ACTIVEASSETS.COM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
"My thought is this: rather than focus your analysis on the high-profile online booksellers and technology distributors (with their thin margins, increasing competition and insane market valuations), work your way deeper into the network toward those who enable secure communication and facilitate transactions."
- Jim Kershaw, BC Business, July, 1999
INTRODUCTION TO THE BUSINESS:
Active Assets & Associates Inc. has been formed around a very simple ð but very powerful ð business concept: To harness the power of the Internet to provide an easy, cost-effective way for companies to convert their used corporate assets and excess merchandise into working capital.
Virtually every factory, industrial site, laboratory, hospital, mining camp, oil producer, demolition or construction company has redundant equipment. Yet while the equipment itself holds residual value, the company that owns it often has difficulty finding the time to get it to market. Or, in many cases, simply can?t afford to get it to market because of the size of the equipment or the remoteness of its location.
Therefore, ActiveAssets.com intends to bring the market to that equipment ð through the creation of an interactive live and on-line business-to-business auction website that will serve both North and South America.
The ActiveAssets.com website will revolutionize the liquidation process. An electronic medium of trade will make the distance between buyer and seller meaningless, and open the door to a global marketplace.
By using the company?s sophisticated E-commerce technology, a construction company based in Argentina will have the ability to preview, evaluate and purchase a piece of rolling stock at an on-site auction in Alaska. A clothing importer from Brazil can compete for bankrupt stock at a manufacturer?s liquidation in Quebec City. And companies throughout North and South America will have access to a simple, cost-effective means of turning used corporate assets into cash.
The company intends to be pro-active in the sourcing of excess inventory and used industrial equipment for its website. Regionally-based sales people will regularly visit key industries in their respective regions to source redundant equipment and machinery. Centrally-based evaluators will establish the condition and value of the product. And affiliations with traditional auction houses will reduce the requirement for direct employees.
THE MARKET:
According to recently published information, world-wide sales of used industrial equipment reached US$100 billion in 1998. The annual market of surplus or outdated inventory is approximately US$300 billion. According to figures released by the National Auctioneer Association, the commercial auction market in the United States alone is currently estimated to be a US$267.5 billion industry.
To date, the bulk of those assets has been disposed of through traditional on-site auctions and liquidation events. With the inevitable impact of technology, there is an enormous opportunity that exists for online auctioneers and liquidators to make huge inroads into this market. By leveraging the power of the Internet, ActiveAssets.com intends to serve as the friendliest international business-to-business marketing channel for wholesale assets exchange and inventory disposal. The ActiveAssets.com website will function in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Strategic associations are being formed with traditional auctioneers and liquidators in North and South America to facilitate a rapid penetration into this market. The goal of Active Assets is to become a leading force in the Americas in this burgeoning industry.
CORPORATE HISTORY:
Active Assets & Associates Inc. is being restructured from a resource company (Orinoco Gold Inc.) to an E-Commerce company through the acquisition of hardware, proprietary software development and a highly trained technical team. The company went public on September 24, 1996 issuing 1,750,000 shares at C$0.60. Currently, there are 5,208,315 issued and outstanding shares, with insiders of the company holding approximately 40% of the issued capital. Recent trading range: C$0.80-0.92. Trading was halted in the company on July 2, 1999 to facilitate the change of business. Trading will resume on September 17, 1999.
COMPANY PRINCIPALS:
Richard P. Clark, LLB was a corporate/securities lawyer with the firm of Bull Housser Tupper. He is a Director of numerous VSE & TSE companies, and has raised over $50,000,000 in the public markets in the past five years.
Simon Ridgway is a successful businessman who recently directed the sale of Mar-West Resources Ltd. to Glamis Gold for $40,000,000. He has led several successful business ventures into Central and South America.
Mario Szotlender is trained in international relations. He has successfully directed many North American corporations through the pitfalls of international expansion and is fluent in several languages.
Henry Neugebauer, MSc., MBA is a businessman with over 30 years of international experience with large and medium sized public companies.
Iain Glass is the principal of an award-winning system integration company. Over the past 15 years, he has helped companies such as Canfor, BC Hydro, Imperial Oil and Mobile Data International assemble sophisticated Internet/Intranet & commerce server technologies.
CONTACT: Eugene Toffolo, Corporate Communications
E-MAIL: EToffolo@activeassets.com
PHONE: 604-688-5288 TOLL FREE: 1-877-688-5288 |
