Versarien Share Discussion Threads

[sandbag] 09/7/2020 00:12

NoPedigree,

Couldn't agree more. I've now sold over 100k shares at over a pound each less than I paid for them. As I've said before it was always my plan to drip sell them to boost my state pension. It was never my plan to buy them at up to £1.80 a share and sell them around 40p. I WAS REALLY TAKEN IN BY NEILL RICKETT'S RAMPING. He often mentions Elon Musk. Perhaps he should start referring to John De Lorean anbd Tony Howard.
Really, really, peed of with the lack of any positive news. We now have a top class team but still no sales. Sorry Neill but in my eyes you've gone from hero to zero.

Does he actually read this BB? I certainly hope so.

[alchemy] 08/7/2020 19:29

To you and Woody thanks.Anything that gets us towards modelling this phenomenon helps.

[woodpeckers] 08/7/2020 18:58

My notes from the Poddy 17/7/19 say that a 30T machine would cost £2m , the 3T machines £500k... I haven't had time to go back and listen to check that...

[forgottenchameleon] 08/7/2020 18:09

Alchemy: generally speaking 1 to 2 million would pay for scale up to 10 to 20 tonnes per year or so. But a lot depends on whether other post processing and cleaning steps are needed, as well as waste treatment. I would imagine the 5 million loan pays for scale up of graphene production to maybe 20 tonnes as well as larger extruders for making plastic pellets etc. Positives are that the loan can pay for a reasonable scale up, negatives are that it's a loan and not funded by forward receipt, ie offtake deals.

[compoundup] 08/7/2020 16:42

luckykids - I agree that circumspection about the wisdom of sending any non-native personnel to China is appropriate. In the case of VRS with its high-level government connection kudos, that may be less of a risk but even so.

[1teepee] 08/7/2020 15:53

Young graphene still need to hand over the keys at the end of the month;)

[luckykids] 08/7/2020 14:42

Also would worry for Matt or indeed any individual visiting China now. As imprisonment on a trumped up charge is possible these days

[luckykids] 08/7/2020 14:39

Probably correct but unless the Chinese government was happy with us doing that it would just veto any company from doing business with us and that would be that

[tmoon] 08/7/2020 14:13

Am I correct in thinking that BVT, being granted the ability to do business in China, could simply set up a production facility in China and sell to whomsoever wishes to buy it's product therefor not needing involvement from any other Chinese company or investor?

[severnof9] 08/7/2020 13:55

It is my view that the IP was only ever really protected from theft by China by virtue of the trust built up through the relationships between our respective governments. The issue of Honk Kong and Huawei have seriously eroded any trust and I suspect that unless this is restored there will be no JV in China

[alchemy] 08/7/2020 13:50

The question on continuous production is the catalyst here:- I think in SG's time some facts pertaining to production costs and other metrics were published. Any answers that the adorati have to hand would be very well received.If the demand is there how welcome new production equipment will be. How quickly can it be installed , how quickly can it then be ready for production? How much will it allow us to make, per time period?It is best made near the point of consumption I understand but it doesn't have to be , so shipping costs might reduce our margin but if that still allows a good contribution then no true harm done?As to continuous production that would be great especially if the rate can be turned up, and down. In other words what do we know about scale up in terms of time cost and outcome? I assume £5 mill gives us a lot but our salary costs have for sure gone up if not zoomed?

[laginaneil] 08/7/2020 11:18

Hello folks,
I wonder how the continuous flow production machine design is coming along? Got the 'brass' to pay for it now!

[breedsy] 08/7/2020 10:41

No problem Woody, wasn't having a pop at you - it was more the TW gang who seem to think we have just been given the money as some backhander from HMG. Didn't want you to fuel their fire any further!!

[woodpeckers] 08/7/2020 09:35

breedsy, many thanks for picking my error up, you are absolutely right, it's a loan, not a grant, my apologies, I have corrected my post.

[kemorkid] 08/7/2020 09:04

Would be nice to see Mr Stewart and Mr walker raid their piggies and purchase some very cheap shares in a remarkable company called Versarien but I presume this is a closed period ?

[ewads] 08/7/2020 08:44

The only people that know the answer to these what/ifs, can't speak!

I deduce that something must happen in the not too distant.

[jointer13] 08/7/2020 08:38

"In coming to its decision the Versarien Board has considered a number of factors. These include, inter alia, the need for the Company to retain flexibility and to have the ability to engage in discussions with other interested parties in China; and the increasing need, particularly in the current political environment, to ensure the appropriate protection of the Company's intellectual property."

