#EUA – upcoming EGM

Getting close to the deadline for voting in the Eurasia Mining EGM. I can’t tell you how to vote, but obviously I was in favour as the Board have asked us to support their resolution.

Send a message via Secure Chat if you have it with your broker like HL or Halifax, II offer it on their website if you adjust your settings to allow Auto Actions linked to your account, ring them up if not. Appreciate X-O charge and the Freetrade ones don’t offer it as they are a no frills service.

Seen a lot of speculation over why they want the resolution to pass and there are many valid reasons it would seem. All we know for sure is that is will assist in their negotations as they work towards a binding proposal.

I just feel that regardless of the outcome I like to know I’ve done what I can to support the companies I invest in – it’s a basic right of being a shareholder and a way to have your voice heard. If you don’t vote it negates your commentary to a large extent.

Hopefully they get this over the line and can continue with their strategy to boost shareholder value which has been amazing to see over the last 18 months.

Further details available in the recent EGM rns and on link below :

https://www.eurasiamining.co.uk/investors/circulars-notices

Sample text for secure message on HL :

Subject EUA EGM

Dear Sir or Madam,

Reference the upcoming EGM for Eurasia Mining, I wish to appoint the Chairman as the proxy for my vote in favour of all motions.

Best Regards,

<insert name>

Obvously change wording if voting against. If not voting, why are you still reading this!

Settings for Halifax, (HSDL)

Anyone unable to vote via live chats but can’t see the option. (thanks to alta traako for this tip)

Go on google chrome, click the 3 dots on the top right, click settings, click privacy & security, click site settings near the bottom, click pop-ups and redirects, toggle the allowed setting to ON.

Then go back to your provider and the live chat should work.

After you submit your vote remember to turn the settings back off to stop pop ups elsewhere!

#EUA – Alta_Traako EGM rns report

The recent news about the Rosgeo JV [7], the appointment of Tamerlan Abdikeev [16], the mention of Japanese interest [16], and the EGM announcement [17] is exciting but confusing. So, this is my thought process in a somewhat chronological order along with some speculation and why I think it is important that we log in and vote yes in the EGM to support our BOD and help them increase shareholder value.


Brief overview of MT:
•Current reserves in mining permit [1] = 2.2Moz Pd equivalent [2]
•‘Target’ resources within the flanks licence [3] = 13.3Moz Pd equivalent [2]
•Exclusivity zone (not ours …yet) = 7Moz [2]
•Wider Monchegorsky district (not ours… yet) = 17.7Moz [2]
•So, total potential resources as of now 15.5Moz [2]
•Mine plan to produce 1Moz pa [4]
•EPC contract signed with Sinosteel to develop mine if needed [5]


Interesting note:
At 01/07/2020 the additional advertise incentive over and above the current 15.5Moz was “Explorationupside: Expanding mineable reserve base via acquisition of adjacent licences.” [4]. As of the 09/04/2021circular it now states “Expansion: mineable reserve base via the Rosgeo JV.” [6]. Looks like this Rosgeo JVgives them all the additional licences they wanted.


Screenshots for the lazy:

The four pits close to the MT licence:
•Are open pit and suitable for toll treatment [7]

•Incorporated into current (1Moz pa) or new (more than 1Moz pa) mine plan [7]

•Can use current infrastructure at MT [7]

•Faster to develop (get cash quicker) [11]

•Lower cost to develop [11]

•Lower cost to run [11]

•Safer to operate [11]

•Gives buyer the option to transition to underground mining [9, 10]

•Lower cut off grade so more resources economical due to lower costs [12, 13]

SPECULATION

The addition of these 4 open pits surrounding MT could constitute the 40Moz Pd that was mentioned in previous RNS [15] and in the investor presentation [2]. The RNS states that in addition to our 15Moz:

  • additional potential resources occurring within 5km of the Monchetundra Mining license andareas neighbouring the Company’s deposits of c.4Moz;
  • And additional potential resources within the wider Monchegorsk district in which theMonchetundra license is located of c.21M oz.
  • The potential for the area could be 40M oz of PGMs, but as stated above this data has not beenindependently verified by Eurasia and other than the area covered by the Company’s existinglicence the Company does not yet have any other licences in the area”.


In the image below, the green part is our current MT licence. The blue parts are Rosgeo licences. If those licences are part of the Rosgeo JV then they could contain the 4 open pits and could constitute the “wider Monchegorsk district” mentioned in the RNS.

Thanks to @R1EXG for making me the nice maps.

The additional five pits (not close to the current MT licence):

  • Are a mix of open and underground pits [7]
  • DD been completed here [7]
  • 20km of exploration and 12 thousand samples taken acros these 5 pits [7]
  • Likely need to develop a mine plan for these as not stated if this has been done
  • This could take us to > 2Moz pa. See GMF calculations for impact of this [14]

SPECULATION – This sounds suspiciously like Volchetuntra [15].

