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I'm confused. What makes you say that he cannot issue dividends? He's done them in the past, so why can't he issue them now? Fill me in on what you know...
I think we've been our worst enemy here on Ihub. Do you honestly think calling the CEO a "cocksucker" is going to spur him on to release news? And when the company does release news, we have people calling everyone they can think of that MIGHT be involved to try to get MORE information (i.e. LaPorte, Williamsburg County land registry to find out if the warehouse has been purchased, etc). No one was happy when they were releasing one or two PRs per month. What would it take to make everyone happy? Daily PRs like every pump and dump pinkie out there? While I'm wondering what's going on just as much as everyone else, I'm here for the long haul.
Remember the saying, "No news is good news?" Why not start following that for a while? Obviously our current attitude and wild assumptions haven't gotten us anywhere. Until told otherwise, it's my opinion that Mack and Brian ARE still working together. What evidence to do we have to say otherwise? And working with the government is not quick and easy. It doesn't concern me if things get delayed for 6 or 9 months... that's just the way it works.
Get out, enjoy your summer, and let the company do their work. They don't need Ihubbers constantly hounding them... it's counterproductive. Hopefully no one has invested their life savings in a sub penny stock, so this should just be a gamble on some spare cash. If the gamble pays off (which I think it will), then we'll all be pleasantly surprised. If it doesn't, you shouldn't be surprised either. Pinkies have a way of not working out so well.
I think we all just need to relax. All of this is just IMO.
All of this is MY opinion, but I think everyone needs to really calm down. We all got involved with SYNJ for different reasons. Some are here to make a quick dollar, and that's turning out to be frustrating for you. Personally, I'm here to watch a young company grow.
We all know that Brian is not going to give us weekly updates, so why are we all hoping it's going to change? Let him run his company. If he spent all his time answering shareholder questions, he'd have no time to actually run his business. That being said, however, I agree with most on here that he might try a little more tact when talking with shareholders and investors.
Listen, nothing has changed, IMO. Even if MEG does not turn out to be a part of SYNJ, that doesn't mean the company is dead. In my opinion, things are still progressing towards opening the Kingstree plant, which will start to give us revenues. The share price WILL go up if that happens. How could it not? Being involved with MEG would be a huge advantage for us, but it's not a "do or die" situation. In fact, until Dragonwing found the MEG website update, those projects weren't even on our radar screen, and likely, most of you invested in this company well before then. So ask yourself, why did you invest in SYNJ? For me, I invested because alternative energy is something I believe in, and I believe it has a future in our country.
This is the last post I'm going to have for a while. It's frustrating to watch everyone bash a CEO, who in my opinion, is trying to build a solid company.
GO SYNJ!
-Snow
Despite the doom and gloom on here, I'm actually encouraged by the MEG developments on their new website... for one specific reason. If you read the "production strategy" portion of MEG's website, you see this:
"The information listed below is the planned operating strategy that MEG has outlined for next three (3) years.
June 2010 - Begin DoD fuel shipments overseas.
August 2010 - Open Kingstree, SC, 2.6 m/g/y "Biodiesel Production Facility". Expected to employ 10 employees. "
It's not saying that SRE, S.C. is opening the Kingstree biodiesel plant. It's saying MEG is opening that - AND THAT'S OUR PROJECT. Therefore, SYNJ has to be a part of MEG. Connect the dots... it's all there.
I fully expect to hear in the near future some clarification on this, but in the meantime, things are looking good to me. Add on top of all of this the info that we share Peter Katzburg as CFO, and I think we're sitting okay. It would seem to be a conflict of interest for Mr. Katzburg to be CFO of two competing companies.
Of course, this is all just my opinion...
Also, a question about upgrading to the OB: Are any of the stocks listed on ST and TDA "No Buy Restriction" on the OB? Or are there strictly only .PK stocks on the no buy list?
TIA
Does anyone know where to look for updated financials? In the December PR, they mentioned they were going to be coordinating the loan announcement with an uplisting to the OB:
"However, the company is planning to coordinate the pending $3.5 million government guaranteed loan and $1.5 million cash equity match with an upgrade of its listing to OB from the Pink sheets."
If I understand that process correctly, they will need to be current on their financials. I'm not a savvy enough trader to know where to look for such things.
