Plant Impact Share Discussion Threads

[glenglen] 06/10/2017 11:06

When is the trading update - this coming Monday 9th? I will wait and see what happens but my guess is that it will be a veiled request to give more time etc. etc. I might just follow Rlivsey and cut and run despite saying this is long term but my guess is, if nothing on Monday we are talking the teens (as Rlivsey says) and lower and then what - liquidation? The next trading update should hopefully reveal something one way or the other. but there is only so much patience with guys who are being very well paid (at expense of shareholders) but not producing results.
Bring on Monday..........................

[rlivsey] 06/10/2017 08:52

Think I'm selling today. Another support lost and a New year low, I'm expecting poor results. This is going down to the teens. Good luck to anyone who is still involved

[cerrito] 05/10/2017 22:38

Thanks wan for reminding me of that

[wan] 05/10/2017 20:28

Cerrito...Have you not read PI's Platform and Pipeline Presentation? I have put the link to it at the top of the thread (in the header post), it's worth studying the whole presentation.

I think you will find the answer to your question is contained in pages 24 & 25 (where for instance, you will note the reference to a Brazil launch of FO in 2017).

So, indeed it's not a geographical expansion per se, but a product portfolio expansion i.e. additional products for soy in Brazil, some of which appears to be coming over the relative near term.

[cerrito] 05/10/2017 19:37

Have not visited this thread for some time so just seen Wan's 1238.
I do not understand the following
quote
We are now exploring options to expand our soy product portfolio in Brazil.
unquote
Is this a geographical expansion? I think not as my understanding is that they are in all the key zones; my understanding is that at present they are no other products to sell so perhaps they are coming out with a new one.
Any thoughts?

[visionon] 05/10/2017 10:24

wan thanks for all these posts. clearly you have spent some time on this and i hope that Monday's results announcement will give some further clarity as to where things are going for PIM. still a hold for me, but I will look to how much the business is costing to run in particular. broker's TP of 47p is hardly inspiring but maybe more clarity on Bayer will cause them to review that.

[wan] 05/10/2017 10:09

There have been an increasing number of commentators/experts recently suggesting that farm commodity prices may have bottomed, here is another article suggesting the same

3rd Oct 2017, by Mike Verdin
Ag commodities 'seem to be in early days of a bull market'

[wan] 03/10/2017 13:14

From PI's Trading Update -
"Consequently, the Company now expects revenue for FY17 of between GBP8.5m and GBP9.0m, compared with GBP7.2m in the previous year. Further to this, revenues for FY18 are expected, at this early stage, to be around GBP13m, based on the new purchasing plan agreed with Bayer and also the Group's growth expectations in other markets such as the United States and West Africa."

I am of course interested in the final results and the details that go with them, but I am sure a lot of investor focus will also be on the outlook statement!

More mussing/food for thought etc;

As a point of interest, and referring back to the second half of my post above; I would draw readers to PI's website and in particular, About us/What we do, which appears to have some relatively new content -


An element that caught my attention was in the section, How do our crop enhancement products work?

"Help plants deal with the effect of heat, drought, climate variability and other chemical inputs"

Whilst I am sure some of us were aware that Veritas and Fortalis improves fungicide efficacy, "helping plants deal with the effects of chemical inputs", is new and an additional attribute, and an attribute that PI will surely be able to back up.

I carried out some in-depth research quite a few months ago and an interesting aspect that I discovered was the fact that when strobilurin fungicides are applied in high doses (which is increasingly necessary), yellowing of leaves, abnormal growth and other phytotoxic effects are known to be caused in cases of low plant vigor, and in cases of treatment at growth stages with high sensitivity to chemicals.

So, I pondered that Veritas and Fortalis might help overcome these effects, thus improving the fungicide performance and possibly changing, in some way, the mode of action. If so, such products would be of significant interest to fungicide manufacturers/sellers and who are also struggling with resistance to their fungicides.

i.e. a fungicide manufacturer/agronomist could also offer advice (when necessary) to effectively increase the fungicide dosage (they will of course like the increased product usage), without damaging the crop when combined with Veritas or Fortalis.

Given the above PI excerpt, an interesting possibility is that these benefits may also extend to chemicals beyond fungicides.

[rlivsey] 03/10/2017 11:19

Any reason to think that with all the r and d preliminary results will be any good?