The RNS on 04/12/2019 [15] said:
“The Company would also like to highlight further regional potential specifically in the Volchetundra Project, previously operated by the Company under a Joint Venture with Anglo American from 2004 to 2011, and subsequently surrendered to focus on the Monchetundra Project. Volchetundra occurs 5 km from Monchegorsk. This high palladium deposit now becomes of interest given the recent price appreciation in palladium and the future price outlook. Palladium prices through 2011 averaged less than $600 per ounce. The Company’s database of proprietary information including 12,000m of drilling will be compiled in due course to reassess the projects future potential development. If the Company did want to explore this project again, it would have to re-apply for the relevant licences and there can be no guarantee that they will be granted.”
Now the description of the 5 pits from the 26/04/2021 RNS [7] is the following:
“A further five mostly open pit palladium, platinum, copper, nickel and cobalt assets are included in the JV, where Eurasia has carried out due diligence including c.20km of exploration drilling and some 12 thousand samples taken by Eurasia”

Volchetundra seems to fit the bill from the descriptions. It is also curious that two applications were submitted by Northern Palladium recently. One was for Volchetundra (red box in map below), the other for a zone north of Volchetuntdra (the yellow box in map below). Their application was rejected for Volchetundra but was accepted for the area north. Looks like Volchetundra was being kept for someone else. Maybe for us.

To put the value of the Rosgeo JV into context, EUA’s agreement to acquire the Monchetundra exploration licence began in April 2005 [8]. They worked their way through drilling and studies to gain mining permits [1] and only got the flanks licence in August 2020 [3]. 15 years of work (minimum). This JV offers us the opportunity to acquire the licences to 104.6Moz platinum equivalent that has already been through this entire process, including the feasibility study. Massive positive for an AIM exploration company and massive uplift in shareholder value despite what the SP says.

Combining MT with JV assets:

As per the circular released on 09/04/2021 [6] “The Rosgeo JV aims to establish a world class PGM district on Kola with the Monchetundra asset as the cornerstone project.”. The company clearly are in a great position to sell on the entire Kola districts as it is advertised as a PGM and battery metals district. The reason I think it is all being sold together as opposed to selling MT and keeping the new Rosgeo JV assets is that:

They state Monchetuntra is cornerstone of the project. It can no longer be the cornerstone of the Kola district if it is sold off, splitting up the project.

  • Company boasts strong negotiating power as the own MT. MT is the only mining licence there with anexclusivity radius. Selling it off therefore means we have no mining licence and giving away our advantage. With the additional assets we can now say that “if you want access to MT then you have to buy the lot”
  • The information tells us that the 4 open pits that can use the current (or new) MT plan and infrastructure. If we sell MT then we would need another plan for the 4 new open pit assets or pay the buyer of MT to use the infrastructure that we just sold. Do not think our BOD would enjoy that idea.
  • If we sold MT then a buyer would now be the dominant player in the region and we would be left with the JV assets but no mining licence and no guarantee that anyone would buy the remaining assets. Better say we will only part with MT if the additional assets are bought too. We win from a larger sale, Rosgeo win as they can piggyback on our sale to offload their licences and make money, the buyer wins as they get the entire region to themselves.

EGM announcement:

With all the great stuff above its easy to ask why the BOD need the power to allot shares. Surely, we can just sell the lot now. Well, there are any number of reasons but for me the simplest is usually the correct one. Simplest one being Japanese interest [16]. The BOD state that they are:

“confident that the ability to allot securities and demonstrate a capacity to develop the Kola PGM and battery metals district independently of other strategic options available to the Company benefits the Company and its Shareholders by improving Eurasia’s negotiating position.”

They also announced out of the blue that ‘Eurasia Japan’ exists, that Tamerlan Abdikeev has been doing a grand old job bringing Japanese interest in our assets, and they made a point of mentioning that Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) took a 12.95% position in Hanwa’s acquisition of Platinum Group Metals Ltd in South Africa [16]. We know that EUA do not pad out RNS announcements with fluff so there is a clear reason to mentioning JOGMEC and Hanwa. In my opinion, they will be involved in the sale and they are following the same model they used at Bushveld (i.e. Hanwa buy their position (or all of it) with JOGMEC support).


