Verus International Inc (VRUS)

[Nestegg McMuffin]

$VRUS 2.5 YEAR TIME LINE (September 19 edition)

Here is a recap of how Verus International has transformed itself into one of the fastest growing stocks on the OTCQB.

Jan 2017
Anshu Bhatnagar takes over as CEO of Rbiz.
Begins transforming moribund real estate company into global food distributor building on his success at American Agro Group.
Begins by shipping product to Middle East.

Hires MKR and Mark Forney as IR, who took eGain to Nasdaq.

December 2017
Company settles year-long legal fight with old Rbiz management so new incarnation can run free. (No mean feat.)
Monaker chief Don Monaco personally backs Anshu. “I believe in Verus Foods’ business model and want to help the company begin its growth phase.”

July 2018
FINRA approves Rbiz spin-off into Nestbuilder.
Vrus revenue for first half of 2018 is $2.24 million, a 102% increase over first half of 2017.
Anshu’s global contacts in food biz paying off already.

August 2018
Verus name change voted by online poll of share holders. (Verus means truth in Latin.) Not quite the lift-off some predicted, but longs sit tight as Investors Presentation is released.

Sept 2018
Company posts a 77% increase in sales for the first nine months of 2018

Winter 2018
IR Mark Forney manages expectations as company enters self-announced “quiet period”…
Shares go as low as .0019.

Feb 2019
Vrus gets $1.45 million in funding from Cronos whale Andrew Garnock, which retires toxic notes from four creditors
Monaker and Don Monaco and Rick Berdon all stay invested.

Garnock’s unveiling as angel investor is the game-changer. Turns out he bought his first shares in the Rbiz days of Vrus. He reached out to IR and was connected to Anshu. He is exactly the kind of “special investor” turnaround growth plays like Vrus dream of. Not afraid of a company going through a lean period while it reconfigures itself.

$10 million honey deal announced for Europe and Middle East

March 2019
$4 million rice deal annually for Dubai market.
Anshu: “This is exactly the kind of contract that we believe we can replicate many times over.”

Vrus announces annual sales of $5.8 million for fiscal 2018, 101% increase over 2017.
Quarterly sales set to grow in excess of 100% year over year.

Revenue hits all-time high of $2.4 million in Q1/19, 145% increase from prev. year’s Q1.
Largest funded backlog in Company history – $24 million for delivery over the next 12 months.
Six months earlier Anshu had said he expected Vrus to reach $20M in orders.

April 2019
Monaker on its conference call says its staying invested in Vrus: The company is "doing well" and they expect to “recover several millions of dollars” from their original Rbiz investment.

Easter 2019
Anshu tweets about “new beginnings” for Spring, and lo and behold --

April 26, 2019
Announces first M&A deal with Big League Foods to sell Major League Baseball-branded frozen dessert products and confections in 2500 stores.
The license covers all 30 MLB teams. It's a turnkey op that will generate revenue very quickly.

May 2019
* Secures $600k in funding for baseball gelato production from GS Capital on impressively favorable terms.
Big League President James Wheeler joins Maryland operation to run ice-cream subsidiary. Already busy with Anshu setting up production. (Moving fast, folks.)

* New designs for MLB ice cream unveiled — and plans for MLB candy.

* Distribution announced for 2500 stores including 7-11s, BP, Chevron, Shell, etc. First footprint into the US market. Humungo.

* Uplist to OTCQB submitted after share price stays above .01 for a month.

* Andrew Garnock adds $500k to his investment by buying 41m shares -- at market.

June 2019
Award-winning CPA Chris Cutchens appointed fulltime CFO. “Anshu’s entrepreneurial spirt and the potential size of this opportunity were both very appealing. I am excited to be part of a true growth story at such an early stage.” (You and me both, pal.)
His deal includes shares vesting over three years, which shows real long-term faith in the company.

S-1 filed confirming Andrew Garnock’s involvement as “lead investor”. He and his company ARJ Consulting now own 25.2%, with warrant to add 500mil more shares and put another $1.25m into the company.
CEO Anshu Bhatnagar said: “We look on our business as a multi-year growth story, so this latest investment shows Andrew Garnock’s commitment to that vision.”
Also confirms Monaker Group increased their share count from 10m to 152m.
Berdon Ventures also increased their share count by 10%, so Institutional Investors and insiders now own approx. 40% of the stock. A huge statement of confidence in the company.

