IMO, Yes! check: American Superconductor's (AMSC) home: amsuper.com
And
webevents.broadcast.com
They were the main component of the Powering Telecosm a few months ago as well.
I have done some reading of Huber-Mill's PowerCosm report---free to Gilder's subscriber--it (imo) points to AMSC.
See also:
FROM DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
TALES OF THE TAPE: This Stock Gets A
Boost From Brownouts
By FRANK BYRT
BOSTON -- Major power failures in Chicago and New York City
demonstrated this summer that the U.S. electrical power grid needs fixing.
One company that stands to benefit from those repairs is American
Superconductor Corp. (AMSC), in Westborough, Mass., which
manufactures superconducting power cables and superconducting
magnetic energy storage units.
Utilities can replace the old copper cables that make up their systems now
with American Superconductor's cables, and deliver three times as much
power with cables that are about one-third the size of the old ones, say the
company.
That is only part of the upside to superconducting cables. In most cases
they can be installed without digging up city streets or building new
transmission towers. The old copper cables are pulled out and the new
ones simply are snaked through the same conduits.
Existing copper cabling is oil-cooled, and some oil invariably leaks out into
the earth. The old systems also leak energy; a lot of electricity sent out
from a power generating station is lost along the way to its destination.
Superconducting cables are cooled by liquid nitrogen, which is
environmentally safe, and electricity sent through them doesn't dissipate.
The company has another product to aid the ailing power grids, which it
calls Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage, or SMES. The system
stores energy within a superconducting magnet that can be tapped instantly
when there is a momentary dip or spike in power from the grid in order to
stabilize the electric load.
One SMES unit can fit into a truck trailer and be hauled wherever needed
to aid overtaxed power substations, such as in urban neighborhoods
during heat waves. They're also being used by industrial companies and
high-tech manufacturers for which a reliable, high-quality power supply is a
necessity.
People familiar with American Superconductor's technological applications
for superconducting are enthusiastic about what they can potentially do for
the nation's power grid. But the company only recently turned the corner
from the research and development stage to major commercial production
of its sophisticated products.
Gregory Yurek, the company's chief executive, told Dow Jones
Newswires he thinks the products will "revolutionize" the way electrical
power is delivered, much as fiber-optics are changing telecommunications.
The Stock Has Been Stuck
American Superconductor's management has an impeccable pedigree.
Yurek was a tenured professor of metallurgy at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology before he and another MIT professor founded the
company in 1987. Yurek has staked his career on the company's success.
The board of directors includes former NASA astronaut Frank Borman,
former U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Albert Baciocco Jr. and Gerard Menjon,
head of research and development for Electricite de France (F.EDF), that
nation's electric utility.
Electricite de France bought a 10% stake in the company in April, 1997
for $10 million and American Superconductor is in joint-venture efforts
with Pirelli Cavi SpA of Italy, which makes power cable, and ABB Ltd.
(Z.ABB) of Switzerland, a manufacturer of power transformers.
The company has landed several key new contracts in recent months, and
may land several more soon. Yurek said he sees the company reaching the
break-even point by the end of its next fiscal year, March 31, 2002.
But, with all that good news, the stock isn't climbing. It has been stuck
around $14 a share since 1991 and recently traded at $12.50.
Some think the company's time has come and American Superconductor
is about to realize its potential. Others are waiting to see if the company
can make the transition from product developer to profitable manufacturer.
Among those who think the company still needs seasoning is Peter Cohan,
head of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and
venture capital firm, in Marlborough, Mass. The company still faces the
issue that trips up many new high-tech and biotechnology firms - taking "a
discovery in a lab and making it work on a large-scale basis" as a viable
commercial product, said Cohan.
"There has been a lot of excitement about the technology" of
superconductivity, he said. But now, more than a decade after IBM
scientists made significant advances in the field and stirred public interest,
he notes, there have yet to be notable commercial applications.
"It still looks to me like a science project being funded by utilities from
overseas," Cohan said.
American Superconductor is about to shed that look, said Yurek. "We are
a manufacturing company and not a research company," he said. "Today,
we make about 150 miles (of superconducting cable) a year in this facility
and by next year it will be about 300 miles, and we expect 1,000 (miles a
year) within two or three years."
A 'Real-World' Test
Detroit Edison will become the first "real-world" test of the company's
cable products. American Superconductor will start installing its cable in
downtown Detroit in the second half of 2000.
The city is beefing up its infrastructure to handle the power demands of
several planned new gambling casinos, and as a lure to high-tech
companies, said Lewis Layton, a spokesman for Detroit Edison. In
Detroit, 250 pounds of American Superconductor cables will replace nine
tons of existing copper power cables and will be capable of handling more
juice than the current power load.
In June, the company won a $2 million contract from the U.S. Navy's
Office of Naval Research to design a 25,000-horsepower ship propulsion
motor. Yurek said superconducting technology will reduce the engine to
the size of a sport-utility vehicle from its current bus-like size.
American Superconductor has a $4 million order to supply six of the
custom-built SMES units to Wisconsin Public Service for use in stabilizing
a rural power network. In July it received a $1 million order from another
electric utility that serves one of the nation's largest semiconductor chip
manufacturers.
Robert Chewning, an analyst with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, rates the
company a "strong buy," based on its long-term, industry-shaking
potential.
He predicts that American Superconductor will be successful in shifting
from the product development stage to a commercial stage within the next
few years. "Within a development company there is always the risk that
products either don't perform or cannot be manufactured in commercial
quantities at prices that are (profitable)," Chewning said. "But I haven't
seen data that would cause me to change my investment thesis," he said.
"Until they execute you never know for sure, but I do think they are on the
path they should be on."
Chewning said Yurek hit the targets that he established for the company
on schedule during its development stage a dozen years ago, and he has
confidence in the company's ability to deliver.
Chewning expects the company to post a loss of four cents a share in the
fiscal year ending March 31, 2001. He projects a profit of $1.09 a share
by the end of fiscal 2002, and $2.88 a share in 2003.
In the fiscal year ended March 31, 1999, the company had a net loss of
$15.3 million, or $1.01 a share, on revenues of $11.2 million.
A Banc of America Montgomery Securities research report rates the
stock a buy for long-term, capital-appreciation investors. It projects a loss
of $1.15 a share in the current fiscal year, a profit in 2002 and that
per-share earnings could reach $5 in 2005.
Ed Tirello, senior utilities analyst at Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, said
American Superconductor isn't on the firm's coverage list yet, but he has
been following the company's evolution. "I think they will do extremely
well in the future and we expect to add coverage on them soon," said
Tirello.
The stock could get a big boost from the rapid deregulation of the electric
utility, Tirello said. Savvy investors will be searching for companies that
will benefit from the newly competitive environment, he said. |
