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CSS - Clean Seas Seafood

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Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

I thought I would provide a brief summary since my last posting

Firtsly, it is very hard to value CSS by any methodology at present. I had worked on valuations when I understood where they were with YTK sales and SBT propogation but I am no longer sure of what has been actually achieved in recent months.
The cap raising report highlights the growth rate of a "modest" number of SBT juveniles of 2kg over 200days. By my reckoning this translates to an optimum marketable size SBT( Sashimi ) taking 3 years to reach 20-30kg which is longer than I had been expecting.
Another question I have is what was the mortality rate of the juvenile SBT. They make no mention of this in any reports. I suspect it may be quite high which brings me to some other considerations.

1. They need to achieve spawning soon to have any chance of achieving their goal of 25K SBT as it will be essential for the fish to have reached sufficient size to transfer to sea pens before winter.

2. A recent article in the Port incoln times suggests they are struggling to have sufficent tanks ready in time for spawning and may have to rely on temporary tanks. This could lead to a higher mortality rate.

3. They will need a large number of YTK eggs to feed the SBT larvae. This could impact the YTK program and ,hence, sales.


I will continue to monitor the progress but I do believe the blue sky potentail for CSS has been lost. They needed to perform in accordance with their prospectus dated 2005. Had that been achieved they would be in SBT commercial production now. They are 5 years and many cap raisings( additional shares ) behind projection and in reality are looking at another 3-4years for the revenue to start rolling in, if they can breed SBTin sufficient quantities.

I am waiting on the sidelines for now as there is still a very long road to travel.
 
Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

They didn't have a commercial number of babies, they only had a very small number, so did not try to raise them in the sea cages, they kept them in fish tanks so they could take photographs etc.

They grow amazingly quickly and the main plan is to sell them within a few months of hatching. Hatch them, get them into the onshore tanks briefly (1-2 weeks if I remember correctly?) then into the offshore enclosures for another 3-4 months (if I remember correctly?) then off to Japan. I might be slightly out with the timeframe, but not hugely. It only takes them two months to get to over 2kg, which is the size the European market prefers. It isn't much longer than that to get up to 5-10kg, which is not the ideal 20-30kg as preferred by Japanese sushi restaurants, but is still excellent and will fetch a great price.

I share your concern about the timeframe of getting the raising tanks (onshore tanks for babies) ready in time for this season, but they will be ready for next season. To me it looks like this was a bit of a planning blunder, and may affect this year's numbers, but this year is still only planned to be subcomercial, it is still a R&D 'getting it right' year. If a profit is made this year it is just a bonus. What is really wanted this season is to get a few thousand fish to saleable size to completely nail the methods and say "Yes! We can do it, there is your proof, now we just need to set things up to do it large scale". It doesn't really matter whether they manage 5,000 or 25,000 this season, it's mostly a matter of demonstrating that they are able to do it. Then next year it is just a matter of going through the motions and doing what they know they can do on a commercial scale.

What I see from CSS is a brilliant business plan run by highly capable aquaculturists with shocking publicity ability. They make the stupid mistake of promising best case scenario. So, when things progressed quite well rather than off the scale brilliantly, investors were disappointed. If they had been more realistic with their promises people would be very impressed with the progress so far. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you haven't already jumped on board) that hasn't been the only PR mistake they have made. Fortunately they seem to have made a change or two on the senior board which should improve that situation, so *hopefully* they won't make any more stupid mistakes in terms of what they report to whom and when.

You are right, they have not progressed as quickly as they implied they would. About three years ago they implied that they were at the stage they were now at (which they would have been if they had had the incredible luck of hitting no obstacles). The main obstacles are now overcome. A few thousand animals to fingerling/juvenile stage and it will be demonstrated that the future is very bright. I don't think the blue sky potential has been missed, not at all, I think it is just coming in a realistic (ie, very good) timeframe rather than best case scenario timeframe.

