re: Diving deeper on Standard Lithium?

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Koch sold 100% of theirs

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Interesting.

Wonder if putting their guy in as CEO & licensing their tech to SLI created conflicts of intersest?

A few months ago they were hoping to announce East Texas resource definition by the end of this year, now in yesterday's call they said they hope they can have it by the end of 2025.

They said yesterday that they've started to have more formal offtake talks at a conference last week. Said not to expect announcement of non-binding offtake agreements, so that tells us that offtake will not be announced before the royalty is decided (since a binding offtake cannot happen before the royalty). Again, they're now hopeful that a royalty can be reached by mid next year. (This was in response to "~At which point does the royalty stalemate start affecting project timelines?" suggesting to expect a project delay if the royalty isn't reached by mid next year)

Also said yesterday that they're optimistic about finalizing the $225M grant by the end of this year, but that if they don't get that done by inauguration day then expect it to take "quarters."

I kept my core position but sold all of the "short term excitement" shares from the top. I'm willing to miss whatever bump might come from finalizing the grant this year if they manage to do so. Don't see any other catalysts in the near term myself

55/45 bankruptcy

Koch selling might be the canary test for me.... If we get back into the 2's for whatever reason I'm going to lighten up.

Well I bit the bullet and bought some of this garbage. First time ever buying a penny stock

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Well I bit the bullet and bought some of this garbage. First time every buying a penny stock

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Well, you fricked up.

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I saw that Koch did some restructuring this year and went from Koch Industries Inc to Koch Industries LLC. Not sure if this explains the apparent closing of Koch's SLI position or not, but I can't make sense of what I've seen on the subject other than no version of Koch shows up under Institutional Holders anymore. Anyone else?

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Good question. I've heard nothing of Koch closing their position. It's been plenty of time for the news to become public.

IOW, right race, wrong horse.

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I've heard nothing of Koch closing their position. It's been plenty of time for the news to become public.

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They surely aren't listed on institutional holders.... that amount would be #1 by $'s.

Here's my theory:
-Koch came in, loved the brine leases and concept, invested $100M.
-After looking under the hood they decide to develop their own tech, which outperforms SLI's.
-Koch licenses SLI their "Li-ProTM Lithium Selective Sorption" tech and exits their investment at a loss

This sequence accomplishes a number of things from Koch POV:
1) Taking Capital Loss on their initial investment to perhaps offset gains elsewhere
2) Licensing is mailbox money and scales to and through growing number of projects and licensee's. Don't need to own the brine or leases if you own the process.
3) Koch bean counters see Capital investment losses as cost of entry into this tech/space ($80M hit is peanuts) and as favorable CAPEX vs co-funding and amortizing a $1B build out.

This sceario captures most if not more upside w/ minimal risk/exposure/complexity vs putting all their eggs and $ in SLI's basket.



Alternative theory:
-After developing their own tech and licensing plans an ownership stake in one licensee creates potential conflict of interst - or perception of one

When is next royalty hearing?