4th September 2020:  https://dumilecapital.com/2020/09/04/ano-dont-fight-the-lev/

"The blackout period is over and Lev Mizikovsky is back in the market for ANO shares. How deep are his pockets and what’s his end game?"

"$ANO – Don’t Fight the LEV" by Will Thrower, Dumile Capital.

10-July-2020:  Lev's still buying ANO on-market.

I'm not an ANO shareholder any more, for reasons I gave here at the time I sold, but I do occasionally notice these announcements from them.  You can't question Lev's commitment to ANO.

Sat 18-Apr-2020:  Just on @Hackenbacker's "Management" straw about the Ausbiz podcast - here's the link:

https://www.ausbiz.com.au/media/the-call-thursday-16th-april?videoId=393

That should automatically start playing the latest episode (from Thursday 16 April) which starts off with Julia Lee and Mark Moreland discussing Kogan (KGN).  RFT is the 4th stock discussed and that begins at around the 17:30 mark.  ANO is the 6th stock discussed and that discussion begins at around the 24 minute mark. 

Neither analyst recommends ANO, but Mark's comments are indeed worth listening to, because TeamInvest have looked very closely at ANO, and he clearly explains why despite their obvious potential, they are not suited to being a listed company, because of the way they are run.  Mark mentions that one of ANO's directors is actually a member of TeamInvest, but he doesn't disclose which one.  Despite that link, as a group (team), they (TeamInvest, who Mark represents) have voted ANO down as NOT being an attractive investment opportunity.  Many of TeamInvest's members are either business owners or ex-owners or ex-managers of businesses themselves and they do focus quite a lot on the quality of management of companies when deciding whether a company would make a suitable and attractive investment.  Mark suggests that ANO does tick a lot of boxes, including excellent earnings growth, superb industry positioning (being in exactly the right place at the right time), and more, but TI failed them purely on management quality and governance issues, and he gives examples of where they have had concerns. 

Julia Lee didn't have much to say, except that their latest announcement fiasco (about the new product patent that might be able to inhibit the replication of COVID-19 in the mouth) was bizarre and that ANO had lost a lot of credibility as a result of that.  Howard Coleman and Mark Moreland's TeamInvest however had failed ANO before that episode, based on previous issues and behaviours.  Not sure if many people are aware, but our own Strawman used to be a member and spokesperson (representative in the media - on TV) for TeamInvest back before the MF days.  While I'm not personally a member of TeamInvest - mostly due to the high financial cost of being a member - I do respect their opinions.  They base much of their investing philosophy and process on Warren Buffett's and Ben Graham's pearls of wisdom and beliefs, and their approach is much more in that Value Investing camp rather than so-called "Growth Investing" where valuations and price are less important.  You can get an insight into how that plays out by continuing to listen to the podcast when they discuss Blackmores.  They don't get every call right, but they manage to screen out a lot of companies that carry higher levels of risk, which is the way I look at ANO. 

ANO may multibag - and I hope for the true believers who hold them that they do - but the risk/reward equation is not attractive to me any more.  I want to have a greater level of faith and trust in management and that they have sufficient regard and respect for ordinary retail shareholders.  All shareholders are part-owners of the business.  Regular trading suspensions, questionable announcements, and threatening to move your primary listing to the NASDAQ in the USA is NOT (in my opinion) in the best interests of ordinary retail shareholders.  And that doesn't even touch the related party transactions, the auditor concerns, and other governance concerns.  GLTAH, but they're not for me.

If you are unable to play the video without signing up, you may have more luck if you google various combinations of Ausbiz The Call and Advance Nanotek (or ANO), which is how I found it and watched it the first time.  I've since signed up for regular emails from them.

02-Apr-2020:  I've already posted a straw with a link to today's announcements from both the ASX and ANO.  However, here's the body of ANO's announcement (it ain't real long):

Retraction of Announcements 
 
The ANO Board requests that if we can’t agree, we retract all announcements since 16 March 2020, except for the patent application, ANO Business Update 26 March 2020 and the Appendix 3Y, from the ASX platform and have the suspension lifted. 
 
