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Tim
07-03-2006, 03:47 PM
Water and energy are becoming huge issues and is an ideal theme to pick for long term future investment. Can anyone recommend long term stock or funds for this area.

lakedaemonian
08-03-2006, 06:34 PM
Trading on the US AMEX exchange is a recently introduced Exchange Traded Fund(ETF) using the symbol PHO. It is certainly a "water focused fund" Here's a brief description:


quote:The investment seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield, before fees and expenses, of the Pallisades Water Index. The fund will normally invest at least 80% of its assets in ADRs and common stocks of companies in the water industry. It will normally invest at least 90% of its assets in common stocks that comprise the Pallisades Water Index. The index is comprised of 25 stocks of companies that are publicly traded in the U.S., and focus on the provision of portable water, treatment of water, and technologies directly related to water consumption.

Disclosure: I haven't purchased any, but I'm sitting on the sidelines having a closer look at the mix of "water stocks" the ETF is composed of.

For energy, I'm closely watching AMEX traded ETF symbol DBC. It is a commodity tracking fund, with a heavy weighting in crude oil and heating oil(with smaller weightings in gold, aluminum, wheat, and corn). It is currently trading at about an 8% discount to it's introduction price.

Mick100
22-03-2006, 01:04 AM
John dickenson is clued up on the water industry
He thinks that the US water companies are fully valued at the moment
http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/dickerson/2006/0320.html
.

Winston001
19-12-2006, 04:15 PM
Being an avid recycler I'm sure no-one minds me raising this short thread from obscurity.

I've thought for a couple of years now that water would be a great sector to invest in. The problem is how? I've just looked at PHO suggested by Lakedaemonian above and agree it fits. But there must be other funds and ways of investing in water, yet my Google searches find only articles, symposiums, and political announcements.

Apart from water utility companies, the other aspect of water is pumping and drilling businesses which appeal because they aren't subject to wars, natural disasters, and government interventions.

The one risk of water investment is that water itself is so critical to human life that resources can be nationalised taken over etc by governments. However pumps and drills, pipes etc still need to be manufactured by somebody and I suggest that will continue to be a private sector business.

Any suggestions anyone?

Mick100
19-12-2006, 04:44 PM
Got an email the other day with this link

http://www.europac.net/water.htm

,

mjdtrader
02-01-2007, 10:20 AM
Apart from water utility companies, the other aspect of water is pumping and drilling businesses which appeal because they aren't subject to wars, natural disasters, and government interventions.


Any suggestions anyone?
[/quote]

Winston have you looked at WTS, PNR MWA FTEK for supply valves fittings to support infrastructure (US ) also LAYN waste water
PICO bought heavily by Bonne Pickens as a 'water holdings - reserve play in the states'

VE and SZE are US ADR listed large cap supply and International Infrastructure plays

I own CWCO risky stock but has desalination major position in the Carribean market

Personally i would look at Intrastructure and waste water comapnies
WTS FTEK and MWA are good plays ( i own WTS) World water Infrastructure is in very bad state US and internationally - i see this as a growth industry alaong with water supply in general.

Dos anyone have similar companies in Australia that are related to water supply / Infrastructure

Regards

Winston001
09-01-2007, 11:50 PM
Thanks for your suggestions Mjdtrader and I'll check them out.

Broke - "drinking quality" water is important but is only a very small part of total water demand. Essentially every organism on Earth needs water and we in turn need the plants, creatures etc, not to mention washing, industrial uses. Water can be filtered at the point of consumption as it is in many homes today and of course there is a market for such filters. However it is competitive and I just don't find it quite so interesting.

My thoughts are that finding, pumping, and transferring water from one place to another provide the best investing keyhole. That requires equipment and expertise, which is likely to come from the private sector, even if governments own and control the actual water itself. Desalination hadn't occurred to me but it is an obvious technology.

Steve
26-01-2007, 06:03 AM
Perhaps Australia needs to think about getting private investment into its water infrastructure instead of trying to bring it under Federal control? Obviously State control is not working, and I'm sure private investors would jump at the chance

Howard turns on waterworks (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420928)
Prime Minister John Howard has moved dramatically to shore up his environmental credentials with a massive A$10 billion ($11.1 billion) plan to develop and manage water resources in the planet's driest inhabited continent.
...
Howard intends using federal powers to take control of the mighty Murray-Darling river system from the four eastern-coast states that manage it now.

Winston001
01-02-2007, 07:59 AM
Here is an article forwarded to me from my broker, from an Australian perspective:

PORTFOLIO POINT: Opportunities are springing up for companies that purify, desalinate and provide water to an increasingly thirsty world.


I was emptying a bucket of precious shower water on to the garden the other morning when it hit me with a gush of inspiration: we should be investing in this stuff, not just showering with buckets at our feet and buying rainwater tanks.

Think about it: water is a commodity; it is more important to us than oil; it's in short supply (only 2% of the earth's water is fresh); there is no more of it on the planet now than a million years ago and yet there are now six billion people using it.

And, sure enough, water investments are springing up around the globe. There are funds, companies, ETFs — you name it. As I started to research the subject, I found that water is the latest, hottest investment commodity and many experts say it is likely to outstrip the so-called China commodities such as oil and base metals in the years ahead. This is clearly going to be a major investment theme around the world for at least the next decade.

