Greetings HHSE Friends & Followers - Last week (during the WALMART Annual Shareholder's Meetings in N.W. Arkansas), HHSE C.E.O. ERIC PARKINSON was asked by quite a few institutional-level investors and funds to provide an update on "what's happening at HHSE..." and more specifically "... is this a GOOD time to accumulate shares?"
As per S.E.C. guidelines, it is not possible to provide a manager's analysis or prognostication to a handful of investors - unless this same information is provided simultaneously via a public forum or disclosure to ALL current and prospective investors. Accordingly, this blog is designed to provide a manager's level analysis and to answer the questions of "what's happening at HHSE" and "is this a GOOD time to accumulate shares?"
These are both relevant and timely questions.
Over the past few years, the Hannover House blogsite (on which this post appears), has concentrated primarily on writing about all of the great-and-amazing things that the company is endeavoring to achieve. So, for those not previously following this Blog, here's a quick bullet point of why many investors and shareholders are bullish on HHSE:
1). HANNOVER HOUSE HAS LONGEVITY - AND IS MULTI-FACETED. Formed in 1993 and operating continuously now for 26-years, Hannover House has longevity and stability at an unprecedented level for an OTC Pinksheets company. Additionally, the company has shown resilience in evolving or refocusing its business models to accommodate the changing media marketplace (from books, to DVDs, to Theatrical, to International and now onto Streaming).
2). HANNOVER'S NEW MODEL FOR PURSUING "HIGH-PROFILE" FEATURES - The maturing independent film marketplace now prefers bigger-budgeted films, with top-name stars as opposed to the early DVD years which made micro-budget programming surprisingly profitable. This new model of bigger films is beneficial to Hannover House because it provides operating liquidity and a tremendous "upside potential" without downside risk (as the films are funded through presales and incentives). Additionally, these films become part of a permanent asset base for HHSE.
3). HANNOVER'S VENTURE FOR MyFLIX COULD BE ENORMOUS - The in-home digital streaming model is rapidly becoming the dominant form of home-entertainment delivery. Hannover House has been contracted to create and launch a multi-studio streaming site called MyFlix, which combines over 12,000 titles of programming from over 40-supplier studios into a one-stop digital superstore. Think of MyFlix as the "Walmart" of digital streaming. Hannover has the option to acquire MyFlix (for $1) after a successful launch and the satisfaction of corporate actions.
4). HANNOVER'S PENDING S.E.C. REGISTRATION FILING - For the past nine years, Hannover House has been operating as an OTC Pinksheets company. Many investors and funds are prohibited by law or self-governance from investing in "Pinksheet" stocks. Accordingly, the current registration with the S.E.C. (via Form 10), is expected to significantly increase shareholder access to HHSE, and as a result, is expected to have an appreciation impact to the stock value. The HHSE shares would be up-listed to either OTC: QB or OTC: QX. Hannover House is also filing a post Form 10 "S-1 Registration Statement" designed to generate up to $8-mm in operating cash for the company via the direct sale of stock shares at between $.03 and $.08 each... making the current market pricing of the stock ($.0115 approx.) into a bargain opportunity.
5). HANNOVER'S STOCK "PUBLIC FLOAT" IS TIGHTLY CONTROLLED - the vast majority of the HHSE "public-float" stock (over 85%) is controlled by about thirty key shareholders that have made the long-term commitment to hold their shares and to support a move of the stock past the $.10 / share level (or higher). These are sophisticated and substantial traders and investors who recognize that the UPSIDE RUN has not yet happened for Hannover House - and that any one of the key corporate endeavors could trigger an explosive appreciation in stock interest and pricing. This tight control and shareholder commitment has made the stock price very STABLE over the past nine years. While there have been some short-term "peaks" in pricing (and a few, short-term dips), the year-over-year AVERAGE stock price without any of these significant corporate benchmarks has averaged between $.011 and $.028 / share... putting the current stock pricing at the bottom end of the company's historic average trading ranges.
