Large SUVs as a separate category declined 29% through April. Meanwhile the Toyota Prius posted an increase in sales of nearly 23% over last year.

While the Prius has tremendous fuel efficiency gains, other hybrids provide only modest fuel efficiency improvement while increasing performance. With its Lexus brand, Toyota has sought a balance of increased efficiency with performance for its luxury line-up. We thought it interesting to compare two models that can be purchased with or without the hybrid capability. We mention them here because they provide a great performance comparison and show the benefits of the hybrid capability. They also provide some insight into how manufacturers respond to consumer’s desire for performance, particularly at the high end of the market. The Lexus GS430 is a sports coupe and carries a price tag of a little more than $50,000. The motor is a 4.3 liter V8 that produces 290 horsepower and will get you 18 miles per gallon in the city. The car is certainly performance oriented and can get all 3,748 pounds of car from 0 to 60 mph in 5.7 seconds. By contrast, the more environmentally friendly GS450h is a 3.5 liter hybrid that starts at nearly $55,000. The hybrid does get better gas mileage with a city average 25 mpg printed on the sticker, 7 mpg better than the non-hybrid. The car weighs an additional 386 lbs primarily due to the weight of the electric motor and the batteries. Lexus says that the motor adds 47 horsepower to the 293 horses coming from the internal combustion engine, bringing the car to a whopping 340 horsepower. Remember the GS430, without the hybrid has 290 horsepower. The result is a very fast 0-60 of 5.2 seconds despite the additional weight of the hybrid system. The hybrid version gets slightly better gas mileage, particularly in stop and go traffic, but much of the efficiency has been lost to performance. Our point is, while fuel efficiency is possible and desirable, consumers still want power and even Toyota is eager to cater. It is no wonder that after the oil price peak in 1981, car manufacturers threw fuel efficiency out the window in favor of performance.

We believe that fuel efficiency will increase particularly in the United States and the popularity of hybrids will continue to grow with high gasoline prices. With enough efficiency gasoline prices can moderate and decline slightly despite growth in global demand, however the United States is the single country that can make large efficiency gains. The rest of the world drives smaller, lighter, more fuel efficient vehicles already. We believe that oil and gasoline prices will remain near current levels due to constrained supply and increasing demand long-term. While hybrids and gasoline powered vehicles with greater efficiency make sense now, there are other alternatives longer-term. We will address biofuels, ethanol and hydrogen fuel cells briefly but we believe that the car of the future will be electric. Though we won’t discuss the implications directly in this report, it is worth noting that 15% of our steel consumption goes into automobiles. With an increased focus on fuel efficiency, vehicle weight is becoming more important. We speculate that lighter materials will increasingly be used over steel for automobile manufacture. We believe that aluminum would be the largest beneficiary of this likely trend, however the heaviest parts of the car are its engine and fuel tank. To really make vehicles more efficient these will have to go.

Biofuel Use Will Grow as an Additive

Ethanol production is forecast to grow more than 30% in 2008 to 8.5 billion gallons from 6.5 billion in 2007 according to the EIA. But ethanol will not replace gasoline, and by using corn, we are not materially reducing carbon emissions. Ethanol is being used primarily as a fuel additive to gasoline replacing methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), which is used as an oxygenate to increase fuel octane and reduce pollution. Unfortunately MTBE is toxic and traces of the chemical have been turning up in ground water in the U.S., prompting cries for elimination of its use. Ethanol has been found to be a very good replacement additive to MTBE, reducing pollution without the toxicity. Generally ethanol is being blended with gasoline at 5 to 10% levels. Pure ethanol, or 85% ethanol blends burn hotter than gasoline and provide less power. Ethanol in concentrations higher than 10% would require significant changes to automobile engines, making a significant switch impractical even if the sheer farm acreage necessary was available to grow sufficient quantities of corn or other feedstock.

