Investing, without the middleman September 7, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Investing , add a commentWith all the doom and gloom around financial markets at the moment, its hard to know where to invest. When the banks are reluctant to lend to each other, I certainly don’t want to be lending my hardearned, albeit small, savings to them. The green stocks have stayed up rather well, though the funds make me nervous. This probably isn’t a good time to be playing with shares, unless you really know what you’re doing.
An interesting thought from Zopa, at the end of a good simple explanation of the problem with collateralised loans, is that they may well benefit from the credit squeeze if it hits the small loans market. I put a few hundred pounds in here a couple of months ago as an experiment, and so far, my money has gone out to help people buy cars in Reading, Dudley and Brighton, do home improvements in Salisbury, plus a few consolidating existing debts. The interest rate beats ordinary savings, and defaults are low. The risk of default is spread across many lenders, so even if one of my borrowers disappears, I’ve only lent them twenty quid. Apparently Zopa have plans to be available to SIPPs, which will make it even more attractive.
Most importantly, its pretty clear where the money comes from, and where it goes and, because its simple, fees are low. Right now, even those who spend their lives at it don’t seem to have a clue where the fallout from all this is going to land. For the rest of us then, transparency and clarity are even more important than usual.
Technorati Tags: zopa
The ups and downs of wave power May 24, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Investing, Little Green Portfolio , add a commentMy holdings in Renewable Energy Holdings plc have been causing perplexity this week. I topped up on this share early in February, and its been in the doldrums ever since. However, a rather odd market announcement caused it to shoot up briefly, and I sold the shares I bought a couple of months ago for a nice wee 10% profit. Now, its sunk back down again, and I notice that it oscillates in this way fairly regularly.
I normally operate a buy and hold strategy for the shares, but I think for this, I’ll try something new. I’ve put in a buy order at 36p, and when I get it, I think I’ll put in a sell order at 48p and see what happens. It seems to fluctuate wildly on news which leads nowhere, although the underlying wave power technology for which I originally bought the stock still looks good. I’m keeping a basic holding throughout, so if it does ever do what its supposed to do and the stock takes off, I’ll still have an intereste.
One of the nice people over at the Interactive Investors discussion board pointed out this site, which is the subsidiary of REH that owns the CETO technology, and explains it rather well, with a rather relaxing video of the power-generating buoys floating up and down in the water. Go and have a look.
Which Fuel Cell companies? February 12, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Investing, Little Green Portfolio , 2 commentsRight. My pension contribution is sitting in the stockbroker account, and I really need to decide what to do. Looking through the list I found a couple of weeks ago, I quickly realise that there are not many to choose from.
Voller Energy considers the military as one of its major markets, so they are hardly going to fit in with the ethical criteria I use.
Proton Power Systems may or may not be interesting, but without even having an investor relations section on their website, its impossible to tell.
Polyfuel also see the military as a major market.
Oxford Catalysts has just been shortlisted for the ministry of Defense’s Portable Power Systems research project. This is getting difficult.
This leaves three, all of which are worth a little more effort. Ceramic Fuel Cells, Ceres Power and CMR Fuel Cells are targeting rather different areas of the fuel cell market, and all are at least a year from having any sales revenue, so will be fairly speculative. It may be that buying smaller holdings in these three (and perhaps Acta, which is no more speculative than the others) is a better bet. A little more research is needed, so more blog entries to come.
Technorati Tags: fuel cell
Acta Nano-Tech January 29, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Investing, Little Green Portfolio , 1 comment so farAnalysing these fuel-cell related companies is proving to be harder than expected. For one thing, its a fairly technical area so I’ve been having to read quite widely to understand what they’re talking about. The book Hydrogen and Fuel Cells: Emerging Technologies and Applications (Sustainable World)
The first of the companies I identified as a possible investment in a posting a couple of weeks ago, Acta Nanotech SpA is an Italian company based in Pisa and specialising in the development of catalysts which aid reactions within the fuel cells. One of the stumbling blocks to cheaper fuel cells is that the most effective catalyst available today is platinum, which is rare and expensive. Acta have just gained a European patent for their ‘Hypermec’ catalyst, which uses base metals rather than platinum. It can also be used with ethanol or ethylene glycol as the fuel, widening the range of uses of the fuel cell.
