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Archive for May, 2009

ChinaSecurities.com Small-Cap Company Feature: Suntech Power Holdings

Posted by AGORACOM at 10:00 AM on Friday, May 29th, 2009

As many of you know, we are very bullish on the long-term future of Chinese small cap and mid cap companies for two reasons:

1] The obvious reason – China is the fastest growing economy on the planet and nothing is going to slow down its ascent over the next 50 years and beyond. Investing in growth companies there just makes too much sense.

2] Great Results and Valuations – Many Small Cap Chinese Companies are listing in the US (OTCBB, NYSE Alternext and NASDAQ) with great financial results. Unlike many dubious US Small Cap Companies, Chinese Companies don’t seem to believe in losing money or failing to execute in a business plan. As such, 7-digit revenues and profits are very common.

From a valuation point of view, many Chinese companies became a victim of their own success in Q4 2008 and Q1 2009. Why? When the world needed to start liquidating, one of the first places they looked were China where most investors had significant gains to sell into. This resulted in the proverbial baby being thrown out with the bathwater and some great valuations.

TODAY’S FEATURED COMPANY

Suntech Power Holdings Co (NYSE:STP)

Stp

Suntech Power Holdings is the world’s leading solar energy company as measured by production output of crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) modules. Suntech designs, develops, manufactures, and markets premium-quality, high-output, cost-effective and environmentally friendly solar products for electric power applications in the residential, commercial, industrial, and public utility sectors.

On May 28th 2009, announced that its follow-on public offering of 23,000,000 American Depositary Shares (‘ADSs’), each representing one ordinary share of the Company, was succesfully closed. The Company received aggregate net proceeds of approximately $277 million, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by the Company.

Read Full Press Release

China Stocks TV Segment

MY COMMENTS:

As always, this is my view in a snapshot. It is intended to give you a running start into your research. Now, you have to do your own due diligence to make sure the valuation is not impaired by other factors including balance sheet items, lawsuits or any other negative events.

If you have any comments, I’d love to see them below.

YOUR RESEARCH STARTING POINTS FOR CHINESE SMALL CAP AND MID CAP COMPANIES

We’ve provided investors with two great starting points to research great Chinese small cap and mid cap companies.

1. ChinaSecurities.com – ChinaSecurities.com tracks 250 of the best small cap and mid cap companies trading on North American exchanges. It provides you with the best of the best in two ways. First, the front page lists the best news of the day coming out of the space. It does so by giving you a text view of the best press releases by industry and via Chinese Stocks TV, a 5-minute broadcast every morning just after the open. Chinse Stocks TV is archived, so you can catch up on shows you missed.

Second, if you want to research each of the 250 companies to find candidates for your portfolio, it has a very intuitive directory that lets you quickly review each company on the master list, or parse it out by industry and exchange if you have a particular sector of interest. Cool stuff.

2. Right here on AGORACOM, you can refer to our China category for other featured Chinese Small-Cap Companies. As always, we will disclose any IR relationship with any public company. Given the sheer number of great Chinese Small-Cap Companies out there, you can expect us NOT to have an IR relationship with most of these companies.

Regards,
George

AGORACOM Content On New GlobeInvestor.com

Posted by AGORACOM at 9:41 AM on Friday, May 29th, 2009

Good morning to you all.  As many of you know, GlobeInvestor.com has undergone a major redesign and is in the midst of their transition.  We first announced our content partnership with GlobeInvestor.com back in July of 2008 and now happy to announce that:

  • Our content has been migrated to the new site
  • Our content partnership is expanding

First, to have a look at our migrated content, have a look at the Energy and Resources section of Globe.  You can see our vertical content brick in the right hand margin.  I’ve also included an image of it below:

Second, our content partnership is expanding as you can expect to see a couple of more such content bricks in the coming days.  I’ll update you as they go live.

SIGNIFICANCE TO THE SMALL-CAP INDUSTRY

This development is significant to both our clients and the small-cap industry in general.  Why? GlobeInvestor.com and ReportOnBusiness.com are the online business and investing arm of the Globe & Mail, Canada’s national newspaper.  This is the Wall Street Journal of Canada.  It is where all investors, both retail and institutional, go to find investment ideas. How many investors?  3rd party traffic services say the number is approximately 950,000 unique visitors per month, though we’ve heard the number is bigger.

