The Lemon Fool

Here's a couple of stock ideas which have green credentials. Both could be set for significant growth in coming years and both have fallen a long way from their highs.

Invinity Energy Systems PLC (IES)

These make Vanadium Flow Batteries which as I understand it have significant advantages over Lithium Ion, apart from anything they're not liable to burst into flames. Revenues are minimal at the moment and orders seem to be slower than expected in coming in but the market for their products is forecast to grow very large in coming years.

The price is just 75p and they recently raised funds at £1. They also signed an agreement with Siemens Gamesa which could see SG buy 10% of the company at £1.75 (from memory).

At this price the market cap is about £90m but they should have enough cash to last a couple of years.

I have a few bought at an average price of £1 so am sitting on a loss but always intended this to be a long term investment.

Biome Technologies PLC (BIOM)

This is a bit of a tiddler at £9.5m market cap and has a couple of divisions, Stanelco, which has been struggling in recent times but finally looks like it might have turned the corner and the interesting part, the Bio Plastics division.

The Bio Plastics division makes biodegradable plastic and they are currently targeting the tree shelter market where revenues could be significant if the product works as it's supposed to. I presume there may also be other suitable applications.

The last trading statement was a bit of a disappointment and they have announced the dreaded second half weighting to results.

https://www.investegate.co.uk/biome-tec ... 00067603Z/

I have previously traded these successfully but don't currently have a position although they are on the watchlist.

Anyway, there's a couple of ideas for people looking for a green angle to their investments.

These types of early stage speculative companies are really not for me, but thanks for taking the time to post some fresh ideas.

All the best, Si

Hi Simoan

I don't put too much of my money into them either but I have a few blue sky investments. AGL which is probably an overweight position but wouldn't break me if it went bust. I have very high hopes for it but i'm not blind to the risks. IES, THRU and TRX.

Most of my money is in more traditional value plays and a quick scan of my portfolio shows out of about 30 investments 24 of them have net cash on the balance sheet and only two of them have debt which could be considered troubling, RBN which has a lot of surplus property to dispose of which should sort out most of the debt (although when they're actually going to announce the sale of any of it is a mystery) and PEB which seems to reliably pay down debt each year and expects that trend to continue. PEB should be all but debt free in about 3 years at current rates.

WickedLester wrote:Hi Simoan

I don't put too much of my money into them either but I have a few blue sky investments. AGL which is probably an overweight position but wouldn't break me if it went bust. I have very high hopes for it but i'm not blind to the risks. IES, THRU and TRX.

Most of my money is in more traditional value plays and a quick scan of my portfolio shows out of about 30 investments 24 of them have net cash on the balance sheet and only two of them have debt which could be considered troubling, RBN which has a lot of surplus property to dispose of which should sort out most of the debt (although when they're actually going to announce the sale of any of it is a mystery) and PEB which seems to reliably pay down debt each year and expects that trend to continue. PEB should be all but debt free in about 3 years at current rates.

Fair enough. I just don't need to take the risk of putting money into companies where you're likely to be heavily diluted before any profits and positive cashflow are produced. I've reached a point where it just makes no sense on a risk/reward basis.

simoan wrote:Fair enough. I just don't need to take the risk of putting money into companies where you're likely to be heavily diluted before any profits and positive cashflow are produced. I've reached a point where it just makes no sense on a risk/reward basis.

So not for you. Probably not for me either (I'm looking to sell more than buy between now and end-of-tax-year), though I may take a look now WL has posted them.

So how about a post introducing green investment ideas that are your cup of tea?

UncleEbenezer wrote:

simoan wrote:Fair enough. I just don't need to take the risk of putting money into companies where you're likely to be heavily diluted before any profits and positive cashflow are produced. I've reached a point where it just makes no sense on a risk/reward basis.

So not for you. Probably not for me either (I'm looking to sell more than buy between now and end-of-tax-year), though I may take a look now WL has posted them.

So how about a post introducing green investment ideas that are your cup of tea?

The main reason for my post was actually to thank Wicked Lester. We are all on our own investment journeys and the companies may be of interest to some looking for speculative unprofitable companies as a punt. Frankly, I have no interest in making investments just because they are green, how quaint! One of my best ever investments was Impax Asset Management but the fact its funds held investments in green technologies had nothing to do with the original investment case. However, it is starting to look interesting again after the recent fall back below £10.

Over the last few weeks I have been trying to identify companies within the "green/renewable" area that I can invest in. For my criteria they need to be practical, not primarily relying on subsidies, not research projects, not pilot projects, not blue sky projects, not microcaps and have something of a profitable or near profitable existing business.

An awful lot of funds/PE are in this space which is something I generally avoid although GRID seems to fit many of my criteria. Outside of that space I found one listed company i.e. Crestchic a few months ago.

The next on my list - at least within the UK sphere of shares is Invinity Energy Systems. They are producing real tangible commercial hardware. Appear to be the only player in the area of mid to large energy storage of Vanadium Flow Batteries. Since the only real competition is from Lithium batteries it appears to be a real alternative. However with no-one else being in that space it concerns me. I want to see real competition in the marketplace which implies, to me, the technology has legs. Infinity need to grow and install more equipment around the world; and I would also like to see the beginnings of some recurring revenue whether that be through software, modifications, servicing or indeed selling electricity via their own battery farms. However all of that is probably 10 years in the future by which time Invinity will in all likelihood been taken over.

For now though, they will almost certainly need a lot more investment and until I see them turning positive along with an order pipeline well into the future, IES will remain on my watchlist for another 12-24 months.

Nice uptick for Invinity today. Of course, it could be “noise” and I wouldn’t be celebrating if I’d bought in February, but still.

Just thought I'd post a few updates on some of the stocks I have suggested since this board opened.

As you can probably imagine it hasn't been very pretty for most of them.

Invinity has had a miserable year, like many blue sky stocks. The price fell below 20p I think but has recovered somewhat after some promising commercial news:

https://www.investegate.co.uk/invinity- ... 14082713I/

I sold out near the bottom because I wanted the cash for other things and I was worried that without orders and a rapidly diminishing cash pile a fundraising would dilute current holders out of the picture.

BIOM has also had a particularly bad year. A profit warning with the interims sent the price tumbling and despite something of a recovery the market cap is now below £3m.

I have no position in either of these stocks but continue to keep an eye on them. I can't exactly claim that either of these have proven to be good ideas in the short term at least.