So, if the sale FSP is almost complete, how does raising cash benefit shareholders more than just selling now? A few reasons spring to mind. Some more realistic than others:

1.Rather than activate the Rosgeo earn out, we just buy the licences. See GMF78 calculations [14].
2. The additional 25% Rosgeo stake. Maybe the audit is complete, and we are going to buy the 25% so that we can sell it all. The RNS [7] states:
a.“Eurasia also has a call option to acquire 25% from Rosgeo after completion of thereserves audit under the JORC Code.”
3. There is 20% of MT out there in the ether that the BOD might have their sights on.
4. Could be anything else. One thing is for sure. The EGM is for the benefit of shareholder value. A massive turn out of PI voting in support of the BOD will speak volumes so make sure you getyour vote in. EUA 2021!

REFERENCES:
[1]https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/eurasia_mining_plc/news/rns/story/x25326x
[2]https://www.eurasiamining.co.uk/investors/presentations
[3]https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/eurasia_mining_plc/news/rns/story/w68qlkr
[4]https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/eurasia_mining_plc/news/rns/story/rmom18x
[5]https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/eurasia_mining_plc/news/rns/story/xo0v62x
[6]https://www.eurasiamining.co.uk/investors/circulars-notices
[7]https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/eurasia_mining_plc/news/rns/story/r7jz0vr
[8]https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/eurasia_mining_plc/news/rns/story/rgjkjjr
[9]https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-69320-0_19
[10]https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0377221716305586
[11]https://www.extractiveshub.org/topic/view/id/40/chapterId/283
[12]https://snowdengroup.com/optimising-open-pit-to-underground-cut-over-part-one/
[13]https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S030142071630023X
[14]https://www.powerof78.com/2021/03/28/eua-mar2021/
[15]https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/eurasia_mining_plc/news/rns/story/wk8p1ow
[16]https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/eurasia_mining_plc/news/rns/story/w9808dr
[17]https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/eurasia_mining_plc/news/rns/story/r7jqj1r

Thanks to A1ex, GMF78, K Knauf & Duggy for help compiling this information.

#NCYT guest post – Blackbird Investing

Disclaimer: I hold shares in Novacyt, and of course that makes me an optimist regarding its future. I am however not a financial advisor and as such the post below is merely my opinion and you should always do your own research and make your own decisions when it comes to investing.

11th April 2021

Stock: NCYT (Euronext: ALNOV)

Current share price: 424p

Market cap: £300m

Introduction

At this point I think every single AIM investor has heard of Novacyt, and if you’ve found this article you for sure know who they are anyway so I’ll spare the blurb about who they are, what they do etc and get right into it. The news that landed intraday on Friday regarding disputes with the DHSC sent the shares tumbling and likely left a lot of investors with a lack of sleep to start their weekend, anticipating the future and what will happen on Monday.

Now I obviously can’t predict what the share price will do, but I can determine what my own personal course of action will be and explain why – buy and hold. It’s more important than ever in rough times to take a step back, take emotion out of the equation and get back to the basics of investing which is research. I’m not planning on holding based on some “Diamond hands YOLO” strategy, and I’m not either doing it out of pride. I’m doing it out of what I believe to be an overwhelming amount of publically available numerical data showing that this company is just way way undervalued, and that the risk to reward profile has just got a whole lot better with this drop, not worse as some believe.

For the purpose of this article, I will not be speculating on the DHSC news and trying to analyse the words to come to a speculative conculsion, I will be looking at the current and future situation from a numbers perspective.

Fundamentals

Valuing companies on AIM is a science as accurate as crystal ball gazing, and more often than not the fundamentals of a Company seem to account for at most 5% of the valuation equation, with the remaining 95% being a mixture of so called “sentiment”, whether certain “news” outlets have posted an article (usually a strong buy signal, even if the article usually says “short”) and just plain coin flipping.

But we have to start somewhere and that somewhere is the balance sheet, especially I think with companies that are at a certain stage of maturity. And by maturity, I mean companies that are actually making money to even actually have a balance sheet worth looking at.

So quick look back to 2020. These are the unaudited numbers Novacyt ended the year with:

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/NCYT/full-year-2020-trading-update/14845008

Now hopefully, like me you’re already thinking “whoa whoa whoa, you’re telling me this company had £277m revenue and are valued at only £300m?!”. Crazy I know.

These numbers don’t even tell the full story though of the growth of the company through the year. Let’s instead look at the split between H1 & H2 numbers:

*This is the growth in cash in H2 and does not factor in e.g cash spent on the acquisition of IT-IS

So H2 provided over 3 times the amount of each figure than H1, huge growth. Now I know what the pessimists are thinking, “yeah but that was peak covid, since Christmas its all gone down hill and the company won’t make any money anymore!”

