How do you make the leap from biomass to Bitcoin and battery storage?
Active Energy Group PLC (AIM:AEG, OTCQB:ATGVF). The pivot, or should I say full 180, has been something of a life-saver, in commercial and corporate terms at least.
AEG, in its former incarnation, was developing and attempting to commercialise its CoalSwitch technology, but without much success. With the end of the funding runway looming, it was saved by a convertible loan note facility and new management.
It has since secured further funding via an oversubscribed share placing. Earlier in the summer, it fleshed out its Bitcoin treasury strategy, followed by a diversification into other cryptocurrencies.
On Friday, somewhat out of left field, AEG announced a move into battery storage with a deal to develop a 150 megawatt facility west of Cardiff. This will generate an estimated £300,000 income stream for the next 30 years.
Strong move
The shares jumped 50% today and are up 90% over the week.
But what conclusion do we draw? Well, AIM is, as it has ever been, a weird and wacky place. However, there is also method to the madness.
The shell of AEG, already plumbed in and ready to trade, was obviously worth more than the legacy assets it owned. The new AEG spotted what the market didn’t: an opportunity to apply the defibrillator.
Out has gone the old guard and in has come accountant and corporate financier Pankaj Rajani as chairman, while Paul Elliot, a property developer whose bio says he specialises in turning distressed assets into “profitable ventures”, has taken the role of CEO.
It remains to be seen whether the “p-word” will ever be uttered in the same sentence as AEG, but investors seem to like what they have seen so far.