IMO, today's news was great! They got a $5M loan with their $1.5M match. That's even better than what the December PR stated. Does anyone know the expected cost of the warehouse/Denamis/operating costs? Does the SC warehouse operation max out their funding? Or will they have some left over for other projects?
Let's all remember the reasons we bought. Personally, I'm still optimistic with the outlook on this stock. From day one, nothing has changed. We have not heard any bad news from the company - only positive updates (and yes, divis are positive too, imo). And for those of you who would like more frequent updates, I understand your frustration. However, there is a saying "No news is good news." I suggest everyone follows that here.
It takes time to build a solid company. Then add the government into the mix, and things just take even longer. My question to everyone who is expecting results "right now" is:
What timeline would be realistic to you? What would you be happy with?
-Snow
Great PR! One of the most exciting things I found in the pr was the news about uplisting to the OB along with the $3.5M government loan. Has anyone done some research on how stock pps reacts to an uplisting (other than the obvious answer of "it goes up")? Do stocks typically see a 10x jump in pps? 20x? I'm just wondering, and dreaming, of what would happen if the uplisting occurs.
Regarding the DOE grant: As a project manager for a State government, I completely understand that the DOE process is taking longer than expected - especially in light of the selection process being scrutinized through the release of stimulus grant money. As soon as the DOE has their t's crossed and the i's dotted, imo, some announcements will be made. But the beauty of SYNJ is that their future is not riding on the grant decision. Like any good company, not all of their eggs are in one basket. I'm proud to be a long-term owner of SYNJ stock.
Happy Holidays!
I've been checking this site. The DOE updates the spreadsheet every week. For the past month, they've been updating them on Mondays, but today it wasn't updated. I fully expect we'll see it updated by tomorrow eod.
http://www.energy.gov/recovery/documents/recoveryactfunding.xls
Maybe we'll see some good news tomorrow when they update it!??!
Question for the group: Would it make more sense for the company to wait until after Thanksgiving to release a "meaty" PR? It seems like this week is going to be interrupted by the holidays, which to me would mean any big run would be interrupted as well. This is my first Thanksgiving while active in a stock, so any thoughts would be appreciated.
I guess what I would like to see is an update PR this week, and then a press release of closing on the warehouse, $3.5M loan, and maybe some grant news next week.
This stock doesn't follow the Pump and Dump "pinkie scam" model that's been followed so many times. So since it's different than most pink stocks you see here, people assume it has to be a scam. I, for one, find it refreshing that this stock IS NOT following the same model that has proven to be a scam before. They're trying to build a legitimate company - and that's not done in a few months. And as for the government grant, that's not what this stock is all about. It's not "do or die" with the grant. They are nearly assured to get the $3.5M government LOAN, which will allow them to get a biodiesel plant up and running in SC - and start generating revenues. The $25M grant would be a thick layer of frosting on the cake. And of course, the government is not going to give a loan to SYNJ, being a pinkie company and all. We all know that. That's why SYNJ joined a consortium with Williamsburg County, the Penn Center, and South Carolina State University. Likely, the University will get the grant, and SYNJ will benefit from that.
Found it! Thanks for your help!
Does anyone know where to find the "No Buy" list on Scottrade's website? I'd like to keep tabs on that. TIA
In case anyone wants to keep track with me, there is a list of DOE grant recipients. You can go to:
http://www.energy.gov/recovery/documents/recoveryactfunding.xls
Looks like they might update every week or so since the current data is from October 16th.
Still no listing for South Carolina State University, Pinnacle, SRE, Syndication, etc. Maybe other Recovery websites have grant annoucements about the other solicitations that Dragonwing found? I just don't have the time to find out. Anyone out there a little less busy than me that could take some time to look?
A few months back, there was a whole discussion on uplisting. And a part of that discussion, I thought, revealed that in order to uplist, the CEO could not have posted forward looking statements in PRs. Could that be why they're being so careful to release information well after it has happened? Plus, why would you want to release your business plan about what you're "going to do" in a PR. It makes much more sense to just tell you what has been done.
Exactly. In my conversations with Hank at the DOE, he said this grant is a cost sharing grant, which means for every dollar that the federal government gives in grant money, the consortium of SCSU, SRE/Pinnacle, others needs to come up with a dollar. So if we were to get the full $25M grant, this would be a $50M project.
See posts #83184 and #83362 for the conversations I had with the DOE and his explanation of the cost sharing involved with the grant.
