Alternergy unit signs power deal with Villar firm plus more market updates
Alternergy [ALTER 1.08 2.9%; 37% avgVol] [link] announced the signing of a power supply agreement between its subsidiary, SolarPacific Energy Corporation, and Kratos RES Inc, which is a subsidiary of the Villar Family’s Prime Asset Ventures. According to the disclosure, “Solana Solar will supply Kratos RES with 10 MW and up to 20 MW of clean and renewable power from the soon-to-be-built Solana Solar Power Project located in Hermosa, Bataan.”
MB Quick Take: While a lot of power producers benefitted wildly from spikes in the spot price of electricity, agreements like this are a great way of locking in value. No details on the price of the power or the term of the agreement, but financial types look on these types of agreements very favorably (as compared to having no agreement whatsoever).
Medilines Distributors [MEDIC 0.56 3.7%; 670% avgVol] [link] hyped its own FY22 performance, calling it “another banner year” with a 24% growth in revenues and a 52% increase in core net income. MEDIC said that its consumables product line was the fastest-growing segment in FY22, with sales up 42% y/y.
MB Quick Take: I wonder how much the management team talked about the company’s stock price during the ASM? They tangentially addressed the elephant in the room in the second paragraph of this press release by talking up their dividend policy, but with the stock down over 76% from its IPO back in 2021, IPO buyers are probably not that excited about MEDIC’s tame 0.5% dividend yield base off of its IPO price. Talk about cold comfort.
Globe [GLO 1749.00 ?0.2%; 9% avgVol] [link] said that it is exploring the use of AI as part of its use of automation “towards cost and operational efficiency”. GLO said that this could involve routine tasks like “outbound calls, customer care, and collection”.
MB Quick Take: The potential implications of one of our own public-facing utilities looking into using AI to perform low-level customer service tasks should be a shot across the bow of the BPO industry. This move isn’t about making the customer experience better, because I think nearly every person would appreciate talking to a human more than dealing with some clunky AI chatbot, it’s a clear signal that every company with a significant customer service component will be looking at ways to use AI to reduce its customer service budget, and it’s not just flush companies from Western companies that are going to consider this kind of move. It might not happen all at once, but this news has got to make BPO companies (and their landlords) a little nervous about what the next few years may have in store.
--
Merkado Barkada's opinions are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any particular stock. These daily articles are not updated with new information, so each investor must do his or her own due diligence before trading, as the facts and figures in each particular article may have changed.
- Latest