In the U.S. ethanol is produced primarily from corn. Though farmers like the flexibility of corn since it can be used for sale as either food or fuel, other biofuel feedstocks have been shown to be much more efficient. Recently the rising price of food prices has put pressure on farmers and policy makers to alter the broad use of corn for ethanol in the U.S. In 2007 approximately 22% of the total U.S. corn production went to ethanol. Despite this large contribution to fuel our cars, a record quantity of corn was exported, and after supplying the domestic market, a 10% surplus was stockpiled. Surely part of the increase in the price of corn is due to ethanol demand but we believe a large portion of food increases are due to fuel prices. Fuel is necessary to plow fields, process crops and transport food. Ironically, to a certain degree, ethanol has moderated gasoline prices and helped to keep transportation costs from going higher while increasing the price of corn.
Ethanol production is expected to double by 2015 to meet federal mandated targets. Much of this increase will have to be met by increasing crop yields through bioengineered seeds and other technologies. The increased demand will continue to drive growth of companies focused on agriculture including Monsanto, Potash, Deere, Caterpillar and others. Rather than invest in the ethanol processors, we believe investment in the companies providing the agricultural infrastructure makes more sense. Most of these companies have a large international presence adding geographical diversification and they are all currently seeing a material benefit from the weak value of the dollar relative to other currencies.

Many analysts argue that higher crop prices will be a benefit long-term for both farmers and consumers. Higher crop prices effectively reduce farm subsidies in the U.S. and Europe. This enables farmers in the developing world to compete. Higher prices also encourage investment resulting in increased crop yields in developing countries, which are generally less than half per acre than in industrialized nations.

As a feedstock for ethanol, corn is a mediocre choice. Non-food crops such as switchgrass or rapeseed are more efficient requiring less land and irrigation to produce the same quantity of fuel as corn. Switchgrass is very hearty and can grow very well in multiple climates across the U.S. It also acts more efficiently at capturing and storing carbon in the soil than corn due to the crops deep root systems. Additionally, these crops eliminate the political concern that food necessary to feed a growing population is being diverted to vehicles and in the process inflating the cost of food.

Ethanol has been a positive contribution to offsetting some demand for oil but corn has done little to improve the emission of carbon into the atmosphere. While the blend in your car emits less carbon the energy consumed processing corn releases nearly as much carbon as the ethanol offsets leaving little net benefit if any at all. Other crops offer better carbon improvements. Regardless of the crop used, ethanol has been very positive for farmers and companies supplying the agriculture industry and this will continue as ethanol production expands.

The Return of the Electric Car

Access to capital for a new venture is hard to come by. Ask any entrepreneur. You have a great idea, something new or something better. All you want to do is get working on it before competition emerges or the market passes you by. Unfortunately you cannot create something from nothing. The fulfillment of an idea follows the first law of thermodynamics in its own way. It takes resources to create, or least to get your creation to market. For an entrepreneur the most difficult stage is typically finding investment capital which often means making the rounds at the venture capitalist firms. Venture capital understands technology markets and because new technologies often displace existing products, upstarts are not disadvantaged relative to large competitors. As any corporate strategist will tell you, large companies, despite access to capital, are not very good at generating new ideas and fostering them in-house. Despite this fact, some endeavors, such as introducing new technologies to mature and capital intensive industries such as automotive or aerospace are particularly problematic. Most venture capitalists will not take the risk.

The Internet boom created and lost a vast amount of wealth. Not all of the companies were unsuccessful and a few were wildly successful. And a few entrepreneurs managed to sell their creations at the most opportune time. Vern Raburn of Eclipse Jet made his fortune in Microsoft before starting Eclipse with his own money. He believed that there had to be untapped innovations that could dramatically change aerospace. Paul Allen, also of Microsoft, has invested dollars in the possibility of commercial space travel. Jeff Bezos of Amazon is doing the same. These entrepreneurs have access to capital, their own, and a belief that they can make material changes to old industries through technology. While the big auto manufacturers are dabbling with hybrids and fuel cell technology there are entrepreneurs trying to bring new cars with new technology to market today. One of the more promising, and exciting, is Tesla Motors. The company was started by Martin Eberhard and financed by Elon Musk, the founder of PayPal. Tesla Motors is bringing a new sports car to market that runs entirely on electricity.