[wan] 25/9/2017 12:56

Some more of my mussing/food for thought etc;

Following Platform Speciality Products strategic review and subsequent decision to separate Arysta into a standalone public company with an appropriate post-separation balance sheet to facilitate independent access to capital for bolt-on acquisitions or strategic combinations, Page 11 of PI's Presentation (link in the header),The Crop Enhancement Industry Landscape Today, provides an interesting perspective when considering what might happen whilst the larger players are tied up either merging, splitting, integrating and divesting (satisfying regulators) etc.

Apart from divestment opportunities arising form the mega mergers, Arysta might also be able to move quickly and be a consolidator of the companies sitting in and across the growth phase and mid stage sections of the Industry Landscape.

Then we have the newly created Syngenta (merged ChemChina/Syngenta) who, apart from other things, also want to significantly increase their exposure to seeds, with Syngenta's CEO recently stating "very interested in making acquisitions in seeds" all over the world, without naming targets.

An aspect that has particularly interested me for quite some time, is how Veritas and Fortalis improves the efficacy of fungicides. Taking this further, and given the key role fungicides play in controlling disease in crops and the strong position/branding the large players have in this market, it perhaps gets even more interesting with Fortalis in the US being directly marketed and therefore used in conjunction with a range of leading fungicides. Because, if the data continues to support the use of Fortalis in conjunction with fungicides for improved yields and also by improving fungicide efficacy, the CAT technology/product offering could be of interest to a player not so strong in fungicides, especially given the cost of developing and bringing a fungicide to market.

Put another way, you could potentially enter the fungicide market without being directly in it, or perhaps you could even indirectly enter your competitors fungicide offering! Or simply improve and importantly differentiate your own fungicide offerings.

Page 26 of Pi's Presentation, indicates that their development in this regard is not standing still, with a Gen 2 (Fortalis) + disease protection getting a specific mention, with submission of product registration targeted for 2018. What could this mean? Perhaps a recognised/proven and 'labelled' ingredient that improves fungicide resistance and performance?

As I said at the beginning, just my mussing/food for thought.

[rlivsey] 23/9/2017 10:01

Would be great if more posters on here. Be nice to read critical analysis on your posts wan.

[wan] 23/9/2017 08:18

Double post!

[wan] 23/9/2017 08:18

One of the things I had written down regarding data and digital technology in agriculture, was how it will be used and whether farmers will be willing to adopt it. Clearly Bayer are pursuing the digital aspect, but they have to effectively demonstrate it works, including how it should best be used, which they acknowledge will not be easy and they also acknowledge the risk in adoption of the technology. In Short, they need to effectively demonstrate that it works 'in the field', which they acknowledge will take time, presumably quite a long time!

The following interview with Bayer's head of Global R&D, touches on this aspect, as well as others, in particular "combining our approach in chemistry with biology" as providing innovative/differentiated products -

Talking with Bayer Crop Science, Global Research Head
SEPTEMBER 22, 2017

[wan] 22/9/2017 09:59

I note the following -

Brazil Technical Manager
19 9 2017

Plant Impact is seeking to appoint a Brazil Technical Manager. This individual will be an experienced scientist who can lead Plant Impact's soybean crop enhancement product field trial program in Brazil by commissioning, monitoring, analysing, and reporting results from trials to the R&D Program Manager.

And included within the Role Purpose -
The company has already launched Veritas™ (which contains Pi’s CAT™ technology) in Brazil for soy and dry beans with Bayer CropScience. We are now exploring options to expand our soy product portfolio in Brazil.
hxxp://www.plantimpact.com/careers/current-opportunities/2017/technical_manager_randd_brazil

[wan] 22/9/2017 09:51

Liam Condon, Board of Management of Bayer AG and President Crop Science

Shaping the Future of Farming –
Future of Farming Dialog 2017

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of opening the Future of Farming Dialog 2017, an annual event hosted by the Crop Science division of Bayer, which brings together approximately 250 opinion leaders, stakeholders and media in an open forum to discuss the important issues facing food and agriculture today and in the future. I believe this year’s conference set the right tone to address one of the most important questions of our time: How to feed a growing population in an environmentally sustainable way?

It’s here that Bayer can make a significant contribution to feeding the growing world population in a sustainable manner – but we can’t do it alone. This immense challenge will take a collective effort with others in our field. All of us have an important role to play in ensuring that tomorrow’s innovations are safe and sustainable. With a long-held commitment to research and development, Bayer has an enviable innovation pipeline, but we recognize that there are outstanding technologies also beyond our doors. We are therefore intensifying our external partnerships and collaborations and pursuing open innovation to help accelerate new discoveries.

