CSS - Clean Seas Seafood

[nizora]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

Sadly currently 116 sellers for 14,586,736 units and 77 buyers for 12,426,333 units.
The price just kept dropping from the manipulative pre SPP high 7.7 cents to currently 3.8 cents.

With new SPP shares allocated today, the S/P tumbled to 0.033. Would it hit the SPP price of $0.032?
Currently : 81 buyers for 22,360,746 units, 142 sellers for 24,862,761 units.

 

[nizora]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

With new SPP shares allocated today, the S/P tumbled to 0.033. Would it hit the SPP price of $0.032?
Currently : 81 buyers for 22,360,746 units, 142 sellers for 24,862,761 units.

Second day after the SPP new shares allocation : currently bid $0.036, offer $ 0.037; 149 sellers for 32,272,799 units , only 104 buyers for 22,399,614 units

 

[nizora]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

As mentioned in my post a few months ago, I visited the Eyre Peninsula last week, and CSS CEO was kind enough to give me and my wife 10 minutes of his time.

My take on their plan is that CSS has 660,000 kingfish fingerlings in sea pens now. Expected mortality is 15%, thus they expect to harvest 560,000 fish in 2015 at an average weight of 2 - 4 kg, say 3 kg. Thus a little over 1500 tonnes of fish.

Their NP is just under $15 per kg on current Sydney sushimi fish market prices of around $40 per kg.

This translates to a NP in 2015 of $20 - 22M.

At a PE ratio of 8, this could value the company at $160M - $176M.

Divide that future value by the number of shares on issue, and you can calculate the future value of CSS shares in 1 - 2 years.

Fish mortality is less than expected at present. Risks are weather/water temperature, and algal bloom (last algal bloom was advised to be in 1997). An algal bloom could result in almost 100% mortality.

I've come away from the interview comfortable that CSS sahares represent a reasonable risk/reward investment.

I'm long on CSS.

Again many thanks for this valuable information. I hope you do not mind me posting your reply here.

 

[pixel]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

Divide that future value by the number of shares on issue, and you can calculate the future value of CSS shares in 1 - 2 years.

At a Billion shares, call it 15cps by 2015. That would bring us back to price levels seen 2 years ago.
Quite achievable IMHO.



Whilst I'm not on just yet, I have it on my watchlist with an alert set at 4c, based on the Daily chart.
But at the moment, I don't see much volume, so I'll wait for the Market to wake up.

 

[nizora]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

This article was published many years ago. Thought some might be interested in reading it again.


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arc...life-hagen-stehr/story-e6frg9hf-1225834008771


HAGEN Stehr, founder of aquaculture business Clean Seas Tuna, is sometimes called a fishing magnate, an entrepreneur, an inventor, but he describes himself as just a fisherman.
This just doesn't square up with the fact that Time magazine named his invention as the second best of the year in 2009, behind NASA's Ares 1 rocket.

The Hagen Stehr story out of Port Lincoln in South Australia is the stuff that legends are made of: a tale of passion, self-belief and intimate knowledge of his industry.

"Some people call me an entrepreneur, that's just nonsense; I'm just a fisherman," he insists.

"I've been in this business for 49 years and I like to think that I know a little bit.

"I'm from one of the major tuna families out of Port Lincoln and I think we knew our business certainly a lot more than scientists do and many people said to us it can't be done, but I've got a stubborn German background."

Stehr's adventures included a stint in the French Foreign Legion as well as marine experience with the German merchant navy, before he jumped ship in Port Lincoln and married Anna, now his wife of 49 years. And that's how he wound up in tuna fishing.

Port Lincoln is the home of the southern bluefin tuna and has spawned many legendary figures.

There was Dean Lukin, the fishing trawler gold medallist weightlifter from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Then there was Tony Santic, who owned Makybe Diva, the horse that won three Melbourne Cups on the trot. It had never been done before.

A scientific first

What Stehr and his Clean Seas Tuna are doing, in propagating the bluefin tuna in a land-based tank, has also never been done before.

And it's working for the company, which listed in late 2005 and now has 160 employees, a turnover of about $30 million. Although the company made a loss of $12.56 million for 2009, Stehr says this enabled the timely clearance of inventory and helped Clean Seas' entry into new markets.