Generally, environmentally friendly conjures images of practicality which often fails to be exciting. This of course limits the potential market opportunity, particularly for a new technology that depends on a critical mass of early adopters that are willing to take a risk on the new product. As in the case of the Lexus hybrid, consumers want power and performance along with their eco-friendly ride. Performance sells cars. In designing the Tesla Roadster, the new company had the benefit of starting from scratch. There is no internal combustion engine. The company took an already manufactured chassis from Lotus, added a carbon fiber body, lithium-ion batteries for fuel an electrically driven motor to propel the car. One of the keys to the performance of the car is weight. The motor that drives the car is only 115 pounds, the 6,831 cell battery is nearly 1,000 pounds. As a result the car weighs 2,600 lbs. With 248 horsepower from the motor, maximum torque instantly and the relative lightweight of the vehicle, the car accelerates from 0-60 in only 4 seconds with a top speed of 130. More importantly, or more practically, the range is 220 miles on a full charge. With a high voltage connection at home the car can be fully charged in 3 ½ hours. The battery will operate at peak performance for approximately 500 charges before slowly losing some ability to fully charge, equivalent to 110,000 miles. There’s no oil to change and no routine maintenance except to rotate the tires. Yes, there is a cup holder and heated seats, iPod interface, air conditioning and airbags too. Electricity rates vary depending on the hour of the day, but even at the most expensive rate, the car would cost less than $10 to fully recharge. The Tesla Roadster is currently being marketed for a base price of $109,000. As battery technology improves and through economies of scale, expect prices and range to improve.

Of course there is one significant drawback to the Tesla Roadster. If you are going for a long trip, you’ll have to stop to charge the car every 220 miles. While the 220 mile range is adequate for commuting and local driving the car cannot replace the portability of the internal combustion engine. We believe that the electric car has a place today as a second car in the household. As battery technology improves or possibly with the development of practical fuel cell technology the internal combustion engine can be replaced entirely.
In the not too distant future we’ll be running our cars on clean, zero emission energy, not biofuel but electricity. First through battery technologies in use today and then possibly with hydrogen fuel cells of tomorrow. Except in the near-term at least, we will have to plug our vehicles into the grid, which of course is generated primarily with that not so clean energy called coal.

In Conclusion

At the outset of developing this report, we planned to build an investment thesis around the prospect of new investment opportunities to solve the problem of global climate change. While there has been plenty of ink spilled on the topic, we found little to synthesize a realistic picture of the current environment and from an investment perspective, apply what may feasibly develop in the future. We will not pretend to have accomplished that goal here, but we hope this primer can provide a beginning for some critical analysis for investors.

Global warming is scientifically considered to be a product of greenhouse gasses, and in particular the rising quantity of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. In our estimation then, if you want to solve the problem of global climate change, you need to reduce the carbon output. There is no lack of suggested solutions for reducing your carbon footprint. Inflate your tires, use fluorescent lighting, take public transportation, and consume less. If carbon is the problem, then carbon-based fuels are the enemy, and since most of our energy comes from carbon-based fuels, we started to focus our reading list, and subsequently this report, on energy.

Meanwhile economic growth in the U.S. has slowed, the value of the dollar has fallen against nearly every major currency and demand for basic commodities, particularly energy, has increased, outstripping supply. Suddenly the headlines have shifted from environmental crisis to energy crisis. The fundamentals are the same regardless of which crisis is more important to you personally. Energy will continue to drive the global economy and due to environmental factors and rising demand, we believe that the energy landscape is poised for a gradual shift that will take decades, but is creating investment opportunity today.

We Want to Conclude with the Following Points:

Energy consumption is essential to economic growth. We all have a vested interest to protect our environment, but the desire to increase wealth, particularly in less developed countries, will remain the primary concern. Demand for “dirty” fossil fuels will continue.

Energy demand will increase. Conservation can slow demand and technology can increase efficiency, but overall energy consumption will continue to rise, particularly as the less developed populations of the world industrialize. Technology is finally beginning to make cleaner alternatives cost competitive and investment in those technologies will grow rapidly.

Low cost energy sources will win. The global abundance and efficiency of carbon based fuels have kept energy prices low. Historically, with every energy “crisis”, higher fuel prices have driven new investment in techniques and technologies to develop previously inaccessible sources. This in turn increases supply to meet that demand, reducing prices. The essential question is whether we have reached a tipping point, in oil in particular, where peak production may be approaching. We do not pretend to know this answer, but it is apparent that although the price of oil may moderate from the current high, $20 per barrel crude is a thing of the past.

