This is a very good little company. When I first came across this company it trading on the Pink Sheets and had a market cap of about 40 million dollars. They were a typical pink sheeter that had done a reverse merger and gone the typical pipe financing route. When I first met them I was very dubious of their credibility but I stayed with it and worked through a painful series of one on one meetings in broken English. I made a small investment because something told me these guys were for real.
Fast forward a few years, today they are listed on the NYSE and I have grown to truly value a relationship with Tony Liu (CEO) and Lily Li (COO). I have visited the company several times now and in my opinion this is a very good management team. They have a vision to grow and a plan on how to get their. I have seen the company acquire companies and nurture Wall Street relationships for both capital lines and research. They approach potential acquistion targets with the process and extreme levels of due diligence. They have consistantly improved their product portfolio, stream lined distribution, improved plant effeciency, etc. On one of my recent vists I took Tony Liu Jack Welsh's book Straight From the Gut only to find that he already owned a copy (in Chinese) and had taken steps to implement all the things he had learned from it.
In short, I believe this is a very capible management team with good controls and plenty of liquidity. They are also very conected with the necessary government officials. I am confident they will execute their growth plans responsibly. I give them a strong recommendation. In addition, the increasing wealth in China should make for a favorable environment to grow this business and given that their business is in a defensive sector I believe AOB represents cheap growth.
$6.71 (09/16/08)