The ANO Board advises that patent application #2020900820 was filed on 17 March 2020 with joint 50 / 50 ownership between Advance NanoTek Limited and Astivita Limited. There is not likely to be any material positive impact on sales with this patent application #2020900820 in FY20. 

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As it turns out, the patent was for products including mouthwash that have not been tested at all for their effectiveness to inhibit the replication of any virus, let alone COVID-19.  In fact there have been no tests at all. Tests - on a cat - or cats - were planned to be conducted within the next three weeks apparently, but have not yet commenced.

Further, the "inventors" of this "invention" are listed as Dalia Mizikovsky and Joseph Mizikovsky.  ANO confirmed that they are "...obviously relatives of Mr Mizikovsky."  Can we safely assume they mean Lev?

Joseph is also the CEO of Astivita (AIR).

When asked by the ASX about ANO’s understanding of Dalia and Joseph's qualifications and experience in the research and development of anti-viral products for ingestion by human patients, ANO's reply was:

Dalia Mizikovsky – Bachelor of Advanced Science, majoring in Biomedical Science. Currently completing her Honours in Developmental Biology at UQ (GPA 6.7) and has been employed by ANO since 17 April 2019. Joseph Mizikovsky – has completed 2 subjects at the London School of Economics, and is currently studying a Bachelor of Business, majoring in marketing at QUT and has been employed by AIR since 26 September 2017.

And that mouthwash was not meant to be ingested except in very small quantities.

Looks like Joseph has some catching up to do.  Still, many fine inventions have been thought up by people with little to no relevant qualifications.  This could be one of those.

All in all, considering that this latest stoush is due to both AIR and ANO requesting a trading pause and then a trading halt back on March 16th while they sorted out the IP ownership split for a "highly progressed opportunity regarding the development of oral care products which could prevent the coronavirus cells multiplying", a request for further details by the ASX does seem entirely reasonable in the current environment. 

In one of their latest responses to the ASX, ANO argues that the ASX did NOT request this level of detail with a previous patent announcement that they made, and the ASX pointed out that the announcement in relation to that other patent was not even regarded as market sensitive by ANO - let alone feeling the need to request a trading halt.  Fair point.  Of course that prior patent announcement also did not have anything to do with COVID-19 and didn't use the word "coronavirus".  This one did. That tends to get people's attention at the moment.  We now find out that the whole thing is based on the supposition or hypothesis that it "...could inhibit the replication of the novel coronavirus inside the cells of the oral cavity / mouth” (from the 17th March "Clarification" announcement).  I say supposition or hypothesis because there has been no testing done yet to back up that theory or possibility.  They do however plan to test it on a cat (or cats) in the next three weeks - or begin to.  

Good-o.

Doesn't sound "Highly Progressed" to me, but I guess everybody has a different interpretation of what that means.  ANO's interpretation was clearly not the same as the ASX's.

02-Apr-2020:  3:33pm:  ANO: Retraction of Announcements

and at 4:42pm:  ASX: ANO Reinstatement to Official Quotation

So, ANO and AIR will both be trading again tomorrow.  Looks like Lev blinked first.  The ASX had very little to lose.  Lev had much more.  I'm selling my ANO tomorrow.

01-Apr-2018:  9:37am:  ANO: Suspension Update

The war continues...  

I have updated my valuation for ANO, slashing my TP, and explaining why I'm going to sell as soon as they begin trading again (assuming they begin trading again)...

27-Mar-2020:  From the ASX (at 5:03pm, after the market closed):  Continued Suspension from Official Quotation

In this update from the ASX (link above), they explain why they consider that a continuation of ANO's suspension from trading is appropriate.  They include the query letter that they sent to ANO regarding their draft announcement regarding their new patent for various oral care products that may use various combinations (compositions) of "at least one zinc compound or at least one zinc salt and hinokitiol or a salt thereof".  The ASX also include ANO's response (reply) to that query letter, and it's not hard to understand why the ASX regarded the ANO reply as lacking in detail and not adequately addressing all of the questions that the ASX had asked.

