BLT - Blis Technologies

[Nigel]

I'm keen to hear from someone who was there about the general sentiment, more information about the capital raising and what came up in question time.

From the announcement, everything appears on track. As said earlier, it makes you question the motives behind 'the world is ending' tone of the announcement a few months ago (which happened to be just prior to conversion of the pref shares!).

[simla]

The appointment of Alan McConnon to BFF seems like interesting news. This is presumably the same man. http://investing.businessweek.com/re...sonId=11901488 "He has experience in consultancy and marketing in Australia, South America, Asia and the Middle East. He led the exporting activities for Australasian Food Holdings group into Asia, Japan and other world markets."

You wouldn't ask a man of his experience to go there if you didn't have interesting plans for BFF, I would have thought. Are we to see ice cream exports maybe? Don't know, but might be interesting to keep on eye on.

[simla]

"Legal opinion shows K12 & M18 as Not Novel, allowing European sales, Jul 2012." (p5, AGM presentation) That could be pretty good news. The company has said, "The wider European market represents a significant opportunity for the Company with the introduction of the BLIS K12 TM and BLIS M18 TM ingredients into new products." (p10, last report).

As I read the European laws, you need regulatory approval to get going but the enforcement of the laws is then up to each country, and some of the governments have blatantly said they have no intention of trying to kill off their huge food market. So Blis having a legal opinion saying that they're all go is probably the end of the matter as I undertand it (but I could be wrong.)

If so, Blis basically just announced they have got the equivalent of GRAS in Europe for both K12 and M18. That's no small statement if so. (Or maybe just for dietary supplements, but my understanding is that they're the same thing in Europe, but not sure.) And if that's the case, we might see a food product in Europe faster than the US? Anyone have a more certain understanding of any of that?

[simla]

It seems pretty obvious that the company has spent the last 18 months pushing really hard to restore sales. The cash cost of doing so last year was dramatic (distributor change, ice cream purchase) but it looks pretty clear to me that it's paying off. Ice cream sales around NZ are looking pretty promising, and an able person as the new chairman there. Internet sales picking up, and the likes on facebook just keep going up. Stratum are looking like a good bet and active. GRAS in the US and now seemingly in Europe, as well as China. Stronger support from some of the manufacturers it seems.

All of this builds on what they're spent some years assembling, but you sense an extra strength to the push over the last 18 months in response to the sagging sales of that time. All of which is good from the point of view of shareholders. I hope we don't see any more drama in the sharemarket, but in essence I've finally made it back to "optimistic". I haven't been there for almost two years, so I'm feeling pretty happy now.

I am very happy to thank the company for all it's efforts, once again. The dramas of this year have certainly been interesting for us as shareholders, but I have a strong sense here that Blis may have turned the final corner. I certainly hope so, but I am anyway happy to have arrived back at Optimistic.

Well done to all concerned.

[neopoleII]

well...... a bit of good news, and it seems the shareholders have voted and the board is listening.
that is good. blt is not out of the woods yet, but it seems they have found a compass and are on the right track now. can they make it out of the woods?... time will tell..... if they do.... i might ..... groan... invest some hard cash and ride the sp up to my break even of 23cents.
my buy in would be 5 cents per share..... to get to that, there has to be some good news related to sales and "profits".
it does seem .... as simla has said....... that management is trying hard to save this co.
but i need to see a real turn around before i invest more cash.
i think once or if the turn around happens.... things will move very fast from that point.
with the loss that im carrying now im way to shy to invest again at this stage, but im sure there a lots out there that a willing to have a punt at this point.... and start the momentum.

we hope..........

[emearg]

I'm glad resolution 5 failed.


Not sure about all the optimism from the presentation though? Not much new in the presentation was there?


Here is the new stuff and an opinion as I couldn't resist.