Add this all up and you have the small-cap industry coming out of the shadows and into the mainstream.  The web now provides quality small-caps and mid-caps with a chance to finally be judged on meritocracy, while pushing scam stocks further into oblivion.  This represents a major shift in market efficiency, which was once significantly out of balance by choosing to simply ignore all emerging companies.

Good news for investors.  Good news for quality companies.  Good news for content providers such as GlobeInvestor.com.  Win-Win-Win.

Regards,
George

AGORACOM Financial News TV – Breaking Small-Cap And Micro-Cap Financial News At The Open (May 29/09)

Posted by AGORACOM at 9:00 AM on Friday, May 29th, 2009

Good morning to you all. Please find enclosed a summary of the breaking small-cap and micro-cap financial news we highlighted on our TV show this morning. It’s May 29 and we’ve found 3 great press releases and Stock Halts to report on at the open. Another great day for small-cap and micro-cap financial news.

If you are new to the show, it is a daily, fast-paced, edgy report that we put out at or before the open everyday that strictly reports on the best small cap and micro cap news of the day in 3-5 minutes. You can watch AGORACOM TV right from our home page .

If you miss an episode or want to search for your company in our archive, you can visit our industry leading Small-Cap Podcast site at any time:

If you want to subscribe to our Small-Cap RSS Feed or download our podcast everyday via iTunes, or your favourite podcatcher, just use the following:

As always, don’t forget to visit the AGORACOM Marketplace where we list compelling summaries for over 85 great small-cap and micro-cap companies that you can sort by exchange and industry to suit your personal investing tastes.

TODAY’S SMALL-CAP AND MICRO-CAP BREAKING FINANCIAL NEWS BEFORE THE OPEN

Our daily show focuses on content over form so that you can get profitable information into your hands as fast as possible. The same holds true for these entries in our small-cap, micro-cap news blog, where I simply cut and paste my TV notes for your benefit, without any editing, so don’t give me a hard time!

Now, onto our show notes for the day.

** Denotes an AGORACOM Client. AGORACOM TV Only Reports News From AGORACOM Clients That Meets The Same Newsworthy Threshold Of All Other Press Releases.

  • Suntech Power Holdings Ltd – NYSE:STP $15.44
  • Theralase Technologies Inc – TSX-Venture:TLT $0.275
  • Automated Benefits Corp – TSX-Venture:AUT $0.17

AGORACOM 100 Commercial Takes Online Investor Relations Results To Biz TV Audience

Posted by AGORACOM at 7:07 PM on Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Readers of my blog know that I often subscribe to the concept of PYMWYMI Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is. Back in January we launched the AGORACOM 100, a limited marketplace of exceptional small and mid-cap companies that investors could use as their research starting point.  We felt so strongly about it that we reached out beyond online marketing and announced the launch on TV.

The concept behind the AGORACOM 100 is simple – Quality Over Quantity.  There are just too many small and mid-cap companies that do not deserve to be public, many of whom engage in nothing more but paper selling pump .and dump schemes.  Somebody had to create the filter.  Somebody had to start the process of separating the wheat from the chaff.  We stepped up.  There is a lot of work to do – but the process has begun.

5 months later, I’m proud to announce that we’ve recorded our second commercial.  It will begin airing in both the US (CNBC, Bloomberg) and Canada (BNN) on June 1.

The bottom line is that investors have embraced online investor relations.  They prefer companies that are transparent and open enough to make themselves accessible 24/7 via electronic shareholder forums in which they respond to questions posted for everyone to see.  Why wouldn’t they?  In this day and age where investors have lost confidence in blue chip stocks, openness and transparency is pretty much a requirement.

Kindly have a look and let me know what you think:

UPDATE: Sorry Folks. The online version is not available right now.  Check back shortly.

Regards,
George

Futuremedia (FMDAY: PINK) Eliminates Over 2M GBP From it’s Balance Sheet via CVA

Posted by AGORACOM at 11:13 AM on Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Futuremedia (FMDAY: PINK) Eliminates Over 2M GBP From it’s Balance Sheet via CVA (Company Voluntary Arrangement)

Futuremedia Highlights

During this period of global market turmoil, the quality of a company’s management can be determined by how well it handles its balance sheet and expenses.  Our client, Futuremedia, has exhibited some great talent over the past 6 months via the following:

The sale of FM Learning division (Oct ’08) and the successful completion of the Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) on April 7th have considerably strengthened the company’s balance sheet. The CVA eliminated £2.2 million of unsecured debt from the balance sheet and established a 5 year payout plan for the remaining £750k of unsecured legacy debt.

