American Superconductor Corp (AMSC)

[Rawnoc]

Don't forget -- Forbes warned about this POS too:

Posted by: Rawnoc Date: Sunday, July 06, 2008 9:57:46 PM
In reply to: trade2much who wrote msg# 96 Post # of 173

AMSC body-slammed by Forbes:

A Little Too Electrifying
Andy Stone 07.21.08, 12:00 AM ET

Is American Superconductor's good fortune to be believed? Until last year the Devens, Mass. firm never sold more than $60 million worth of power industry gear in any year. In 17 years as a public company it racked up $365 million in losses.

Then in January 2007 AMSC (35, AMSC) swapped $13 million in stock for Windtec, which makes voltage regulators for windmills. Six months later the company announced a $70 million deal to sell Windtec boxes to China's Sinovel Wind Corp. In June 2008 American Semiconductor revealed a $450 million deal to sell Sinovel 7,500 more windmill voltage regulators. Windtec's biggest order outside of Sinovel: 20 units.

Sinovel's contract implies it will turn out 10 gigawatts of windmill capacity--twice what is expected for all of China over the next few years, the Global Wind Energy Council says.

What gives? "Just keep in mind that this [China] is a communist country," says Gregory Yurek, AMSC's chief executive. "These guys are not working for themselves. They get mandates to do a certain thing."

"If this deal were completely real, it would represent the largest wind contract in the world by multiple amounts," says RBC analyst Stuart Bush. Citron Research, which is shorting the stock, posits that what's really behind the deal are undisclosed ties between AMSC and Sinovel. American Superconductor denies that assertion.

One certainty: The day word of his firm's $450 million order sent its share price soaring, Chief Executive Yurek sold shares for a $4 million profit under a prearranged stock option plan. You can follow his lead without owning the stock by shorting it.