In a world where quotas are threatening the tuna fishing business, this home-grown invention could effectively put tuna on tap.

"We've kept tuna over the last 11 years now in our sea pen off Port Lincoln and the science community around the world thought it was an impossibility," he explains.

"They said you could not keep tuna longer than maybe six months or eight months, but we proved you could.

"We've had a number of firsts in our organisation over the last few years: we proved that you can keep tuna for 10 years and we fought against white pointers, shark attacks, seals, disease problems, bad weather conditions and we kept all the fish through."

The aquaculture business complements the wild fishing business but represents a passionate entrepreneurial response to the threats of quotas and low stocks of a product whose potential is only now being realised.

Holding the line

So how did a fisherman -- or let's ignore Stehr's self-deprecation and call him an entrepreneur -- confound the scientists?

"We just kept on going and I was in the water every day and it took a lot of money because to protect tuna is very, very hard," he says.

"We had shark attacks and tuna disappearing, but we learnt fish husbandry practices over a period of time and we became better and better at it.

"I got a team of people together, working for two years, who sort of helped us out."

When it comes to entrepreneurs, they often see opportunity where others can see only threats, and this is a part of the Stehr story.

"Port Lincoln was virtually broke in the early 1990s and right now it's fairly hard going, but between the 60s and the 90s we caught that much tuna that thestocks were becoming run down," he explains.

"That's when I came up with ideas from my frequent travels overseas and I said, `Hey, maybe tuna farming, maybe tuna propagation is the way to go'."

The first successful tuna farm in the world was established at Stehr's facility in Port Lincoln.

The leading fishing families of the town came together and, with their shared cash, worked out what could be done.

"I thought it would never work: tuna farming, catching fish from 12kg to 15kg to 20kg and then growing them for six to eight, and then selling them to the Japanese or whoever," he recalls.

Stehr's ultimate goal was to close the life cycle of tuna in captivity, speeding up the growth process.

It has culminated in a land-based facility that has the technology to replicate the conditions of the tuna schools as they travel around the coastline of South Australia and then up the West Australian coast.

"We found [the farming] worked well and the next step was to close the life cycle of tuna."

Closing the cycle

The invention process involved trial and error and Stehr says they nearly went broke with some big losses -- as well as wins -- along the way. However, like many entrepreneurs hell-bent on success, he looked for partners with expertise to give him a competitive advantage.

"We developed our technology with our Japanese partners, the Kinki University, which has been doing it now for 35 years but [hadn't done it] offshore," he says.

There was also local government help. "The first 4 1/2 years we got $4.5m from government bodies," Stehr points out.

"We worked closely together with the CSI Fisheries Research and Development Corporation in Canberra, [which tried] to help us in regards to science and everything else like that.

"We've got together a group of the best scientists in the world and the government helps us a little bit."

Assistance also came from South Australia's Department of Trade and Economic Development.

Stehr says the Americans tried to breed tuna but failed, while the Japanese wouldn't try at all. The Europeans spent about E70m and couldn't do it.

"I went from one factory to another factory from around the world and we brought a team of people together who built a complex in Port Lincoln right on the water," he explains.

"Then [we] thought, how are we going to get big tuna from this ocean into our onshore facility?"

Eventually he called on some of his ex-Vietnam chopper pilot buddies to help. One of them is so good in his chopper that one of his jobs in the US is to place heads on statues.

"I said, `Listen guys, we've got to bring live creatures on shore and we have to lift the tuna out from two, three miles out at sea and bring them ashore'," he recalls.

"Of course, we've done something to the tuna, it's intellectual property which I can't tell you; but we lifted them out like an army-style operation."

The brilliance of Stehr's technology was that it confounded the scientists. They said you would have to keep them for at least three years to make them sufficiently relaxed to spawn, but it was achieved in three months.

The fish are taken out to sea, about 320km south of Port Lincoln, and then are taken west outside the continental shelf into streams that run west and east. They round the coast at the bottom end of Australia and then turn the fish north and go slowly from latitude to latitude north past Fremantle, Geraldton and Broome, up to the spawning area.