At Morgan Stanley's global economics team's annual conference in January, called MacroVision, both the boffins and their clients concluded that 2007 would see a shift from oil and hard commodities such as metals into the softer agricultural commodities. Chief economist Steve Roach, reporting on the conference, said: "Corn and water came up as the most interesting soft commodity plays, the former for its connections to alternative sources of energy (that is, ethanol) and the latter as a potential bottleneck to globalisation."

One of the articles on the subject that I have read in the past few days, in the Christian Science Monitor, quotes Maude Barlow, chairwoman of the Council of Canadians, as saying: "Not too far in the future, we're going to see a move to surround and commodify the world's fresh water. Just as they've divvied up the world's oil, in the coming century there's going to be a (water) grab." She even predicted a kind of water OPEC, a cartel of water-exporting countries that she thinks could emerge over the next decade. "Water is blue gold; it's terribly precious," she said.


Depleting groundwater

It's not just Australia that's over-allocating its water and causing shortages. New Scientist magazine says farmers in India, using crude oilfield technology, have drilled 21 million wells into the strata beneath the fields, and every year millions more wells are being drilled throughout the entire south Asian region to service irrigate water-needy crops such as rice and sugar cane. The magazine quoted research from the annual Stockholm Water Symposium, that the pumps that transformed Indian farming are drawing 200 cubic kilometres of water to the surface each year, while only a fraction of that is replaced by monsoon rains. At this rate, the research suggested, groundwater supplies in some areas will be exhausted in five to 10 years, and millions of Indians will see their farmland turned to desert.

In China, 30 cubic kilometres more water is being pumped to the surface each year than is replaced by rain, one of the reasons that the country has become dependent on grain imports from the West.

Jon Markman, an investment writer with msn, says China has as much water as Canada but 40 times more people; its per capita water reserves are only about a fourth the global average; of its 669 cities, 440 regularly suffer moderate to severe water shortages. In fact, global water is almost as much about China as the other commodities are, like copper, zinc, iron ore and oil.

As for investing in water, Australia is way behind. Today we publish a list of companies on the stock exchange that have some water businesses, but in general we are focused on saving the Murray-Darling river system and on our own moderate-to-severe water shortages in the cities these days.

Australia is one of the many nations in water deficit and becoming obsessed with the po

mjdtrader
09-02-2007, 01:39 PM
Thank Winston for the information on Aus water related companies, i will digest this info

Just for interest ,French company and US listed company VE Veolia Environnement SA also has a presence in Australia. resently won a contract with Queensland government for recycled water project. Not sure that this has gone forward as yet - I was resently in Australia and people were not to happy at the prospect of drinking recycled water, so it may have resistance yet.
http://www.veoliaenvironnement.com/en/newsroom/20061205,drought-veolia-water.aspx

http://ww.pennnet.com/display_article/279017/41/ARTCL/none/none/WaterBriefs

Steve
17-02-2007, 08:25 PM
We wished for and soon we may have...

Thames Water stakeholder's NZX float (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10424424)
A new infrastructure investment fund with a $100 million stake in London utilities company Thames Water is to be floated on the NZX by Macquarie Bank.

The Business Herald understands that the Australian bank plans to float the company as a standalone entity that will eventually invest in a range of utilities and infrastructure assets.

The offer is expected to be launched in the next two weeks and will raise funds to cover its Thames investment.

muckypup
18-02-2007, 11:50 AM
Hi,

I know the article Winston printed. It is by Alan Kohler and appears in the Eureka Report. Alan Kohler presents the finance on ABC news here in the West. He is very good. There is a free 14 day trial available via the web.

I am holding EVZ, their profit should jump this year based on aquisitions. The info below is from their website:

http://www.envirozel.com.au/index.htm


COMPANY TIMELINE

Historically, the Company focused on technologies based on applications making use of the mineral zeolite.

As a first step toward re-structure, following the appointment of a new Board of Directors, the Syfon Group, with operations in Australia and South East Asia, was acquired early in 2004.

June 2004 the name was changed to Envirozel Limited (formerly Zeolite Australia Ltd) to reflect the larger organisation and the new direction into environmentally focused activities.

Late in 2004 an arrangement was entered into whereby the management, control and financial risk of the Zeolite business, was transferred to a successful private company with a 15% shareholding retained by Envirozel as an investment.

NuSource Water Pty Ltd was formed in 2004 to take advantage of a technology licence for the treatment of waste water.

Envirozel Limited consolidated during 2005 with particular emphasis on building towards profitability, creating sustainable cash flows, cleaning up the balance sheet and developing ongoing relationships with shareholders.

April 2006 the business of E. Brockman & Son Pty Ltd, based in Geelong, was acquired. The business now operates as Brockman Engineering Pty Ltd.

August 2006 Envirozel raised $2.5 million from a placement of shares.

September 2006 announcement of maiden profit.

November 2006 Envirozel announces proposed acquisition of Danum Engineering. (now completed)

GROWING IN A NEW ENVIRONMENT


The issued capital is approx. 156 million ordinary shares.
The company’s market capitalisation is approx. $50 million.
The 20 largest shareholders hold approx. 52% of the issued capital.
The Directors hold approx. 18% of the issued capital.