IN SUMMARY...
* The current elimination of balance sheet debts will have a significant and positive impact to the company.
* The registration and up-list opportunities this opens for HHSE will substantially increase shareholder access to the stock.
* Four feature productions are providing overhead and cash flow to Hannover House -and three of these films offer an upside measured (literally) into the tens-of-millions of dollars as being both realistic and obtainable possibilities.
* The MyFlix website and streaming APP has over 40-studio supplier partners (including titles from THREE of the Major Studios). If a site such as Accorn.TV is currently generating over $80-mm per year offering U.K. Television Programming and Urban Films... what can a website and streaming APP like MyFlix generate with more than 12,000 titles, a dozen programming categories and an easily branded name?
These are the principal reasons cited to HHSE managers from key shareholders as to their commitment and enthusiasm for an impressive and solid UPSIDE for Hannover House.
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BUT, IT'S NOT ALL ROSES FOR HHSE - THERE ARE SOME CHALLENGES...
The path to registration, up-listing and our new business model is not without obstacles. Hannover House has been focusing tremendous effort these past few months on cleaning-up issues relating to the prior business model, or otherwise addressing items with bad optics or perceived risk.
a). LITIGATION MATTERS - Three months ago, there were two "small" and six "significant" litigation matters that the company wanted to address or resolve in support of the Form 10 filing. Responses and resolutions have already been achieved for three of these items. Of the remaining four significant matters (which are comprised of two predatory lenders and two indie producer disputes), two of these issues are being responded to by counsel next week - with the remaining two responses are being handled for the week ending June 28. HHSE has prevailed in two similar disputes with predatory lenders... and HHSE has prevailed in 15 of the 17 total producer disputes that have arisen during the company's 26-year history (during which time, a total of 458-titles have been released, resulting in a producer litigation rate of under 4%, which is less than 1/3rd of the USA Studios average). However, some HHSE shareholders are growing impatient due to the length of time required to adequately address all of these Form 10 related issues.
b). DEBT BURDEN - Even with victories in the resolution of litigation matters, Hannover House continues to carry an uncomfortable amount of debt. While all of these debts are addressed under the Form 10 and S-1 plans, the overall debt burden may still appears onerous to some outsiders or purposeful critics. However, for the past ten years, the company has been able to manage and juggle its payables and debts under very adverse conditions, and there's no circumstance that management anticipates to change this paradigm. In fact, as the litigation matters are being resolved, the company will be able to reallocate cash resources recently (or currently) spent on legal fees to an acceleration of other debt management. Attorney's are expensive... so, we are happy to be experiencing a reduction in these costs.
c). IT'S THE WILD WEST OF DIGITAL STREAMING - At this moment in time, there is a scramble among media companies to stake a claim in the new digital frontier. Except for Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu, MOST of the other streaming competitors are "brand" or "genre'" specific (i.e., DISNEY-FOX, CBS ALL ACCESS, HBO NOW, CURIOSITY STREAM). There is no other announced MULTI-STUDIO, MULTI-GENRE' site like MyFlix... but it's likely that eventually there will be similar, one-stop digital superstores. To the victor go the spoils... which is why Hannover House is focused on a strong, proper and FAST launch of MyFlix.
d). BIG, EVENT MOVIES ARE EXPENSIVE... AND PRODUCTION IS A SLOW PROCESS - It would not be fair to write about a new business model for HHSE that is focused in part on the production of major feature films, without disclosing that the production of major features is expensive, difficult and time-consuming. It starts with a solid property... then moves to creative attachments (director and stars), then moves to international presales, co-production ventures and incentive opportunities before the whole package ends up as collateral for a funding credit facility. Then you have to actually SHOOT the movie, edit the film, add sound effects, visual effects, titles, surround-sound mix and other final mastering. It's about 12-to-18 months (under the best of circumstances) from the decision of "let's do this" to a film's opening day at the theatres. BUT, the presales and incentives remove all financial downside, and the substantial ownership in the completed films by HHSE delivers a big upside with these major productions. These films also become permanent film library assets for HHSE.