After the first 6 months of fiscal 2009

  • Revenues are up 16% compared to the prior year period.
  • Audited figures for Spice division for the full fiscal year 2008 achieved ₤7.35 million in revenue.
  • Gross margin was 42% and Spice division was EBITDA positive by £21k for the full year.
  • Corporate operating overhead was reduced in 2008 full fiscal year by 46% compared to the prior-year period. In monetary terms, corporate overhead was reduced by over £1.58 million for the full fiscal year.

Recent & Upcoming Events

The company recently represented three clients at MIPIM (the world’s premier real-estate summit and four clients (NBC Universal, CBS Paramount, Al Jazeera, and the Discovery Network) at MIPTV. Looking ahead, the company will support clients at the Cannes Film Festival as well as the largest show and event of the year; the Lions International Advertising Festival.

What is a CVA and how does it affect shareholders?

After Futuremedia received several queries from North American shareholders all asking the same thing, I figured it would be a good idea to explain how exactly a CVA (Company Voluntary Arrangement) works.

But first, a little history; the CVA has been in UK law since 1986. In London alone, over 12,000 companies have taken advantage of this rescue option. In short, qualifying companies that are struggling with cash flow or excessive legacy debts can negotiate a deal with all its creditors at once that allows the company to repay some of its legacy debt out of future profits over an agreed upon period of time. The catch is that the company must demonstrate to the UK courts that it has a viable business plan going forward. Additionally, it may not pay out dividends during the CVA period and must receive approval from 75% of the unsecured creditors and 50% of the company shareholders. Speaking of shareholders, it is important to note that the shareholders’ ownership stake is in no way affected by a CVA. Also, the company’s directors remain in control and the company does not go into liquidation. It is strictly a deal between a company and its creditors.

Click here to view full press release

Futuremedia IR Hub

Futuremedia Profile

Congrats to our friend George O’Leary and their entire team. Time to get this news out into the marketplace.

Regards,
George

AGORACOM Financial News TV – Breaking Small-Cap And Micro-Cap Financial News At The Open (May 28/09)

Posted by AGORACOM at 9:00 AM on Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Good morning to you all. Please find enclosed a summary of the breaking small-cap and micro-cap financial news we highlighted on our TV show this morning. It’s May 28 and we’ve found 1 great press releases and Stock Halts to report on at the open. Another great day for small-cap and micro-cap financial news.

If you are new to the show, it is a daily, fast-paced, edgy report that we put out at or before the open everyday that strictly reports on the best small cap and micro cap news of the day in 3-5 minutes. You can watch AGORACOM TV right from our home page .

If you miss an episode or want to search for your company in our archive, you can visit our industry leading Small-Cap Podcast site at any time:

If you want to subscribe to our Small-Cap RSS Feed or download our podcast everyday via iTunes, or your favourite podcatcher, just use the following:

As always, don’t forget to visit the AGORACOM Marketplace where we list compelling summaries for over 85 great small-cap and micro-cap companies that you can sort by exchange and industry to suit your personal investing tastes.

TODAY’S SMALL-CAP AND MICRO-CAP BREAKING FINANCIAL NEWS BEFORE THE OPEN

Our daily show focuses on content over form so that you can get profitable information into your hands as fast as possible. The same holds true for these entries in our small-cap, micro-cap news blog, where I simply cut and paste my TV notes for your benefit, without any editing, so don’t give me a hard time!

Now, onto our show notes for the day.

** Denotes an AGORACOM Client. AGORACOM TV Only Reports News From AGORACOM Clients That Meets The Same Newsworthy Threshold Of All Other Press Releases.

  • San Gold Corporation – TSX-Venture:SGR $0.12

ChinaSecurities.com Small-Cap Company Feature: HLS Systems International, Ltd.

Posted by AGORACOM at 2:03 PM on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

As many of you know, we are very bullish on the long-term future of Chinese small cap and mid cap companies for two reasons:

1] The obvious reason – China is the fastest growing economy on the planet and nothing is going to slow down its ascent over the next 50 years and beyond. Investing in growth companies there just makes too much sense.

