Of late I have been speaking at length with various people about my thoughts on the subject of EnSilica (London: ENSI) working towards a dual listing in the United States. In my opinion, this together with the right momentum from EnSilica in terms of continued positive news on general progress, cash flow and contracts could be transformative while significantly raising its profile.
Clearly the timing of this would depend upon various factors such as available cash and resources to complete the process and maintain the regulatory requirements and compliance with the exchange’s standards.
Right now I am of the opinion that being solely listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) is curtailing investment by international and some British retail investors as well as institutional investors. There’s also the issue of Britain’s 0.5% duty on share purchases, a regressive tax before any profit has even been made and disproportionately penalising younger lower-income investors (such as I once was), but don’t get me started on that!
In the right circumstances a dual-listing could potentially allow EnSilica to raise significant capital to be put to use in its business for organic growth as well as possibly carefully selected acquisitions that will not overwhelm the management or risk the future success of the firm. So initially, perhaps relatively small and focused acquisitions that complement what they already do or at least can leverage their existing expertise and reputation.
Why I believe investment is being curtailed is due to many international investors I speak with being unable to invest, or in the case of r/trading212 (who have about 4.5 million users) being currently prevented from buying more than 1,512 shares for a reason I cannot fully understand. Looking further afield a good number of North American investors have to call their broker to trade (costing $100 in one example mentioned on my sub), and for another reason I cannot fully comprehend either, Robinhood does not even list the ticker.
All in all I am of the opinion that tens millions of potential investors cannot easily invest should they choose to, or invest at all unless they change their broker, such as I understand a small number have done given the apparent potential for EnSilica. For an example of the potential I foresee, see my recent post on the r/Investing sub…
Why EnSilica is Worth Possibly 13x its Current Price (Updated)
I have raised this idea with Mark Hodgkins, EnSilica’s Executive Chairman recently and look forward to discussing it further should the opportunity be available. Some might say I am an ‘activist investor’ but I prefer ‘active investor’ as I currently wholeheartedly support EnSilica’s talented and hardworking management. I do not want to distract, but help where I can do so.
As an active investor, as a rallying call to fellow EnSilica investors…
‘Ask not what EnSilica can do for you, but what you can do for EnSilica’ 😁
May fortune favour the brave!
DB
EDIT: As an update on my current position on this matter… I am currently encouraging EnSilica to view that the bare minimum they should achieve, as soon as reasonably practicable, is to be listed on the US ‘pink sheet’ exchange, otherwise known as the OTC Markets. In a recent article carried by The Times it was stated that more than three quarters of London’s FTSE 100, and a similar proportion of the FTSE 250 are cross-trading on OTC Markets.*
In my opinion this would significantly reduce investor friction, reduce opacity of the current AIM off-book dealings, as well as potentially improve liquidity while dramatically improving access to the deep pool of capital in the US.
* https://www.thetimes.com/article/b553625e-4635-4c14-8a82-af6d1f922c19
