Courtesy of Traceman from Yahoo THPW Board:
The overall tone of the meeting was professional and upbeat about the future. Seth Grae did the bulk of the speaking along with assistance from Tom Graham, James Guerra, Erik Hallstrom, and Maria Mastroianni as needed. All expressed extreme confidence that this company was well on track to be a major player in this industry. Botom line, THPW is on target to leverage the emerging global Nuclear Energy trends.
Consulting; Seth explained in simple terms that countries and companies are now engaging THPW instead of the other way around. The driver is their independance as compared to infrastructure type companies such as Westinghouse, GE, Areva, etc. His example; car shopping and considering a BMW vs. Lexus, and expecting the Lexus dealer to recommend a BMW because it is the right thing for the customer. Emerging countries and other countries with no nuke experience have do idea on where to start, structure themselves, which technologies to employ, which companies would be the best for infrastructure build, how to obtain financing, building transparency to win global trust, etc. THPW is the only independant company in place to execute, the only existing company to do so on safety and non-prolific stance. They are known as the only entity that can be trusted. So, private companies see this and now know it is good for their interests if they maintain a relationship with THPW. Seth made a comment along the lines that "2 years ago, who would have thought that the serious interest would initiate in the Middle East countries"? The Thorium Independance Act is a sign where the US is concerned about lagging others with this important step forward.
Technology; Overall, the Russian testing is on schedule and everything looks excellent. The post-irradation examination is going well at this point. He noted that Russia made a change to their VVER-1000 fuel approach, changing it from a 12 month cycle to 18 months. Therefore, current testing steps had to be altered to accomodate this change. Reminder, THPW is aiming at fueling VVER reactors 1st and they want to make sure their initial fuel deployment matches the same 18 month cycle. This is causing a slight delay to the current testing schedule in Russia, but no impact on the overall schedule. Slide 19 shows the schedule and when we plan to recognize technology royalties (2010-2012 timeframe). The THPW technical team has now initiated development work on deploying the technology within the AP-1000 (Westinghouse) and and EPR (Areva) reactors. Again, the Thorium Energy Independance Act opens the door for testing in our country and, again, THPW is ahead of that curve.
India; expect to hear about landing some contracts soon. I think he said by year-end, but not sure if I heard that correctly. He did say that THPW has been all over India for years, so all of the work has been done and THPW is just waiting to close deal(s). Also, the concern over the work that India has done with their thorium technology is not well founded. Their technology is complex (3 stage reactor) and produces lots of plutonium. Seth said that there is no global interest due to the complexity, cost, and proliferation concerns. This is a government founded program and we may see it used in India if at all.
Reverse split; right now the expectation is that it will happen in the 1st quarter. Seth is sensitive to concerns in this area, but he and the team is confident it must happen. He said "there is now way that we should be a penny stock at this point in time." The company is aware of institutions that want to invest and can't do so until they get on the NASDAQ.
Consulting/Advisory Service margins are at approximately 60%. The team actually thinks they can maintain this type of performace if they carefully execute timing between revenue and development expenses.
Potential; Slide 9 shows anticipated global reactor trends. The green is expected growth. Compare the green to the geen in slide 19. Then compare these 2 to the green in slide 21 to get an idea of the revenue potetntuials.
Name change; They are serious about this. A negative driver is the India government funded reactor I meantioned earler. They don't want external people to be confised about the 2 thorium technologies. The rest is obvious because the companies business plan involves more than technology. The investors that attended the meeting received a nice cross pen with the name "Lightbridge" on it. I have a pen!!!
Meeting Summary as posted by Traceman on Yahoo and re-posted here by Murocman
