STEPPING UP TO BAT; SHARE PRICE SOARS ON HEELS OF DEAL WITH CZECH FIRM.Byline: Ben Sullivan Daily News Staff Writer Proving again to be one of the hottest penny stocks Inexpensive issues of stock, typically selling at less than $1 a share, in companies that often are newly formed or involved in highly speculative ventures. Penny stocks are usually available for sale over-the-counter, that is, among brokers and customers themselves, as of 1998, BAT International saw its share price leap above the dollar mark for the first time ever Tuesday on news that it has signed a deal with a Czech engineering firm to co-develop electric and hybrid vehicles This is a list of hybrid vehicles in chronological order of production: Early designs
BAT, which began the year at 8 cents a share, climbed 43 cents to $1.14 Tuesday - a 60.1 percent increase - on trading of more than 10 million shares, or roughly 18 times its six-month average daily volume. Under the terms of Tuesday's agreement, which was brokered by Maryland-based Lockheed Martin For the former company, see . Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is a leading multinational aerospace manufacturer and advanced technology company formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta. , BAT will supply the Skoda Plzen Group with nickel-hydride batteries for electric and hybrid electric/internal-combustion vehicles. BAT also will let Skoda use the firm's ``pulse-charged'' engine technology in its vehicles, which it claims will let a diesel engine propel a car up to 100 miles on a gallon of fuel. Skoda Plzen is unrelated to Skoda Auto, a Czech unit of German automaker Volkswagen AG Volkswagen AG (VW) Major German automobile manufacturer. It was founded in 1937 to mass-produce a low-priced “people's car” (Volkswagen). After World War II the company was rebuilt with Allied help, and within a decade it was producing half of West Germany's . Lockheed Martin brokered the deal as part of its effort to woo the Czech government into purchasing from it advanced weaponry in preparation for the country's entry into NATO NATO: see North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO in full North Atlantic Treaty Organization International military alliance created to defend western Europe against a possible Soviet invasion. . Tuesday's deal is not anticipated to be a big moneymaker initially for BAT, as the market for electric and hybrid vehicles remains relatively small in Europe. Instead, the association with Lockheed Martin and Skoda is seen as an endorsement of the pulse-charge technology, which while so far unproven unproven Dubious, nonscientific, not proven, quack, questionable, unscientific adjective Relating to that which has not been validated by reproducible experiments or other scientific methods for determining effect or efficacy publicly could eventually find its way into mainstream auto manufacturing. A January demonstration of the pulse-charge system was interrupted when the test car being used developed an oil leak. BAT plans to attempt another test Tuesday. Investors, however, are giving the company the benefit of the doubt - and those who have bought in this year have been richly rewarded. BAT shares have gained almost 1,400 percent since Jan. 1. Tuesday's big push was gratifying grat·i·fy tr.v. grat·i·fied, grat·i·fy·ing, grat·i·fies 1. To please or satisfy: His achievement gratified his father. See Synonyms at please. 2. for local investors who in recent weeks have taken a shine to the small high-tech firm. Bill Marky, a retired Burbank sound engineer, said he and his wife bought BAT shares at 17 cents in January on a tip from Marky's chiropractor chiropractor a practitioner in chiropractic. chiropractor A health professional trained in chiropractic; chiropractors do not perform surgery or prescribe drugs; of 50,000 licensed chiropractors in the US, many practice 'straight' chiropractic, ie , who was also treating a BAT employee. ``They said it looked like it'd be super-positive, and it did,'' Marky said. ``And the beauty of this is that it's in Burbank.'' Bill Harpser, a partner at the Salt Lake City securities brokerage Network Capital, said BAT's share price probably had ``gotten ahead of itself'' Tuesday, but that if the scheduled test next week proves successful, the price likely will rise again. ``On the one hand, (the technology) is real, very real. On the other hand, BAT can't prove they have huge net worth. They're small, very small, and don't even qualify for the Nasdaq (main board),'' Harpser said. He and his clients own roughly 10 million BAT shares. CAPTION(S): Chart CHART: (Color) SUPERCHARGED su·per·charge tr.v. su·per·charged, su·per·charg·ing, su·per·charg·es 1. To increase the power of (an engine, for example), as by fitting with a supercharger. 2. Shares of BAT International have jumped 1,325 percent in 1998. Dec. 29, 1997: 9 cents Feb. 3, 1998: $ 1.14 SOURCE: Daily News research, Bloomberg News Daily News |
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