e). RELIANCE ON PRINCIPAL MANAGERS - There has been some concern that the future success of HHSE is overly dependent upon the continued employment of C.E.O. Eric Parkinson and President Fred Shefte. While it's clear that both individuals are functioning as the locomotives to move these corporate initiatives forward... the 3-1/2 month medical leave-of-absence last fall for Fred Shefte shows that the train keeps rolling even if one of the engineers is temporarily out of commission. As for Parkinson, he owns 43,141,649 Common Stock Shares (with an opportunity to recapture 31,800,000 previously surrendered shares), and his 2,400,000 Preferred Shares may be converted into 24,000,000 Common Stock Shares under a post-registration reclassification. That puts the current market value of the Parkinson shares at $1,246,664, and at the modest PPS forecast of $.08 / share (post registration), the value of Parkinson's HHSE shares could soar to $7.91-mm. Prior to the registration filing, these officer-owned shares are heavily restricted by law from sale, hypothecation, assignment, attachment or any other form transfer... which collectively illustrates the tremendous upside available to C.E.O. Parkinson for the achievement of the baseline goal of S.E.C. registration and up-listing. What will the HHSE stock price be after the MyFlix Launch or after one or more "big" movies gets released?
f). WHAT IF, WHAT IF, WHAT IF? - There's always a potential for unknown factors, acts of God, terrorist attacks, bad federal governance and other such incidents outside of management's control that could impact the best laid plans. The goal of the HHSE managers is to review all activities and likelihoods and to implement the best obtainable business plan for the company. Conversely, the goal of professional critics is to sow fear and uncertainty in order to suppress a company's stock price. A chorus of internet trolls has spent years of otherwise productive time spewing absurdities and gloomy predictions against HHSE on a popular stock chat board... ever since Jan. 1, 2010 - when Hannover House became "public" (under TDGI - Target Development Group, Inc., later rebranded as Hannover House, Inc. / OTC: HHSE). These chat board critics have been attacking the HHSE officers, critizing every project of the company and repeatedly claiming "the sky is falling any minute now." But after nearly ten years, that asteroid has still not hit, and frankly, never will. That's why wise investors ignore the anonymous chat board trolls and make investment decisions based on an impartial analysis of all that's good... and all that's bad.
Therefore, we believe that some of the relevant questions that a prospective investor in HHSE needs to think about are:
1). FORM 10 - Will HHSE complete and file its Form 10 Registration Statement (which is the catalyst to up-listing the stock and dramatically expanding investor access)?
2). CLEAN-UP PRIOR BUSINESS MODEL - Will HHSE managers succeed in cleaning-up / eliminating the distractions that occurred as a result of the prior (indie-film DVD) business model that became unprofitable?
3). BIG MOVIES - Will HHSE managers be able to put together all of the pieces required to get a major motion picture off-the-ground?
4). MYFLIX - Will HHSE (through Vodwiz, Inc.) be able to on-board and launch a major consumer streaming site with over 12,000 titles from 40+ suppliers?
5). MANAGEMENT COMMITMENT - With an upside to Parkinson of nearly $8-mm after registration, uplist and the MyFlix launch (and a $4-mm upside to Shefte).... how committed and motivated are the HHSE managers to implementing these corporate initiatives?
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Accordingly, while we have answered the question as to "What's Happening At Hannover House," the answer to the other question, "Is this a Good Time to Accumulate Shares" can only be answered by the individual investor after an analysis of their own risk-adversity and appetite for upside potential. A Dow Jones Indexed Fund is more liquid, but unlikely to experience the tremendous pricing appreciation that is possible with an equity like Hannover House. On the other hand, the endeavors that Hannover is pursuing are significant and difficult... but the historic share price floor has proven to be remarkably stable over the prior nine years. So, we must defer an investment answer to each individual and their circumstances.
But by all means, watch this space!