Q2 released
Revenue hits new company high of $2.9 million — 153% increase over previous Q2.
Third straight triple-digit Q earnings increase in a row.

Price hits new high of year of .0373

Verus resumes quarterly Conference Call.

First packet design of Yankees gummy worms unveiled.

July
$605,000 note secured from Eagle Equities -- fixed-rate for one year, convertible at no less than $0.10 per share. Money goes straight into ice-cream production et al.
Increases funded backlog to $38+ million in annual sales.
“Verus is projecting rapid growth during the second half of 2019 in three major markets: the U.S., Europe and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.”

First photos of ice cream rolling off the production line. “Our baby is born!” Same manufacturer as “other big-name brands”.

Uplist to OTCQB confirmed
Took more than six weeks, but no paperwork problems.

Over the summer lull, price is beaten down to .02 and even .017. Which is why you need to know your fundamentals, folks. DD is the best protection against FUD. Starting with this:

New Investors Deck
https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/703a12_6f05eae4b09142bfb6c1745af8978148.pdf

Well worth a look. Shows the scale of ambition here.
Reveals plans to enter South American, European and Asian markets.
Guidance is for “triple digit growth over the next SIX few quarters”.
Says commercial bank credit line is “pending” and sure enough, one week later…

August
$500,000 revolving line of credit (“LOC”) confirmed with The Columbia Bank of MD.

First photos appearing of MLB candy in stores.

S1-a filed bringing investor share registration up to date. Some concern the wording implies a sell-off, but IR confirms:
“There is no insider selling, no new shares being issued, and all of the selling is normal trading.”
William Kerby of Monaker actually elects to take his bonus payment in the form of Verus shares. As Mark Forney puts it: “Investors have not seen even 1/3 of the game plan yet.”

Verus secures $13.5m in credit insurance from blue-chip firm Euler Hermes -- and it’s international insurance, which is harder to get that purely domestic. Another big step forward.

Aug 28
First photo of MLB ice cream in a store in CT (hat-tip
@DisruptiveDez). followed by ice cream pix in New Jersey and Long Island.
Worth stressing the ice cream deal from announcement to shelves took just FOUR months.

Ice cream and candy is being distributed in four key baseball markets: Chicago, New York, Boston and Phillie, but plans already underway to expand to the other 26 teams/cities.

National retail chains such as Walmart and Costco also “very interested” to see finish MLB product.

September
Verus acquires up-and-running french fry operation in Dubai from multiline food company “in transition”. Deal is for $544k cash upfront with revenue expected in 30 days. Sets a path to build on operation’s existing contracts with hotel, restaurants, etc. with other products.

And it is not one of the 8 M&As still in the works, inc. two M&As in late stage negotiations. “Stay tuned.”

Verus announces Q3 early with conference call.
154% YOY earnings increase - seventh straight Q with revenue growth.
First mention of reducing A/S. Uplisting still very much part of the plan.
IR confirms yet again: No insiders selling. No dilution, other than shares to fulfill CEO and CFO's contracts. And no r/s except to uplist.

Share price rebounds to .0348. Highest closing price of the year.
Bears promptly attack driving it down. Price rallies to stay above .02 -- over double where it was in May, and +877% since January.

The OTC has 10,000 active listed stocks. Only 21 can boast + $10m revenue and +150% growth.
Verus is one of those companies. That makes it a 1 in 500 stock.

Guidance for Q4 is $4.6m not including MLB revenue.

Happy investing,
Nest


OBLIGATORY FINANCIAL DISCLAIMER
All of the above is strictly my own opinion. I am demonstratively a good karma long and I endeavor to share accurate information (and always happy to correct mistakes), but I am not a professional adviser of any kind.
Please be sure to do your own due diligence before investing in anything -- especially in the OTC.
- Nestegg McMuffin


PS I recommend you get twitter app. Free to join, and easy to use. Lots of posts, charts and info from solid longs, and official Verus Foods and BLF feeds. Just search for $VRUS