Sunvault Energy Inc (OTCMKTS:SVLT) Has Important Decisions to Make
Sunvault Energy Inc (OTCMKTS:SVLT) has certainly given its shareholders a wild ride over the last year or so. Every few months, it experiences a couple of days of high volumes after which it slips under the radar. Sometimes, the increased volumes drive it up, and sometimes, they drag it down.
In February, for example, it surged in the right direction when it was surrounded by some rumors concerning a website and a video. Then, the hype dissipated and it dropped back down. It re-emerged at the end of May when some of the company Directors were saying that they’re just days away from coming up with a very clever super capacitor, but once again, the excitement died down and the ticker is now sliding towards the bottom. Yesterday, SVLT lost about 23% of its value and it stopped at $0.51 per share.
The performance can hardly be qualified as stable which means that treading carefully probably isn’t such a bad call. All we can do while you’re contemplating the risks is open the latest 10-K and see if we can find the reason for the shaky behavior. Let’s start with the figures:
- cash: $548 thousand
- current assets: $2.3 million
- current liabilities: $3.5 million
- yearly revenues: $8 million
- yearly net loss: $1.2 million
The revenue figure definitely stands out. SVLT mentioned in the report numerous times that they are now out of the development stage and they’re certainly right about that. What’s more, if you check out the previous reports, you’ll notice that the sales are growing at what appears to be a rather rapid rate. Sadly, that’s just about the only positive thing we can say about the statement.
The cash reserves really aren’t that huge, there’s quite a lot of debt, and a net income at the end of 2013 (albeit a small one) was turned into a net loss a year later. It must be said that things might be a little bit better at the moment, but unfortunately, we’ve no way of knowing whether that’s the case because the 2014 10-K is the most recent financial report. SVLT has been struggling with keeping current with its reporting obligations and nobody can say whether they will ever be able to sort out these problems. There are other question marks around the company’s future as well.
There were some strange events at the beginning of the year when some of SVLT‘s directors resigned which was followed by “a suspicious fire” that was lit on a leased piece of equipment and “a threatening call”. A suit is being prepared against the former directors, but its outcome is, as you might have guessed, unknown.
The biggest question around the future, however, is related to a recent offer made by Edison Power Company, one of SVLT‘s partners which, as we mentioned in our previous articles, was established less than four months ago. The people behind Edison have expressed their desire to acquire 50.1% of SVLT‘s stock at terms that have yet to be publicly disclosed. SVLT‘s management team announced yesterday that they will organize a webinar after tomorrow’s closing bell during which they will discuss whether to accept the deal or not. It should be interesting to see what they decide.
About twenty-five minutes after the opening bell, SVLT is sitting at $0.61 per share (about 19% in the green).