Well luckily the main point of the RNS yesterday was to actually be a Quarterly trading update which many seem to have missed, so we now have more data to analyse and see just how bad the “drop” in revenues is. Unaudited results for Q1 2021 have come in at £72.6m. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a Q3 2020 update so we don’t know the exact split of the revenues in H2 but splitting it down the middle, and assuming ~75% of H1 revenues came in Q2 (after the covid test hit markets) the picture of the last 5 quarters is as follows:

So looking at just the last 4 quarters to create a full year of pandemic related revenue (Q2 2020 to Q1 2021), that’ll I henceforth refer to as my “Interim FY” – that’s £333.8m of revenue. And the company MCap is 10% below that.

As I said, AIM company valuations are completely disjointed from the reality of fundamentals but luckily for me, this is usually observed more in the short term, with the time eventually filtering out what’s what, and what I as an investor try to take advantage of.

P/E Ratio  EV/EBITDA

A lot of the chat on various forums relating to NCYT valuation is its very low Price to earnings ratio, or the “P/E” Ratio. At this stage I’m not a huge fan of using that metric as it doesn’t take into account the absolutely huge pile of cash the company is sitting on. And it is by all measures, a huge pile of cash.

For that reason, I prefer to use the Enterprise Value/EBITDA as the calculation for enterprise value takes into account cash.

Enterprise value = Market Cap + Debts – Cash

So as we now have Q1 revenues I will keep using my special “Interim FY” in the calculations rather than 2020 FY. MCap at the time of writing is:

70,626,048 * £4.24 = £299.4m

Let’s call it an even £300m shall we?

Debts = £0, easy (however, debt ≠ always bad especially if its productive and at low interest. I personally feel NCYT should go big or go home with debt for bigger acquisitions)

To get the cash for my “interim FY” we need to do a little maths on the cash position growth from the £91.8m in Q1 2020. Starting off, we can calculate that EBITDA ratio to revenue for FY2020 was 67.5%, and in the 2020 Trading update we got the following line:


Figure 1 – quote from RNS 29/01/21

So Revenue in Q1 2021 was £72.6m, which becomes and EBITDA of £49m, which in turn becomes £39.2m pure cash added to the already massive pile.

Side note, that’s nearly half a million pounds in PURE CASH added to Novacyts bank account EVERY DAY! It’s an important observation that has to be made to understand the value of this company moving forward despite opinions on revenue direction, so important in fact I’m going to underline in, put it in bold and in font larger:

Due to the upfront cost of production ramp up and IT-IS acquisition being out of the way, the conversion of revenue to free cash flow is significantly higher than in 2020.

Don’t believe me? Just look at the numbers – £91.8m cash for all of 2020 and estimates are the company got nearly half that in the first quarter alone despite reduce quarterly revenue.

Sorry, bit of a side track from the EV/EBITDA calcs again but getting back to it we get cash = £91.8m + £39.2m = £131m

So baking it all together:

Enterprise Value = £300m +£0 – £131m = £169m

That is, again in my opinion, crazy insane low.

EBITDA

EBITDA is a quick one, in 2020 EBITDA conversion was 67.5% and we’re working on a revenue of £333.8m for the “Interim FY”:

EBITDA = £333.8m x 0.675 = £225.3m

Result

So smashing these two figures together to get a ratio we get 0.75

As a number on its own, this doesn’t mean much at all, is it high? Low?. We need to compare to other companies and sector averages. Doing some good old googling:

  • Investopedia says in January 2020, the average EV/EBITDA ratio of the S&P500 was 14.2
  • Roche Holding = 11.28 (Source: gurufocus.com)
  • Thermo Fisher = 19.76 (Source: gurufocus.com)
  • Perkin Elmer = 13.94 (Source: gurufocus.com)

No the decimal is not in the wrong place.

Averaging the numbers of these 3 big players gives 15. This means at this current level of revenue, EBITDA, and cash and doing the maths in reverse, for Novacyt to also have a EV/EBITDA ratio of 15 it would have to have a MCap of £3.51 BILLION

That’s a share price of £49.69.

Ok of course that’s even in my bullish opinion a bit high of a target though as it’s especially a bit unfair to compare NCYT to huge players with multiple revenue streams, so lets instead use what is considered by Investopedia a “healthy” number of 10. This would require a share price of £33.75

What about the future

Now I can imagine the “derampers” if they were to read this (they’re probably not) would at this point scream at their monitors and furiously type on LSE “whoa who is this idiot! That’s a multibagger impossible! Covid is over! There’s no revenue left! DHSC have gone ! LFTs fo’ lyfe!!” yada yada yada.

And you know what? They have a point to a degree, who would have though. Its always good to evaluate both sides of the coin. What I mean is all this maths has been based on what is now historical returns and as the saying goes, past performance is no guarantee of future results. Who am I kidding, you all know that you’re all invested on AIM.

So we need to redo the maths to give us a range of potential options on assumptions of future revenue. So lets change some factors and recalculate.

