Plant Impact Share Discussion Threads

[mthead1968] 31/10/2017 13:10

Cerrito, I agree that it's a good thing to have a phased transition. But it is important, and the fact that others have missed this is disconcerting. Until I checked earlier today (after having been wrongly accused of lying about it), I hadn't noticed the omission from the Annual Report. Nothing short of deceitful in my opinion.

[cerrito] 31/10/2017 12:45

mthead1968: Thanks for reminding me as I now remember I had read it...there seems to be such a churn of FD's that I am having difficulty keeping track.
I am comfortable as it is a phased transition and that he is around for another three months or so that they have given us adequate notice on this.
I assume that in the AGM Statement they will give us an update on his successor.

[mthead1968] 31/10/2017 10:57

Amazing that they thought it prudent to remove any reference to his resignation in the subsequent R&A.

[timbo003] 31/10/2017 10:38

Ok, thanks for providing the source reference.

[mthead1968] 31/10/2017 10:34

Read my edited response above.
And then you can apologise.

[timbo003] 31/10/2017 10:32

>>mthead

There has been no RNS


There has been no change regarding composition of the BOD on the company Web site


There has been no notification at Companies House



You're not trying to scare investors by telling porkies I hope?

[mthead1968] 31/10/2017 10:18

Yes Cerrito, he has resigned.
They hid it in a Preliminary Results statement.
Obviously didn't think it warranted a RNS of it's own.
Amusing if it wasn't so serious.

[cerrito] 30/10/2017 21:32

mthead1968
Do I read you that Amos has resigned?
So many seem to be resigning from companies where I have shares that I have lost count and I see that he is on the latest RNS's.

[wan] 30/10/2017 08:56

for me the following is indeed key and is something that I have been spending time on, including the fact that PI is clearly differentiated -


"Key to the success of our R&D approach, is an efficient, robust and replicable discovery to delivery platform of a sophistication more often applied by far larger agricultural chemical companies. In recent years our R&D investment has embedded this platform and attracted respected scientists from world-leading organisations to help us advance the emerging crop enhancement sector."

John Brubaker, CEO
hxxp://www.plantimpact.com/investors/year-in-review-2017

[mthead1968] 30/10/2017 08:29

At least the CFO will no longer be taking out £192k p.a. Now that he has resigned. And you forgot to mention the share options allocated to him. Not that they would ever have vested, given the level of performance since his tenure began. Salaries for the Chairman and CEO are also way too high in my view. Most especially as the strategy of abandoning EMEA in favour of the gamble in Brazil has failed so badly.

[wan] 30/10/2017 08:19

Cerrito...Thanks for your interpretations/thoughts etc.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that PI will issue an RNS regarding the outcome with BCS.

Regarding the head of R&D, he is indeed a key employee and I am confident that he will have stock options -

From page 35 -
The Group places great importance on
internal communications to ensure that
staff are kept fully aware of business
developments. In part this is achieved
through a monthly multi-lingual meeting
with all staff conducted face to face and
via video-conference. Remuneration
packages are designed to be competitive
and share options are awarded to key
personnel so they have a link to the
long-term prospects of the Group. To
mitigate the impact of the loss of individual
team members, systems are in place to
ensure common processes and clear
documentation of all R&D findings so that
responsibilities for projects can transfer
with as little disruption as possible.

My understanding was that the majority of employees have deep and meaningful share options, which is in fact stated in the AR, from page 39 -

Employees
The Group involves all its employees
in its corporate objectives, plans and
performance and on other relevant
matters of interest to employees
through various communication
methods and regular meetings. The
Group is an equal opportunity employer
and does not discriminate in the
recruitment and promotion of staff.
All eligible employees are included
in the Group’s bonus incentive plan
and the majority have historically
been awarded share options.

[cerrito] 29/10/2017 18:32

I have had a canter through the Annual Report-see comments below. I was keen to read it as I wanted to determine if I should take advantage of the reduced share price to buy more. I have decided to wait till the AGM
To me the most striking is Director’s pay. The Four directors get 15% approx. of total wage costs…57 people in all and I would have thought all pretty well paid given that they are skilled…ie sales ie r&D ie technical . This is before the stock options.
Completely beats me why the FD gets £192k a year. A pretty simple finance function…simple supply chain and very few customers and no fixed assets and no tax issues. Yes you need someone with City credibility but if you are paying the Chairman/CEO a combined £450k you would expect them to provide that. Yes you need someone with understanding of the importance of finance…but Brubaker will have that from his previous lives. Yes you need someone sharp to do the trade off calculation involved in doing the licensing agreements referred to on Page 8 but for this money? Yes you need someone i/c HR and Legal but would not have thought either all that complicated. If you read the AR you get a clear sense of the importance of R&D and a conclusion of reading it would be that a good R&D person much more important than a good finance person, at this time. I wonder if the head of R&D resents he has no stock options.
In terms of news flow we have the following
The most important in the near term is –per page 32- the conclusion of discussions with Bayer/BCS on the new commercialization arrangements for Veritas in Brazil-note that they have deemed that the major customer concentration risk has increased over the last year.(As indeed has the commercialization risk) That said not sure if they will issue a RNS as and when this is agreement is reached.
As per page 10 at year end and perhaps by the AGM we will get the harvest data and customer feedback from the US.
As per page 64, we may or may not get news of sale of TGT-100.
As per page 8, we may or may not get news of licensing agreements for Tempus and S0.
PS I was also interested to read on page 35 that the Human Resource Risk has increased-also saw that they have no vacancies at the moment which rather surprised me.
PPS I guess we need to assume that PIM has not fulfilled the milestones referred to in the Feb 16 2015 RNS so will not be getting the further payments of up to $6m