In my job, I deal with environmental documents for NEPA review. I would be very surprised if this project would be an EA (Environmental Assessment) project. The triggers for that are big impacts, such as wetland impacts, substantial development, or affect to the human environment. I would be willing to bet this would be a Categorical Exclusion (CX), and would take your 6 week approval time. Hopefully that paperwork would have been done long ago. I would be more interested to find out if the building has a building permit pulled and/or if the Department of Commerce has done a review of their plans. That process can take a month or two in itself.
I totally agree. All they're trying to do is build a legitimate company the right way. And that's not done overnight. Look, nothing has changed... the DD has stayed the same. If your'e looking for a quick buck, there are plenty of other plays. I'm in this for the long haul.
If you take a step back, how realistic is it to hire a competent President of your company on May 19th, get them up to speed on your business plan, do a reverse merger, buy a warehouse, buy equipment, hire a plant manager, install the equipment, get the plant up and running with all applicable environmental and building permits, AND get a government grant financing by the end of October? That's only 5 1/2 months. Things take time to do it the right way. PLEASE give Brian and Mac some slack. They're most likely working as fast as they can, but some things (like the grant timeline) are out of their hands.
I had some follow-up correspondence with the contact at the Dept. of Energy today. Below are the string of emails. See post #83184 for the first set of emails.
"Dear Hank,
Thank you for your help. Just one follow-up question. What is the cost share for the DOE grants? A percentage of the award?
Thanks again,
SNOW"
Mr. Eggink's reply:
"Depends on what the grant is for. Normally for education and outreach there is a 0% cost share requirement, for R&D it's usually a 20% cost share requirement, for demonstration or use of a commercial off the shelf technology it's a 50% cost share requirement.
Hank"
Another follow-up by me:
"Thanks again for all your help. In the case of this specific grant, I take it areas 1, 2, and 5 would fall under the "demonstration of a commercial off the shelf technology", and that would put it in the 50% bracket. Is that correct? Also, just so I'm clear. The company that would receive the grant would need to come up with 50% match of the award amount, but they would still receive the full grant, right? So for instance, let's say a $25M grant is awarded to a firm. I would imagine they would need to come up with $12.5M to get the grant, but then the total project would have $37.5M in financing. Does that sound right?
Thanks,
SNOW"
And Mr. Eggink's reply:
"Your math is correct for COST MATCHING but not COST SHARING which is what our FOA required. Cost sharing is based on total project cost (fed plus recipient $). Cost matching is based on total Federal $ and requires a match at a percentage of the fed $.
Under cost sharing (using your $25M Grant as an example), a 50% cost share requirement would be $25M Fed and $25M recipient for a total project cost of $50M.
Under cost matching (which is used by several agencies other than DOE, and again using your $25M grant as an example) a 50% cost match requirement would be $25M Fed and $12.5M recipient for a total project cost of $37.5M.
Hank"
So for the bio-fuel grant, the company would need to match the grant dollar-for-dollar. Could this be the reason why the A/S raised from 3 billion to 6 billion? I would like to think so. Also, keep in mind that SRE/Pinnacle aren't the only ones going together for this grant. SCSU might also have some money to gather the cost share amount. Then again, if SCSU is the primary recipient of the grant, it may fall under the "educational" bracket of cost sharing, which would be 0%. It's hard to say at this point. Anyway, it's something else to chew on. We'll know all the answers by mid to late November.
-Snow
I agree there is work for Mac and Brian to do here. IMHO, I think the next two months or so will be very telling with news of either getting the grant and/or getting the first plant up and running in Kingstree, SC. Let's all hope for a good end to the year. I, for one, am going to stay positive about this stock until I hear something otherwise. All of the great DD here on iHub has pointed towards good things to come.
I don't want to argue about a conversation I didn't have with Brian. But the point remains, even a fraction of a dollar, let's say 0.03 or 0.04, doesn't make the divi insignificant. A few thousand dollars is nothing to sneeze at.
I want to say it was a few months ago. Someone had a conversation with Brian on the phone, and they stated he saw the company rising to the dollar level before all was said and done. I think it was about the same time discussions were being had about Brian not really caring about the day-to-day share price. I'd have to go back and find the post.