After that they bring the fish back down the West Australian coast. They then turn the fish east and bring them all the way back to Port Lincoln. The biggest shock, however, is the fish never leave the tank the whole time. They replicate the journey of the fish onshore, mimicking different temperatures and seas all in their facility.

The scientific puzzle was finally solved last year and this is the first year of the breeding program. Clean Seas plans to produce 25,000 fish this year and 10,000 tonnes by 2015.

Like most founders, Stehr managed everything until the company was listed and is now a director.

He is still very hands-on with the technology development.

Never say die

The company started 10 years ago and the operation went public after funding requirements became crucial. Stehr says it is a necessary evil but he gets frustrated by the paperwork and corporate governance that goes with being a public company.

Asked what made it all happen, he points to his disdain for the word "can't".

"A lot of people called me an arrogant bastard but I always thought that it was a full-blown conclusion and that it was only a matter of time," he says. "The rest of the world said it can't be done, but we just kept on going.

"You've got to have deep pockets, you've got to be little bit sick in the head, strong in the back and you have to have an absolute belief in yourself and really, you can't say can't; the word can't should be eradicated [from] the English dictionary."

 

[chief71]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

Again many thanks for this valuable information. I hope you do not mind me posting your reply here.

I Don't think your calcs are correct - NP more like $3 per kg

 

[piggybank]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

 

[nizora]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

I Don't think your calcs are correct - NP more like $3 per kg

Their NP is just under $15 per kg on current Sydney sushimi fish market prices of around $40 per kg.

You are right ! The above information does not add up.

How could the NP be $15 when the "Improved net farm gate prices -now $14.00 per kg compared to FY2013 average of $12.67 per kg"

 

[pixel]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

Whilst I'm not on just yet, I have it on my watchlist with an alert set at 4c, based on the Daily chart.
But at the moment, I don't see much volume, so I'll wait for the Market to wake up.

Alert triggered on Monday. I'm back on board.

 

[nizora]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

Alert triggered on Monday. I'm back on board.

View attachment 56091

Pixel, Is it a buy alert ?

 

[pixel]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

Pixel, Is it a buy alert ?

I thought so. Still do. Check what happened after those earlier blue arrows.

 

[piggybank]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

Up 26% this week.

 

[Basilica]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

Up 26% this week.

Very impressive yet again with no publicly known reason.

I came across this kingfish farm for sale near CSS hatchery

"Southern Star Aquaculture Pty Ltd (SSA Pty Ltd) is an aquaculture company that has
been raising yellowtail kingfish (YTK) in the clean waters of Fitzgerald Bay, near
Whyalla, South Australia and has been doing this for the last 10 years. It is a family
owned business embracing many years of marine scale fishing and agricultural farming.
The company was formed in February, 2001 with 20 hectares and a quota of 300
tonnes per annum. In 2004, SSA applied for and was granted an additional 30 hectares
with a tonnage of 450 tonnes per annum. That then gave SSA a total of 750 tonnes in
Western Fitzgerald Bay. In the last harvest Southern Star Aquaculture put in during
November 2010 and January 2011, 86,000 fingerlings. This compared to 2001 of
18,000 fingerlings giving and increase in production of in excess of 200% for Southern
Star Aquaculture Pty Ltd over 11 years."

All for just $250K
or just 33c per kg of potential kingfish
Seems quite cheap

Here is the full add

 

[nizora]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

I came across this kingfish farm for sale near CSS hatchery

"Southern Star Aquaculture Pty Ltd (SSA Pty Ltd) is an aquaculture company that has
been raising yellowtail kingfish (YTK) in the clean waters of Fitzgerald Bay, near
Whyalla, South Australia and has been doing this for the last 10 years. It is a family
owned business embracing many years of marine scale fishing and agricultural farming.
The company was formed in February, 2001 with 20 hectares and a quota of 300
tonnes per annum. In 2004, SSA applied for and was granted an additional 30 hectares
with a tonnage of 450 tonnes per annum. That then gave SSA a total of 750 tonnes in
Western Fitzgerald Bay. In the last harvest Southern Star Aquaculture put in during
November 2010 and January 2011, 86,000 fingerlings. This compared to 2001 of
18,000 fingerlings giving and increase in production of in excess of 200% for Southern
Star Aquaculture Pty Ltd over 11 years."

