Eqtec Share Discussion Threads

[m4rtinu] 16/7/2020 15:26

ST - thanks for posting. Presenting a united front, with local company mounting the defence.

Not sure what the significance of "we just bought some equipment..." comment is?

[gspanner] 16/7/2020 15:26

Thank you Sharetalk, an interesting comment since it seems to mitigate the US company will always win v the rest of the world argument.

[sharetalk] 16/7/2020 14:39

Phoenix Energy CEO Responds to NF Biomass Project Lawsuit

Posted by: SNO Staff July 15, 2020 0 536 Views

WALNUT CREEK – Phoenix Energy, the company building a new 2-MW biomass plant in
North Fork, has responded publicly to a lawsuit filed against the company late last week by a Tennessee firm claiming patent infringement.

Greg Stangl, Phoenix Energy’s CEO, called the lawsuit filed by Aries Clean Energy “meritless” and “totally bogus.”

“Phoenix Energy remains puzzled about the lawsuit and intends to mount an aggressive defense against the spurious claims of patent infringement,” Stangl said Wednesday.

Founded in in the Bay Area in 2007, Phoenix builds, owns and operates community joint venture biomass plants that reduce fire danger and create jobs, renewable energy and carbon sequestering biochar in rural California.

Stangl emphasized this week that the company does not “manufacture, design, sell or receive commissions on equipment.”

“The North Fork project selected equipment on the open market that was most suitable for its needs,” Stangl said. “We can’t understand why some energy company from Tennessee would sue us or North Fork for a project they were never even considered for.”

“If Aries has concerns about equipment, take it up with the manufacturer and let us work towards making the Sierra safer,” Stangl added. “Any other action makes the suit seem like an attempt to harm our company” which, Stangl emphasized, “is bringing sustainable jobs” and locally produced power back to eastern Madera County.

Last week (July 9), Aries filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California alleging that Phoenix Energy and EQTEC PLC — infringed on advanced “gasification” patent technology owned by Aries.

EQTEC, based in Ireland, came into the joint venture in 2019 and owns 20 percent of the North Fork project. The company also is supplying the equipment to build the plant.

“We just bought some equipment….so you can come to your own conclusions about why this might be happening,” Stangl said.

Earlier this week, EQTEC’s board of directors also commented on the litigation, calling Aries’ lawsuit “without merit” and vowing to “vigorously” defend against it.

“The Board believes it is due to the nature of EQTEC’s technological pre-eminence in the gasification of waste into energy market that the Group could be the subject of spurious and unfounded potential claims,” a statement from the company stated.

[hsdeo] 16/7/2020 13:54

thanks for that. sizeable chucks and if they can do 3 in the next 12 months then quite a large income it seems.

[tewkesbury] 16/7/2020 13:37

For Billingham and other large 25MW size projects, refer the Arden Report (15/6/2020) on EQT, pages 33 - 35:




Project Stages and Revenue Generation

Each project has four phases.

(i) Project Development - Cost phase

In the development phase of a project, EQTEC is able to participate in the development process, by carrying out some of the design and engineering costs required for permitting. This not only will ensure visibility and a certain level of control in the financial closing, but also a high return on the ‘sweat equity’ carried. At this level, EQTEC could expect a 2 - 3x return on the funds ‘invested’ at financial close, or further carried interest as a multiplied equity into the project. Depending on the size and application, the development phase could last between 2 - 3 months and the development capital required is usually in the range of 2 - 4% of the total capex in small projects and 0.5 - 1.5% in larger MSW/RDF projects.

(ii) Construction & commissioning - Revenue generating phase

When financial close on a project is reached, EQTEC begins to generate revenue.Project revenue to EQTEC typically comprises 30-40% of a project’s total capex.

* For a 25MW project, total project capex is c. €160m. Total revenue to EQTEC during construction phase is c. €48m (spread over 7 payment milestones, paid over 36 months)

(iii) Operations and Maintenance (O&M) - Revenue generating phase

* For a 25MW project, total project capex is €160m. Total annual O&M revenue would be 1.75% of that = €2.8m (paid €233,000/monthly) usually for 10 years.

iv) Exit - sale of equity (if EQTEC has any in a project)

EQTEC’s advanced gasification plants are designed to operate for 20-25 years.