Actually, I think the divi is great idea. It forces anyone who is NSS to "settle up". And to be honest, the 44,000 shares I'm going to get later in the month are going to mean quite a lot when this stock runs to the prices Brian has stated he wants. Dollars! Even if it doesn't go that high, a thousand or two in the bank for free isn't bad in my book. People go on the Price Is Right and come away with less than that.
Got an email from DOE regarding, what I think, is the grant. Here's some more DD for all of you to chew on. I found what appears to be the grant that SRE/Pinnacle applied for on the Department of Energy website.
https://www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/?doc=DE-FOA-0000096&agency=DOE
Last night, I emailed the contact for that grant, and asked:
Mr. Eggink,
I found your name through the Recovery.gov website for a potential grant for Demonstration of Integrated Biorefinery Operations. This is grant reference number DE-FOA-0000096. A couple quick questions for you. I was wondering if you could tell me when an announcement of the grant is going to be made. I read on the website that grant announcements were going to be out by October 30th, but I was wondering if this grant announcement would be made sooner than that? Additionally, now that the grant application period has closed, are you able to release who applied for the grant? Finally, do you know how many grants are going to be issued?
Thank you for your time.
To my surprise, I had an email response waiting for me this morning. Mr Eggink wrote:
"Selection should be made and announced mid to late Nov.
We never release the name of the applicants. We do release the names of successful applicants after selection is made.
Until selections are announced the only information on the number of grants is what is projected in the FOA:
"MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM AWARD SIZE
* Ceiling for Topic Areas 1, 2, and 5 (i.e., the maximum amount for an individual award made under this announcement): $25,000,000 in DOE cost share
* Ceiling for Topic Areas 3, 4 and 6 (i.e., the maximum amount for an individual award made under this announcement): $50,000,000 in DOE cost share
* Floor (i.e., the minimum amount for an individual award made under this announcement): none
D. EXPECTED NUMBER OF AWARDS
* DOE anticipates making approximately 10-20 awards under this announcement, depending on the Topic Area and size of award. DOE may choose to fund projects out of all, some, one, or none of the Topic Areas, based on the merit of the applications. "
The number of awards selected per topic area will determine how many total will be awarded. For example, if the applications for topic area 1,2 an 5 are very weak, many of the awards would be made in 3,4 and 5,and because the ceilings are higher less awards would be made.
hank"
That would be great! Keep us posted. Here's hoping you find us some green!
Greenfinds, a quick question for you. A month or two ago, you had been talking about visiting the SC warehouse to see if there was any activity there or if there was anyone you could talk with. Did you have a chance to do that? I would imagine that at this point, if the company needs to be close to having an operational "pilot" plant for the grant, there would be some activity at the warehouse.
According to the article below, it sounds as if we should hear whether or not SCSU and SRE/Pinnacle received the $25M grant by October 30th.
http://www.nlc.org/ARTICLES/articleItems/NCW92809/recoverydata.aspx
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 calls for all recipients of Recovery funds to report on the use of these monies to the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (Recovery Board) by October 10. Registration for recipients is well under way on FederalReporting.gov, with nearly 22,000 already registered. However, the Recovery Board strongly encourages those not yet registered to do so immediately to ensure that, when actual reporting occurs between October 1 and October 10, recipients will be able to maximize the efficacy of the reporting system.
The Recovery Board was created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) to oversee the expenditure of recovery funds and bring transparency and accountability to the process. The board consists of a chairman, Earl E. Devaney, and 12 federal inspector generals. The board runs the Recovery.gov website that provides information on the recovery initiatives and spearheads an accountability effort that involves both federal and state investigators and enforcement officials.
Earlier today, the Recovery Board launched the 2.0 version of Recovery.gov website. The redesigned website will be both user-friendly and highly interactive and will provide all Americans with an historic level of transparency on their government’s spending. The board decided to launch the redesigned version of Recovery. gov earlier than the reporting deadline to allow time for users to become familiar with the website’s many new features, particularly its enhanced mapping capacity.
The Recovery Act allows recipients and agencies of the federal government to conduct quality reviews of the submitted data between October 11 and October 29. After considerable outreach to recipients and other affected stakeholders, the board is announcing the following schedule and process for displaying recipient data on Recovery.gov:
• All reported data associated with recovery contracts awarded directly by federal agencies will be displayed by October 15.
• All reported data associated with recovery grants, loans and other forms of assistance will be displayed on October 30.