All this sounds like a good idea, and an interesting one to watch, but it is, as the Investors Chronicle said in their 22 December 2006 edition, ‘too speculative to call’. The companies fortunes rest entirely on this technology, and there is a lot of work taking place in this area. For instance, in a rather earlier stage of development, a recent report in Science suggests that a platinum-nickel alloy may be 90 times more effective than current platinum-carbon alloys.
From a commercial and financial point of view, the company’s long term relationship with Sumitomo Corp suggests at least that someone else has faith in them. At the time of their last interim report, six months ago, they had two years cash cover, so will need to go for further funding fairly soon I suspect.
I rather like the fact that Toby Woolrych, their Chief Operating Officer, will shortly be speaking at a conference on how AIM companies can differentiate themselves by better governance, which at least demonstrates an interest in such matters.
While I can see the potential of technology which enables ethanol-based fuel cells, using fuel that is easier to produce and store than hydrogen or methanol, this stock is too speculative for me. I’ll keep it on the watchlist, and observe with interest.
Technorati Tags: Acta SpA, fuel cells
Renewable Energy Holdings news January 15, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Investing, Little Green Portfolio , add a commentBuried deep in a trade journal, there is a little more detail of the success of the CETO trial carried out in Australia. The CETO device, which is one of Renewable Energy Holdings main strands of potential business, sits on the ocean floor and forces water through a narrow pipe to drive a turbine on shore.
Its not clear what impact this would have on the seabed environment, but there would certainly be no greenhouse gas emissions from operation (though probably some during production). Any power installation has some impact on the surrounding area so, provided care was taken, this seems a good, low-impact idea.
Trials continue this year, with likely commercialisation in 2010, making this a long term play. It is tempting to buy more now, at about 35p, given that the technology is increasingly proven but the price is almost at an alltime low.
Technorati Tags: Renewable Energy Holdings, CETO, wave power
Fuel Cell Companies January 10, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Investing, Little Green Portfolio , add a commentI found a list of LSE-listed companies with an interest in Fuel Cells on Fuel Cell Today website, so took a quick look through to see what would be worth reviewing in more depth.
Bear in mind that I’m looking at investing in environmentally-friendly, small green stocks, so I’ve eliminated bigger engineering firms, and also those which have an obvious bent towards the military. As with any technology, there are always likely to be military applications, and military funding, but its not something I’m interested in.
Next step is to have a good look at the ones in green below.
| Company Name | Symbol | Investment Candidate? |
| Acta | ACTA | Yes |
| BP | BP | No, too big |
| Ceramic Fuel Cells | CFU | Yes |
| Ceres | CWR | Yes |
| CMR Fuel Cells | CMR | Yes |
| DaimlerChrysler | DCX | No, too big |
| Johnson Matthey | JMAT | No, too big |
| ITM | ITM | No - clearly marketing to the military. If you’ve got the bandwidth though, check out the video - its amazing how much the guy can bend and twist their fuel cell stack |
| Oxford Catalysts | OCG | Yes |
Polyfuel |
PYF | Yes |
Proton Power |
PPS | Yes - though website very uninformative |
| Protonex | PTX | No - clearly marketing to the military |
| Rolls Royce | RR | No, too big |
| Samsung | SMSN | No, too big |
| Shell | RDSA | No, too big |
| Siemens | SIE | No, too big |
| United Technologies | UTC | No, too big |
| Voller | VLR | Yes |
Pension time again January 8, 2007
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Investing, Little Green Portfolio , add a commentIts about time I put some more money into my pension scheme, I think. Over the last year, my SIPP hasn’t really made any money, mostly due to one bad share, Renewable Energy Holdings, which I clearly should have ditched when it first started to slide. Having said that, the other shares in the little green portfolio have been very up and down, and are now about neutral, so I am going to hang onto it.
The start of the portfolio is Straight PLC, which took advantage of the water restrictions last summer to go as high as 314p in July, although its fallen to about 260p now. I’m still well in profit there.
Novera Energy hovers around 60p, which is the breakeven mark for me, and has just acquired the stake held by Macquarie Bank in a joint venture between itself and Macquarie. A good 2007 looks hopeful. The other stock, TEG Environmental, is also about breakeven at 82p, and has had some good orders over the last year.
