Plexus CEO Ben van Bilderbeek is weighing fundraising choices to “prolong the runway” for the enterprise, which has been confronted with years of losses however could now be on the verge of success.
Primarily based in Aberdeen, Plexus struck a serious settlement in November to license out its Pos-Grip wellhead know-how to the US oilfield large Schlumberger.
“Shock, shock – I feel no person imagined that we’d handle to try this”, Bilderbeek mentioned of the deal. Nevertheless, as issues stand, a lot wanted progress has been “slowed down” because of Covid.
Schlumberger is doing a diligence examine to evaluate the total worth of the know-how forward of any initiatives and, though the Plexus staff is “divulging the secrets and techniques” over MS Groups, Zoom and nonetheless else, they will’t presently comply with up in individual.
So Bilderbeek, the CEO, founder and largest shareholder, is his choices for Plexus, which, regardless of its revolutionary – and profitable – know-how, has seen “harrowing instances”, reporting multi-million pound losses yearly since 2016.
In the meantime, a big “pipeline” of alternatives constructed up after promoting its rental “jack-up enterprise” to TechnipFMC in 2017 retains getting pushed to the proper.
So Plexus is “engaged on methods to increase that runway so we’re there when the market returns”, Bilderbeek mentioned.
“Each a kind of is shifting to the proper once more, once more, once more, delay, delay, delay.
“No choices are being made. Within the meantime, what we have to do is protect the provision of this know-how beneath my tutelage.
“We’ve got this occurring now, and it’s all very troublesome for us as a result of progress will not be being made on the similar tempo as it might be.
“On the finish of the day, whenever you’re working detrimental cashflow, progress is one thing you want immediately, you want now.
“In any other case you should increase cash in numerous methods, both contribute your individual capital you probably have it, or to boost cash out there, which can trigger nice dilution. Or maybe hibernating a enterprise till the world turns.
“These are the issues we now have to consider.”
“Shake the tree”
Nearly all of Plexus’ work is within the UK North Sea, however worldwide sources of earnings equivalent to drilling in Russia, has been a “casualty” of Covid.
The Schlumberger deal – topic to their approvals – would see the US oilfield providers agency be licensee of Pos-Grip via to 2030, with royalties to Plexus.
With so much using on that, Bilderbeek, who prides himself on “with the ability to persuade individuals of my standpoint”, desires to comply with up in individual.
Chatting with EV from lockdown in Portugal, then, he’s discovering his idyllic settings removed from preferrred.
“I used to be planning to step on a airplane and hire an condominium in Houston and spend three months round my new buddies.
“Clearly I’m making an attempt to shake the tree, however I want I could possibly be in Houston doing that.
“It is vitally troublesome to make the switch of know-how work with out with the ability to deal with this in individual.”
It’s removed from radio silence although, with common conferences with the Schlumberger staff, and Plexus is assured its “superhuman” know-how will communicate for itself.
The agency is aiming for Pos-Grip to change into the brand new “trade commonplace” for wellheads and metallic sealing designs.
It’s a “friction-grip” tech utilizing integral metallic seals, that are externally pre-loaded towards everlasting wellhead fixtures, making certain the wells are “gas-tight” throughout their lifecycle.
In 2015, Complete drilled what was believed to be the best strain effectively ever drilled within the North Sea, Solaris, with a Pos-Grip wellhead.
The Technip sale in 2017 then additional “validated” the know-how, Plexus mentioned. It presently within the strategy of delivering a wellhead system to Spirit Power within the North Sea.
Pos-Grip additionally fights towards CO2 and methane leaks – one thing Plexus hopes will play in its favour within the US because the local weather debate heats up, with Complete leaving the American Petroleum Institute (API) final month.
Nevertheless, corporations’ lack of urge for food to innovate in years amid current downturns is one thing Plexus has “suffered from” up to now, Bilderbeek mentioned, and he’s conscious of the problem forward.
“Fairly often it’s greater than a job’s price to alter from one technique of engineering to the opposite.
“However that takes convincing, as a result of individuals like to stay with what they know.”
Bilderbeek additionally cited the API permitting standardised wellheads to be inbuilt elements “at quantity”, which might worth out Western producers.
Even then, although, Bilderbeek mentioned there’s no extra metal in Pos-Grip than standard techniques and it has a “fraction” of the variety of elements, so “it might comply with that if you happen to make them on the similar quantity it must be price-competitive”.
He added: “I do know what Pos-Grip can do and the way it compares. I do know what they’re going to be seeing.
“At this stage, I’m very very constructive.
“I additionally know that exercise ranges are selecting up in deepwater Gulf of Mexico.
“I’m a agency believer that this know-how has all the time spoken for itself and it’ll communicate for itself once more.”