We know from the previous RNS that of the £72.6m revenue in Q1 2021, 50% of it was DHSC. So lets assume that this is no longer applicable moving forward. That gives us a potential forward looking quarterly revenue figure in this “quieter” Covid period (in the UK at least, RoW is a different story) from private and international sales of £36.3m from private and international sales.

From here one can take several approaches, we either assume this number will:

  1. Go up quarter by quarter as the company are growing sales abroad and the private PCR sector is set to boom for international travel over summer
  2. Drop quarter by quarter as “covid goes away”
  3. Assume it will largely on average stay flat for the next year as testing requirements drop over summer but pick up again next winter

Rather than guess, let’s make a range then so we cover all bases. For the best-case scenario, I will assume Q2 2021 will have bang on £36.3m revenue which then grows by 25% quarter on quarter for the next year. For the worst-case scenario, I will start with £36.3m in Q2 and then drop the revenue 15% quarter on quarter. Why have I selected different percentages? Because we have already slashed the known revenue by 50% we are already in a predominantly bullish case, and because my personal opinion is that the former is more likely. When you do you own calculations, I urge you to use the figures you believe to be most likely. You will do your own calculations yes?

Please note, all these calcs assume that the Novacyt Group is a dragon sitting on a pile of gold, and refuses to spend any of the cash they currently have in favour of sitting on it, and also in each quarter the new cash is merely added to the pile (this changes the Enterprise value remember).

Here’s a little table outlining the “Interim FY 21 results” which would be Q2 2021 to Q1 2022. I’ve formatted such that you can try and follow along the calculations, and I’ve even also at the end shown different bullish/bearish multiples of EV/EBITDA ratio targets as this is also an unknown based on forward looking market opinion.

Again, we are trying to figure out a range of options, not a “what is it worth to the penny”.

Highlighted in yellow is the mid EV case calculated for a “healthy” company. And then averaging the bullish and the bearish cases gives a finger in the air of ~£18.50

This table shows me that potentially even in the bearish of the bearish cases, that is with a low EV/EBITDA ratio and assuming our revenue gets slashed by 50% by Q2 and drops continuously – the company is still perhaps 50% undervalued.

Keep in mind with this table that even the bullish cases slash the revenue by 50% from next quarter. This also even fits the narrative that the company outlines in the RNS that “overall 2021 revenues may be lower than market expectations”. This because he market is perhaps expecting more than the £333 over the past 12 months, and even the bullish case above only therefore assumes a £209m revenue of the next 12 months.

Another factor to keep in mind – the Novacyt Group is not a dragon. By this I mean they won’t forever be sitting on this pile of cash doing nothing, they have already said they are looking at bolt on acquisitions for the group with although will affect the companies Enterprise Value in the equations, will likely have a bigger effect on the EBITDA line. These acquisitions will also be such that they ensure this level of EBITDA remains long after Covid is gone.

Of course, with the share price being so disjointed from my calculations I have to ask myself if I have plugged in something horribly wrong. I’ll let you make your own minds up but I personally think no, as the amount I would have to tweak the input data such as revenue drop, to get to “yeah £4 is fair value” just doesn’t make sense to me.

Others may of course dispute this, and will say “your EV/EBITDA should be 2 and your quarter on quarter drop in revenue should be 40%”. But there is no strong evidence in my opinion to support that case but always happy to hear the other side of the coin. At the end of the day, undervalued companies do exist and the market isn’t always right, just look at Eurasia Mining that sat well below a penny per share despite public information being available on the resource they were sitting on.

Some Supporting data for the Bullish case

So obviously, of the options in the table I lean to the bullish case. I don’t however assume we will get to EV/EBITDA ratio of 15, and I do think until the company proves they can maintain revenues post Covid through acquisitions etc that we will be on the lower end of the range perhaps ~6-7, but I also don’t believe revenues will halve in Q2 and I think they will stay higher than the market seems to be assuming they will be without the DHSC:

Private testing

It is obvious that in the UK moving forward the cost of PCR tests seems to be set to be footed by the consumer, and not the government. This kind of makes sense as those using PCR tests will primarily be being those going on nice holidays and potentially bringing back Covid, so understandable to me that the taxpayer shouldn’t foot this bill. Also the government has been abundantly clear that the variant concern means PCR has to be used to be better safe than sorry as LFTs risk letting through false negatives. I agree also that in this case it is preferable to have false positives than false negatives.

Also, as the DHSC had clauses in their contract they had to be offered the lowest price of anyone on Primerdesign covid tests, all private tests will likely have higher margins.

