21 July 2007 - 15:00
Dragon to Fire Up Oxonica
Richard Farleigh, one of the Dragons who took part in the BBC’s series Dragons' Den and one of the more open-minded and adventurous if my memory serves me right, will be joing the board of
Oxonica and playing a greater role, althouth he is already the largest shareholder with a 15% stake. (Perhaps he was beginning to be concerned about what was happening with his money?)
He will become deputy chairman and will eventually take over from current chairman, Christopher Moore. He will also help the company raise much-needed funds. Oxonica is down to its last £3m in cash.
The company lost a crucial contract with the Turkish energy company
Petrol Ofisi and has already declared that sales revenues will miss market expectations.
Oxonica is currently carrying out a strategic review of its operations which include medical diagnostics, fuel-efficiency technology and a nanotechnology product used in suncream.
Mr Farleigh, who first invested in Oxonica when it was spun out of Oxford University in the 1990s, has also become deputy chairman of
ClearSpeed. What do Clearspeed do ? ClearSpeed Technology the world leader in acceleration technology for high performance computing, is a semiconductor company that develops massively parallel coprocessors, accelerator boards and software for applications in financial services, universities, national laboratories and other numerically intensive disciplines." So now you know !
"I am putting a lot of energy into the two companies," Mr Farleigh said.
There is an interesting article about Mr Farleigh on
Wikipedia, it reads a bit like a PR blurb but interesting all the same. Mr Farleigh sounds like he knows what he wants and how to get it -
Richard FarleighSo perhaps the ‘energy’ he will be putting into Oxonica will sort out its problems.
Oxonica is currently embroiled in a patent dispute with Neuftec, which led to the recent remark by the Neuftec directors : "The directors of Neuftec … are taking very seriously the far from accurate portrayal of the facts contained within the release from Oxonica PLC. Neuftec are in consultation with their international legal team relating to the inaccuracies riddled throughout the statement and will be issuing a detailed press release shortly."
And to a more complete clarification of the various issues and disputes on 18 July -
EarthTimesAt the AGM the Oxonica directors said : "
Stagecoach is currently conducting a trial to affirm the effectiveness of
Envirox(TM) in its fleet, as envisaged at the time of the original agreement with Oxonica. The trial is expected to continue over the next 4 to 5 months."
And : "Richard Farleigh, the well-known and very successful technology investor and currently the largest single shareholder in Oxonica, has agreed to join the Board as Deputy Chairman immediately following the AGM with a view to leading the Company's fundraising efforts. Christopher Moore has indicated his intention to step down in due course following the orderly handover of the Chairmanship to Richard Farleigh. Also, Foresight Venture Partners, the Investment Adviser to the Foresight Funds and TriVest, together the largest combined shareholder group in Oxonica, has been granted observer status at future Board meetings. David Hughes, a Foresight partner with over 30 years of venture capital and corporatefinance experience with smaller listed companies, is the nominated representative. During this transition period, the Board will be further reorganised to reflect the strategic challenges facing Oxonica going forward."
Apparently at the AGM the directors also "admitted failures in the Petrol Ofisi episode, but refused to discuss the Neuftec legal case and claimed they didn't want stuff to appear on blog sites!" Cheek !
One commentator has called the goings on at Oxonica "an imploding
nanofiasco. When CTO’s start to be laid off in the interest of cost cutting you know the company has abandoned plans to dig itself out of the hole.
London’s AIM market is lightly regulated in the interest of stimulating early stage companies, but the firing and defection of large chunks of the management team and attempting to flog off big chunks of the business on the cheap sounds like the sort of information that should be disclosed to investors, especially in light of a crash then a trebling then a crash of the share price in the meantime."
CientificaThe interesting 1 year chart
;EMA(30);EMA(50);EMA(100);EMA(200)&IND=MACD(26,12,9){U};BBWidth(20,2){U};VOLMA(60);RSI(14);ADX(14)&Layout=2Line;Default;Price;HisDate&XCycle=&XFormat=)
The equally interesting 2 month
candlestick chart - note the recent 100% rise from 40p to 80p and the subsequent slide back to 40p - !
;EMA(30);EMA(50);EMA(100);EMA(200)&IND=MACD(26,12,9){U};BBWidth(20,2){U};VOLMA(60);RSI(14);ADX(14)&Layout=2Line;Default;Price;HisDate&XCycle=&XFormat=)
These charts merely tell me that you need a brain in touch with the ethereal realms of extra-sensory perception to invest in this company, as I mentioned in a previous post on this very blog -
Oxonica Flies Fuelled by PsychicsSo these could be even more interesting times for Oxonica. Will I be investing in Oxonica ? No thanks, I 've got enough problems without adding sleepless nights to the list. I've no doubt that with Mr Farleigh and Foresight Venture taking a closer interest something wil happen but quite what that something is I have no idea. If Oxonica needs cash then someone may be willing to provide that cash, but at what price ? What conditions will be imposed ? Personally, I prefer to wait until the dust settles.
[There is no copyright on my scribblings so please feel free to distribute them far and wide - though a link to this post would be nice. Comments are encouraged too!]
oxonicarichard farleighdragons' denneuftecclearspeed