[cerrito] 29/10/2017 13:32

Wan
Thanks for your digging around into Bayer's accounts
BCS/Argentina
It does seem Ms Gueli has moved on.
The following from the AR explains the relationship with Bayer/BCS in Argentina
quote
In Argentina we launched Fortalis®
through a test-marketing scheme
with BCS Argentina. Feedback from
growers using and testing the product
has been very good, and the yield
improvements were consistent with our
targets in the 4-5% range. Following
this programme, we have designed
a promotional campaign which has
some elements of our channel strategy
in both Brazil and United States. In
Argentina, we plan to work directly
with regional distributors, but maintain
some collaboration with BCS (and other
leading fungicide manufacturers) to
design commercial co-promotions with
Fortalis®.
unquote

[wan] 26/10/2017 07:29

The area we are interested in and the good bit from Bayer's 3rd quarter results released this morning -

"On the positive side, we were able to reduce provisions for product returns in
Brazil, which shows that the measures we have implemented to normalize the
situation in Brazil are taking hold," Baumann said. In that country, Bayer had
to establish provisions in the second quarter due to unexpectedly high
inventories of crop protection products.
hxxp://www.investor.bayer.de/en/nc/news/investor-news/investor-news/bayer-sales-and-earnings-increased/

Sales at Fungicides declined, but given the inventory situation that was to be expected due to lower selling prices.

[wan] 25/10/2017 17:55

Me splitting hairs! Pot calling the kettle and black!

I stated that PI had scaled back in Argentina and are taking a more cautious approach (but nonetheless PI has established a commercial position).

You stated in post 1309 that the agreement with BCS in Argentina "has been torn up", yet clearly stated on page 37 of PI's recent Research and Development Platform and Pipeline Presentation, Argentina/Fortalis - Partners: Bayer Cropscience (co marketing)/regional distributors.

[mthead1968] 25/10/2017 17:15

In fact, wan, a quick look at the company website would seem to suggest she is no longer an employee. You seem to religiously check it - I am surprised I have to point this out to you.

[mthead1968] 25/10/2017 17:08

I have seen the figure 4-5 per cent repeatedly used. You are splitting hairs now.
And of course they always intended supporting them. That was part of my point. They are now looking for alternatives. Perhaps this woman was part of the staff reduction programme in Argentina ?!

[wan] 25/10/2017 16:39

As an individual, I can assure that I don't skirt things if they need addressing!

The yield increase for Fortalis in Argentina is 5.3%


As mentioned PI have scaled back their efforts in Argentina, however, PI always intended supporting BCS in Argentina -

1 July 2016

New Product Introduction; Launch of Southern Cone Business Operations

To support these important product introductions, Plant Impact is extending its geographic footprint by establishing operations in Latin America's Southern Cone, with a team in Buenos Aires headed by Romina Güeli as Commercial and Marketing Director. Romina joins Plant Impact from Dow AgroSciences, where she was most recently Sales Director, Southern Cone with responsibility for Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Chile. Her career has also featured various senior product and business marketing roles for Dow, Zeneca and Syngenta. She is a trained agronomist and a published academic, with a BA from the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina (Buenos Aires), and an MS from the University of Missouri, USA. Romina brings a broad mix of skills and commercial experience to her new position, as well as fluency in the English, Spanish and German languages.

[mthead1968] 25/10/2017 16:12

You are obviously skirting my main presumption regarding the claimed 4-5 percent uplift. In my view, it is clearly not sufficient. And it remains a fact that the agreement to market in Argentina with Bayer has been torn up. It is laughable to suggest otherwise.
It is also clear to me that if Bayer thought it was such a good proposition, they would have partnered with us in USA too. After all, they sell fungicide there, the same as they sell it in Argentina and Brazil.

[wan] 25/10/2017 15:57

mthead...I certainly don't look to muddy the water as you suggest! But I note that you are not fully up to speed again. Indeed Argentina's new government did initially cut the tax from 35 percent to 30 percent, but what was new was that the government had planned further cuts beginning this year and then also changed its mind regarding another reduction planned for the end of this year. So what looked like an improving situation, will now take longer. PI are right to cautiously enter the Worlds 3rd largest soybean market.

Given your earlier remark about Fidelity selling, it would appear that it is you, at the very least, obfuscating!

[mthead1968] 25/10/2017 15:42

Wan - the Argentinian export tax on soy was in place in 2015 when the agreement with Bayer was being discussed. So it's not a new phenomenon as you (and the company) are suggesting. In fact, it was at that time 35 per cent and was subsequently reduced to 30 per cent. Please be more careful with your obfuscation. I still maintain that if there was a compelling enough case, the product would be selling. It is noticeable that the product release in the USA is claiming around 10 per cent uplift. I am much more hopeful that that will be sufficient.

[wan] 25/10/2017 15:24

mthead...Argentina has proved to be a challenging market for soybeans due the fiscal situation and an export tax of 30% on soybeans. So PI have reduced marketing spend/efforts in Argentina, but will still look to establish Fortalis there. (Argentina will apparently be reducing the tax by 0.5 percentage points per month from January 2018 to December 2019)

In light of the above, which PI & BCS are fully cognisant of, they are still exploring higher volume strategies.

You also need to accept that Veritas/Fortalis has another attribute beyond yield improvements, which is improved fungicide efficacy and this is also an important consideration for the farmer, as fungicide resistance is increasing.

[wan] 25/10/2017 15:05

What some investors have done, myself included, was a bed an ISA (selling from an ordinary stockbroking account and buying immediately into an ISA account). Hence you have seen a few matching transactions where the price between the two trades are a few points difference. Obviously, I am assuming things will improve and I have now further protected from tax any upside from here.