To: John Curtis who wrote (15960 ) 11/11/1999 3:40:00 PM From: Larry Brubaker Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 27311
John, a brief synopsis of the call. Lev said the PO is from a "household name" customer. For a new product. Shipments under this PO will begin in the 1st calendar quarter. Lev is optimistic they will receive more PO's, and he's satisfied with the batteries in Henderson/NI/Korea. He talked about samples are being sent to manufacturers of cell phones, PDAs, and notebooks. Lev's prepared remarks were completed in a few minutes, there was close to an hour's worth of questions. The first questioner (from Frst Union Securities) was a bit skeptical and asked about the difference between the optimistic picture painted in conference calls and the pessimistic picture in the SEC filings. Lev said he didn't know what he was talking about. The next questioner asked about production capacity at Hanil. Lev said something about Hanil being close or ready to do 1 million cellphone batteries per month, but equipment needed to do 6 million laptop batteries per month was 10 months away. A question was asked about profit margins. Lev would not talk about profit margins. Questions were asked about financing requirements. Lev said in addition to the IDB funding, they would still need to do at least one more monthly financing, complete the shelf registration, and probably a little more on top of that. A question was asked about time frame for next PO. Lev would not give a forecast. Questions about IDB funds and equipment needed to ramp up capacity. Lev said the $3 million grant is for the 3rd coater, but they don't need that to do an $80 million run rate. A question about production bottlenecks. Lev said they can get to a $45 million run rate quickly (with some more equipment), $70 million late next year, $250 million the following year (2001), but this would require additional investment. A long discussion about safety testing which I didn't really listen to very closely. Said they are submitting the battery for certification without charge control. Doesn't know if they will get it through without charge control, however. A question about revenue for the year 2000. Lev would not forecast. A question about whether Castle Creek had converted additional shares. They said yes, but actually they were talking about the shares mentioned in yesterday's 10-Q. Then the bomb shell. Lev announced that he will be stepping down as CEO (but will remain on the board) early next year. He complimented the management team currently in place and said he won't let them screw it up. Those are the things I wrote down. I think I've captured the highlights, but there is much I'm missing.