RESEARCH SAMPLES: 

 

SWOT Analysis : US Battery Production for Hybrid  & Electric Vehicles

 

Strengthens: Production in primary and secondary battery markets will greatly increase in this decade.  Primary markets include consumer based items such as digital cameras.  Secondary markets consist of hybrid electric vehicle production.

 

·       Investors in the US and worldwide are adding this “tech” product to their portfolios.  The highly respected, Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffet’s company, has surprised observers with its purchase of  about 10% of a Chinese manufacturer of rechargeable batteries, BYD Company Limited, located in Shenzhen.

·       “Go Green” and “clean technology”  political and social concerns are also driving this market in the US and many industrialized countries.

 

            Weaknesses: With production moving rapidly in world markets, will these foreign

            markets slowly ease out US competitors with cheaper materials and labor costs?

·       Can the same political and social concerns remain in the marketplace if traditional oil consumption continues to decline and automobile driving increases?

·       European markets are leading the US markets is some areas of this technology and have general European Union support.  The US will have to play “catch up” and may be at odds with EU regulations in the process.

 

            Opportunities:  Venture capital for clean technologies have seen an increase             beginning this 2d quarter of 2009.

·       Current government funding for clean technologies is strong.

·       US players will come from many areas i.e. corporate giants General Electric to smaller corporate players to joint venture between business and state and local governments.

           

            Threats: Traditional auto manufacturers already facing bankruptcy and declining             markets also need to plan for this “disruptive innovation” technology.  Disruptive             innovations are processes or developments that radically change a competitive             landscape.

·       Growing the “Green Employment” promise may take more time and  money than experts predict.

·       Cleaner energy will require more R&D and more funding both from public and private resources.  Will there be adequate funding in the short or long terms?

 

May 2009

 

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SWOT Analysis: US Credit Unions

 

 

Strengths: Strength in numbers; there are more credit unions in the United States than

commercial banks. (7100 banks vs. over 9000 credit unions) Over 200 in Kentucky,

over 800 in Ohio and over 450 in Tennessee. Industry growth is projected at over 3.0%

for 2010-2011 .

Regional “industry sales for 2010”: Louisville- 170M; Lexington/Fayette : 78.7M and

Cincinnati Metro area: 300M.

-Federally insured credit unions serve many small business sectors by pooling assets.

-Credit unions (CUs) have the ability to grow due to different business modeling and

strategies which attract and maintain new and younger members and enable them to

establish trust and compete with traditional banks on many levels.

 

 

Weaknesses: Areas of customer service growth have fallen short due to the lack of more modern automated customer services and an “online channel strategy.”

-Credit unions traditionally have fewer business members requiring large loans.

-This is a heavily regulated industry from state and federal levels.

-Some industry watchers think CUs need to better manage their balance sheets in view of the current financial crisis. While banks reduced order to “make their capital look better; credit unions increased assets making their capital look worse.”

 

 

Opportunities: the ability to take advantage, grow and develop new business channels

due to banks suffering in the current economic downturn. i.e. more small business loans

from credit unions due to more recent federal/SBA guarantees.

-The growth of Credit Union Service Organizations (CUSOs) or credit union subsidiaries.

Most CUSOs permit credit unions to offer more financial services and are usually

limited liability companies. CUs with CUSOs have more growth and lower expense

ratios.

-The proposed new federal consumer protection agency will not affect CUs as much as

traditional commercial banks. The new regulatory agency would have examination

authority over institutions with assets of 3B or more and only 3 US credit unions would

qualify.

 

 

Threats: Competitor banks will lobby Congress to keep restrictions on the percentage of CU resources devoted to business lending.

-The current percentage is 12.25 with a proposed increase to 25%. Banks remain critical of CUs’ tax exempt status which has resulted in the ability to offer loans at lower interest rates.

-Industry watchers fear new regulations would encourage consolidation and create a

financial meltdown situation for CUs with a “too big to fail” logic.

-More overall competition from non-bank lenders i.e. financial companies and industrial

corporations (General Electric) and REITs.

 

5/2009

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Dow Chemicals Inc.

2030 Dow Center

Midland, MI 48674

989-636-1000, 800-422-8193

989-636-1830 (Fax)

www.dow.com

 

Company History:  Dow, founded over a century ago, has evolved from a chemical company perfecting chlorine bleach to a highly diversified holding company manufacturing hydrocarbons, performance plastics and

 specialty chemicals for industrial and consumer markets. The Company is the largest chemical company in the US ( no. 2 worldwide).

