To: Larry Brubaker who wrote (16418 ) 11/27/1999 6:12:00 PM From: add Respond to of 27311
>Networm, here's the skeptic's view on your questions, >1. Lev's leadership/trustworthiness. Big difference >between the rosy scenario Lev paints in the conference >calls and press releases vs. the SEC filings. An analyst >during the last conference call even asked why the >discrepancy between the two. Lev acted like he didn't >understand the question, and later said both the filings >and the conference calls are correct. My take is that if >both are correct, then the small purchase order they >recently received does not mean they have commercial >production capability (meaning the ability to produce in >volume, at a profit). Larry, didn't your mother tell you to tell the truth ? In the CC VLNC admitted to being able to produce at $40M run rate now, with $80M soon and $250M next year. Plus, add in Hanil which should be at full speed by June. So even if you take the current number of $40M, that is commercial production in book. SO Larry, why did you neglect to mention that ? What's your motive ? >2. VLNC's position among peers. Nobody seems to be >producing large volumes of lithium polymer batteries. True enough at this point. When VLNC gets the contract(s)to use up the $40M capacity, we should see for sure. Don't wait until it happens Larry, or you will miss the pop. >3. Burn rate is high and increasingly so. Debt to equity, >is high because there is not much equity. Total debt is >not that much, however. Long term debt is about $12M, book equity is about $4M.Book equity is so low because of the long time to reach production and sales. However, book equity doesn't mean squat. Market equity if more like $350 Million. That's what counts. Amazon only has $77M in book equity, think its worth that much? Its Debt to Equity is many times more than VLNC. The total burn rate is only $9M a quarter. Full production at the $80M level will make that point meaningless. >4. REAL short term order outlook. The $64,000 question. >Depends on whether you believe the conference calls or >the SEC filings, which say their technology requires >further development before they can produce in commercial >volumes. >For me, I want to see further confirmation (e.g., multiple >purchase orders and/or substantial financing at reasonable >terms) before I change my skeptical view. Without such >confirmation, my personal opinion is the current price is >not sustainable. If you wait for the multiple orders, you will buy VLNC past $20. Risk-reward that's the name of the game. Larry, why don't you just Treasuries,then you won't have to worry about anything. >Now you've got the skeptic's view. I'm sure Rich will tell >you a different story:-) Now you have a more balanced view.