Spawning this season is the next step, though I think success there is almost a sure thing. From there I am guessing we will see a less than impressive larvae survival rate, but only because of the lack of infrastructure, which will be built slightly too late (ready for next year). This is not really critical though, it just means we might be seeing a trial batch of 5-10 thousand fish rather than 25 thousand. Then they go to the offshore tank, and the real test will be carried out - seeing how quickly and cost effectively they get up to salable ( greater than 2kg) size. That will tell us the potential. If the potential is good, we know it is blue skies (unless an unlikely disaster strikes), it is just a matter of waiting. I can't see it being later than the end of January before we know for sure whether this one is a winner or not (or later if they decide not to bother announcing it sooner! )
 
Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

Hey guys,

Of my portfolio, CSS is by far the largest parcel. My average about 40c so I'm down quite a bit. Not too worried, but as a longterm shareholder I would have liked to have been a little more protected in terms of the SP caused by the SPP. But $hit happens and luckily I don't need to sell quickly.

For months now we've been talking about spawning in December. Well we're almost 2/3 through december. Any idea of an announcement date or when CSS are planning to imitate "ideal" conditions for spawning?

I haven't yet taken up the offer of 25c shares. That will be a last second decision! I don't like to say it but I think there may be a chance of SP dropping to below 25c again.

SteveB
 
Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

oldblue said:
No doubt all you CSS fans have seen this article by Robert Gottliebsen.

http://www.businessspectator.com.au...-sinker-pd20091216-YRQU2?OpenDocument&src=kgb

I don't hold, yet.

Click to expand...

Ellice-Flint's new breed


When Nicole Kidman joined other film stars in pressing for a ban on catching wild northern blue fin tuna, she probably didn't realise that she was helping to foster an amazing Australian technological breakthrough which will have global significance.

Over-fishing has caused the northern blue fin tuna to become close to an endangered species but the southern ocean tuna fishing quotas have been increased.

Both Europe and Japan have enormous fishing industries and both governments have each spent more than $100 million trying to develop ways to breed tuna in captivity. But in Australia the tiny listed South Australian based Clean Seas Tuna appears to have succeeded where the huge research projects in the northern hemisphere have failed.

Clean Seas Tuna came into prominence when it was awarded a Time Magazine technology award. But what caught my attention was when John Ellice-Flint, the man who devised the Santos exploration strategies which transformed the company, chose Clean Seas Tuna as his first public company directorship after resigning as Santos CEO last year. And Clean Seas Tuna certainly needs the skills of John Ellice-Flint.

Founder Hagen Stehr did a wonderful job working out how to breed tuna in captivity, but the company became plagued with misfortune. Clean Seas Tuna developed its Kingfish breeding first but this produced much higher tonnages than expected and the company could not market its stocks.

The Rabo Bank threatened to pull the plug. With Ellice-Flint as chairman, Clean Seas Tuna is raising in excess of $50 million with a share issue that will pay off the bank and leave the group with about $15 million in cash. In 2010, Clean Seas Tuna is looking to breed about 25,000 small tuna fish. Some will be sold onto the market but others may be fed for up to three years in the tuna pots lying idle in Spencer Gulf off South Australia.

The larger fish will yield much higher sums. The company is being approached by fishing enterprises from both Europe and Japan who want to use the Clean Seas techniques under licence. It's a long shot, but Clean Seas may have the technology that saves the world tuna industry and enables wild tuna to recover.

That’s exactly what Nicole Kidman wants to happen. However, the market is nervous and Clean Seas Tuna has fallen back to 24 cents – below the 25 cent issue price. John Ellice-Flint remembers when no one believed him at Santos – now it's happening again.
 
Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

Morning all,

Its monday at 9:20 am, the first day after the SPP closed. SP is hovering around 24.5 to 25. There is only one seller currently selling at 25 and from memory earlier this morning they were trying to offload over 350,000 at 25.
Slowly they're going at 25 and it wouldn't surprise me if they if they keep going until the SP goes to 25c.
I didn't participate in the SPP but I have a big order in at 24.5c I think we're in for an exciting day. What is everyone else doing with this one?
 
Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

I can't see any particular change this morning relative to last week. If I had to bet (and I suppose that's what I am doing come to think of it!) I would say they will go up over the next month or two, but I don't expect any massive outbreaks in the next few days. Spawning results might cause some excitement, and potentially media attention, which I suppose could potentially throw this thing skyward in the short term.

If you want to buy a whole heap of them at 24.5c, why didn't you buy into the SPP? The difference in price is tiny and you would be helping to fund the infrastructure? Or weren't you holding before the record date? I decided against buying into the SPP. As much as I would like to have helped out, I didn't have the funds easily available to increase my holding by $15k and didn't want to bother with a smaller amount. It seems a bit sad that they didn't release spawning results earlier, which would have pushed the price up a bit and made the SPP more attractive. I would have put in a bid for $15k worth at the last minute if they had done so.

To be honest, the fact that they didn't release spawning updates before the SPP closing date makes me concerned that spawning hasn't gone so well... I might actually call one or two of my contacts and see if I can dig up any news.
 
Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

Sdajii,

I share your thoughts and I was close to going with 60,000 through the SPP but my gut feeling was to hold off and monitor things a little longer. I've held CSS for about 8 months now and am treading carefully as I'm currently down 51%

I'm a bit concerned with the spawning results too. Had they had positive news the SPP would have been much more popular and I'm interested to see how successful it was.
We're now more than 2/3 of the way through december and we haven't heard a thing in regards to spawning. Lets hope no news is good news.
 
Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

One thing this company seems particularly bad at is keeping the shareholders informed. In my opinion this has severely undervalued them. Sometimes they just don't bother releasing information and leave everyone in the dark, or arguably worse still, they release price sensitive information to the media before telling anyone else!

With a situation like this, where we are currently investing in future profits, it is extremely difficult to estimate the current value of the company, which leaves the share price very subjective and thus vulnerable to vague opinion, which is very adversely affected by poor communication with investors. This probably makes them brilliant value before the fish are going to market, but it is poor form on their part. This does seem to have changed...

Earlier today I tried to contact my usual sources for information, generally they are extremely productive and I can find out just about everything I want, but today I have drawn a complete and total blank! Everyone I have spoken to tells me that they either can not tell me because it is price sensitive, or they can not find out themselves because those who know are refusing to give anything away. Quite clearly an announcement is not too far away, I will sit and hold until then. If I had the free funds I would be buying more right now. I'm fairly sure that no news in the form of "There's news but our lips are zipped" is good news.

They do seem to have learned their lesson about not releasing information inappropriately, but you would have thought they would have been a bit more tactful with the timing of the SPP and spawning announcement. Perhaps they figured that because the SPP was underwritten anyway, they had as much money as they needed, and once they showed their cards the share price would go high enough for their next fund raising to be done significantly higher than 25c, so, better to discourage people from buying new shares at 25c now when they can get significantly more money later.

Considering that, perhaps the owners consider the shares to currently be undervalued. Either that or the spawning was a failure! Assuming spawning went well, things are looking good and I am cautiously optimistic.
 
Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

I suspect that they wanted to be fair to all shareholders - that is, not release any information before all of the capital raising had finished. The share price will hover around the 25c mark until they release information about the spawn.

Hopefully it all went well
 
Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna


I dont think you need to worry. When these things spawn they will not muck around telling the market. I think like all babies these SBT will come in their own time.
 
Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

Share purchase plan undersubscribed to the tune of 6,558,000 shares. Paterson Securities fully underwrote the SPP so they pick up the lot, I imagine. Interestingly, they have a very favourable long-term price of $1.33/share.
 
Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

McCoy Pauley said:
Share purchase plan undersubscribed to the tune of 6,558,000 shares. Paterson Securities fully underwrote the SPP so they pick up the lot, I imagine. Interestingly, they have a very favourable long-term price of $1.33/share.
Click to expand...

Given the current share price, I was very surprised to see the SPP mostly subscribed. I would have guessed much less than half of the new shares on offer would have been taken, but there you go, more people wanted them than I expected.

I'd be happy with $1.33 right now! I think Christmas will come before we get a spawn announcement All the same, I think anyone buying in at around 25c right now is going to be very happy during the first quarter of 2010.
 
Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

Very interesting. With the massive drop in the SP upon announcement of the SPP I'm surprised so many people took up the SPP. But then again it also shows how many of us believe in this venture. I would have expected the SP to have risen above the current level since the SPP closed.

Lets hope santa delivers us some great spawning results and the SP starts moving towards Patterson's estimate. For the last few months we've been waiting for the announcement in december and we're more than 3 quaters december so any day now I hope!
Shareholders such as myself feel a bit hard done by as we purchased when the SP was over 50c. Its really making my portfolio look poor!
I've been checking every forum I know for information but nothing is coming up. They're doing well to even hide the news...even if there is no news they're not even telling us that either!!
 
Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 11 P.M. EDT, October 6th, 2009

CROATIAN TUNA FARM TAKES A MAJOR STEP TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE FARMING OF ATLANTIC BLUEFIN TUNA
ZADAR, CROATIA, OCTOBER 6TH, 2009:

A vital step towards closed life cycle farming of the commercially valuable Atlantic Blue Fin Tuna (NBT) was achieved in the Adriatic farming sites of Kali Tuna, a Croatian tuna farming company and the laboratories of Aquaculture at Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (IOF) in Split. Marine scientists at IOF have confirmed that gametogenesis was completed and a number of tuna eggs were spawned in cages off the coast of Croatia.


http://www.kali-tuna.com/contact/news/atlantic-blue-fin-tuna-breeding-in-croatia/
 
Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

Croatian Tuna Farm Takes A Major Step Towards Sustainable Farming ...Kali Tuna grows its fish for a longer period than most other farms. ..... America's farm animals produce 10 times the waste ... http://lnk.ms/1QtsG ...
blog.taragana.com/.../croatian-tuna-farm-takes-a-major-step-towards-sustainable-farming-of-atlantic-blue-fin-tuna-7039/

Tried to open the webpages, unfortuntely they have probably been taken out.
 
Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna


Finally ,managed to open,and here it is:

Press Release
KALI TUNA DOO, KALI CROATIA

Contact: Karl Petur Jonsson Phone: +354 664 0000 Email: karl@atlantis-ltd.com
KALI TUNA D.O.O. Put Vele Luke bb 23 272 Kali CROATIA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 11 P.M. EDT, October 6th, 2009

CROATIAN TUNA FARM TAKES A MAJOR STEP TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE FARMING OF ATLANTIC BLUEFIN TUNA

ZADAR, CROATIA, OCTOBER 6TH, 2009:

A vital step towards closed life cycle farming of the commercially valuable Atlantic Blue Fin Tuna (NBT) was achieved in the Adriatic farming sites of Kali Tuna, a Croatian tuna farming company and the laboratories of Aquaculture at Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (IOF) in Split. Marine scientists at IOF have confirmed that gametogenesis was completed and a number of tuna eggs were spawned in cages off the coast of Croatia.

In the experiment over 800 pieces of brood stock were kept in a special cage since the spring of 2006. The fish spawned successfully in the cage during the early summer of 2009. Most of the eggs were released naturally into the water, whilst a number of eggs were collected and later successfully hatched in a Split- based laboratory.

ATLANTIC BLUE FIN TUNA BREEDS IN CAPTIVITY

During the past few years the future of the NBT has become bleak, with excessive catch of the coveted fish which claims up to $25(US) a pound on the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo.

The key to sustainability in the farming of tuna is to domesticate the NBT by creating a ‘closed life cycle’ farming process, as previously has been done with salmon and other species. This process involves breeding the fish in captivity and growing it on underutilized, small pelagic fish. Scientists and tuna farmers in Europe, Japan and Australia have for years tried to achieve hatching in captivity, a task made especially difficult by the lack of knowledge of the mating habits of the tuna. Some success has been recorded to date, by Kinki University in Japan and Clean Seas Tuna in Australia, in each case in artificial, controlled environments.

