ElectriPlast: The CEO -- Making the Grade...
Featuring a Guest Writer
...as seen in "SeekingAlpha.com"
Measuring the Man & Making the Grade...
For me, there is a healthy dollop of optimism in the air after the last Shareholder Conference Call. A number of great questions were raised, and if I am not mistaken, the "TSUNAMI" word was again uttered. What mostly struck a chord is that this time, Integral has the needed infrastructure in place to make ElectriPlast’s long-awaited expansion a true reality in short order...
In this ElectriPlast Blog (EB) entry, I wanted to share a report from "JoeNatural". A number of the old-heads may remember him from his many missives on the various boards a number of us have travelled. Over the past few weeks, he has been sharing a few of his thoughts with Vince and this developed into an article he wanted to post, both on SeekingAlpha.com and here...
My sense is that you are probably tired of hearing my take on things, so go ahead, read what JoeNatural has to share and prepare to be enlightened by the facts as they are spelled out... PK sends...
CEO's Report Card
By: JoeNatural,
September 27, 2015
The date is approaching whereby Doug Bathauer will have reigned as ITKG's CEO for three years. Since his initial hiring, I've written several articles (links below)...
..... [ href="http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/384824-joenatural/4130815-strongest-shareholder-base-on-the-otc-exchange-gets-unexpected-surprise-with-more-catalysts-to-come ]
..... [ href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/2597435-integral-technologies-fiscal-year-end-conference-call-finally-reveals-potential-value-of-certain-new-contracts ]
...... [ href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/2524405-itkg-breaks-out-to-52-week-high-and-tells-the-market-theres-more-on-the-way ]
.... [ href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/2180833-integral-technologies-insiders-buying-stock-for-first-time-in-companys-18-year-history ]
...about Integral Technologies, so I thought it was now appropriate to put the spotlight on the CEO himself, grading his performance in the areas that matter most to shareholders.
For starters, I don't think there's anyone who would deny that Doug Bathauer inherited a company that was nothing short of a multi-year utter failure and complete disaster, attempting to fix a company that was as broken as broken gets. Why Bathauer would have even entertained the idea of a turnaround for a company that was virtually bankrupt on paper, was beyond me and a real head-scratcher. Obviously, he was confident that he could make the necessary structural changes and deals required to monetize ElectriPlast and kickstart the company. Saying the challenges in front of him were significant would be a massive understatement. Prior management had no game-plan whatsoever and most likely viewed the publicly traded shell as nothing more than a vehicle from which to draw their salaries at the expense of shareholders.
So Let's See What Doug Bathauer Has Accomplished
Upon his arrival, Bathauer immediately set out to eliminate the waste and pork of the past and thus made several key changes. He shut down the Philadelphia sales office, saving the company $50K a month while establishing the Detroit Tech Center, a strategic location where customers can interact with ITKG's engineers and view ElectriPlast demonstrations. The timely hiring of a superstar engineer from Lear Corp. in Slobodan Pavlovic was key to the new tech center, as Pavlovic is widely known as an innovator in the electric vehicle industry with many patents under his belt.
Critical for stock price appreciation, Bathauer eliminated the toxic, convertible debt that placed a lid on the stock and he cleaned up the balance sheet by reducing liabilities from $2.7 million to under $700K while also getting the company current with vendors. He eliminated prior management's preferred shares that would have eventually created a massive roadblock to stock price appreciation on down the road. On average, the stock traded only $7K a day in the .25 range when Bathauer arrived and now over .50, the stock is averaging more than $75K daily. Liquidity has increased greatly and investors have become much more comfortable owning the stock. Insiders participated heavily in private placements, sending a strong signal to shareholders that the company could indeed monetize ElectriPlast and eventually become the company it was touted to be. More importantly, shares of the stock were moving into the hands of those behind the technology and out of the hands of loan sharks. None of this could have happened without participants firmly believing in the new CEO's business plan moving forward.
It didn't take long for the new CEO to ink deals with Hanwha, Delphi and BASF, quickly reassuring shareholders that Integral Technologies did indeed have the goods in ElectriPlast. For the first time in this company's two decade history, revenues were being generated. This brought me back to a phone conversation I had with the CEO of Jasper Rubber in which he told me, "Getting ElectriPlast to market has taken years, but once you're in, you're in." This tells me that the adoption of ElectriPlast will accelerate going forward.
As if the above isn't exciting enough for shareholders going forward, Doug Bathauer recently announced a surprise breakthrough in lead-acid battery technology, a gigantic industry, inventing a corrosion resistant, leakage free, highly conductive plastic bipolar plate that's environmentally friendly. He stated that Integral is already in the process of developing partnerships and thus, shareholders can anticipate increasing newsflow going forward concerning new battery partners.
Speaking of newsflow, Integral's CEO came aboard with the attitude of acting as a company that trades on a senior exchange, instituting not only a monthly shareholder letter, but quarterly conference calls as well. To date, Bathauer has done absolutely every thing he said he would and I suspect there's only a handful of CEO's out of several thousand on the OTC that fit that mold.
It's obvious with Integral's 10X capacity expansion and new facility (5 acres set aside for even more) that Bathauer will have plenty to discuss with shareholders going forward.
Grades:
Shareholder Communication A+Execution of the Business Plan A-
Leadership Abilities A+
Company Finances A+
JoeNatural