Clean alternatives are available and abundant but still expensive to refine into usable energy. Rising oil prices encourage petroleum companies to invest more in exploration and increase supply, but they also make clean alternatives more cost competitive. The combination of technology which reduces the cost of alternatives and rising costs of fossil fuels, particularly after the environmental impact is considered, will make alternatives finally viable. There is no lack of solar radiation from the sun and the wind will continue to blow, but the trick is to turn it into energy. These sources will not replace our existing infrastructure in the near-term, but the cost to generate a watt from alternatives is getting competitive and many of the companies in these areas will be successful.

Selected Company Info

Agriculture:

Deere & Company (DE)
Deere & Company (John Deere), through its subsidiaries, operates in four business segments. The agricultural equipment segment manufactures and distributes a line of farm equipment and related service parts, including tractors; combine, cotton and sugarcane harvesters; tillage, seeding and soil preparation machinery; sprayers; hay and forage equipment; integrated agricultural management systems technology, and precision agricultural irrigation equipment. The commercial and consumer equipment segment manufactures and distributes equipment, products and service parts for commercial and residential uses.

Caterpillar (CAT)
Caterpillar Inc. operates in three principal lines of business: Machinery, Engines and Financial Products. Machinery deals with the design, manufacture, marketing and sales of construction, mining and forestry machinery. Engines business deals with the design, manufacture, marketing and sales of engines. Financial Products, consists primarily of Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation, Caterpillar Insurance Holdings, Inc., Caterpillar Power Ventures Corporation and their respective subsidiaries.

Monsanto (MON)
Monsanto Company is a global provider of agricultural products for farmers. The company’s seeds, biotechnology trait products, and herbicides provide farmers with solutions that improve productivity, reduce the costs of farming, and produce better foods for consumers and better feed for animals. It has two segments: Seeds and Genomics and Agricultural Productivity. Through its Seeds and Genomics segment, it produces seed brands and it develops biotechnology traits that assist farmers in controlling insects and weeds. It also provides other seed companies with genetic material and biotechnology traits for their seed brands. Through its Agricultural Productivity segment, the company manufactures Roundup brand herbicides and other herbicides and provides lawn-and-garden herbicide products for the residential market and animal agricultural products focused on improving dairy cow productivity.

Potash (POT)
Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. is an integrated fertilizer and related industrial and feed products company. The company’s potash is produced from six mines in Saskatchewan and one mine in New Brunswick. Of these mines, it owns and operates five in Saskatchewan and the one in New Brunswick. Its nitrogen operations involve the production of nitrogen fertilizers and nitrogen feed and industrial products, including ammonia, urea, nitrogen solutions, ammonium nitrate and nitric acid. It has nitrogen facilities in Georgia, Louisiana, Ohio and Trinidad. The company’s phosphate operations include the manufacture and sale of solid and liquid phosphate fertilizers, animal feed supplements and industrial acid, which is used in food products and industrial processes.

Automotive

Toyota (TM)
Toyota primarily conducts business in the automotive industry. Its business segments are automotive operations, financial services operations and all other operations. Its automotive operations include the design, manufacture, assembly and sale of passenger cars, minivans and trucks and related parts and accessories. Toyota’s financial services business consists primarily of providing financing to dealers and their customers for the purchase or lease of Toyota vehicles. Toyota sells its vehicles in more than 170 countries and regions. Toyota’s primary markets for its automobiles are Japan, North America, Europe and Asia.

Tesla Motors (Private)
Tesla Motors develops and manufactures electric vehicles with exceptional design, performance and efficiency, while conforming to all U.S. safety, environmental and durability standards. The Tesla Roadster is the only highway capable production electric car of any kind for sale in the United States. With a 0 to 60 mph acceleration of 3.9 seconds, a 13,000 rpm redline, and the fastest top gear acceleration of any production car tested by Car & Driver magazine in 2007, combined with an EPA rating of 135 MPG equivalent, the Tesla Roadster is unique in providing super car performance at twice the energy efficiency of the best hybrids.

