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Technology Stocks : Ballard Power -world leader zero-emission PEM fuel cells -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: HarveyO who wrote (2646)	5/29/1998 1:02:00 PM
From: HarveyO	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5827

Ballard Generation Systems completed $110m agreement with GEC ALSTHOM Ballard Power Systems Inc BLD Shares issued 23,083,665 May 28 close $142.40 Fri 29 May 98 News Release Mr. Paul Lancaster reports The company's subsidiary, Ballard Generation Systems, has completed its $110-million ($76.25-million (U.S.)) agreement with GEC ALSTHOM to bring manufacturing and marketing expertise into the company for PEM fuel cell stationary power plants. Representatives met in Basel, Switzerland, to complete and sign the final alliance agreements. The companies have worked toward this objective since signing a memorandum of understanding on Dec. 18, 1997, in Vancouver, Canada. In the transaction, GEC ALSTHOM will invest $39-million (U.S.) ($56.5-million (Canadian)) for a 21.4 per cent interest in Ballard Generation Systems in the form of $21-million (U.S.) ($30.5 million (Canadian)) in cash and $18-million (U.S.) ($26 million (Canadian)) in manufacturing technology and expertise. This alliance with GEC ALSTHOM will result in Ballard Generation Systems establishing an initial production facility in Canada to manufacture 250 kW fuel cell stationary power plants. In addition, Ballard Generation Systems and GEC ALSTHOM will jointly invest $37.25-million (U.S.) ($54-million (Canadian)) to form a European joint venture company called ALSTHOM BGS for the sale, distribution and subsequently the manufacture of fuel cell power plants in Europe. The investment in the European joint venture consists of $19-million (U.S.) ($27.5 million (Canadian)) in cash from GEC ALSTHOM for a 51 per cent interest, and $18.25-million (U.S.) ($26.5-million (Canadian)) for the marketing and manufacturing rights in Europe from Ballard Generation Systems for a 49 per cent interest. Ballard Generation Systems was formed as a venture between Ballard Power Systems and GPU International Inc. of New Jersey in December 1996. In May 1998, Ballard Generation Systems announced that it had signed a detailed memorandum of understanding with EBARA Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, to create a joint venture company with exclusive rights to market, and later to manufacture, Ballard's PEM fuel cell stationary power plants for the Japanese market. GEC ALSTHOM is a world leader in the design, manufacture, supply and installation of equipment, systems and complete solutions for the power generation and transmission industries and for rail transport. Headquartered in France, the company is well established internationally, with a total of 110,000 employees in 60 countries. GEC ALSTHOM has pro forma revenues of approximately $15.7-billion (U.S.) in 1997/98 of which over 40 per cent were earned outside Europe. GPU International is the non-regulated arm of GPU Inc., a major international electric company based in New Jersey. GPU serves a worldwide population of over 13 million people with 4.4 million customers in 12 countries. It had 1996 revenues of over $3.9-billion (U.S.) and assets close to $10-billion (U.S.).

To: HarveyO who wrote (2646)	5/29/1998 2:29:00 PM
From: Sleeperz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5827

Well of course Ballard is not going to come out and say anything good or bad about the glass technology. The only real result will be if it works as well as the Ballard technolgy and comes out cheaper being glass. This applys for any company you call up for information whether its BRE-X or Intel. As for the glass material being thin and breaks easily, just exactly what moving parts does a PEM Fuel Cell have? NONE! Glass is not very hard to handle, Semiconductor equipment handle delicate microchips or monitor tubes everyday. It will not be difficult for the Japanese to apply their Semiconductor expertise to the manufacture of thin film glass substrates. After All Silicon is just pure glass. cl >>> My broker contacted Ballard yesterday about the announcement and was told by Ballard that they are familiar with the technology and were not concerned in the least about it. They indicated that in order to work, the glass material needs to be very thin, breaks easily and as a result is very hard to handle.<<<