Versarien Share Discussion Threads

[grabster] 01/9/2019 11:56

Wuzy - I don't recall dealing with Shropshire Star. So many papers and previous groups changed ownership around the mid-1990s with the advent of Newsquest, and with Trinity disposing/acquiring/swapping ownerships. Nearest I came to your neck of the woods would have been a county or two away - Banbury Guardian, Evesham Journal, Oxford Times, North Cotswold Standard, Gloucestershire Echo, Witney Gazette, all of whom I frequently dealt with. Bashing stuff out in the middle of the night on my Lettera 22 in the days when cut'n'paste involved scissors and gum. ;-)

[laginaneil] 01/9/2019 11:52

Morning Folks,

Some days ago I was going on about mosquito bite prevention papers.

The company I contacted about graphene said it didn't work when wet.

Well from an an article Nano Steve just highlighted:

'The molecular barrier effect can be circumvented by placing water or human sweat as molecular attractants on the top (external) film surface. In this scenario, pristine graphene films continue to protect through puncture resistance—a mechanical barrier effect—while graphene oxide films absorb the water and convert to mechanically soft hydrogels that become nonprotective.'

Does this mean NON oxide graphene films still work ? i.e. Nanene ?

What has Graphinks got in it? Water based?

[grabster] 01/9/2019 11:30

superg1 - thanks for that detective work! Like you say, Toby Walne's pushing of a stock to the extent that he did (with ammo so conveniently provided to him) justifies suspicion - and what you found appears to reinforce that.

PS: "Always look to smell a rat when a paper tips a share." is so often a wise reaction. Always worth wondering "Why that stock? Why now?" Though we have to presume that other market watchers might be equally suspicious come the day when newspapers begin tipping Versarien. ;-)

[66sequoia] 01/9/2019 11:20

https://www.mirror.co.uk/science/futuristic-suitcase-designed-holidays-moon-17795653 .....oh yeah, who's graphene is it? Is it really graphene?

[grabster] 01/9/2019 11:15

Hmm. Somewhere he needs mosquito protection. That covers a lot of places in the world.

[alchemy] 01/9/2019 11:06

If (sic) Bigt drops?

[woodpeckers] 01/9/2019 10:18

So NanoSteve and David Kerr both flying off somewhere...

[wuzy] 01/9/2019 09:53

Always impressed with your research super, always gives me confidence in Vrs,cheers

[superg1] 01/9/2019 09:47

Always look to smell the rat imo when a paper tips a share.

In this case Qineteq, in recent times IC and others has been tipping it as a buy. I just checked trades which are typically a few 100 shares 100's of trades but in among those are trades of 100k and 200k, the latter of which equates to over £400k in cash.

The share price has been going down so rather cynically on the MAIL tip I thought "Whose selling then".

Hey ho 1 TR1 this year so far and just 2 weeks ago, surprise surprise a seller.





One of Bens (guy in the article pumping things) first mates on twitter is a guy from the Mail.

So basically it seems that is article to get PIs buying Qinetiq while a fund exits and to save face perhaps on some buy tips.

[shavian] 01/9/2019 09:30

AquaeSulis01: I don’t think so. VRS now has very little II participation. The only VCTs which would hold VRS shares are those specialising in AIM quoted shares. The best known of these is the Octopus AIM VCT (series 1 & 2), and VRS does not feature among their top 10 investments. It is difficult to tell whether a lesser holding is included as the Trust’s annual report is always out of date by the time it is published.

[wuzy] 01/9/2019 09:17

Did you ever have any dealings with the Shropshre Star sister paper to the. Express and Star, Shropshire Star was where l was press room manager?

[aquaesulis01] 01/9/2019 08:57

dafad, to be fair the thrust of the article was that graphene is an exciting product but that investing directly in the small companies on aim that produce it carries a high risk and investors ought to consider investing via Venture Capital Trusts to spread the risk. Are VRS shares currently held by any VCTs?

[grabster] 01/9/2019 08:46

Quite a while since those days Wuzy! Alongside my main career I was Press & Publicity Officer for numerous campaigns in the 1970s,80s,90s, requiring me to be on very good terms with specific journalists on all the national/regional dailies/weeklies, and on relevant local papers. On many occasions I ghosted articles to which the lazier ones could put their names. ;-)

[superg1] 01/9/2019 08:44

The Mail

To me it looks like a pump of a few things.

First top it says if you want to invest in graphene rated companies then you should do it by backing the professional research (holding my ribs as they pop with laughter).
Give me a break that is the last thing anyone should do.

EG

Ben Yearsley, director of financial adviser Shore Financial Planning, believes the best way for investors to get involved is through a research company that is looking at ways the material makes money.

Yet the mention of what it can be sued for is still in that dark ages, mentioning bendy phones etc.

In fact the Mail was a lead paper pumping Applied graphene materials.

Yearly then goes on to pump a fund that people should use (LF Majedie UK Equity Fund) rather than Shroder with their poor returns.

Next up it's a couple of attempts at creating interest in Qinetiq.