Energy Transport

Enterprise Products Partners (EPD)
Enterprise Products Partners L.P. is a North American midstream energy company providing a range of services to producers and consumers of natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil, and certain petrochemicals. It is also engaged in the development of pipeline and other midstream energy infrastructure in the continental United States and Gulf of Mexico. The Company operates in four business segments: NGL Pipelines & Services, Onshore Natural Gas Pipelines & Services, Offshore Pipelines & Services and Petrochemical Services.

Eagle Bulk Shipping (EGLE)
Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc. is primarily engaged in the ocean transportation of a range of major and minor bulk cargoes, including iron ore, coal, grain, cement and fertilizer, along worldwide shipping routes. The Company operates in the Handymax sector of the dry bulk industry, with particular emphasis on the Supramax class of vessels. As of December 31, 2007, Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc. owned and operated a fleet of 18 Handymax dry bulk vessels, 16 of which were of the Supramax class, with a combined carrying capacity of 915,502 deadweight tons and an average age of approximately six years.

Mining/Natural Gas

Cameco (CCJ)
Cameco is a Canada-based company. The Company operates in four segments: uranium, fuel services, nuclear electricity generation and gold. During the year ended December 31, 2007, Cameco’s fuel services business consisted of uranium refining and conversion facilities in Ontario, a Candu fuel fabrication facility in Ontario and a uranium conversion services supply arrangement with Springfields Fuels Ltd (SFL). In July 2007, Cameco acquired a 10% interest in Western Uranium Corporation (WUC).

Rio Tinto (RTP)
Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited operate as one business organization (Rio Tinto). Rio Tinto is an international mining company. Its business is finding, mining and processing mineral resources. Its major products are aluminum, copper, diamonds, coal, uranium, gold, industrial minerals (borax, salt, talc), and iron ore. Businesses include open pit and underground mines, mills, refineries and smelters, as well as a number of research and service facilities. On October 23, 2007, Rio Tinto acquired Alcan Inc., the parent company of an international group of companies involved in bauxite mining, alumina refining, aluminum smelting, engineered products, flexible and specialty packaging.

Chesapeake Energy (CHK)
Chesapeake Energy Corporation is a producer of natural gas in the United States. It owns interests in approximately 38,500 producing oil and natural gas wells that are producing approximately 2.2 billion cubic feet equivalent (bcfe), per day, 92% of which is natural gas. Its operations are located in the Mid-Continent region, which includes Oklahoma, Arkansas, southwestern Kansas and the Texas Panhandle; the Forth Worth Basin in north-central Texas; the Appalachian Basin, principally in West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, eastern Ohio and southern New York; the Permian and Delaware Basins of West Texas and eastern New Mexico; the Ark-La-Tex area of East Texas and northern Louisiana, and the South Texas and Texas Gulf Coast regions.

Solar Technology

First Solar (FSLR)
First Solar, Inc. designs and manufactures solar modules using a thin film semiconductor technology. Its solar modules employ a thin layer of cadmium telluride semiconductor material to convert sunlight into electricity. It has long-term solar module supply contracts (the Long Term Supply Contracts) with 12 European project developers and system integrators. Its customers develops, owns and operates solar power plants or sells turnkey solar power plants to end-users that include owners of land, owners of agricultural buildings, owners of commercial warehouses, offices and industrial buildings, public agencies, municipal government authorities, utility companies, and financial investors that desire to own large scale solar power plant projects.

MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR)
MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. is engaged in the design, manufacture and sale of silicon wafers. The Company provides wafers in sizes ranging from 100 millimeters (four inch) to 300 millimeters (12 inch). Depending on market conditions, the Company also sells intermediate products, such as polysilicon, silane gas, partial ingots and scrap wafers to semiconductor device and equipment makers, solar customers, flat panel and other industries. The wafers are used as the starting material for the manufacture of various types of semiconductor devices, including microprocessor, memory, logic and power devices, as well as solar cells.

Nanosolar (Private)
Nanosolar is a global leader in solar power innovation. With its proprietary nanoparticle ink and roll-printing technology, Nanosolar owns the processes and designs to produce the world’s most cost-efficient solar cells and make them available in many versatile product forms. The company has manufacturing operations in Silicon Valley, California, and the Berlin capital region, Germany. More information on Nanosolar is available on the Internet at www.nanosolar.com.