 

Acquisitions include Wolff Walsrode, a maker of “cellulose derivatives”  in 2007, ANGUS Chemical (1999), Flexible Products Co. (2000) and Union Carbide (2001) and joint ventures with Chevron Phillips Chemical and  Kuwait Petroleum Corp among others.  In 2008, the purchase of Rohm & Haas which almost did not happen, was completed in mid 2009.

 

Dow is a publicly traded company with over 150 manufacturing sites in 35 countries producing over 3000 products.  The company employs over 40,000 worldwide; total annual sales is approximately 57.4B in 2008.

 

Locally, Dow has facilities in OH and KY including its subsidiary, Rohm & Haas.

 

Company News: In December 2009,  Zap Motor Manufacturing (KY) will partner with a Dow subsidiary to develop polymer battery technology.

 

Tata Consultancy Services will team with Dow to expand outsourcing business in the US. Dow completed its divesture of the oil refinery company in the Netherlands, TRN.  With this sale, the Company will continue its major focus of increasing its financial flexibility, improving its cash flow and paying down debt. (September 2009)  Dow Buildings Solutions will target residential markets for its insulation products. (September 2009)

 

Litigation:  Covering only the US Federal 6^th Circuit for a five year period, found legal actions in Torts/Negligence and Bankruptcy with a total of over 3000 cases.  Only 3 cases in the southern district of OH. (See attached Monitor Litigation Report)  Legal representation includes many regional law firms but no firms in southern OH and none in KY.

 

Intellectual Property: Patents registered over 7000 with several marks also registered.

 

Company confirmed it is in talks to merge with DuPont which is estimated to produce a 130B merger deal. (December 2015)

 

 

nGimat LLC

2436 Over Dr. Ste B

Lexington KY 40511

859-259-3637

 

Company History: nGimat, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of nGimat Co., formed in 2010, specializes in nanomaterials, research & development, and manufacturing for the energy, electronics, consumer, and biomedical industries. The company’s facility near Lexington’s Kentucky-Argonne Center’s provides better access to the region’s expertise and resources.  

 nGitmat LLC is a privately held company with estimated revenues of  1M-2.5M annually with the number of employees at 10.

 

Parent company, nGimat Co., founded in 1994, is an intellectual property company and is a manufacturer of engineered nanomaterials in the areas of functional surfaces, barrier coatings, & electronics & optics. nGimat Co is located in Norcross, Georgia.

nGimat’s proprietary NanoSpray Combustion processing technology and Nanomiser device allow low-cost, high-volume production of nanoEngineered Materials with unique performance characteristics. The NanoSpray Combustion Processing technology for coatings and nanopowders, along with the Nanomiser Device, was invented by nGimat’s founder, Dr. Andrew Hunt.

 

Company News: nGimat LLC continues to gain startup funds.  In November 2014, as part of Lexington’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, the company was honored with the eAchiever award for receiving at least $1 million in funding and/or creating five new full time jobs in fiscal year 2014.

Joint ventures:

·       nGimat LLC and North Carolina State University have joined forces to study how  that a type of modified titania, or titanium dioxide, holds promise as an electrical insulator for superconducting magnets, allowing heat to dissipate while preserving the electrical paths along which current flows. Superconducting magnets are being investigated for use in next-generation power generating technologies and medical devices.  The precise chemical composition of the modified Titania is proprietary information. The material's development and characterization was a joint effort between NC State and nGimat LLC, based in Lexington, Kentucky.

·       nGimat & Oak Ridge National Labs jointly propose to develop safe high-voltage cathode materials for pulsed power applications in the military and commercial sectors. nGimat's versatile NanoSpray Combustion process will be utilized to tailor the bulk & surface composition of the cathode materials as well as the particle size & morphology to meet the demanding energy, power and safety requirements of emerging battery applications.

 

Government awards: from DOD and DOE-2011-12, 2014

 

SBIR PHASE I SBIR PHASE II SBIR PHASE I

149,999.00 743,080.00 79,995.00

1 1 1

  

Litigation: no active cases were found in sixth Circuit federal and State of Kentucky courts.

Intellectual Property: over 10 patents registered under the parent company name, nGimat Co.

nGimat Co. has multiple U.S. patents and patent applications pending covering its raw materials, processes, equipment, composition of matter, intermediate products and final products.

 

1/2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1/22/2015