Surface Transforms Share Discussion Threads

[fillspectre] 03/5/2019 17:10

Balcony - a very good point and one I keep reminding myself of.
Other plus points are that as Kevin, CEO, said - carbon ceramic brakes are not a zero sum game. Aston Martin are using SCE to put brakes on the car that represents for them the current pinnacle of their achievement. A well respected F1 designer specified the SCE brake for the Aston Martin Valkyrie. Keonnigsegg cars are fitted out exclusively with carbon ceramic brakes from SCE. Many track racers are choosing to buy SCE retrofit kits. Possibly in Jan 2020 the long awaited contract for supplying the brake onto an American Military aircraft will land (pardon the pun) - a contract previously described by somebody very well informed as like an annuity. Longshanks and Graham are right the respectful way SCEs maintains silence on discussions with potential customers can only help to build trusting relationships in the long run.
I hope you followed up on your temptation and bought some - looks like half a dozen did - someone even getting away with buying at 12.795p - what a steal!!! Fils

[balcony] 03/5/2019 16:18

Also tempted to buy more.They have only just raised almost £2m at 15.5p per share.

[fillspectre] 03/5/2019 15:59

Graham
I have an unchanged position in SCE and have not given up yet. We seem to be surrounded on AIM by companies currently making zero profits yet plenty of speculative share price gain - even when those companies have had share price surges before and fizzled out thereby plenty of PIs with their fingers burnt in the past.
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I understand the business SCE are in - they do actually have a quietly growing underlying business - the losses coming from increased capital expenditure and new customer R&D. Some of the companies undergoing speculative in-rushes of equity buying don't even have a commercial product on sale - just the hope of one.
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If I was any braver I'd buy some more. I'd hate to see more dilution at these prices - I want to see a floor under these shares at 18p which would mean those of us who took part in the fund raise in 2016 would have least have our investment intact. Fils
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[graham1ty] 03/5/2019 15:39

Fillspectre, I think the Company are exceptional at keeping us in touch.....but only when they can. The AGMs and presentations are as long, comprehensive and open as any company I know. There have been site visits in the past, and I am sure there will be more offered ( hopefully to see an OEM line churning out discs).

For the moment, progress with the OEMs is incredibly price sensitive and there is virtually nothing the company could say. Market rules mean they will have to tell us when there is news, and they must be as frustrated as we are.

I too am very nervous as time goes by. And a few are giving up ( and liquidity is so low that a few trades and it is down a penny.)

Some of us have waited a long time to get here, and may have to wait longer. However, if SCE is ever going to sign an OEM, it is as close as it has ever been.

Of course, none may sign, the R&D, investment etc may be for nothing. I sincerely hope not. But if anything does cross the line, I am sure we will know about it pretty pronto.

Now, David, you said you were sick of people asking you “is it Spring yet ?”. Soon it will be “when does Spring end ?”

[fillspectre] 03/5/2019 12:45

Longshanks - regards disagreement of my choice of words "tight lipped".
I take your point - SCE definitely keeps the confidence of potential customers - all to the good.
They don't however feel compelled to update us very frequently on the rate of the progress of the OEM cell 1 - they could also use such updates as opportunities to confirm more often that anonymised supplier negotiations are taking place as a reassurance through these long periods of no news. I feel an invitation for investors to visit the factory is starting to feel overdue.
It feels like both the Director and Senior Management share options and the two last issuances of share capital to Richard Sneller have benefitted from the weak news causing the share price to drift downwards. Getting nervous and despondent that the next RNS may put us in yet another holding pattern. Fils

[longshanks] 03/5/2019 10:23

I certainly think the debate around how we achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 is going to spark lots of ideas and very much challenge the status quo.

I can't see "the need for speed" disappearing completely though and certainly not the recreational element. More likely will be the imposition of offsetting tariffs on such activities if they generate emissions. I agree that the move to lighter vehicles, use of longer lasting components and, in the case of brake disks, less dust emissions would lend itself to ongoing uptake of ceramic brakes. Whether that alone will lead a stronger move away from steel, I doubt, but given the price of manufacture for CC is dropping, the rate of uptake is sure to increase.

Regarding the flow of news, I can't agree that the company is particularly "tight lipped". They are very much hostage to the OEM nomination process and as such are not really able to say much more than they do. From my experience they are extremely communicative and candid about whatever news they have, and that shows in some respects in the quality of their investor base.

As mentioned previously we are rapidly approaching a point that the company will be an acknowledged manufacturer of widgets. These widgets have a very high gross margin given the barriers to supply, the limited numbers of existing suppliers and the growing consumer base for these widgets.

There is still some investor scepticism (justifiably) that just because they have a validated manufacturing process, that the consumers will choose to buy the widgets from them. However, that is not generally how such things work. Whilst the existing monopoly supplier of these widgets may attempt to fight off competition, the likelihood is that competition will be a springboard for further innovation in the arena that itself will lead to an accelerated growth in the market for these widgets.

[fillspectre] 30/4/2019 22:58

There seems to have been a sudden burst of interest in all things hydrogen and the potential of fuel cells this week. Witness the PPS share price increase and minor effects in ITM and CWR. Only AFC seems to have remained as moribund as SCE and from what I can gather from the chat rooms this maybe down to a dissatisfaction with the current management. There was a piece on the BBC Business website discussing whether we are in a moment of great sea change and harking back to 1979. Maybe I am nostalgic or naive but I am sensing we are. In fact I am hoping we are. Does this sea change stretch to a place for surface transforms. Are we about to enter a final decade for the internal combustion engine? Can SCE ride an initial wave of luxury motors into an sunlit upland where light weighting vehicles and fitting them out with long lived components will dominate product selection? Or will they have brought themselves to a position to mass manufacture a product just for the tide to turn on them at tbe critical moment. This Company has traditionally remained tight lipped and management seem to have very little interest in drip feeding news into the market to stir up interest. We are going into May now - could this month provide us patient long standing share holders with the momentous news we crave. Fils

[graham1ty] 18/4/2019 09:28

We must just wait and see ( as we have for about ten years......). They have seemed as close to a deal as ever ( as they have always seemed ....for about ten years).