SunPower (SPWR)
SunPower is a vertically integrated solar products and services company that designs, manufactures and markets high-performance solar electric power technologies. Its solar power products are sold through its components business segment, or its components segment. These activities are performed by its systems business segment, or its systems segment. Its solar power systems, which generate electric energy, integrate solar cells and panels manufactured by it, as well as other suppliers. It operates in two segments: components segment and Systems segments.

Wind Energy

General Electric (GE)
General Electric is a diversified technology, media and financial services company. With products and services ranging from aircraft engines, power generation, water processing and security technology to medical imaging, business and consumer financing, media content and industrial products, it serves customers in more than 100 countries. GE operates insix segments: Infrastructure, Commercial Finance, GE Money, Healthcare, NBC Universal and Industrial.

Vestas Wind Systems (VWDRY)
Vestas is the world’s leading supplier of modern energy solutions. The company is based in Denmark and has installed more than 35,000 wind turbines in 63 countries on five continents. The company’s wind turbines generate more than 60 million MWh of energy a year – or enough electricity to supply millions of households. With a 23 per cent market share, Vestas is the No. 1 supplier of modern energy solutions.

Oil Exploration

Anadarko (APC)
Anadarko is an oil and gas exploration and production company with 2.43 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) of proved reserves as of December 31, 2007. The Company’s major areas of operation are located onshore in the United States, the deepwater of the Gulf of Mexico and Algeria. Anadarko also has production in China and a development project in Brazil. It markets natural gas, oil and natural gas liquids (NGLs) and owns and operates gas gathering and processing systems. In addition, Anadarko has hard minerals properties that contribute operating income through non-operated joint ventures and royalty arrangements in several coal, trona (natural soda ash) and industrial mineral mines located on lands within and adjacent to its Land Grant holdings.

Schlumberger (SLB)
Schlumberger Limited is an oilfield service company supplying a range of technology services and solutions to the international petroleum industry. It consists of two business segments: Schlumberger Oilfield Services, which is an oilfield services company supplying a range of technology services and solutions to the international oil and gas industry and WesternGeco, which is an advanced surface seismic company. Schlumberger’s products and services include the evaluation and development of oil reservoirs, well construction and production consulting, and sale of software programs. It also offers storage tank and seismic monitoring services.

Transocean (RIG)
drilling units. Its fleet included 39 high-specification floaters (ultra-deepwater, deepwater and harsh environment semisubmersibles, and drillships), 29 midwater floaters, 10 high-specification jackups, 57 Transocean is an international provider of offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells. As of February 20, 2008, the Company owned, had partial ownership interests in or operated 139 mobile offshorestandard jackups and four other rigs. The company’s primary business is to contract these drilling rigs, related equipment and work crews primarily on a day rate basis to drill oil and gas wells.

Sources

Travis Bradford, Solar Revolution (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006).
Peter Huber and Mark Mills, The Bottomless Well (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2005).
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report (November 2007).
George Monbiot, Heat – How to Stop the World from Burning (Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2007).
Paul Roberts, The End of Oil (New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin, Co., 2004).
Nicholas Stern, Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review (Cambridge University Press, 2007).
U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Review 2006, (Washington, DC, June 2007).
U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, Short Term Outlook, May 2008 (Washington, DC, May 2008).
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Light-Duty Automotive Technology and Fuel Economy Trends: 1975 Through 2007 (September 2007).

This research is based on current public information that we consider reliable, but we do not represent it is accurate or complete, and it should not be relied on as such. Any opinions expressed in this report reflect our judgment at this time, are subject to change without notice, and may differ for various investors as a result of using different assumptions and criteria. GKV Capital does not undertake to advise you of changes in its opinion or information.

This research is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security. It does not constitute a personal recommendation or take into account the particular investment objectives, financial situations, or needs of individual investors.

The securities discussed in the reports may be unsuitable for investors depending on their specific investment objectives and financial situation and needs. Investors should consider whether any advice or recommendation in this research is suitable for their particular circumstances and, if appropriate, seek professional advice. The price and value of the investments referred to in this research and the income from them may fluctuate. Past performance is not a guide to future performance, future returns are not guaranteed, and a loss of original capital may occur.

As an investment advisor, we and our clients, officers and employees, will from time to time have long or short positions in, act as principal in, and buy or sell, the securities or derivatives thereof of companies referred to in this research.