Once the plant has been operating reliably for 3-4 years, it is possible that the plant’s equity could be sold to a pension fund (or similar type of annuity investor).

EQTEC has the option (but not the obligation) to take an equity stake of up to 25% in each of its projects.Once in operation, if it had equity in a project, assuming this was 25%, EQTEC would have the right to 25% of the plant’s annual profits.

If the equity in the projectwere sold (e.g. to a pension fund), it would be able to realise the proceeds for the same value as its equity.

[hsdeo] 16/7/2020 13:18

projected value of Billingham to EQT: Project value £150m to £180m, worth approx 25% (£40m) to EQT for construction, + other ongoing revenues approx £1m to £2m pa.

[tewkesbury] 16/7/2020 13:03

EQT's huge Billingham protect is progressing steadily and its likely they now have another 2+ projects in Ireland each as big as Billingham.

EQT are a £billion company in the making.

[hsdeo] 16/7/2020 13:02

ahh got it and u are correct the potential litigation cost must be already accounted for: FRANKLIN, TN – (July 14, 2020) – Aries Gasification, LLC (“ARIES”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Aries Clean Energy, who for over a decade has paved the way to sustainable energy technology for both municipal and commercial applications, filed a Complaint for Patent Infringement on Thursday, July 9, 2020, against North Fork Community Power, LLC (“NFCP”); Phoenix Biomass Energy, Inc. (“Phoenix Energy”); and EQTEC plc (“EQTEC”). Through its Complaint, ARIES alleges that NFCP, Phoenix Energy, and EQTEC have worked in concert to import, sell, offer for sale, use, and/or manufacture technology that infringes at least four United States Patents owned and invented by ARIES.
ARIES’ patents, which include United States Patent Nos. 9,242,219; 9,809,769; 10,611,973; and 10,696,913, relate to fluidized bed biogasifiers and methods for construction and use of the same. Via the use of ARIES’ novel inventions embodied in its patents, a user can convert biologic materials, which may themselves be waste or byproducts of other industrial processes, into energy sources that can be used for a variety of purposes, including being fed back into the industrial processes that created the biologic materials in the first place. In this way, industrial applications can reduce their carbon footprint and decrease reliance on present fossil fuel sources. ARIES first informed Phoenix Energy and EQTEC of their infringement via letter on January 30, 2020, and after repeated correspondence attempting to resolve the situation proved unavailing, provided both parties with a draft copy of the now-filed Complaint on June 16, 2020.

[tewkesbury] 16/7/2020 13:01

A couple of nice quotes from today's align Report on EQT, pointing how cheap ETQ are in comparison to ITM and PHE:

"Applying the average peer group enterprise value to EQTEC implies a market cap of £88.08million, or 1.282p per share.We believe that this is a reasonable approach given EQTEC’s commercial progress and pipeline in comparison toother companies in the sector.It is worth mentioning here the discrepancy in valuations between EQTEC and ITM Power, the hydrogen specialist and highest valued alternative energy company on AIM. ITM Power has a current market cap some 45times higher than EQTEC’swhile its historic revenues (less grants) werejust £2.4 million in the six months to 31stOctober 2019.This is only just ahead of the €2.35 million(£2.1 million)contracted revenues EQTEQ made in Q1 2020 alone. EQTEC’s recently announced €120 million (£107 million) pipeline from 10 new commercial enquiries contrasts to ITM Power’s “higher quality tender opportunity pipeline” of £263 million,andwhile this is 2.5 times largerit doesn’t seem to justify a market cap over 50times higher.Also, ITM expects to make an EBITDA loss forthe year ended 30thApril 2020 of £17.5 million.."

"..Despite the lack of commercial pipelinefigures, Powerhouse’s enterprise value of £147.18million (post the admission of shares issued for its acquisition of Waste2Tricity–expected on 15thJuly) is some seventimeshigherthan our estimation of EQTEC’s current EV (£20.95million) following the receipt of the placing proceeds.Aninteresting fact that we found out from discussionswith Dr. Yoel Aleman, CTO of EQTEC, is that the company has been successfully gasifying plastics since 2007 for many applications. In fact, Dr. Cesar Berrueco, one of the leading Chemical Engineers at EQTEC, wrote his PhD research paper about the subject. Mr. Aleman stated that gasification of plastics using EQTEC technology is quite simple and producesa syngas very low in ash content and with a very high LHV (Lower Heating Value). As a polymer, the composition of the produced syngas is mainly Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Hydrogen(H). He also stated that this type of hydrogen is considered ‘Grey Hydrogen’ as plastics arederived from fossil fuels. On the otherhand, the Hydrogen extracted from the Syngas produced from organic feedstock using EQTEC technology, albeit not rated yet,would be considered ‘Green Hydrogen’.

