SunSeeker banking on solar technology

SunSeeker Energy (Australasia) (SSE) didn't raise any capital as part of its listing but quietly went ahead and listed with a market cap of just over $18 million. The company's motto is "To save the planet for our children's children", and it describes itself as "an ethical green business in renewable energy committed to exploiting solar technology to help fight global warming and rescue the planet for our children's children".

Looks as though there is nothing like starting as you mean to go on. In fact, the company's reason for being looks like the ultimate think-global, act-local strategy.
As the name suggests the company is about using the sun to generate energy, via a new technology called segmented parabola energy (SPE), whatever that is. A search on Google using that term yielded a rare singularity – only one result and it was from the SunSeeker Energy Australasia website.

So not much information to go on about what the technology does or its benefits. Of course this may come, but as yet, the information doesn't appear to be available.
SSE's only asset is a 32 per cent shareholding in a company called Sun Seeker Energy (UK) Ltd, a British-based company that holds the rights for the marketing and manufacture of SunSeeker's products in Australasia, and is negotiating to acquire the rights for the British market.

SunSeeker Energy (UK) is looking to list on the AIM market in London in order to raise capital to develop SunSeeker's products for the British market.
SSE plans to manufacture and market the same types of products for the New Zealand market.

However, looking through the company's website and the website of the ultimate rights holder, SunSeeker Energy Ltd of Hong Kong, there isn't even a picture of what one of these units might look like. SSE claims that these units have several advantages and positive attributes, but it is hard to know if the units are any good based on the information publicly available.

Frankly, there is hardly any information available and that makes any assessment of the company's prospects, even at the most basic level, difficult.
Clearly, the plan is to raise capital to build manufacturing capacity, sales and marketing channels and the necessary company and administration facilities, but how much is an open question.

The SPE product is a new technology and there is no information as to how this might be received by potential purchasers.

All that appears to have happened to date is that the Hong Kong-based company has sold some territory licenses and will be paid a royalty stream, presumably to fund further research and development. Australia and New Zealand seem to be at the forefront of the licence sales.
The directors of SSE must have had some level of information about the product and its prospects, but have chosen or been unable to share it with potential investors.

There is also a lack of market information about the demand for solar power in general. The demand for non-fossil fuel energy is growing, but what does that mean for solar power?
It has always been a bit on the margin of power generation because of the cost per kilowatt-hour to generate electricity. Does SSE have something new that will create a new paradigm for electricity generation?

Don't know. Can't tell. According to the licence agreements that are available on the company's page on the NZX website, SSE will have to start paying royalties in October, at the rate of A$30,000 a month. This is almost $400,000 per annum, and the money will have to come from somewhere as SSE doesn't appear to have much in the bank at all. The company will have to get about raising its profile with investors and brokers if it wants to raise capital from the market in the next few months.

It is good to see companies with ideas using the NZAX market, but it has to be asked whether SSE has decided to list too early. The company has one asset, a significant, but minority position in another company that holds the rights to the licences that the company has signed up to. It doesn't appear to have any cash, and its prospects are difficult to get to grips with simply because information is hard to come by. It is a true speculative investment. It would have been better perhaps to wait till SSE had developed a bit further before going ahead with a listing.