Just one example: 

Question 12:  

"Please advise whether ANO has received any legal advice regarding the statement in the Draft Announcement that: “The initial sales are contemplated on the Amazon EU platform as no regulatory approvals are needed.” If it has, please provide a copy of the advice (not for release to the market). If it has not, please explain its basis for making this statement." 

ANO's answer:

"No."

Hmmm.  Perhaps they didn't read the whole question?

The ASX felt that they needed to release this announcement (link above) in response to ANO releasing their ANO Business Update announcement the previous day (2:20pm on 26-Mar-2020) in which they do make assertions about the ASX that the ASX clearly felt they needed to address.

Apart from the spelling and punctuation errors in the last line of ANO's response to the ASX - "The balance of information sort by the ASX is in the opinion of the Board is not material." - ...the wording is dismissive and provocative.  I think they'll find that they won't get out of this trading suspension until they provide satisfactory answers to the ASX and let the ASX decided what is and is not material.  

Another fine mess they've got themselves into.  Such promising tech, and such a badly run company - from a communications and regulatory compliance point of view.

26-Mar-2020:  ANO Business Update

ANO Business Update 
 
Zinc Production 
ANO continues to produce zinc oxide and one of our large customers in the US has reconfirmed their prior orders for 80 MT plus for April, May and June.  We are sending additional final products (powder and dispersions) to the US and Europe and will continue to do this on a weekly basis. Despite two countries temporarily closing production facilities, we have raw material in stock and in transit and have placed additional orders from our supplier in a third country. We will have sufficient raw materials to meet future zinc oxide orders well into the next year if current trends persist. 
 
Merck 
We have today received two new orders from Merck which doubles their orders for calendar 2020 to $3.2 million. Again, we have placed significant orders for raw materials and are investing in spare parts to ensure we have continuous supply of Alusion to Merck over the next 12 months. 
 
Zinc Gluconate Production 
ANO is looking into the production of zinc gluconate with lab trials about to start. Given the current worldwide shortage, ANO will look to distribute this product to Europe, where no TGA approvals are required, as soon as possible. 
 
COVID-19 – Remote Setup 
Software has been installed successfully by SenterpriSys Limited to allow key functions within the business to be completed by staff from home if required.

Collection House Limited (“CLH”) & ASX 
Many of our shareholders may be unaware that our Chairman is currently in court with the ASX and CLH as a result of the ASX publishing a market release for CLH which was defamatory towards our Chairman. Further, CLH remains voluntary suspended. More concerning is that the issues raised by our Chairman appear to be the reasons CLH has extended its voluntary suspension for now 2 months. 

ANO believes this is in part one of the reasons we are having difficulties and delays with the ASX at present. 
 
Margin Calls 
In addition, we confirm to the market that the ASX have raised rumours in regards to margin calls by Directors on Wednesday morning, 18 March 2020. The Board confirms to all shareholders that there are no margin loans in place by any Director. 
 
Update on Suspension  
It is astonishing that the ASX would seek to impose forced suspension of ANO’s shares for what can only be understood to be a result of the brevity of some responses (which were in the Board’s view the appropriate factual responses to ASX’s questions).  The ASX has offered no clarification as to why the brevity is not acceptable to them nor have they tried to reframe their questions to elicit a different answer.   

So, shareholders are aware, some of the questions raised by the ASX were technical in nature and in, the Board’s view, only capable of answer by reference to the patent and the scientific papers referred to therein.  It is not appropriate for the Company to attempt to summarise for the ASX matters of such a technical and scientific nature, at the risk of being accused of not effectively summarising the matter.  The only appropriate response in the Board’s view is to direct the ASX to the source documents where all the technical detail is available.  Of course, this is the Company’s best guess at the ASX’s concerns as it has to date not offered any additional guidance on which responses are deficient or why. 

NASDAQ Investigation  
In light of the current situation between our Company and the ASX, and given 70% of our sales are in the US and our market capitalisation is in excess of $200 million, the Board is going to investigate listing on NASDAQ. We apologise to our shareholders and the Board will attempt to resubmit our announcement to have our suspension lifted as soon as possible. 
 
 
Authorised by: 
Geoff Acton (B.Com CA) 
Managing Director 

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Wow!!