Here is a link to the list of providers approved for the much stricter on quality “Day 2 and day 8” PCR test required for all arrivals. You will see the list has been updated to also include which lab each supplier uses.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/providers-of-day-2-and-day-8-coronavirus-testing-for-international-arrivals

It quickly becomes clear that very few specific labs are actually approved for use as all these suppliers end up sending tests to the same handful of labs, most notably:

  • Nationwide Pathology
  • Biograd
  • 20/30 labs
  • Oncologica
  • Nonacus
  • Alphabiolabs

It appears Nationwide Pathology, Biograd and 20/30 labs all use Primerdesign tests. This means that currently at least 25 of the 108 providers use Primerdesign. That is a pretty big market share in my opinion. I draw this conclusion from these sources:

Nationwide Pathology UKAS accreditation:

20/30 labs website:

Biograd employee post on Linkedin (posted by a Twitter user):

There are also many other private clinics that have been found by other investors to be using Primerdeisgn tests for other private testing applications, here is just a few I found putting nearly zero effort into Google:

Katalyst Labs

https://katalystlaboratories.com/partners

Fit2Fly

https://fit2flytest.com/

Rightangled

https://www.rightangled.co/pages/science

At the time of writing, other investors on twitter have uncovered many many more 3rd party suppliers.

International testing

The UK seems to be on top of cases and vaccinations for now, but that does not mean the world is Covid free. There is a big world outside the UK borders, and looking at the WHO covid meter, the second wave is unfortunately in full swing globally:

Furthermore, the company have a new Chief Commercial Officer who is based in South America. You don’t hire people on the other side of the globe in such a senior position to sell to the NHS:

Public Testing

Yes I’m actually going to dip my toe in here despite the latest news. I personally don’t believe that the government can have sufficient quantities Covid-19 PCR tests to last till 2022.

In Q4, 28 million PCR tests were conducted by the UK government. In Q1, this hadn’t shrunk as people though despite no longer being in the peak, but a higher overall daily average meant that 29 million tests were conducted. Here is a graph I have compiled from data available at https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/testing. As you can see PCR testing is still very high in the UK and this could grow as the country now relaxes measures. Keep in mind, its not just those with symptoms that need to PCR test but also people like care home staff and patients in hospital for procedures and operations of which there is sure to be a huge back log.

A £35m order in Q1 is enough to buy around 3.5 million tests. At this rate of testing, that lasts 2 weeks. Of course, there are more suppliers but I believe Novacyt has held more than a 4% market share, which is what they would hold for 3.5m tests to last 365 days. My own observation is that the RNS only mentions they have bought enough PROmate, no word of what their potential plans are for SNPsig, or Pathflow.

NGOs & Other Governments

We have already seen orders from NGOs and the company have said in statements other governments also buy our products. No more needs to even be said.

M&A

I think this angle needs its own article as there is a lot of assumptions and cross referencing to look at as well as determining the case for both buyers and seller etc, but just a couple of days ago Hologic acquired Mobidiag for 18 times their revenue. Take that multiple, scroll up, and multiply it by our revenues and you;ve got one more reason I’m invested. The probability is very low, but it adds to the overall positive Expected Value I believe holding NCYT shares has from this level.

https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2021/04/08/hologic-to-acquire-finnish-pcr-test-maker-for-795.html

Other

I haven’t even mentioned the ties with Astra Zeneca, the SNPsig assay, the LFTs that have been released and are currently in development. They’ll also have to wait till another day, but they all do add value.

Conclusion

If you’ve made it this far, well done – this ended up a lot longer than I anticipated! As shown it is my opinion that Novacyt is a significantly undervalued company even if the DHSC never orders a single additional test and even if revenues halve for the upcoming year. A situation I already find highly unlikely to materialise as people were already claiming the company would have nothing in Q1 but ended up with £72.6m in revenue.

I strongly advise people to do their own calculations on all their holdings using their own judgement on the range of eventualities that need to be accounted for. Also try and think of situations that you would otherwise not expect, take emotion out of the equation. I have some personal more specific targets on the share price at different time frames (all which remain flexible as new information is uncovered and revealed) but in the interest of “DYOR” I will not be giving these out to avoid people skim reading and then hurling abuse down the line if things go tits up. Investing is a game of probability, and probability goes both ways. My opinion at this stage though is the share is at the very least a hold, but with significant upside on the buy – hence why my holding is very likely to increase on Monday. And as new news comes out, I can update my table above e.g plugging in the true Q2 results when they arrive.

Till next time, and thanks for letting me write a guest post!

Blackbird Investing

#EUA – PGM and the LPPM

** This post will be added to as more of the market is found.

So where do all the millions of ounces that get mined every year end up? Long story short, the automotive sector dominates. But who are the main players, the secondary traders and refiners. Whilst I believe a miner is most likely to buy Eurasia Mining, it is almost a certainty the buyer will be involved in the sector already. So consider this a definitive list of options!