[tewkesbury] 16/7/2020 12:56

It was mentioned in Aries's own press release that Aries first contacted EQT about the alleged patent issue in late January. Seems we may have been telling them what they can go and do with their complaint for some time. Hence as a precaution and to show Aries we can afford to contest their claim, I think EQT probably added a bit onto the fund raise last week to cover any likely legal costs, as well as for progressing the pipeline. DP has obviously taken legal advice and considers the claim to be opprotunistic and vexatious but at least now having £10m in the bank places EQT in a strong and more flexible position..

[hsdeo] 16/7/2020 12:41

Tewkesbury - can you please confirm how you are aware that Aries first contacted EQT in January? thanks

[tewkesbury] 16/7/2020 10:52

EQT's huge Billingham protect is progressing steadily and its likely they now have another 2+ projects in Ireland each as big as Billingham. EQT are a £billion company in the making.

[tewkesbury] 16/7/2020 10:48

halfpenny it's likely that ETQ took account of a possible legal action in the US when deciding how much cash to raise in the primary bid offer. This is because Aries first contacted EQT about the alleged issue in January.EQT are now in their strongest ever financial position and will be able to meet any legal costs while continuing to progress the growing pipeline.EQT strong buy and hold.

[dopey47] 16/7/2020 10:42

Halfpenny. You don’t sound like an investor to be . Your analysis is amateurish and without foundation. You have no idea about the USA, and you are not a chartist. I am calling you out for writing rubbish. Enjoy your day with your dead cats.😊

[skinny] 16/7/2020 10:37

As if by magic they have just appeared in my account - @20 times what I applied for - so I assume they will be taken back - unless..... :-)

[fozzie] 16/7/2020 10:37

I have had notification from my broker that the PB shares are incoming. US complaint and placing shares keeping the lid on here. Good chance to accumulate a few more. Just going to have to be a little patient, all good things...

[skinny] 16/7/2020 10:35

Thanks for the info - I thought the 16th was mentioned in one of the RNS

[wilsonst1] 16/7/2020 10:31

Very odd but mine were credited to AJ Bell account yesterday but have been removed.

[tewkesbury] 16/7/2020 10:24

Scrutable, I agree PHE are still pre commercial, unproven and are only focusing on plastics. I think EQT should already have a much higher market capitalisation than PHE.

[halfpenny] 16/7/2020 10:18

EQT have a very dark cloud with the USA claim which could still cost millions. But more importantly the Dead Cat Bounce to come so what is the next low, testing 0.275 is to be tested in my Chart soon...Very Risky so be aware...

[volsung] 16/7/2020 10:13

No still waiting. Think they’ll come on the 19th July

[superbarnet] 16/7/2020 10:10

I had the money back for the shortfall but no shares yet via II.

[skinny] 16/7/2020 09:39

Has anyone had the shares bought via PrimaryBid yet?

[scrutable] 16/7/2020 09:37

Tewksbury

EQT has actually "produced" clean syngas, suitable for green hydrogen". wheres PHE actually produces nothing. Apart from a compromised small experimental small unit,in which I suspect the reaction chamber repeatedly burnt out they have never produced a saleable system or machine. It's still on the drawing board.It's all assertions and still a high risk investment.

EQT's four plants have been going for years. The largest for ten. They also have two, heavily scrutinised, laboratory size, plants at Lorrain (France) and Badajoz (Spain) Universities to test and evaluate feed stocks. I am surprised that there was no significant viral acceptance in the market place. I suspect that the economics were poor compared with disposing of waste in landfill in Asia until the locals realised how much pollution was being added to their own.

There are now 500+ dirty polluting giant incinerators to replace across Europe. The lockdown has revealed just how much toxic air the citizens in Europe have accepted daily poisening.

There's no comparison.