Full Blog - hxxps://www.cropscience.bayer.com/en/blogs/corporate-blog/2017/liam-condon-shaping-the-future-of-farming

The amount of times that sustainable/sustainability has been quoted/referred to during the various addresses and interviews is notable!

Good coverage, videos and recorded addresses and interviews -

[wan] 22/9/2017 09:38

PI have tweeted "Proudly sharing insight re partnership working with Veritas crop enhancement product in Brazil alongside Bayer at Agbio Innovation Latam."

I had not seen the above conference, 19-21 September 2017, Optimizing Lab to Field
Strategies for Biopesticide & Biostimulants* In LATAM
hxxp://agbioinnovate.com/

PI were actively involved -

Day One

16:00 Partnerships and Collaborations
• Experience of working with partners in Latin America
Marconi Dias, Commercial and Marketing Director, Plant Impact Brazil
Eduardo Mazzieri, Strategic Marketing Director, Soybean, Bayer CropScience, Brazil

Day Two

09:45 PANEL – Hungry for new technology and information: The farmers voice: what growers want, need and require
• Why biostimulants and biopesticides are important for farmers and growers

• Do farmers need to be convinced when it comes to using biostimulant products or are they seeing the value?

• Do farmers still favour chemicals over biologicals? If so, why? What is needed to be done to advance biologics for farmers in Latin America

• Stories and experiences of working in the field with such product types- what growers are really saying about these products, are they meeting the needs ? If not what needs improving?

Panelists Include:
Antonio Zem, Agriconsultant, Brazil
Alvaro Botero, International Sales Manager, Innovak Global,Mexico
Gianluca Di Tommaso, Global Head of Crop Management, Valagro, Italy
Marcelo Giuliano, Head of Marketing, Plant Impact, Brazil and a Brazilian Soybean Grower who has experience in successful biostimulant use.
hxxp://agbioinnovate.com/hypfiles/uploads/2017/08/AgBioInnovateENGv12.pdf

(I am sure most readers will not have forgotten about PI's biopesticide Bugoil)

[cerrito] 20/9/2017 21:50

Thanks for pointing that out mthead1968: there was a similiar RNS for another AIM company I have shares in and I could not understand what they were getting up to.

[mthead1968] 20/9/2017 15:23

Cerrito - Canaccord's investment is not a conscious one.
It has come about via their recent takeover of Hargreaves Hale.

[cerrito] 20/9/2017 14:49

Good to see Canaccord come in with 5%+ on behalf of their discretionary clients

[wan] 19/9/2017 11:08

Apologies,I should have put the link up earlier, the live event has just ended!

September 19, 2017
Future of Farming Dialog 2017:

Crop Science Division of Bayer well positioned to fulfill future customer, market and societal needs

Global seed and crop protection market will continue to grow / Business in Brazil expected to return to normal in 2018 / Progress being made in planned Monsanto acquisition / Anticipated closing in early 2018 / Planned R&D investment of approximately EUR 1 billion in 2017 / R&D efforts to bring 15 new products to farmers between 2017 and 2020 / Strong focus on innovation and sustainability / Commitment to transparency

Monheim, September 19, 2017 - Bayer remains convinced that the long-term trends
impacting the global agricultural sector will remain unchanged. "Despite the
current market volatility, our Crop Science business is well positioned to
fulfill future customer, market and societal needs," said Liam Condon, Bayer
Management Board member and President of the Crop Science Division, on Tuesday
during his presentation at the company's Future of Farming Dialog 2017 on
September 18-20.

Full release -

[wan] 19/9/2017 10:43

Readers might be interested that the Crop Science Division of Bayer is hosting the “Future of Farming Dialog 2017” in Monheim, Germany.

The current and live Executive Address and Q&A is available here -

[glenglen] 19/9/2017 10:34

Thanks Wan - noted and accepted.

Yes- the guys running PI are all very highly qualified in their respective fields and I am certainly not one to question let alone doubt them. Despite my obvious frustrations I will continue holding and of course give the board the benefit of the doubt as clearly they want success as we all do - I am not questioning their commitment/integrity/whatever and should probably stop looking at this as a current P&L with the emphasis on the "L" - It's clearly long term and I will admit I need to get over it as they say.

So moving on let's see how this goes - I have that feeling of pessimism but at the same time optimism, the latter assisted greatly by your comments btw, on this.