Research: Biorem

These guys are opaque and not very concerned with shareholder relations. They have no presentation and their press releases are dull.

This is also not a business with an impressive history. Annual revenue is unexciting.

Quarterly revenue growth has not been any better.

Exciting stuff so far.

But the quarterly backlog has been growing. Backlog was $21 million at YE 2018.

• Q3 backlog of $34mm and bookings of $8.7mm
• Q2 backlog was $30.9mm and bookings were $7.7mm
• Q1 backlog was $31mm and bookings were $5.5mm

There is $9.3mm of cash on the balance sheet and no debt. Biorem has 38.7mm shares at $.60 for a market cap of $23mm.

Business

Biorem makes systems to remove hazardous pollutants from industrial and commercial emissions. These systems eliminate odors, VOCs, hazardous air pollutants from air streams. They use microbes that eat the pollutants and turn them into harmless byproducts. In their portfolio there are 3 different grades of air filtration systems and a biogas H2S removal system.

BASYS and BiofiltAIR

• smallest biofiltration system
• removes VOCs and contaminants from the air

Here is how it works:

Odiferous compounds or hazardous air pollutants are transferred into the biofilm where they are used by the microbes as a food source and converted to harmless byproducts such as carbon dioxide and water vapor.

MYTILUS Biotrickling Filter

• fixed film biological reactors
• air this is air cleaning system
• circulating air in “biological reactor” where there are microbial cultures that eat the contaminants
• used for the removal of hydrogen sulfide at waste water treatment facilities or ethanol from industrial processes

SYNERGY

• this is the high end filtration system (“where failure is not an option” – the website)
• several stage system
• can include several biological reactors in series and stages with specific chemicals to address specific contaminants
• designed to handle the most difficult air stream applications
• used by municipalities for sustainable wastewater treatment

BIOGAS

• uses sulfur degrading bacteria that eat the H2S
• removes H2S from landfill gas and other methane gas mixtures

Recent Wins/Engagements

• Dec 14 – NYC to examine using their biological processes for mitigating odours and air pollutants from wastewater treatment facilities
• Nov 16: 2 contracts for $2.4mm with Miami, $2.5mm win with Montreal, $2.3mm win with Loudoun County in Virginia, 2 orders from China for $2.2mm
• Jan- announced JV in China
• Dec 19 – order for $6mm air emission abatement project in Montreal, they are modernizing, constructing new organics facility, will produce soil amendments and natgas

I’m of the mind that even though the clean energy names have had a good run, they may have further to go with this Democratic win. Most are too expensive for my tastes. This is one I accumulated over the last week of the year and does not seem expensive.

In addition to Biorem I added a couple of solar installer small cap trades: OEG and PECK, to try to capitalize on the Democratic senate. We’ll see if those pan out and they really are just trades. I’ve also bought a number of small biotecths over the last few days: BNTC, CLBS, ETTX, and NTEC. Of the 4 I think NTEC is most interesting. This is an old Marc Cohodes pick that didn’t pan out, but they have a platform that doesn’t seem like its dead to me and yet the stock trades at a level that suggests it is.

The banks are rocking and gold is not. I like that these two sectors provide a bit of a hedge to one another on a daily basis while both seem to be on an uptrend in the long run.