Page 2:
Approval in Europe. Good
Sales turning around. Yes we knew that but as they don't quantify them it isn't very meaningful


Page 3:
Nothing new


Page 4:
Television commercials. We knew that, and frankly NZ is so small it isn't enough to turn the profit/loss situation around.
Nothing else was new or meaningful


Page 5:
Growing sales in Europe. That sounds good. Maybe the approval they have, is allowing sales rather than thinking about selling into Europe?


Page 6:
Europe mentioned again. Sales started this month it seems. Good!
Nothing else was new.


Page 7:
BFF strategic intent is international markets. Good!
Products into food service channels. Good!
Selling well. Good but not quantified so not very meaningful.
New guy as chairman. Not sure this is necessary considering the size of BFF and the financial situation Blis is in.


Page 8:
Evaluating licensing proposals? Pity there isn't any detail!
Get GRAS for M18. Good!
Build sales in Europe.


Basically a real lack of detail. Especially around sales. No financial update? Shocking!


Did anybody attend?


Do we have to wait until late November for the half year report to get any quality information from Blis?

[emearg]

It seems pretty obvious that the company has spent the last 18 months pushing really hard to restore sales. The cash cost of doing so last year was dramatic (distributor change, ice cream purchase) but it looks pretty clear to me that it's paying off.

I'm lost. What makes it so clear?

[simla]

The imminent cash flow situation is much improved as I read it: Stratum, ice cream, Europe, probably China. (a) Things don't happen by themselves. (b) They spent a lot of cash getting to this position. (c) What else could they possibly have been meaning to do?

"Growing sales in Europe. That sounds good. Maybe the approval they have, is allowing sales rather than thinking about selling into Europe?"

Sometimes thing change quickly and it is hard to believe. When Blis went into the US, several hundred thousand in revenue resulted that year. Don't you think this could be more than "sounds good", but instead maybe "sounds imminent"?

"New guy as chairman. Not sure this is necessary considering the size of BFF and the financial situation Blis is in." Did you read about this guy? You don't ask someone like that in if you have no work for them to do.

By the way, did anybody notice that the last report simply said that China would take "Blis K12 products" (p9). It also said that NZPR was the "commericalisation partner" in China. (p8) And the AGM presentation said "infrastructure in China to market BLIS products" (p5). No mention of which products in particular. Ice cream? The last report said China had approved of Blis K12 "as a food ingredient" (p5). Interesting to watch anyway.

Anyway, I'm not trying to talk anyone into anything. Just saying what I see. I see a whole lot more stability than we've had for the last couple of years, or even had last week when we knew not about the delisting or the issue or Europe. Last November we agreed the business development was great but we needed cash flow to come together. Yesterday implied quite a bit about cashflow, but said nothing specific, as you say.

[emearg]

The imminent cash flow situation is much improved as I read it: Stratum, ice cream, Europe, probably China. (a) Things don't happen by themselves. (b) They spent a lot of cash getting to this position. (c) What else could they possibly have been meaning to do?

I hope you're right!

"New guy as chairman. Not sure this is necessary considering the size of BFF and the financial situation Blis is in." Did you read about this guy? You don't ask someone like that in if you have no work for them to do.

Yes plenty to do but not much money to pay for it. No point having good people if you can't afford them.

I see a whole lot more stability than we've had for the last couple of years, or even had last week when we knew not about the delisting or the issue or Europe. Last November we agreed the business development was great but we needed cash flow to come together. Yesterday implied quite a bit about cashflow, but said nothing specific, as you say.

I won't see more stability until they announce they have enough funds to stay afloat. This may be from raising more capital, licensing, or increased sales.

[simla]

We'll see, Emearg.

I said I would be ramping down after the AGM, and guess what, that's now. Thanks for your support over the years, and I'll still post from time to time I guess.

I feel Blis's fortunes suddenly re-emerged as looking good after that AGM presentation, as I've discussed above, so that's good. I'll certainly be looking forward to the November report with interest. Ciao.