A good place to start is The London Platinum & Palladium Market – with

32 Platinum Refiners

28 Palladium Refiners

15 Full Members

42 Associate Members

45 Affiliates

Now there is some crossover between lists, so the following is a brief summary of who is who.

CountryCompanyMembership
GermanyC Hafner GmbHGood Delivery
Heraeus Metals Germany GmbHFull
Saxonia Edelmetalle Good Delivery
UKJohnson Matthey Good Delivery
Anglo American PlatinumAssociate
IndiaHindustan Platinum Pvt. Ltd Good Delivery
ItalyChimet SpA Good Delivery
JapanAida Chemical Industries Good Delivery
Asaha Pretec Corp Good Delivery
Furuya Metal Co Good Delivery
Hanwa Company Limited Affiliate
Honda Trading Affiliate
Ishifuku Metal Industry Good Delivery
Materials Eco-Refining Co Good Delivery
Matsuda Sangyo Co Good Delivery
Mitsubishi MaterialsAffiliate
Nihon Material Co Good Delivery
Sumitomo Corporation Associate
Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K.Full
Tokuriki Honten Co Good Delivery
Toyota Tsusho Affiliate
KoreaHeesung PM Tech Corp Good Delivery
RussiaJoint Stock Company (Gulidov Krasnoyarsk) Good Delivery
Norilsk Nickelnon member
Prioksky Plant Good Delivery
South AfricaHeraeus South Africa (Pty) Ltd Good Delivery
Impala Platinum Ltd Good Delivery
Rustenburg Platinum Mines Ltd Good Delivery
Sibanye-StillwaterAssociate
Sylvania Platinum Limited Affiliate
SwitzerlandArgor-Heraeus SA Good Delivery
Metalor Technologies SAFull
PAMP SAFull
Valcambi SAFull
TaiwanSolar Applied Materials Technology Corp Good Delivery
USABASF (Catalysts Division)Full
Johnson Matthey IncFull
Sabin Metal CorporationAssociate
Heraeus Precious Metals North America LLC Good Delivery
Market MakersGoldman SachsFull
HSBC Bank USAFull
ICBC Standard Bank PLCFull
JP Morgan Chase BankFull
Standard Chartered BankFull
Bank of Nova ScotiaFull
Toronto-Dominion BankFull
UBS AGFull
need researchAlliance Industries LtdAssociate
Amalgamated Metal Trading Limited Associate
Baird & Co LtdAssociate
Cookson Precious MetalsAssociate
CRI / Criterion Catalyst Company LtdAssociate
Metals Trade Overseas AGAssociate
Mitsubishi Corporation International (Europe) Plc Associate
Mitsui & Co Ltd Associate
Natixis Associate
SCMI LtdAssociate
Sharps PixleyAssociate
Associate
Triland Metals LtdAssociate
Umicore AG & Co KGAssociate
UOP CH SarlAssociate
UOP LtdAssociate
Avon Speciality MetalsAffiliate
Colonial Metals Affiliate
Comdaq MetalsAffiliate
DD&Co Limited
Dillon Gage Metals
Eiger Trading Advisors Ltd.
G4S Cash Solutions UK Ltd.
G4S International Logistics (UK) Limited
Gemini Industries Inc.
Gerrards (Precious Metals) Ltd.
GFI Securities Limited
ICAP Securities Limited
Inspectorate International Ltd.
Ivanhoe Mines SA
Krastsvetmet
Loomis International (UK) Ltd
Malca-Amit Commodities Ltd.
Mastermelt Ltd.
Metals Focus Limited
Ospraie Management, LLC
Platinum Group Metals Ltd.
Richmond Commodities Limited
Sojitz Corporation
Techemet Metal Trading LLC
Tharisa Plc
Tokuriki Honten Co. Ltd
Tullett Prebon (Europe) Limited
Western Digital Corporation
Wogen Resources Ltd.
World Platinum Investment Council
Affiliates
Group RevenueCompanyFinancial Info
$69.7bnBASFFrom 2020 Annual Report – EUR 59.1bn. German giant of industry, PGM in Catalysts division with American HQ
$60.6bnToyota Tsusho6.69 trillion yen (2019 annual report). This is the trading division of Toyota.
$48.1bnSumitomoFrom 2019 Annual Reports (2020 due in May). A true giant on the global stage. $12.5bn from metal products and $10bn from mineral resources.
$32.3bnAnglo AmericanFrom 2020 Annual Reports. $8.4bn from PGM mining
$26.4bnHeraeusIn the 2019 financial year, Heraeus generated revenues of €22.4 billion with approximately 14,900 employees in 40 countries. Heraeus is now one of the top 10 family-owned companies in Germany and holds a leading position in its global markets.
$15.5bnNorilsk Nickel2020 Consolidated revenue increased 15% y-o-y to $15.5bn owing to higher prices of palladium and rhodium as well as the scheduled ramp-up of Bystrinsky project; EBITDA decreased 3% y-o-y to $7.7bn.
Largest Palladium miner in world and neighbour to Eurasia site at Monchetundra.
$15.4bnHanwa1.7 trillion Yen (2021 estimates) Hanwa is a trading company with operations spanning non-ferrous metals, metals and alloys, food, petroleum and chemicals, machinery, lumber and many other business sectors. The company has solid positions in all of these businesses.
$13.2bnMitsubishi Materials1.46 trillion yen (2021 estimates), precious metals division, invests in copper mines overseas, urban mining (recycling)
$9.06bnHonda Trading Trading arm of Honda, responsible for over 6% of transactions in PGM each year (from their website)
$7.74bnSibanye StillwaterNet profit of $1.78 billion in 2020, the highest for any year since it was formed in 2013, revenue increased to $7.74 billion from $5.04 billion.
$5.83bnJohnson MattheyFrom 2020 Annual Report, £539m profit, £4.2bn sales (exc precious metals trading)
$1.91bnMatsuda Sangyo MATSUDA SANGYO CO.,LTD. is located in SHINJUKU-KU, TOKYO, Japan and is part of the Steel Service Centers & Other Metal Wholesalers Industry. MATSUDA SANGYO CO.,LTD. has 1,436 total employees across all of its locations and generates $1.91 billion in sales (USD). There are 52 companies in the MATSUDA SANGYO CO.,LTD. corporate family. (DNB report)
$733mSaxonia SAXONIA Holding GmbH has 710 total employees across all of its locations and generates $732.96 million in sales (USD). There are 17 companies in the SAXONIA Holding GmbH corporate family. (DNB report)
$114mSylvania PlatinumFrom 2020 Annual Report, EBIDTA $69.6m
$68mC HafnerC. Hafner GmbH + Co. KG is located in Wimsheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany and is part of the Primary Metals Manufacturing Industry. C. Hafner GmbH + Co. KG has 198 employees at this location and generates $68.20 million in sales (USD). There are 7 companies in the C. Hafner GmbH + Co. KG corporate family.