But, while I saw my first swallow yesterday, Spring is not yet over.

So, no panic yet

[longshanks] 18/4/2019 08:50

Spring is marching on and it is disconcerting that we have yet to have any news. So in some respects I share your jitters.I guess Brexit indecision could be a factor but equally it could just be the regular cautious approach by OEMs. When AM nominated the Valkyrie, it came out of nowhere; the same could well happen for OEM3, 5 or the next AM model.The key thing to remember is that OEM5 is "ready" to nominate and OEM3 not far behind. The OEM production cell will be active in the coming months and I remain optimistic that the needs for dual sourcing will outweigh any Brexit issue such that by the end of 2020, this cell will be operating at close to full capacity.

[fillspectre] 17/4/2019 21:19

Board awfully quiet. Where to now with Surface Transforms? Do others feel like me that it is unlikely we will get any material news until the traditional mid-June pre-close trading update? Whilst it was reported by other bulletin board contributors that at the Dec '18 AGM the SCE board expressed ambivalence about Brexit - my assumption is that was because they, like the rest of us, assumed it had to conclude on the 29th March. Ongoing uncertainty was probably never factored in. The thus far seemingly endless set of Brexit deadline extensions I think is the worst outcome for SCE with the one positive note possibly being that the only thing parliament seems to have agreed on is to rule out a "no deal" Brexit. (Please don't take this last sentence as a reflection on my personal stance on the EU referendum or what I think the "Brexit" should look like or not as the case may be). I would suggest ruling out "no-deal" is positive for SCE only because with hopelessly prepared ports and arrangements a "no-deal" would probably have led to disruption in the JIT supply chain process operated across the channel by the automotive Industry. A factor that would have been offputting for German OEM's to place an order with an overseas supplier. I personally shared the SCE board's ambivalence towards whichever way Brexit went - if SCE's product is of high enough quality and favoured by the German OEMs for nomination onto a vehicle line then a deal would come whether we were within the Customs Union or on WTO terms. The ongoing uncertainty however may prevent a deal being concluded. My biggest fear is this ridiculous situation could persist right when us SCE shareholders don't need it.
Aston Martin could ride to our rescue with more orders but I can't see the volume matching those expected of either OEM3 or 5 and besides from what I have read about Aston Martin's own position since IPO - it is not a crutch we want to lean too heavily against. As ever I value other opinions. Fils

[fillspectre] 12/4/2019 07:12

Thanks quemaster. I didn't think they could be all sells unless there was already another buyer waiting in the wings. Fils.

[quemaster] 12/4/2019 01:13

There were nine trades in total today, the first six are almost certainly three transfers to ISA accounts. The remaining three trades are 30k at 14.2p, 2.3k @14.2p and 75k at 14p.

I have level 2 at the moment and there were three market makers on the offer at 14.5p and towards the end of the day CFPE dropped the offer to 14.2p but I think they were giving buyers this price most of the day. The 75k trade although the last reported of the day was most likely an early sell reported late as it was over "normal market size"

In my opinion the only actual buys and sells today were two buys of 30k and 2.3k and one sell of 75k.

[fillspectre] 11/4/2019 23:38

High volume today, 11th April, but can someone with a platform reassure me they are not all sells? Fils

[graham1ty] 09/4/2019 12:13

Absolutely correct spookies, two B&Bs gone through. Well done the broker fixing the price so low !

[spookies] 09/4/2019 09:39

Might be bed and breakfast trades. Only a guess as its around the end of the tax year.

[graham1ty] 09/4/2019 08:19

Seller of 100,000 at 13.75p is a bit disappointing. Someone giving up ?

There is a bit more stock around

[graham1ty] 28/3/2019 16:42

I am surprised there is stock around. That 50,000 at 14.8p was a buy. And I could have bought more

[longshanks] 28/3/2019 07:23

I missed the fact that they have a new Operations manager in Stephen Harvey.He looks to be an impressive appointment. Steve Harvey, Senior Operations ManagerSteve is a chartered Senior Manager with over 27 year's international experience in operations, quality, lean manufacturing and continuous improvement. He has held both operational and strategic positions with divisional responsibility for major tier 1 global corporations throughout the last 22 years. Previously he was responsible for the launch of 3 Greenfield automotive JIT plants as well as several plant turn-arounds and numerous premium vehicle launches across Europe most recently with International Automotive Components Group. Steve is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Quality (CQI) and holds a post graduate diploma in strategic quality management from Portsmouth business school.

[graham1ty] 27/3/2019 09:23

Now, how does the expression “one swallow does not a summer make” apply to SCE.......

[graham1ty] 27/3/2019 09:22

You should live on the south coast. We have swallows !

[toffeeman] 27/3/2019 08:41

You should live in Devon LS - daffs have been out for over three weeks :)

[longshanks] 27/3/2019 08:28

I see daffodils in the garden. I believe spring has arrived.

[rivaldo] 26/3/2019 10:22

Sneller certainly goes for it in terms of long-term investments in micro-caps (he's been steadily increasing in ODX too).

He must have bought around another £0.5m in the placing, alongside Unicorn Asset Management and Canaccord.

Good to see.