written by reader Anyone know of Axion power? AXPW.OB? Small interesting company I’m following…

by xiexgp | October 15, 2013 1:45 pm

I don’t normally look at shares in companies so small listed in the famed arena of the ”pump and dump[1]” stock promoters but this is one I stumbled across by accident while researching HEV/EV’s and renewable energy[2] generally. I found an author, John Petersen, on Seeking Alpha[3] who writes quite a bit about energy storage who also is very enamoured of this little company. He was directly involved with the company until 2007. He and the company seem to have quite a core of dedicated followers with lots of interesting discussion going on after his articles. His Bio follows :

”John Petersen is the executive vice president and chief financial officer of ePower Engine Systems, Inc., a Kentucky-based enterprise that has developed, built and demonstrated an engine-dominant diesel-electric hybrid drivetrain for long-haul heavy trucks that promises fuel savings of 25 to 50 percent depending on terrain and payload weight.

John is a lawyer and accountant with over three decades of corporate finance experience. Before joining ePower he worked as a partner in the law firm of Fefer Petersen & Co. where he focused on corporate finance, due diligence, M&A advisory and related consulting services for manufacturers, innovators and investors in the energy storage and renewable energy sectors.

From 2003 to 2007 John served as board chairman and general counsel of Axion Power International (AXPW.OB), a battery[4] technology company that’s introducing a hybrid lead-carbon battery technology to the market. Over the last five years John has earned a global following for his blog on investments in the energy storage sector.

John is a 1979 graduate of the Notre Dame Law School and a 1976 graduate of the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. He was admitted to the bar in 1980 and licensed to practice as a CPA in 1981. John’s diverse experience in corporate finance, natural resource development and energy storage give him a unique and sometimes unsettling perspective on the technical, economic and supply chain challenges of the battery industry.”

I have looked at the company website and looked over their product information etc and coming from a background in the PV industry I found Axion power(http://www.axionpower.com/[5]) to sound very compelling. Far from being some new fangled, pie in the sky new ultra ultra capacitor or super lithium[6] bla bla it’s just a good old lead acid battery. You could call it a 4th Generation lead acid chemistry battery, a technology that’s been around since 1859. However they are a Lead Carbon variant. Carbon replaces the Lead of the negative plate completely basically. The company claims numerous appealing performance and cost advantages here and a number of key advantages over the much hyped Lithium batteries out there. You can read more about all this on the website and the tech here : http://www.axionpower.com/Technology[7]
Coming from the field I work in I think they could be on to something though I am not endorsing this company yet.
Now to the bad news – If you look at the stock price over the last few years it looks dreadful and like a company heading to 0.00. Earlier this year the company had to go hat in hand to raise money and the end result was a deal that disgruntled a lot of stockholders and seems to have added more pain to the stock price and diluted shareholders. The financing deal was a PIPE. Not something I know much about.
Can this company make it? They seem to have a great product but it seems time and money are not on their side. Shares look cheap but….
Anyone on here with a better nouse than me to digest the financials to see if this can work? or someone with far better knowledge of the industry than me? I’d appreciate any and all comments on this. Travis
please chime in with some sage advice!
My take is it’s highly risky and I would rather wait for them to win some contracts and get some critical mass going(plus a full stock listing!) before dipping a toe here.
FULL DISCLOSURE : I have no position in this company’s nor the intention to open one any time soon(I’d rather wait and see what all the greater minds on here have to say on the subject first at least!)

Endnotes:
  1. pump and dump: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/pump-and-dump/
  2. renewable energy: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/renewable-energy/
  3. Seeking Alpha: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/seeking-alpha/
  4. battery: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/battery/
  5. http://www.axionpower.com/: http://www.axionpower.com/
  6. lithium: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/lithium/
  7. http://www.axionpower.com/Technology: http://www.axionpower.com/Technology

Source URL: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/2013/10/microblog-anyone-know-of-axion-power-axpw-ob-small-interesting-company-im-following/


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