The move away from fossil fuels has been decided. The transformation of the traffic and transport sector is underway and is being subsidized by governments worldwide with programmes worth billions. The key to achieving climate goals lies, among other things, in the switch to green hydrogen as an energy carrier. Here, the newcomer First Hydrogen has clearly positioned itself with its "Hydrogen-as-a-Service" model. It wants to cover the entire value chain in the future with the construction of emission-free vehicles and the production and distribution of green hydrogen. With a market capitalization of CAD 233.41 million, the Canadians still have significant upside potential compared to their peer group, despite an outperformance in the current stock market year.
Uncertainties and delays with regard to the further development of the "Smartbroker 2.0" project were the reasons for the crash of the Smartbroker Holding AG share in recent weeks. Thus, the Company lost more than half of its stock market value since the beginning of August. With the announcement of a long-term partnership and a change in strategy, nothing now stands in the way of a successful launch of the Next Generation Broker, which is planned for mid-2023.
The economic challenges for successful business development could hardly be more challenging than now. First, there was the Corona pandemic, then blown-up supply chains and now steadily rising inflation. Few companies are managing to emerge stronger from the crisis. One of the exceptions is Australian mediatech company Aspermont, which reported high double-digit growth in both revenue and profitability for the fiscal year, demonstrating the resilience of its business model. In the current financial year, the leading media service provider for the global raw materials industry intends to keep growth high and ignite the next stage with investments from organic cash flow.
The energy turnaround requires billions of euros of investment from the public and private sectors to achieve climate neutrality in the medium term. An important factor here is unrestricted access to important raw materials, the scarcity of which has become extremely acute as a result of the Corona pandemic and geopolitical conflicts. Parallel escalating inflation is making the procurement and production of key high-tech goods much more expensive. The ongoing price hike and increasing trade conflicts could even lead Western industries into a prolonged recession. Globex Mining has recognized the challenges and has been securing key properties for many years, primarily in North America, whose jurisdictions allow for the safe location of mining industries. The investment approach of mining legend Jack Stoch (CEO) is unique in the industry.
Delays and restrictions due to the Corona pandemic delayed the global roll-out of dynaCERT's patented HydraGEN technology for reducing CO2 emissions. However, the Company used this idle time to set up global sales in addition to refining the technology. In addition, dynaCERT is nearing completion on Verra's Verified Carbon Standard program, the most widely used greenhouse gas crediting program in the world. This will provide customers with a closed ecosystem, which should lead to high economies of scale. Now, company leader Jim Payne surprised with an innovative move.
The oil market has shown strong distortions since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. If you look at the global economic situation, you would inevitably expect the demand for oil to fall. However, due to the sanctions imposed by the Western industrialized nations on the aggressor Russia, other supply routes for the black gold have become established. Europe in particular is severely undersupplied, leading to extreme prices in the industrial and private sectors. If there are any profiteers at all from the current geopolitical situation, it is the oil and gas producers from North America, because they can run their pumps at full throttle and sell at good market prices. It is therefore worth looking again to Saskatchewan.
Time is of the essence. Climate change is the most fundamental challenge of our generation. With the amendment of the Climate Protection Act 2021, Germany, for example, has tightened the requirements even further and anchored the goal of greenhouse gas neutrality by 2045. For the transformation of transport, which is responsible for around 20% of greenhouse gas emissions according to the German Federal Environment Agency, this means a tour de force that is almost impossible to implement in practice. The hurdles are particularly high in the transport sector. In addition to horrendous investments by the commercial vehicle industry, the lack of charging and refueling infrastructure is an obstacle to being able to bury the internal combustion engine in a timely manner. In a joint declaration at the end of last year, European truck manufacturers such as Daimler, Scania and MAN announced their intention to stop producing diesel trucks by 2040 in order to be climate-neutral by 2050. However, an immediate solution is offered by the Canadian company dynaCERT, which achieves significant emission reductions with its patented HydraGEN technology. With the successful completion of a pilot project, nothing now stands in the way of entry into the mass market.
For months, the Chinese technology company BYD was able to escape the general market correction. While the competition around the former top dog Tesla had to struggle with closures of their production facilities due to the Corona pandemic, the Shenzhen-based company was largely spared and secured its place in the sun in Chinese electric car sales, which it was able to expand significantly in the course of the year. However, since the sale of a block of shares by Berkshire Hathaway, the investment firm managed by Warren Buffett, became known, the BYD share price went steeply downhill, losing around 40% of its value at the end of August. Even strong figures for the third quarter could not stop the downward spiral.
Resources on earth are unequally distributed. Especially in the case of important and rare metals, many production sites are located in China and Russia. Immediately, this brings up political discussions because the strain on supply chains should not lead to dependence on the West for important supplies from geopolitically dubious zones. Recently, delivery of the US's new F35 fighter jet to the US military and allies had to be halted after key components were arguably produced in China. US procurement law prohibits military equipment from being purchased from foreign suppliers. That makes it clear: Almonty Industries is one of the upcoming key producers for the strategically important metal tungsten.
Opportunities arise for companies when copycat drugs are just as good as the original. The Canadian company XPhyto has taken a big step toward market readiness in the fight against Parkinson's disease. Over the next five minutes, we briefly explain what is important now and how great the opportunities are. We also show how XPhyto is helping to counter the opioid wave in the USA and what imagination lies in the little-noticed business field of psychedelics.