18-Mar-2020:  If anybody else has posted a straw about this, I haven't seen it.  Both ANO & AIR are currently suspended from trading, following a call on Monday for a trading halt, pending further details of a patent they have just filed for a novel (new) product or product range.

On Monday they talked about "a highly progressed opportunity regarding the development of Oral Care Products (New Products) which could prevent the coronavirus cells multiplying" , but by yesterday they had corrected that to:

“The patent is looking at a range of oral care products that could inhibit the replication of the novel coronavirus inside the cells of the oral cavity / mouth” 

So - slow down/inhibit - instead of stop/kill.  Still, that is certainly the sort of thing that DOES require a trading halt or suspension until they are in a position to provide further details (especially in THIS environment), so they've done the right thing for sure.  

Apparently, AstiVista (AIR) brought this to ANO's attention, and they are approaching it as a joint venture or partnership, with the details of how that works being just one of the things they needed to iron out.  Lev, Geoff and Rade are all directors of both boards (ANO & AIR) with one additional director (Laurie Lefcourt) on the ANO board, so the companies are pretty much on the same page you would imagine.  Lev is the Chair of both companies.  

Similar announcements have been released by both AIR & ANO, but the full details of this opportunity will be released either after market today or some time tomorrow (I imagine) and they should both recommence trading after that release.

Looking forward to reading more about this!

28-May-2019:  Marcus Padley mentioned ANO in his "Marcus Today" daily e-newsletter today.  Here's what he said:

TRADING IDEA

Today's Trading Idea - Advance Nanotek (ANO) - comes from the more speculative end of the market. With a market cap around $400m, ANO manufactures aluminium oxide powder, zinc oxide dispersions and zinc oxide powder for the personal care sector. These elements are used in sunscreen, skincare and pharmaceutical formulations, as well as alumina plate-like powders used for cosmetic applications. The company recently announced a significant increase in orders from the US, covering their first quarter for FY2019. The spike in orders is being attributed to a recent tour to a number of US sunscreen manufacturers, with the company planning to visit a number of potential new distributors in Europe in early June. The share price speaks for itself. Since January, the stock has surged from 100c up to a recent high of 785c. The blow-off and pullback into 640c provides us with an opportunity to get set. There isn't much in the way of financials - this is a momentum/theme trade. 

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For further details on his newsletter, or to sign up for a free trial subscription, go to:

http://marcustoday.com.au/

I'm a subscriber and have been for a number of years.  I find Marcus' end-of-day wrap emails particularly helpful, as they list every major company that reached a year high or year low during that day, the biggest movers amongst the larger and smaller end of the market, plus a brief summary of why they moved in many cases - although he rarely comments much on microcaps unless they've had an extraordinary move on the day or are making headlines for some other reason - and he also talks about overseas markets and what's happened overnight OS and which events or results are being watched by those markets as well as ours.  In short, it summarises almost everything daily (that is share-market related), and saves me a lot of time, as while most of the information is available free of charge, it's all over the place and would take a fair amount of time for the average punter to gather and read.  Marcus tends to cut through the crap most of the time and get to the more important stuff about what's moving markets, and why that's the case. 

A word of warning however, his background is in stockbroking, so I wouldn't go taking all of his advice.  If you had done so in the past, your brokerage bills would be huge, as he was a big advocate of trading, including selling everything every time you go on holiday and buying back what you want when you return (he likes stress-free holidays, however that technique would have the opposite effect on me - I'd be stressed that my underpriced gems were finally being positively re-rated by the market while I had zero exposure to them).  He's recently got into managed funds, and his attitude is changing somewhat.  In the past, he has tended to jump at shadows a little too much for my liking - such as "Sell Everything!" and/or "Go to Cash - now!" a bit too often.  He's gradually developing a bit more of a "stay the course" philosophy nowadays, although he still tends to cash up (lighten his portfolios) when things are looking like they're about to get a bit rocky.  Personally, I tend to mostly ignore his stock advice and use the newsletters for the facts rather than the opinions and tips.  However, I will admit - he does occasionally have the odd good idea too.  Perhaps he's a member of Strawman.Com?  He wrote up RFT not too long ago, and now ANO?...