ProTek Capital Inc (OTCMKTS:PRPM) Pushed Further Up
A lot has been going on around ProTek Capital Inc (OTCMKTS:PRPM) over the last couple of months and, as you can see from the chart on the right, all the changes have had a dramatic effect on the stock performance.
The company announced its intentions to enter the medical and recreational marijuana industry on February 3 and this was, apparently, just what investors wanted to hear. The ticker shot up immediately and, with the help of a few optimistic press releases, managed to break out of the triple zero territory that it had occupied for so long. The volumes have been quite strong and although we saw some hesitation last week, PRPM managed to close Friday’s session on a positive note.
It shifted more than 800 million shares resulting in a dollar volume of around $926 thousand. The price moved up by 10% and PRPM closed the week at $0.0011 per share. The reason for the positive day was, most likely, a press release that hit the wire about half an hour before the opening bell. It said that a stock repurchase and retirement program is about to start which will result in a reduction in the O/S count by around 2 billion shares. Both the new business, and the new share structure suggest that the outlook seems bright. If you do a bit of research, however, you’ll see that PRPM has some skeletons in the closet and we reckon that keeping them in mind might not be a bad call.
The company has been around for quite some time and this isn’t its first series of positive press releases. Back in the summer of 2013, for example, they announced that they have signed a letter of intent to acquire a private enterprise called APT Group Inc – a motorbike and go-cart manufacturer with millions of dollars in annual revenues. Everyone seemed quite excited by the prospect and even the pumpers decided to send one or two no-compensation alerts in an attempt to lure in investors. In December, however, PRPM‘s management team announced that something had gone wrong and that they won’t be pursuing the acquisition.
And since we mentioned the management team, we should note that the company was previously headed by a person called Edward Vasker. Mr. Vasker’s reputation isn’t exactly spotless and there are a few good reasons for this. For one, he made quite a lot of promises while he was at PRPM‘s helm, but, in reality, he failed to achieve anything substantial. The latest report, for example, shows that as of October 31, the company had:
- $72 in cash
- $21 thousand in current assets
- $223 thousand in current liabilities
- no revenue
- a quarterly net loss of around $45 thousand
Mr. Vasker is also involved with a couple of other penny stocks (3D Eye Solutions, In (OTCMKTS:TDEY) and PBS Holding, Inc. (OTCMKTS:PBHG)) that are not doing particularly well and, according to this article, he has had some brushes with the law.
To the shareholders’ relief, Mr. Vasker decided to leave PRPM in December. His position was filled by a person called Luther Jeffries who later canceled all the deals and contracts signed by the former management team. Everything should suggest that Edward Vasker has absolutely nothing to do with PRPM at the moment. Is that really the case though?
When the company announced its plans to enter the pot industry, they also said that they are going to change the name to Luxuriant Holdings. A new website was created, but if you have a look through the internet databases, you’ll see that its domain name appears to have been registered by none other than Edward Vasker.
This, of course, doesn’t necessarily mean that PRPM is about to fail just like it has done numerous times in the past. Keeping all the facts in mind, though, might not be a bad call.
