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Andrew Tobias

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Andrew Tobias
Andrew Tobias

Money and Other Subjects

Borealis

June 6, 2019June 5, 2019

Hey, so I see BOREF dipped below $5 for a minute yesterday and is not much higher than it was 20 years ago when I first bought some just north of $3 a share (and first wrote about it a few months later).

You can read the January 3, 2019 Chairman’s letter in the 2018 annual report to get the company’s overview.

I’ve gotten their permission to disclose that I’ve personally sunk $1 million into WheelTug in recent years, and raised a bunch more, to help fund the drive toward FAA certification, currently very much underway.  Of course, there’s no assurance when or whether that certification will be forthcoming (it could easily be another 18 months or more) or that, once certified, lease payments and profits will gush as hoped.  But with the company projecting that airlines will save more than $1 million per plane per year (mostly in time saved at the gate) . . . on what could ultimately be a significant fraction of the 17,000 jets currently in service that could be retrofitted (about 1,200 planes are already in queue) . . . the current $15 million market cap of Borealis (which owns 62% of WheelTug) seems (to me) kind of ludicrous.

Yes, the company could fail. Its stock could ultimately wither away to zero.  But it could also succeed.  A lot of smart people are working hard ­– primarily for private WheelTug stock assigned a $1.25 billion market cap — ­ to MAKE it succeed.

So I hang on, albeit only with money I can truly afford to lose.*


*At this point, having told you about the $1 million, I guess I should remind you that my needs are few.  I have no car, boat, or plane.  I bought my apartment when they were giving them away.  I eat expired food — most recently some Gulden’s mustard marked “best by December 3, 2011.”  And look at all the money I’ve saved over the years by not smoking!

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