2] Great Results and Valuations – Many Small Cap Chinese Companies are listing in the US (OTCBB, NYSE Alternext and NASDAQ) with great financial results. Unlike many dubious US Small Cap Companies, Chinese Companies don’t seem to believe in losing money or failing to execute in a business plan. As such, 7-digit revenues and profits are very common.

From a valuation point of view, many Chinese companies became a victim of their own success in Q4 2008 and Q1 2009. Why? When the world needed to start liquidating, one of the first places they looked were China where most investors had significant gains to sell into. This resulted in the proverbial baby being thrown out with the bathwater and some great valuations.

TODAY’S FEATURED COMPANY

Holi

HLS Systems International Limited engages in the research, development, production, sale, and distribution of industrial automation and control systems for the industrial, rail, and nuclear power sectors in the People’s Republic of China.

On May 26th, the Company announced its unaudited financial results for its fiscal third quarter ended March 31, 2009

Check out the full year results below!

Read Full Press Release

China Stocks TV Segment

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Revenues of $22.9 million, an increase of 24.1% year-over-year
  • Non-GAAP net income of $2.1 million, as compared to $2.0 million
    year-over-year
  • $177.7 million backlog, as compared to $164.2 million quarter-over-
    quarter, and $153.7 million year-over-year
  • Cash and cash equivalents of $106.2 million as of March 31, 2009

MY COMMENTS:

The Company provided an outlook for 2009. They stated that they are well on track to achieve its previously provided annual guidance for FY 2009 of revenues between $150 million and $165 million. Also, they continue to see more opportunities in each of HLS’ business segments, especially in high-speed rail, driven by the government’s economic stimulus package. This is not the first we’re hearing about this stimulus package. It looks like a lot of companies are VERY bullish on it. Company closed yesterday at $5.50 which is just off their 52-week high of $5.70 so it’s obvious that they are performing very well.

As always, this is my view in a snapshot. It is intended to give you a running start into your research. Now, you have to do your own due diligence to make sure the valuation is not impaired by other factors including balance sheet items, lawsuits or any other negative events.

If you have any comments, I’d love to see them below.

YOUR RESEARCH STARTING POINTS FOR CHINESE SMALL CAP AND MID CAP COMPANIES

We’ve provided investors with two great starting points to research great Chinese small cap and mid cap companies.

1. ChinaSecurities.com – ChinaSecurities.com tracks 250 of the best small cap and mid cap companies trading on North American exchanges. It provides you with the best of the best in two ways. First, the front page lists the best news of the day coming out of the space. It does so by giving you a text view of the best press releases by industry and via Chinese Stocks TV, a 5-minute broadcast every morning just after the open. Chinse Stocks TV is archived, so you can catch up on shows you missed.

Second, if you want to research each of the 250 companies to find candidates for your portfolio, it has a very intuitive directory that lets you quickly review each company on the master list, or parse it out by industry and exchange if you have a particular sector of interest. Cool stuff.

2. Right here on AGORACOM, you can refer to our China category for other featured Chinese Small-Cap Companies. As always, we will disclose any IR relationship with any public company. Given the sheer number of great Chinese Small-Cap Companies out there, you can expect us NOT to have an IR relationship with most of these companies.

Regards,
George

AGORACOM Financial News TV – Breaking Small-Cap And Micro-Cap Financial News At The Open (May 27/09)

Posted by AGORACOM at 9:00 AM on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

Good morning to you all. Please find enclosed a summary of the breaking small-cap and micro-cap financial news we highlighted on our TV show this morning. It’s May 27 and we’ve found 5 great press releases and 5 Stock Halts to report on at the open. Another great day for small-cap and micro-cap financial news.

If you are new to the show, it is a daily, fast-paced, edgy report that we put out at or before the open everyday that strictly reports on the best small cap and micro cap news of the day in 3-5 minutes. You can watch AGORACOM TV right from our home page .

If you miss an episode or want to search for your company in our archive, you can visit our industry leading Small-Cap Podcast site at any time:

If you want to subscribe to our Small-Cap RSS Feed or download our podcast everyday via iTunes, or your favourite podcatcher, just use the following:

As always, don’t forget to visit the AGORACOM Marketplace where we list compelling summaries for over 85 great small-cap and micro-cap companies that you can sort by exchange and industry to suit your personal investing tastes.