[fireball xl5] 08/7/2020 08:32

It's a bit of humour as TW reckons they are giving VRS taxpayers money

[woodpeckers] 08/7/2020 08:27

Interestingly, we seem to be presuming that YG didn’t manage to find someone prepared to invest and consequently we received the loan…

If you read the update it says that in order to reach it’s decision on whether to invoke the backstop the board considered a number of factors. …
- the need for the Company to retain flexibility and to have the ability to engage in discussions with other interested parties in China
-the increasing need, particularly in the current political environment, to ensure the appropriate protection of the Company's intellectual property
-Furthermore, the Company has also been awarded a GBP5 million loan facility ("the Loan") by Innovate UK Loans Limited,…

So that sounds as though the loan was awarded before they made their decision and was a contributing factor to their decision to go it alone…

Now why would they include ‘the increasing need …to ensure the appropriate protection of the Company's intellectual property’ as one of the deciding factors ? Surely that was already agreed…

Can I take you back to the March update announcing the deal…in it is states..
”Any investment remains subject to, inter alia, further due diligence and agreeing acceptable terms and there can be no certainty that any of these subscriptions will occur.”

Note this says ‘agreeing acceptable terms’ …what if one of the terms was about IP protection?

We’ve been assuming that whether or not the deal concluded was based purely on a price for the shares…perhaps that’s not true…

YG may have found someone who was prepared to offer us £20/share but would not agree to our terms about IP protection…

Maybe due to the ‘current political environment’ our ‘increasing need’ ‘to ensure the appropriate protection of the Company's intellectual property’ had grown such that our demands on this subject became tougher and consequently the change in the goalposts meant YG struggled to find the investor…

So teepee, you say ‘Remember it was China that turned us down!’… can we be sure that that is an accurate description of the situation, I’m not so sure…maybe they could have offered us any amount of money but unless we were happy that our IP was tightly protected we would not have the ‘acceptable terms’ needed to go ahead.

[jointer13] 08/7/2020 08:25

btw...that is not mine.

found on the web.

[jointer13] 08/7/2020 05:05

a-letter-to-my-mp-re-innovate-uk-and-versarien.

Dear …..,

As a resident within your constituency, I am writing to congratulate your Government and Innovate UK (part of UK Research and Innovation) on the recent award of a £5 million loan facility to Versarien plc, (a Gloucestershire-based engineering and advanced materials group), to enable them to scale up production of their quality-assured graphene.

I first heard about graphene in 2016; and since then have found myself ever more fascinated with this new “wonder material” and how it can transform so many aspects of our lives – as The Graphene Council state on their website:

“Graphene holds the potential to dramatically disrupt and positively impact an extremely broad range of industries, including; Medicine, Sensors, Diagnostics and Testing, Electronics, Transistors, Light Processing, Energy Storage, Water Filtration, Lubricants, Nanoantennas, Corrosion and Waterproof Coatings, Thermal Management, Composite Structural Materials and many, many more. It is truly revolutionary.”

Indeed, our Prime Minister gave a speech at the Manchester Science and Industry Museum on the 27th July 2019, from which I quote:

“…yet today, we stand on the cusp of the graphene age, with applications in everything from de-icing of aircraft wings to life-saving medicine.”

As you can see, graphene is probably one of the most exciting and significant scientific discoveries in recent years and one that can have a significant and global impact in all our futures. I believe that Versarien, as the only currently verified global producer of Graphene, is best placed to lead the UK on this journey.

It is fantastic to see UK businesses, especially those who are busy innovating in the vanguard of modern science and technology, to be receiving such support from the Government. As a UK taxpayer, I am very happy to see public funds being used for this purpose; plus, I hope to see more of this support as the UK prepares itself to leave the EU.

On that note, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Department for International Trade for their part in allowing Matt Walker, formerly the Head of Outward Direct Investment strategy team, to join Versarien as the Head of International Strategy & Government Relations – a key position I am sure you will agree, to ensure that the UK has the best possible opportunity of securing a much needed global position within the forthcoming graphene revolution.

Finally, if you or any of your business contacts, in particular those in any of the industries I have quoted above, are interested to learn more about graphene and how this UK technology can potentially benefit their business, I would thoroughly recommend a conversation with Versarien.

Yours sincerely,