Think of it as a handy port of call for background research. Some companies are good enough to list some details on their website, such as Honda Trading involved in over 6% of PGM volume annually. Only an affiliate member so will need to go through the full list to work out how many other major players are hiding in plain view!

from hondatrading website

Finally, the Matthey report is an excellent industry leading annual report. A must read for anyone investing in the PGM sector.

Key highlights (from Matthey report) 

Platinum 2020
  • The platinum market remained in deficit in 2020, with sharply lower supplies, and strong investment demand.
  • Autocatalyst consumption plunged by 22%, with steep falls in European diesel car production.
  • Industrial purchasing was more resilient, especially in China, where petrochemical and glass expansions went ahead.
  • Chinese jewellery demand slumped to a 20-year low, although record gold prices encouraged some retailers to stock more platinum.
  • Japan saw heavy bar purchasing in the first half of 2020, while ETF investment turned strongly positive in the second half.
  • Primary platinum supplies shrank by 20%, due to processing outages and pandemic-related disruption in South Africa.
  • Auto recycling contracted sharply on weak diesel scrap volumes in Europe and processing capacity constraints.
Palladium 2020
  • The palladium market remained in significant deficit, driving the price to all-time highs in early 2020.
  • A plunge in vehicle output was partly offset by higher palladium loadings on gasoline vehicles.
  • Consumption in chemical catalysts remained buoyant, with strong investment in new plants in China.
  • Other industrial demand fell sharply, due to COVID-related disruption and price-driven thrifting.
  • Investment demand remained negative, with further redemption of palladium ETFs.
  • Primary supplies were hit by mine closures and processing outages, while autocatalyst recycling also slowed.
Rhodium 2020
  • The rhodium market moved deeper into deficit as supplies dropped faster than demand.
  • With tighter emissions limits boosting catalyst loadings, auto demand fell by less than 10%.
  • Purchases by glass companies plunged, as high prices stimulated thrifting.
  • Primary supplies contracted sharply due to mine disruption and processing outages in South Africa.
  • The rhodium price surged to an all-time record of $17,000 in December 2020.
Outlook for 2021, all pgm
  • Pgm supply and demand are forecast to bounce back in a V-shaped recovery in 2021.
  • Autocatalyst demand will recover strongly, on higher car output and stricter emissions limits for trucks in China.
  • Industrial consumption will remain robust, with pgm use in chemicals set to reach an all-time high.

https://catalysts.basf.com/industries/precious-and-base-metals