Deep Down Summary
On thursday feb 21,2008 i visted the deep down offices in channelview texas. I went with very high hopes of seeing the operations of a company that many here have invested in and have decided to share some of my experiences of that day with the deep down board. I took this trip for my own benefit and to do further due diligence on what i believe to be a very sound and long term type investment, which i know has also been an issue with many investors and traders on this board as well.
Let me first start out by saying we all have different styles of investing but its in my opinion that the operations of deep down should be considered as a long term investment into the future of the subsea oil industry.
The subsea oil industry is a booming sector with many new and exciting things happening,and the desire to go bigger and deeper by all the big oil companies has never been greater. To me its a lot like when man wanted to go to the moon or when the wright brothers invented the flying machine, well now we have another innovator in our presence with the drive and motivation to conquer the depths of the sea. His name is Ron Smith and he is the ceo and president of deep down inc and after spending half a day in his presence it was obvious to me that his motivation to prove to the oil industry that deep down is the go to team of tommorrow is contagious . He spoke of many things and during the tour of the grounds and the time spent in the offices many topics were dicussed and pieces of equipment were explained. He was not hesitant to use phrases like big surprises, big plans,or when he mentioned a big list of acquisition candidates. We talked about many big companies that he worked for and relationships he has with many senior people in this industry,specifically shell,fmc,vetco gray and aker. One problem that was discussed was the lack of senior engineers in the oil industry which was becoming a major problem . Ron told me that because of the very experienced team of engineers at deep down and his own vast experiences in the oil industry that this put us in a very promising position to more often be the go to guys . Most engineers on the rigs and vessels and various projects are all junior engineers who rely heavily on the expertise of senior people, but those senior people are all in shiny offices and have bigger better things to do and like ron said they dont want to take the time to go out and do it hands on or they say that this will take more time than expected. Again this is where deep down becomes the go to guy for many subsea projects that believe it or not lack the senior knowledge . He also spoke of many patents that had been applied for and spoke a lot about changing the way the oil industry thinks about remote operated vehicles, and said to expect to see things happening in those areas as well.
The amount of time and energy that he personally devoted to the visit was to me another example of how this company continues to go above and beyond in the delivery of their buisness model.
Many times it was mentioned as well about manufacturing different pieces of equipment and cutting costs that would add to the margins of our operations . The machine shops and fabrication shops were all very busy with many different pieces of equipment being worked on and things were very well kept and in order and the employees seemed very content, even at times when we would walk by and ron would say, hey hows that going ! The responses were very at ease, in other words there was no tension in the work place and the camaraderie was very obvious, a genuine team effort. So the core of the operation was very smoothly run and matched up with what we see on the cameras .
The electrowave building was the same way and there was people hard at work in that building as well,with wiring of some consoles and computer work being done, it was also mentioned that things were going very well with electrowave as well and we could see some big things happening with that end of the buisness as well. I had also after seeing the mounds of wiring involved in these projects had mentioned that there had to be miles of wires in these vessels , it was commented that there could be changes coming in the way we do this as well.
Mako is not on the deep down property and has their own grounds in louisiana, we didnt talk alot about mako but like i said there was mention of some remote operating vehicle revalations coming into the bigger picture , i had asked about the addition of rental equipment to the mako fleet and was informed that it was added only as needed. I also learned that the launch and recovery systems (LARS) can be affixed to oil rig platforms as well, so dont just think vessels.
Although there was mention of the navy ,coast gaurd and marine yards and that things were active, i was obviously not informed of any contracts in that area but came away with the notion that area was definately being targeted.
The 4000 m lars for veolia is still in our yard waiting for delivery and that future sales where obviously being pursued in both the proteus and lars department.
On that note i was also informed that the world is our customer when i specifically asked about sales and areas targeted such as brazil and africa, so our desire for global reach and sales definately exists as most here are aware of.
On the expansion note we also discussed uplisting and i was informed that amex exchange was the target choice of right now and that the plans to uplist were being pursued -a definate time frame was not given,obviously that will occur when the share price has risen back to the price target needed to uplist and be held for 90 days . It is believed by management that the release of the ex-director shares are just about completed and that it is of an isolated nature,basically one person doing the majority of the selling and i will leave it at that, but was told when the shares are gone things will soon be back to normal.
I did not discuss a phone conference for shareholders with management but was told anyone and everyone was free to call or write or especially visit at anytime with any questions or concerns.
Over all this visit was extremely bullish with many
positive things being said about the overall direction of deep down and their plans to take this company into the future of the subsea industry and i would highly reccomend a tour of the company or just getting on the phone and asking to talk with ron smith so you too can hear the drive and ambition in his voice and the aspirations of taking this company to the next level and beyond . It is in my most humble opinion that we are destined for very big things at deep down and with the exercise of some patience the long term rewards of this investment will pay off in a very respectable manner.
I am not some big report writer and could have just easily summed this up with i am more bullish on the progress of deep down than i ever have been and a hearty go deep down go ! So take what i have seen and heard into account and store it away somewhere in the back of your mind and please continue to do your own due diligence and by no means take what i say into account as you make further investments into this company as an indicator that you will have made a guarenteed choice.
I will continue to post on this board and answer all the questions i possibly can in regards to my visit and hope everyone enjoys the pictures that were taken--JDSGUNGHO
AI