The most relevant part is what we keep mentioning on various AIM shares.

These tiny outfits, such as Directa Plus and Applied Graphene Materials, are simply too small for mainstream funds to invest in.'


Then the picture starts to appear some more. A pump about this fund

One to consider, he says, is the Unicorn AIM VCT, which invests mainly in Alternative Investment Market companies.

Now that's the fund where it is run by one of the Game brothers. His brother pumped Directa plus in a one which had lies in it. That was reported to the FCA and not long after he wasn't working anymore for the broker he did the note under, cantors I believe.

So that article is simply an ad probably with some brown envelopes for the mentioned funds and Qineteq, it's little to do with graphene companies.

So I wouldn't waste your time emailing anyone.

VRS will develop its business and the big interest will come when that happens. If BIGT drops in then it materially de-risks VRS and opens doors for others to invest.

[aquaesulis01] 01/9/2019 08:34

serratia, I suspect the Govt will introduce Toll roads extensively once EV sales reach a certain tipping point.

[wuzy] 01/9/2019 07:04

Grabster l was in newspapers in my working live one thing about journalists ( l was in print room) now is they don't go out and find stories or investigate they wait for stuff to come in by email and just repeat what is written so you may be right just plain ignorant of real facts but no excuse, not like the old days when they went out and sniffed around for a story.

[grabster] 01/9/2019 06:35

Nothing to stop anyone emailing the author of that Mail article to point out that he appears to have overlooked the most appealing graphene investment. His email address is given. But do it politely and nicely please - doing it angrily or making him out to be stupid is likely to be counterproductive. Journalists need winning over, not alienating. Flatter him. Praise him for his enthusiastic interest in the topic and gently suggest he look into Versarien. Suggest he attends the imminent agm, to discover why more than 200 turned up there last time.

Maybe even paste a copy of the header text.

Bear in mind that his article was probably prompted by the company he is promoting (or by one of the fund managers who bought into it) - and it may have been them who gave him that selective list of other graphene companies that conveniently excluded Versarien.


EDIT: Incidentally, the article's author Toby Walne published a book called "101 Extraordinary Investments: Curious, Unusual and Bizarre Ways to Make Money : a Handbook for the Adventurous Collector"

[wuzy] 01/9/2019 06:34

Yes Davad Vrs should have been mentioned but shows just how little research these so called journalists do, maybe it's time Neill or Vrs sent out a brief resume to all the national papers and highlighted that they Vrs are the only verified producers and explained what sectors they are in and production capability one can only hope, cheers

[dafad] 31/8/2019 23:44

Surely Versarien should have been mentioned in this article,just shows how little research these reporter do before putting articles to print

[serratia] 31/8/2019 23:40

Amusing one tick down on 77729, try to understand the science who ever you are.

[serratia] 31/8/2019 22:38

OT,

 EV's etc -

 If you take an ICE running at 30 mpg that's around 20p/mile. EV's seem to cost 4.5 to 5.5p/mile based on home electricity costs and from what I can see 9 to 11p from public chargers so a big saving. Road tests on Hydrogen fuelled cars are slightly more expensive than petrol/diesel cars/mile.
 These figures exclude tax. The tax on petrol is 60% in the UK so what is the cost pre tax ? For petrol it drops to 8p/mile, EV's stay at around 5p - 10p/mile and H2 at 20p +.
 If the whole UK market switches to EV's the government would lose a lot of tax income, roughly equivalent to a 2p rise in income tax.
 What will the government do to plug the loss ? 2p on tax is a vote loser so they will need to find a way to tax EV's , not now as it would kill the EV market. I read that they're exploring using the car's on board computer systems to monitor miles driven/year. That way they could tax individuals on miles driven in EV's.
 Of course that may be OK as the focus is cut CO2 emissions. My observations over the years is that the majority of people say one thing but vote with their back pocket. It will be interesting to see how the government plugs the tax loss and how the public reacts to increased taxes one way or another due to the potential switch to EV's.
 From what I see Hydrogen is a non starter on a cost basis but is clean. It doesn't make sense on a cost/mile with UK electricity production costs even with no tax applied.

[serratia] 31/8/2019 22:34

grabster,

I agree we have a unique process for making Graphene that works in polymers and should/are exploiting that advantage. There is no guarantee that producing other 2-D materials produces the same challenges for the competition. (Do the research). This is not a negative post. Our lead in Graphene should give us the power to stay ahead of the crowd in other 2-D materials even if they're not so difficult to produce as Nanene.

[woodpeckers] 31/8/2019 21:50

Also loved this: "graphene is a little snowball that brought about a massive avalanche in science...This pioneering thread of research led us to the question of what would happen if we stacked these materials onto one another, which I dubbed as graphene 2.0."

Neill has mentioned several times that though graphene in itself is revolutionary and has huge benefits to offer they are already aware of other materials that will provide even greater advantages!... seriously, I really don't think that many of us (me included)are aware of the possibilities that could arise out of being invested in this company.

Not going to apologise for sounding rampy.. just saying what I see...take it or leave it...