I've just had an unexpected and VERY pleasant and encouraging conversation with the company President/CEO (and majority shareholder), Michael Brent -- was connected to him when I called just to get some general investor information (the number is (201) 567-8500 -- which is also given at the bottom of the PR at the header of this thread).
No earth-shattering new developments to report -- but he's very enthusiastic about how things are going so far, and says the company has lots of ambitious plans in BOTH the franchise (bricks-and-mortar) area AND on the Internet.
He says they definitely will seek NASDAQ listing, once they meet all of the minimum-price and other legal requirements. He thinks that application process will probably be able to start in about 90 days, and hopes it can be completed within 4-6 months from NOW.
He says there are a total of about 1500 shareholders at this point, with a very-low float (he just said the float's in the low hundreds-of-thousands -- according to the prospectus, the number is about 275,000 out of 5-million outstanding common shares. That's about 5.5% of the total). The rest of the shares are held by him and a few former large PLEX shareholders (none of whom have any official positions with ETRV -- he and all the other ETRV execs are from the "Global Travel Network" side of the deal).
Brent also says he's hired an experienced New York PR firm (KCSA -- has websites at www.kcsa.com and www.kcsa.net) to handle the company's public-relations/news-media efforts, and expects them to begin some "active" PR work (news releases, etc.) in the next week or so.
Details aside, I was EXTREMELY pleased with his demeanor and willingness to talk. He seemed very interested in being accessible and "open" with shareholders, and keeping people advised on the company's status. Obviously, his time is at a premium and he won't be able to have long conversations with everybody who calls (HE didn't say that -- that's my OWN assessment). But I thought it'd be good to let everybody know that the guy in charge seems to be very on-top-of-things, and optimistic about the future.
I'll post this same note on RB, for the folks over there (will put it on the RB PLEX thread and also on their "PETRV" thread -- which is a screwed-up board using another company's symbol, but which I'm trying to get straightened-out).
I'm feeling very good about things after this call, and have high hopes for the future...
Vagabond |