• All data changes made by recipients between October 11 and October 29 will be carefully tracked, chronicled and made available on Recovery.gov shortly after November 1.
According to Devaney, “[T]his release schedule mitigates the board’s concern that large amounts of uncorrected data could actually harm transparency rather than enhance it.”
Recipients of funds received under the Recovery Act may register at www.federalreporting.gov. For additional information regarding the registrations process, go to www.recovery.gov.
I received an official letter from ST regarding a FINRA complaint I had filed. The letter said:
"Dear ILoveSnow,
This letter is written in response to the above listed complaint that was forwarded to Scottrade by FINRA on September 29, 2009. The essence of your complaint appears to be that Scottrade has put Syndication, Inc. (SYNJ) on a list of securities that are under a "no buy restriction." You state that Scottrade's restriction is negatively affecting the price of the security in the market. After reviewing this issue, I am reporting the following.
We apologize for any inconvenience our decision to accept only sell orders for SYNJ has caused. Scottrade may proactively restrict trading of securities for a number of reasons, which may include operational circumstances. In this particular case, we chose not to offer this security for purchase due to clearing and settlement issues. This review and restriction should not be construed as a reflection on the merits of the security involved or the people effecting transactions in the security.
We hope this answers any questions you have, but should you have any further concerns, please feel free to contact your local Scottrade office."
So they chose to restrict SYNJ due to clearing and settlement issues. As many have suggested on here, shorting would be a "settlement issue." I plan to call my local ST branch to ask - When these clearing and settlement issues are complete, would SYNJ be opened back to buying? I'll try to keep all of you posted on their response.
-Snow
Received a letter from FINRA in the mail today. It was regarding a complaint I filed against Scottrade. They said they received my complaint, and have asked Scottrade to respond to all of the issues I brought up (no buy restriction, all other online brokers allow buying of SYNJ, etc.). FINRA said I should be receiving a formal response from Scottrade by October 13th.
It should be interesting to hear what their "official stance" is.
I am the son of diamndron, and was the one who talked to Scottrade yesterday. I did not talk to a branch manager, just a worker there, and he did not specifically say the words "shorting". I'll let you read this and come to your own conclusions.
From Post #77411:
"I called my local ST branch today during my lunch hour and asked the gentleman who answered the phone if he could tell me why SYNJ.PK is under a buy restriction, but I'm able to sell shares. He said it had to do with their 3 day clearing, and he said they did not have enough shares to cover the buys they had and those that might come in. Therefore, the stock is restricted. He said as soon as some share are freed up and they settle their balance, the restriction would be lifted. He encouraged me to keep checking back.
I felt it was odd that he seemed rather nonchalant about the whole thing, as if this happens all the time. To my understanding, they should not be selling people more shares than they have to give away. Is that correct?
"
Forgive me for not being a technical trader and relatively new to the stock world. I called my local ST branch today during my lunch hour and asked the gentleman who answered the phone if he could tell me why SYNJ.PK is under a buy restriction, but I'm able to sell shares. He said it had to do with their 3 day clearing, and he said they did not have enough shares to cover the buys they had and those that might come in. Therefore, the stock is restricted. He said as soon as some share are freed up and they settle their balance, the restriction would be lifted. He encouraged me to keep checking back.
I felt it was odd that he seemed rather nonchalant about the whole thing, as if this happens all the time. To my understanding, they should not be selling people more shares than they have to give away. Is that correct?
If Brian and Mac are truly waiting for the Scotturd fiasco to get settled before releasing news, it must be a doozy of a PR. Why worry about Scotturd if they were just giving us an "update PR" that wasn't intended to move the pps much?
Does it matter if those financials are "audited" or not?
New to posting on iHub. I've been with this stock since March, and have been following the posts daily. Maybe a month or so ago, didn't someone post some of the requirements for uplisting? And if I remember correctly, there was a statement made that the CEO couldn't put out forward-looking statements if they wanted to be considered for uplisting. Could it be that Brian couldn't PR this news because the financials were not currently available? Also, could this be the reason they like to "season" their news?
I think you're right that it's snippets pulled together. Check out this article:
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/jul/24/argolyn_musc_drug_developer_spinoff_file90301/
"Since its launch from MUSC's Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the firm obtained several patents and almost $19 million in funding, including $16 million in capital investment in 2007. "