TODAY’S SMALL-CAP AND MICRO-CAP BREAKING FINANCIAL NEWS BEFORE THE OPEN

Our daily show focuses on content over form so that you can get profitable information into your hands as fast as possible. The same holds true for these entries in our small-cap, micro-cap news blog, where I simply cut and paste my TV notes for your benefit, without any editing, so don’t give me a hard time!

Now, onto our show notes for the day.

** Denotes an AGORACOM Client. AGORACOM TV Only Reports News From AGORACOM Clients That Meets The Same Newsworthy Threshold Of All Other Press Releases.

  • HLS Systems International – NASDAQ:HOLI $5.50
  • CNinsure Inc – NASDAQ:CISG $10.60
  • Command Center Inc – OTC BB:CCNI $0.07
  • Romarco Minerals – TSX-Venture:R $0.70
  • DOT Resources Inc – TSX-Venture:DOT $0.03
  • Tenajon Resources Corp -TSX-Venture:TJS.V Stock Halted (Pending News)
  • Rainy River Resources – TSX-Venture:RR Stock Halted (Pending News)
  • Mart Resources – TSX-Venture:MMT Stock Halted (Pending News)
  • Skybridge Development Corp – TSX-Venture:SBD Stock Halted (Pending News)
  • Golden Band Resources – TSX-Venture:GBN Stock Halted (Pending News)

La Mancha Confirms the Presence of a Second Enriched Zone At the Hassai Property

Posted by AGORACOM at 1:30 PM on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Highlights from the press release include:

Key Points:

HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Follow-up drilling below the Hadal Awatib pits returns high-grade gold and copper intersections
  • The enriched ore appears to be easily mineable by deepening the present pit
  • Drilling intersects Cu/Au-rich primary ore corresponding to the stringer zone of the VMS lens

BEST INTERSECTIONS INCLUDE:

  • 26 m at 1.19 g/t Au, 5.71% Cu and 1.17% Zn from 104 m(1)
  • 11 m at 19.24 g/t Au and 51.64 g/t Ag from 5 m(1)
  • 40 m at 0.68 g/t Au and 3.19% Cu from 10 m(1)
  • 11 m at 9.1 g/t Au and 99.27 g/t Ag from 1 m
  • 7 m at 21.53 g/t Au and 45.6 g/t Ag from 5 m
  • 3 m at 2.35 g/t Au and 13.27% Cu from 16 m
La Mancha IR Hub

La Mancha Profile

AGORACOM Financial News TV – Breaking Small-Cap And Micro-Cap Financial News At The Open (May 26/09)

Posted by AGORACOM at 9:00 AM on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Good morning to you all. Please find enclosed a summary of the breaking small-cap and micro-cap financial news we highlighted on our TV show this morning. It’s May 26 and we’ve found 2 great press releases and 1 Stock Halt to report on at the open. Another great day for small-cap and micro-cap financial news.

If you are new to the show, it is a daily, fast-paced, edgy report that we put out at or before the open everyday that strictly reports on the best small cap and micro cap news of the day in 3-5 minutes. You can watch AGORACOM TV right from our home page .

If you miss an episode or want to search for your company in our archive, you can visit our industry leading Small-Cap Podcast site at any time:

If you want to subscribe to our Small-Cap RSS Feed or download our podcast everyday via iTunes, or your favourite podcatcher, just use the following:

As always, don’t forget to visit the AGORACOM Marketplace where we list compelling summaries for over 85 great small-cap and micro-cap companies that you can sort by exchange and industry to suit your personal investing tastes.

TODAY’S SMALL-CAP AND MICRO-CAP BREAKING FINANCIAL NEWS BEFORE THE OPEN

Our daily show focuses on content over form so that you can get profitable information into your hands as fast as possible. The same holds true for these entries in our small-cap, micro-cap news blog, where I simply cut and paste my TV notes for your benefit, without any editing, so don’t give me a hard time!

Now, onto our show notes for the day.

  • Capstone Mining Corp – TSX:CS $2.20
  • Park City Group Inc – OTC BB:PCYG $1.30
  • GFE Capital Corp – TSX-Venture:GFE-P Stock Halted