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Technology Stocks : Turbodyne Technologies Inc. (TRBDF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Mike C2 who wrote (1705)8/12/1998 2:30:00 AM
From: Michael Bidder  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 3458
 
Mike

Please lets get into the technical side of the product. Turbochargers are not complicated. I would like to have a crack at it. I am sure some others would as well.

Asencio claims the the technology was purchased for only $500,000 dollars in stock. Sounds like a small sum to base a market cap of $750 million on. There must have been some new and secret developments added since the purchase. Care to let us in on the big secret. (AKA SOLVEX FRAUD)

MB



To: Mike C2 who wrote (1705)8/12/1998 7:14:00 AM
From: Q.  Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 3458
 
Here's an analysis of Turbodyne's sorry record of dilution.

Mike C2 wrote: <<John, do us a favor while you pour over all the
company annual reports. Find out just where all of the outstanding
shares came from: how many were issued for the Pacific Baja purchase,
how many from option exercises ...>>

Thank you for this very useful suggestion. I have gladly done this and
I am happy to share the results with others:

==============================================================


Year ending 12/31 shares outstanding increase
(millions) (millions)

1993 1.078
1994 10.663 + 9.585
1995 16.452 + 5.789
1996 23.580* + 7.128*
1997 29.961 + 6.381

3/31/98 36.275 + 6.314 YTD

(Data from 1997 & 1996 annual reports and Q1 98 quarterly report)

Where did all these millions and millions of shares come from?

Let's track it down.

The co. was formed in 1993 by a reverse merger into a defunct mining
company shell. Mr. Halimi was issued 1.0 M shares at that time.
That's the starting point for the subsequent massive dilution.

* Pacific Baja was acquired 7/2/96 for 3.076 M shares + $12 M cash,
a total value of < $35 M, based on the highest stock price during the
July-Sept. 1996 quarter. This really didn't dilute the stock much in
comparison to the following:

32 M shares were created by dilutive financing mechanisms. That's the
running total as of 3/31/98. These dilutive mechanisms include
issuing warrants, convertible preferred stock, and private placement
of common stock. They do not include to my knowledge any underwritten
secondary offerings, which would require significant disclosure.

Most importantly, though, the dilutive mechanisms include employee
options, primarily to Mr. Halimi and Mr. Nowek.

let's evaluate how extravagant these options are:

In the 1997 annual report, Note (7) indicates options granted in 1997
had a fair value of $7.5 M, and those granted in 1996 a fair
value of $4.0 M. If the co. had reported this as an expense as
per FASB Statement 123, the co. would have lost a whopping $20.7 M in
1997.

Compare the operations of the co. to its financing:
During Q1 of 1998, the co. sold $9.7 M of products.
Compare this to the Q1 stock dilution of 6.3 M shares, which had a
market value of approximately $15 M, based on the stock price at
that time. That's more stock sold than products.

Here is my opinion:

This co. is not run for the benefit of the shareholders, but rather
for the enrichment of Mr. Halimi and Mr. Nowek.

The primary business of this company is not selling aluminum wheels or
electric motors for superchargers. Rather, the primary business of
Turbodyne is selling stock
. It does this to line the pockets of
Mr. Halimi and Mr. Nowek. They have accomplished this using
mechanisms that require very little disclosure to shareholders.



To: Mike C2 who wrote (1705)8/12/1998 8:51:00 AM
From: Far Side  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 3458
 
Mike C2

Great Response to John G

I'm printing it off and having it framed for my office.

Jim



To: Mike C2 who wrote (1705)8/13/1998 9:16:00 AM
From: Q.  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 3458
 
re. <<Did you listen to the online interview with Halimi?>>

Yes, I highly recommend that everyone look at the company's web page and listen to the interview. They can be found at turbodyne.com . The interview lasts about 10 minutes, and it requires the free RealPlayer, which can be downloaded from a link on the turbodyne site.

The web pages have a great focus on the stock and little apparent effort to sell the product to customers. I think that is telling. It is consistent with my opinion that the co. exists more to sell stock than to sell wheel and electric superchargers.

Everybody can make their own judgment about the interview with Mr. Halimi. Here's my opinion. I've heard lots of interviews with CEO's before, both in conference calls and one-on-one. I've never heard a CEO who had a market cap of $20 M, much less a market cap of $400 M, who created as unfavorable impression as Mr. Halimi. He was asked a number of routine questions that CEO's should all be ready to answer in a flash, and he stumbled over them. It was sad, really.

Here are examples: Asked what his company's business was, and then 'are you the leader in this field?', he answered the latter question by saying that he is the CEO of the company. Guess he didn't understand that in context 'you' obviously meant the co., not him personally. Asked whether his company reports in Canadian dollars, he answered 'no', they report in 'GAAP'. Asked why earnings haven't kept up with increased sales, he did not explain that sales are primarily generated by a mature aluminum wheel subsidiary whereas earnings are also affected by the other division which is in the development stage. In fact he made what seemed to me a conspicuous effort to avoid mentioning the wheel subsidiary at all. The only time it came up was when he was asked where the co. operated -- in answering this question he was confused for a moment whether he had a factory in Mexico City (in fact he has a maquiladora across the border where wheels are cast). To his credit, when asked whether investors should buy his stock, Mr. Halimi did describe the co. as 'speculative'. However, he also claimed the co. would do $200 M revenue in 1998 on top of the $40 M it did last year in wheels. He also claimed the co. would have huge margins. Curiously, these forward-looking statements were made without the protection of invoking the 'Safe Harbor Act', so this recording might be of interest to Mr. Lerach and his ilk.