“The fact that the captive tuna has spawned without hormones or human assistance makes this a unique event.” says Dr. Ivan Katavic, former assistant minister of fisheries in Croatia, currently the Head of Laboratory at the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries. “Our project was designed to break the code of the NBT’s reproduction habits. We aimed to create a closed life cycle for the farming of the species and relieve the pressure on the existing fish in the world’s oceans. This result is a significant step in that direction. The combination of the farming techniques of Kali Tuna and the location of their cages are the key to our

ATLANTIC BLUE FIN TUNA BREEDS IN CAPTIVITY achievement. Kali Tuna grows its fish for a longer period than most other farms. The combination of good husbandry and unique site conditions allows Kali Tuna to meet physiological requirements of brood stock to complete reproductive cycle in captivity.”

Oli Valur Steindorsson, is the Executive Chairman of Kali Tuna. Born in the fishing village of Akranes in Iceland, Steindorsson spent a year in Tokyo as an exchange student, studying the Japanese language and culture. He entered the Japanese seafood business as an intern at the age of 17 and established his own seafood trading company a decade later. Steindorsson stated, “We maintain a clear focus on creating a sustainable, closed lifecycle farming process, producing top of the line, healthy seafood with the least environmental impact possible. The natural circumstance of the event furthermore creates a hope of an extremely cost effective way to farm the fish.”

Further reading, including pictures and biographies of Dr. Katavic and Mr. Steindorsson: www.kali-tuna.com
 
Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna


Some interesting info about the company:

Kali Tuna

In 1996 Kali tuna was established by two men returning back to Croatia from Australia, with their Australian and Japanese associates. The techniques, knowledge and skills required for this type of operation were passed on from the Australian experience, and overtime expanded and greatly improved.

Location

Kali, a small town on the Croatian island of Ugljan, just opposite to Zadar, is one of the most successful fishing communities in the Mediterranean. The Zadar archipelago, situated along Croatia’s Central Adriatic coast, contains one-third of all populated Croatian islands. Of these, the island of Ugljan is among the most populated. On the island of Ugljan is the community of Kali, linked to the principle mainland town of Zadar by regular ferry service.

About 80% of the working population is involved in fishing or related activities. The exceptionally high percentage of the local population involved in the fishing industry is owed to the area’s geography and history. Originally, the people had little choice but to fish for their own food requirements. Naturally enough, this initial activities were limited to their familiar local waters. Today, however, boats captained and crewed by proud men from Kali fish not only all over the Adriatic Sea, but also as far as the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. There are, in fact, more professional fishermen from Kali than from any other place along Croatian coast and this activity has spawned numerous essential support activities””such as boat, net maintenence and repair, and also fish processing””that occupy island people from the other villages that dot these islands.

Major achievements

Kali has become also a pioneer in Croatian aquaculture. In the 1970s, CENMAR, the largest company for aquaculture in Croatia today, established a farm in Lamjana. This was a key event; it showed that Kali people not only have the knowledge and passion to hunt fish, but to farm them, as well. And it was in 1996 that the first tuna rearing company””Kali Tuna, d.o.o.””began its tuna-fattening operations in the vicinity of their home island.

The Kali Tuna story is one with a fascinating history when you consider it as the pioneer of tuna farming within the Mediterranean sea, the company has accomplished a great deal since beginning its operations, the fact that it has increased its initial annual export of bluefin tuna from 30 T per year to 1400 T in past few years is an overwhelming achievement.

The Team

As for the number of employees, that figure has increased several times, starting with as little as six employees we have grown into a company which now employs some 120 individuals.
The company has also spawned a wide range of up and downstream employment, which is reflected through the supplying of small fresh pelagic fish to the tuna farms (used for wet feed), the required transport of essential materials to the farms, and of course, the supplying of the live tuna on which fattening operations currently depend.
 
Re: CSS - Clean Seas Tuna

Interesting, nizora. Do you think they've obtained a few secrets from Cleanseas?

It has been good to see a bit more positive movement in CSS lately. Missing the SPP now seems a bit of a shame... oh well, I suppose lack of an easily available $15k was my main reason for not buying more anyway. Well done to those who did take part.

It seems strange that we still don't have any December spawn announcement, and CSS still seems to have zipped lips. I still can't get a word out of them or anyone close.
 
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