Punter takes the long view on insecticides

With the shares still rising, he has decided to double his holding by ploughing another $1885 of his scarce cash into this insecticide developer, at 7.5 cents a share.

He paid nearly 18 cents a share two years ago but nothing seems to have gone wrong since.

It could be four to five years before it's fully commercial, with no hiccups along the way, but it is already generating small amounts of cash from Clarke Mosquito Control in the US and Evergreen Garden Care in the UK.

By doubling his investment he has cut his break-even price to just under 13 cents. Hopefully that's achievable, especially if BGT succeeds in finding a partner to use its Flavocide as an insecticide for stored grain.

One of its potential competitors in the stored grain protection market, Universal Biosecurity Ltd in WA, is seeking money to expand its Fume8 fumigation business, which uses a patented machine to provide a mixture of ethyl formate and nitrogen.

UBL was supposed to float on the ASX six years ago, but drew so little support the offer was withdrawn. However, it has kept going, and has since reached agreements with Qube Energy and Cooperative Bulk Handling (CBH), WA's biggest wheat exporter, for small scale trials of its device.

UBL has been seeking $1.17 million since June, mainly to build more machines. It is offering shares privately at 18 cents each, but minimum investment is $10,000, which exceeds the Punter's spare cash. However, there is no doubt there is a huge market for a better way to protect grain in storage.

A key advantage of ethyl formate is it is environmentally much more acceptable than current insecticides, so the Punter intends to take a closer look at UBL.