I grabbed the following "snippet" of a recent interview with Mr. Pian off the Web. Complete text can be read at: stock-line.com
WSR: Now that you've accomplished the
restructuring, can you give us a summary of
where you stand in terms of overall sales and
earnings?
SETO: Excluding the acquisition we just
divested, our fiscal year ending January 31,
1999, sales would be about $4 million with a
net income of just over $600,000. We have 11
million shares outstanding. Going forward for
calendar 1999 ending December 31st, we're
forecasting about $11.5 million, with a net
income of $2.3 million. So we're close to 24
cents a share on the existing outstanding. And
going forward beyond that, we see somewhere
between $15 and $20 million. This does not
include any additional acquisitions and we are
actively pursuing acquisitions.
WSR: What is the profile of an acquisition?
SETO: Technical companies, well managed,
profitable, from good to exceptionally good
profit margins, in the right industries or
technical industries that give us a nice broad
base; and also have fairly decent marketing
ability.
WSR: How strong is the competition for your
existing product line?
SETO: In diamond tools, there are only two
others in the whole world. This product is an
absolute necessity to produce a semiconductor
chip. No one in the world can make a chip
without using our product to cut it up. Once a
wafer is processed and all the circuitry is
there, it's pretty much useless unless it's cut
up into small segments and placed inside a
housing, which is called a device or a chip. A
diamond blade is the only way to do that. Many
technologies have been tried and tested,
including all types of lasers and wires and air
cutting and abrasive cutting. Nothing works.
Everything is detrimental to chip
manufacturing. So the way to do this is only
with the diamond saw blade and a dicing saw.
WSR: You have accomplished the restructuring.
You have a profitable company. You're planning
acquisitions. What do you see as the main
challenges to make sure that you stay on track?
SETO: Well, I think we've just got to stay very
close to all our industries and the technology
within them. Make the changes if necessary and
adjust to that. We're pretty well recession and
depression proof with all the industries that
we are servicing. We're pretty much of a debt
free company, and that includes all five
divisions. We have a few hundred thousand
dollars in a credit line, which of course gives
us a lot of strength. We have a strong asset
base now.
WSR: So you actually have segued to my next
question, which is: If an investor were
interested in purchasing shares in your
company, what are the things that you would
tell them to take a good look at before they
did that?
SETO: Again, I think we have a very strong
technology base. I think we have got a good
marketing team, both within the company and
with the reps and distributors throughout the
world that are working with us. We have a very
aggressive buy back of our stock, because we
feel that it is extremely underpriced,
undervalued at this time. And we expect
dramatic growth. We're talking three to five
times in the next two years, and a lot of that
will go down to the bottom line. Our gross
profit margins on some of our products, like
the diamond tools and the technical ceramics,
are between 50 and 70 percent. The other
product lines that we've just acquired are in
the 30, 40 percent; one approaching 50.
So we have a good base to work from, and most
of that'll drop to the bottom line. We are
using the minimum amount of people to produce
the maximum amount of revenues and profits.
It's kind of the way I've done things pretty
much all my life. Whenever I've run companies
for other people, I was always competing with
my competitors that had four to five times the
amount of people and half the profits. So I
think if you have good people and everybody
contributes, it works really well.
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