the world population continues to increase, the potential imbalance is exacerbated by much of the developing world switching from a vegetarian to an omnivorous diet, requiring a concomitant increase in crop production to provide feedstock for farmed animals. David went on to suggest that the potential imbalance could be addressed by technical innovations to improve yields above and beyond those currently obtained by employing best practice and this is where Plant Impact and other similar specialist SMEs fit in.


John Brubaker (CEO) was up next. He began by outlining PIM’s business model. This involves monitoring academic research at Universities and at Rothamstead for insights into potential ways to enhance crop production (for example stress reduction). PIM then screen resulting ideas using small scale tests. If a concepts looks promising it will then be further developed and assessed at a larger scale with field trials. If these trials are successful and there is a clear commercial opportunity, it will be progressed through the necessary regulatory and scale up hoops in preparation for launch.

PIM’s plan to achieve their strategic goals comprises of three phases (we are currently at around phase 2)

1) Low volume speciality products, for example Ametros for European orchard fruit and InCa for European field vegetables: market directly to the growers.
2) Higher volume product (i.e. Veritas) for bulk crops, such as wheat and Soy, market globally through large agro-chem partners such as Bayer and Arysta.
3) New Products: accelerate innovation and launch innovative products in existing and new markets (including USA)

Large agro-chemical companies such as Bayer are not likely to be interested in maintaining a partnership with a one trick pony, so it will be essential to develop a pipeline to achieve the strategic goals.

With Friday's launch of Banzai, PIM now have two partnered products with global potential, within the next 5 years the aim is to have 6 partnered products with potential sales of $100M.

To get there PIM will carefully select targets (crop specific where the product makes a real difference) and they will produce convincing data (which can take several seasons to generate).



Daryl Thomas (Director, Global marketing & business development) then came on and talked a few numbers for Veritas and Banzai and the importance of PIM’s global partners for those products.

80% of Soy crop is grown in just 3 markets (USA, Argentina and Brazil) with 80% going as animal feed. Using Veritas it is possible to get 5-7% yield enhancement, with more pods and more beans per pod. These sorts of increases could be worth $70-100/hectare to the farmer. Bayer’s Fox currently has around 25% of the fungicide market in Brazil, Veritas may get 40% penetration into Bayer’s Fox customers, if so that’s a $20m opportunity for PIM.

Cocoa is grown on 5-6M farms in W Africa and W Africa accounts for 70% of world production, of which 90% is grown on 2M farms. Using Banzai could increase yield output by 25% which would be worth around $140/hectare to the farmer. Arysta currently have a 25% market share in W Africa for bio-stimulants. There are 6M hectares of Cocoa farms, with each hectare producing 400Kg beans. If the addressable market is 25% and Banzai achieves a conservative 5% penetration, this would be a >$10m opportunity for PIM.

Daryl finished off by mentioning that wheat was another big opportunity, with the land area devoted to wheat production being equivalent to the whole area of Mexico.



Steve Adams (Director R&D) then gave us an insight into R&Ds activities. He cited problems with calcium deficient tomatoes as one of the insights that lead to the development of the CaT technology platform (used in Veritas and InCa and Ametros).

For global products with the CaT technology, it has been essential to show compatibility with other globally marketed products such as fungicides marketed by the big agro-chem companies. PIM have shown that Veritas is compatible with these products including Bayer’s Fox, in addition Veritas may show fungicide enhancing capability in some instances (Rust).

Steve stressed that it was important to be able to have compelling data that local farmers can relate to. We were then shown a couple of charts showing change in yield from using Veritas vs controls (y axis) for several hundred individual Brazilian fields trials (x axis). The mean uplift was in the order of 4 -5% and there were only very few trials (single figures) where there was a yield decrease.

We were then introduced to some R&D initiatives, one of which is looking at ways of optimising Rhizobacteria activity for nitrogen fixation. Nitrogen fixation requires the presence of micronutrients such as cobalt and boron, however if these are present in excess they may damage the plant, this problem can be addressed through clever formulation (this was further explained during the lab tour later in the day). Another program of work is looking at screening additional additives for Alethea, with a particular emphasis on improving resistance to salt induced stress in wheat.


The guided tour started with a bus ride to view some of the ongoing field trials which included the world’s longest ongoing field trials which were initiated by the Rothamstead founder John Lawes and his collaborator Henry Gilbert over 150 years ago


We then had a tour around the site which included the seed and soil library which goes back 150 years and then the controlled growing cabinets which can mimic almost any growing conditions on the planet. We then went on to see some greenhouse trials where we were shown an ongoing study to identify additional additives for Alethea. Potential candidates were screened using a germination model (quick turnaround) with promising leads being further evaluated using foliate spray tests (longer turnaround). We then had a quick tour of the labs where we heard more about technical difficulties in developing a seed coating to promote rhizobacteria activity. Optimal viscosity to ensure satisfactory coating properties and colour match considerations are of paramount importance as well as compatibility with existing seed coating which may contain insecticides, fungicides and nutrients.

Over lunch I spoke to a number of shareholders and employees, including Steve Adams on the subject of intellectual property. I commented that there appeared to be a lot of good innovation going on, yet I had not picked up any recent patent filing activity at the UK IPO where brief details of all UK priority patent applications are published very soon after filing (see IPO search results below covering Dec 2006 to July 2015):








Steve acknowledged that there had been no recent filings at the IPO, but went on to explain that they review all the new innovations coming through R&D on a regular basis for potential patentability, however, they are very aware that they would be shooting themselves in the foot if they were to file patents that were subsequently not granted (due to obviousness or novelty destroying prior art), as details of the filing would publish 18 months after filing and be disclosed for the world to see. Much of the innovation currently coming out of R&D would be difficult to patent and it was often better to maintain this knowledge as trade secrets, rather than disclose via patent applications which may have little chance of going on to grant. He then went on to cite PiNT technology which has no patent protection, but is protected by trade secrets. PiNT technology is currently used in two commercial products (iNTrench and eNTiton) which are sold with high margins. Patent protection is only part of the story, with the data package, product know-how, trade secrets and the power of brand heritage all contributing to overall protection (This has come up before, see my brief notes from last year’s investor day and the AGM):




I then enquired about progress at the European patent office for the patent application concerning PIM’s CaT technology (InCa, Ametros and Veritas); details of the application are here:


There has been little detectable activity on that recently, with the last meaningful correspondence recorded on the European register on Sept 2014 (see link below):


ADVFNers may recall we had agextpert (David Marks) on this discussion board last year


He had been suggesting the European patent application for CaT technology was a dead duck. Furthermore it was probably David Marks who had been filing the comments opposing the grant of a EU patent (see previous link to European register above).

The EU patent application certainly isn’t a dead duck based on Steve’s comments on Friday: In September last year PIM submitted a full response (see below) which is self-explanatory. EPO subsequently acknowledged receipt and there has been no written correspondence recorded on this matter since:




Steve went on to make the point that the patent has been granted in other jurisdictions with a useful and defendable claims set, he also reiterated the point that patents are only part of the overall IP protection package.



##############################################################################




Summary of PIM’s current technology platforms and brand names

timbo003
04/7/2015
11:41
Seems to be a lot of confusion with what Plant Impact do.


1/ Plant Impact do not Genetically Modify any foods.

2/ Plant Impact produce crop enhancement food. So, basically plant food.

3/ They're good at what they do. Look at the quality partners/investors.

4/ Roll on £2.00.


VT.
£2.00

venture traveller
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