With the exception of Straight, all these companies suffered quite badly from the correction last May, and its likely that falling oil prices will make REH and Novera look at little less attractive.
I’ve learned a couple of things. When I bought it, REH was heading into a clear high. That probably wasn’t a smart time to buy. These small shares can be very volatile, and sink into the doldrums when there’s no news, so waiting until times are quieter would be a good idea. I’m still happy with the buy and hold strategy though, and am sure that there’s a long term future for alternative energy and environmentally friendly stocks.
This time, I’m looking to buy 3 stocks in equal-value batches. I’m going to look at the fuel cells market, particularly Ceres and Ceramic Fuel Cells. Ceres share price has just gone through the roof, from 30p to 47p since the beginning of December, so I might give that one time to stabilise.
So, a few tasks:
General review of the fuel cells market
Are there any other companies in this area that are listed on the LSE
Research the companies
Go back to my original criteria, and select
I’m also reading Volker Quaschning’s book, Understanding Renewable Energy Systems
A coffee for your portfolio? October 9, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Investing , add a commentIts time to start thinking about my share investments again, after I’ve left them be over the summer. The Little Green Portfolio of green shares in my SIPP has become rather more little, with all the stocks languishing sadly.
Back in March, when I first started my SIPP, I put together some guidelines for myself in picking shares. I think the mistake I made was not to consider whether the share I was contemplating adding to the portfolio was at a peak price anyway. Most of the ones I bought were at alltime highs, and that may be part of why they haven’t recovered although the market itself has.
I’m now thinking about another purchase, not for my SIPP, but for my ISA. That means it can’t be an AIM listed stock, but has to be from the main market. A company I’m considering is Caffe Nero.
Caffe Nero were founded in the late nineties, and with a chain of just under 300 shops throughout the United Kingdom is the smallest of the three main coffee companies. Their main competitors are Costa Coffee and Starbucks, though of course they complete in the general leisure market as well, against local coffee shops and probably pubs too. Their coffee is stronger and, in my opinion at least, rather better than either of the other two.
The coffee shop market in the UK is expanding, and dominated by the chains, in contrast to the more traditional coffee markets in Europe which are dominated by independent stores. According to Allegra, there is still considerable room for growth in the UK. They have mooted plans to expand into Northern Europe and the Middle East, though nothing has happened on that front yet.
Their recent results are good, and they are now generating sufficient cash to fund their expansion plans from trading. There is also a possible management buyout in the wind, with the founder wanting to take the company private. For these reasons, Investors Chronicle tipped them this week.
Looking at the share price chart for this over the last few months leaves me worried though. The price has just passed an all-time high of 264, and overall it performed much more miserably over the summer months than the rest of the sector. The good results last week don’t seem to have helped the price much.
I think I’ll leave this one for the time being.
Technorati Tags: caffe nero
Sheep Poo Paper September 15, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Environment, Investing , add a commentNo, its not for wiping their woolly backsides. That would be silly. In fact, its a nice wee eco-friendly business.
Because sheep don’t digest the long cellulose fibres in grass very well, most of it passes through and, once sterilised, makes a rather good base for paper. Yes, its in Wales (though it wouldn’t surprise me if there was something similar in the Waikato, NZ).
Technorati Tags: sheep poo paper, business, green
Alternative Energy Shares July 21, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Investing, Little Green Portfolio , add a commentThere’s a useful article on how alternative energy companies might develop over the next few years here, making the points that their values are tied to the price of oil, and that they are all fairly long term plays.
Although the alternative energy companies have done well over the last year, they’ve been badly affected by the recent market falls.
The oil price has gone up again in the last few days, presumably because of the war in Lebanon (and it is a war, not just a ‘crisis’ as the BBC insists), though hopefully that will calm down soon. Certainly the rise in the oil price in the last year or so owes at least as much to problems in the Middle East than any real consideration of oil reserves dropping.
In many ways, the move to alternative energy seems likely to be driven far more by geopolitical concerns, and the desire of nations to make their energy supply secure than by concerns about global warming and carbon emissions. Frankly, I don’t care how we get there, so long as we move away from our dependence on fossil fuels, and don’t take the dark road to nuclear.
