Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Bion Environmental Technologies Churns Much Effluent

Bion Environmental Technologies has spent several decades developing a technology to treat the waste runoff from commercial livestock operations.  Water treatment solutions should never mistake the nation's head count of cattle or pigs as a target market.  Those are more properly supply chain inputs.  I had to say that up front to clear the air before the analyst community dives in to big piles of manure.

The most important thing about this company is its lack of profitability.  It has existed since 1987, which is plenty of time to develop a viable product and find a market in agribusiness.  Bion has not made a profit in at least three years, with only a trickle of revenue.  If these folks had something, they would have had it by now.  Retained earnings were into negative nine figures by 2014.  That's how much capital has been sunk into this concept over time.

I have no idea why the company is paying its executives while they fail to produce financial results.  It is really embarrassing to listen to people spew horse manure about a technology that claims to clean up cow manure.  There is nothing new about bacterial mitigation of effluent.  Call me when something is financially viable.  Oh, yeah, the stock has traded under a buck since late July.  I don't think I need to waste any more electrons here.

Full disclosure:  No position in Bion Environmental Technologies (ticker BNET) at this time.