A year ago, Pinetree Capital was an aggressive buyer of POET Technologies (POET Technologies Stock Quote, Chart, News: TSXV:PTK). Shares of POET raced to a high of $2.54 on April 17, 2014 and Pinetree was adding to a position that had surpassed 11% of all shares outstanding.
But a year later, Pinetree is selling POET in the open market at prices that are significantly lower than last year’s peak.
On April 16, Pinetree sold 142,000 shares at $1.63. On April 15, Pinetree sold 315,500 shares.
Earlier this month, POET appointed two new directors. The move, said interim CEO Peter Copetti, was intended to try and fill the void left when director Adam Chowaniec died in February after a prolonged battle with cancer.
“Adam’s loss left a very deep gap to fill, however, the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee (“CGNC”) has been engaged in an extensive search to find suitable candidates to fill the role of permanent CEO and supporting executive staff and directors,” said Copetti.
Founded in 2000, Toronto-based POET Technologies, formerly known as OPEL Technologies, shed its solar business in 2012 to focus on its core asset, a semiconductor fabrication process called POET. POET, an acronym for Planar Opto Electronic Technology, is technology management says can deliver semiconductor operating frequencies of up to 100 gigahertz and lower heat losses with greater reliability and a lower total system cost. The company currently owns 34 patents and has seven more pending.
At press time, shares of POET Technologies were up 5.1% to $1.66.
Note: An earlier version of this article stated that Pinetree Capital VP Richard Patricio sold amounts equal to Pinetree. In fact, these were the same transaction, doubly reported at Canadian Insider. The sales were from Pinetree Capital, not Patricio.
About The Author /
Cantech Letter founder and editor Nick Waddell has lived in five Canadian provinces and is proud of his country's often overlooked contributions to the world of science and technology. Waddell takes a regular shift on the Canadian media circuit, making appearances on CTV, CBC and BNN, and contributing to publications such as Canadian Business and Business Insider.
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Only Pinetree has been selling. Patricio has not been selling any of his personal shares. The “double” transactions you see on Canadian Insider are simply the way transactions are filed on SEDI.ca, since Patricio is the controlling person of the 10% shareholder (Pinetree). These are not double sales.
you may want to go a little deeper and look at the reasons – exercise of warrants actually increased overall position in POET – see http://agoracom.com/ir/POETTechnologies/forums/discussion/topics/641062-sheldon-inwentash-exercised-3-2-million-warrants/messages/2011257#message
Pinetree is also selling in order to fulfill debt covenants. Did you also notice that their sales ended abruptly once they had crossed back under the 10% ownership threshold? Now they don’t have to report what they are doing. Ex-Pintree CEO Sheldon Inwentash also exercised warrants 5.5 months early (probably) in order to have more voting shares before the June ASGM Poet is holding in Silicon Valley this year.
It’s not as simple as it may seem on the surface.
Yes, also note that Sheldon Inwentash is still a Poet Director, and he exercised 3.1 million .35 cent warrants on April 8th and April 10th, without selling a single share to do so. Those warrants don’t expire until September, 2015, so it’s very curious why he would do so at this point in time.
Hey, Nick “the dummy” Waddell, did you ever think of possibly doing some research as to WHY Pinetree is selling their Poet shares? Pinetree mismanaged their own responsibilities, and are required to satisfy a debt. Has nothing at all to do with Poet Technologies.