Penny Stock Beats Drink from the Source with Expert Group Inc (PINK:EXPU)
Drinking water is a commodity that not everyone on this world has access to. We have all heard the news that drought is a major problem in a lot of African countries and that people die every day because of diseases related to contaminated water. That’s not that much of a problem in the Western world, but you still see doctors and professors appearing on TV saying that the water you drink from the faucet is bad for your health and that you should avoid it at all costs. That’s why you have so many companies that specialize in the business of bottled water. Expert Group Inc (PINK:EXPU) is now one of them.
That wasn’t always the case. EXPU was incorporated back in 1998 and since then, they have been struggling to find a business that will bring them the all-important profit. They have been dealing with just about anything from pharmaceuticals to ATM machines and now, they say that they’re going to turn things around with their high-end bottled water that supposedly comes from one of the purest springs in the US.
According to recent press-releases, they now own the license to produce, distribute and sell a well-renowned brand of bottled water called Pleasant Springs. Their filings, however, state that the licensing agreement with the company currently holding the rights to Pleasant Springs will not be finalized until May. We’re not quite sure if we should trust the PR’s or the quarterly report and, unfortunately, EXPU are not able to give us any concrete information on how well (and if) their water bottling business is coming along. The latest financial statement that they filed was for the quarter that ended on September 30 and according to it, they have started bottling water on September 21, which means that the figures contained in this report are related to their previous business – assisting mortgage applicants and generating revenue through ATM commissions. Looking through the financials, we can see why they decided to search for different ways of generating income. EXPU were working at a constant loss, and there were several notes in default.
The good news is that they managed to settle the defaulted notes. The bad news is, they had to do it through the issuance of 80 million shares of EXPU common stock. This might have crushed the shareholders’ investments to some extent, but it’s nothing compared to the fact that the number of authorized shares has been increased three times over the last couple of years and the number of stock splits associated with the constant name changes.
Having all that in mind, we reckon that the management team will have their work cut out keeping the investors happy. Since we mentioned grumpy investors, we should also point out that we found this report on ripoffreport.com where the name of EXPU‘s CEO, Al Culbreth is mentioned. It would seem that while he was at the helm of one of his previous companies, he was sued for fraud by people who felt that he got their money and ran away. Apparently, the court decided that the complaints were without merit, but we still have some doubts about Mr. Culberth. Namely, we can’t understand why he is quoted in EXPU‘s filings as Alferd Culberth, while according to his LinkedIn profile, his name is Alfred Culberth.
Investors probably won’t get an answer to that question any time soon, but we reckon that they are more eager to find out what is happening with the bottled water business. The only way to find that out is through a newer financial report. We are looking forward to it as well.
In the meantime, we are receiving some emails from pumpers like Penny Stock Beats, and having in mind their previous performance with supposedly “promising” picks, we’re not sure if you should trust them. On March 4, for example, they alerted their subscribers about Sunbelt Intl Corp (PINK:SUNB). Eight hours after the email came in, SUNB had lost 35% of their value and, looking at the chart on the right, you can see that they have not been doing particularly well during the days that followed.
This is why, you should carefully consider the risks associated with investing in EXPU and, we reckon that, at least until a newer financial report is filed, there’s quite a lot of them.