All for just $250K
or just 33c per kg of potential kingfish
Seems quite cheap

SSA Pty Ltd's story is a chilly reminder for CSS investors. Let's hope that CSS is not ending up in a same fate as SSA Pty Ltd.

http://www.panoramaacuicola.com/noticias/2008/01/14/aquaculture_companies_create_success_.html

https://insolvencynotices.asic.gov....27849325/b949d34b-8e42-47e7-908b-6e7012f7d500

http://www.eldersrealestate.com.au/commercial/buy/property-agricultural-services-sa-whyalla-527737

 

[Basilica]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

Hi nizora,

It is a worry.
What happened to the King fish market? Over supply? Price crash?

I got this from your link (about SSA)
“The company is expanding phenomenally and we need the infrastructure to continue developing,”
A scary quote

Perhaps it is just a slim profit margin.
You touched on it earlier this page
Business is easy at a sale price of $40 / KG with costs of $10 / kg
It rarely stays that good
.

 

[nizora]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

Hi nizora,

It is a worry.
What happened to the King fish market? Over supply? Price crash

Perhaps it is just a slim profit margin.
You touched on it earlier this page
Business is easy at a sale price of $40 / KG with costs of $10 / kg
It rarely stays that good
.

Found this :

"FishFingers:
SSA was a poorly run company, a bit like Cleanseas of yesteryear. Infastructure was poor and fish husbandry knowledge of YTK was limited. SSA infact got there Yellowtail Kingfish fingerlings from Cleanseas at around 10 grams. The BHP steelworks and EPA around Whyalla is also questionable to the quality of the waters around the area, obviously raised eyebrows at Cleanseas when they moved all of their fish out of the area and down south to Pt Lincoln 3 years ago."

 

[nizora]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

I thought so. Still do. Check what happened after those earlier blue arrows.

View attachment 56123

The SP is moving north steadily. It is $0.052 this morning.

 

[pixel]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

The SP is moving north steadily. It is $0.052 this morning.

Should've bought more, shouldn't we

 

[Basilica]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

Should've bought more, shouldn't we

View attachment 56234

Hi pixel,

I am a newbee on technical analysis.
the blue arrows do predict an upward trend in volume and price.
When did the arrow first appear for you.
on the date of the arrow or did the software need a few more days of data and then placed the arrow in hindsight a few days earlier?
I hope i have asked the question correctly. cheers

Found this :

"FishFingers:
SSA was a poorly run company, a bit like Cleanseas of yesteryear. Infastructure was poor and fish husbandry knowledge of YTK was limited. SSA infact got there Yellowtail Kingfish fingerlings from Cleanseas at around 10 grams. The BHP steelworks and EPA around Whyalla is also questionable to the quality of the waters around the area, obviously raised eyebrows at Cleanseas when they moved all of their fish out of the area and down south to Pt Lincoln 3 years ago."

Hi nizora,

good quote, can you post a link?
i am aware of the potential problem of iron in the water.
The area has a very low algae growth because the water lacks iron. this is good for fin fish.
i thought it is just a risk and there have been no spill of iron while loading onto ship?

10 grams is big for fingerlings. They would be juvenile king fish and top dollar.
the 86,000 bought may have cost close to the asking price for the whole farm

 

[pixel]

Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

Hi pixel,

I am a newbee on technical analysis.
the blue arrows do predict an upward trend in volume and price.
When did the arrow first appear for you.
on the date of the arrow or did the software need a few more days of data and then placed the arrow in hindsight a few days earlier?
I hope i have asked the question correctly. cheers

Hi Basilica,

the arrows appear on the day/ at the instant when the price closes above the latest Low (for green "Buy") or below the latest High (for red "Stop") of the respective Volatility Envelope. These envelopes can be parameter-controlled, depending on how much risk I'm prepared to accept. In the example, I use my standard acceptance of 1 1/2 days, which means I accept the risk that a price move of 1.5 average daily trading ranges goes "against me". Once a strong trend is established, I increase the tolerance to 2 or 3 days; or I may even switch to a weekly chart and stay calm for a week or two.

A more in-depth description is found here: http://rettmer.com.au/TrinityHome/Helps/cTrinityDuo.htm