Post by
AlwaysLong683 on Feb 08, 2022 5:05pm
EXRO Management
Some in here are still bullish on EXRO management and are asking for facts re. what they have done poorly:
1) BAD FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT AND JUDEGEMENT:
- In early November 2021, EXRO was at one point trading over 4.00 per share.
- Througout the months of November and December 2021, EXRO was trading in the 3.00 - 4.00 range.
- Prior to the initiation of the lawsuit, EXRO was trading in the 2.25 to 2.75 range during the first half of January 2022.
- Canadian small cap tech stocks took a beating in 2021 and trying to predict when a turnaround in this sector would occur is a dangerous guessing game.
- EXRO annouced an equity raise at a price of 1.60 in a PR dated January 26, 2022, just days after the initiation of legal action by e-Propelled.
Management is responsible for determining when to do equity raises or debt financings. If EXRO knew it had to raise money in the new year and decided to hold off until 2022, they were engaging in sheer speculation, period. On what basis were they so confident that the share price would turn around in January (lawsuit or not) that they delayed the equity raise until then? if you know you will need to raise money within the next 3 to 6 months, you don't let your window of opportunity narrow to such a degree that you are at the mercy of the market at whatever price you can get when you've run out of time or an unforseen event arises. If the market bumps your share price up to 4.00 a share in November 2021 after it's been trading in the 3.00 to 4.00 range since May 2021 and you know you'll need money in the new year and you don't have a crystal ball re. future share prices, good financial management would dictate an easy call that you sieze the opportunity and cut a deal with underwriters for the best possible price. Even if the deal will be priced at 3.50 a share, that's around the average share price of the stock over the past 6 months, so that would be fair, especially if you know you'll need the money.
There's a difference between technological expertise and financial expertise. Some CEOs of tech companies have both. Nonetheless, if you are the CEO of the company, part of your job is managing the finances of the company well and making prudent calls on debt and equity raises. If you are not good at this, you should not be the CEO. If you are good on the innovation and technology end, then you should be in a research and development role or some other technical position with the company, not its CEO.
2) POOR SHAREHOLDER / ANALYST COMMUNICATION:
- In EXRO's last four quarterly earnings report press releases
Q4 2020 PR dated April 6, 2021
Q1 2021 PR dated May 11, 2021
Q2 2021 PR dated August 11, 2021
Q3 2021 PR dated November 9, 2021,
there is no mention of a Conference Call with analysts.
Companies that hold analyst conference calls will indicate the date and time of the call in the press release, typically provide a phone number where anyone can listen in on the call, and, among the companies that are the best at shareholder communication, will put either a written transcript of the call on their website or an audtio recording of the call on their website for a couple of weeks in case shareholders or analysts were unavailable at the time of the call.
Read the four EXRO quarterly earnings report press releases outlined above and see if you can find any reference to a conference call. Or, show me where one can find the dates and times of quarterly conference calls if not on the PRs (where they should be seen in any event). In fact, I'll broaden this challeng out: Can any Sue Ozdemir boosters out there show me the dates and times of any publicly-released conference calls EXRO has done in the past year (but even if they did in fact hold them amd allowed shareholders to listen in, not indicating them on their quarterly earnings press releases where shareholders can easily find such information is poor shareholder communication in and of itself).
- What does CEO Sue Ozdemir provide instead on an annual basis? Two letters to shareholders (April 16, 2021 PR and August 31, 2021 PR).
In other words, over the past year, she appears to have taken zero questions from analysts on the record for shareholders to hear / read. Instead, she controls the narrative by issuing shareholder letters where she can communicate the topics / information she wants to while being able to avoid any questions about the company she does not want to address. She does the same in quarterly earnings press releases: provides commentary on the company on the information she wishes to communicate while avoiding questions analysts may have that she may not wish to address.
This is not the way a CEO should behave. Good CEOs of companies both large and small not only hold quarterly conference calls, but are present for them and field whatever questions analysts may have. Quarterly conference calls are especially important for small companies as it provides them wth the opportunity to communicate whatever they wish on company operations in their opening statements to analysts, existing shareholders, potential future shareholders, etc. (usually both the CEO and CFO make separate statements). Then, they welcome questions to clarify any concerns individuals may have with the company that haven't been addressed so that no speculation is required re. these topics.
It will be interesting to see if EXRO holds a conference call with both the CEO and CFO present ready and willing to take and respond to analyst questions rafter the next quarterly earnings results are released (last year's quarterly earnings results press release was issued in early April).