A-Power (APWR) Finally Hires CFO - The Stock that Got Away

A long time reader was kind enough to point me towards A-Power Energy (APWR) and its recent activity. This was a name I stuck with for a long time (9 months), while amazed the market could care less about its single digit PE ratio. All it did was drop - no matter what good news they released. Finally I threw in the towel in early March [Mar 9, 2009: Closing A-Power Energy], and you can guess how the story turns out from there. Regular readers know I am no believer in "market efficiency" either for the market as a whole, or at the individual stock level - this is one of the best examples [Oct 6, 2008: A-Power Energy Announces Huge Contract - Stock Down 30%] - a monster growth rate that no one believed was valid and I could not find any sucker (other than myself) to buy below $5. Nope they were selling at $4 and even $3. Now with Kool Aid in the air for all things China, plus the fact oil continues up - hence all things alternative energy are catching "fast money" traders... the stock is sporting a $12 spot.

Not that fundamentals matter as traders are playing a thesis but the company finally hired a CFO this week - what a long adventure. [Oct 7, 2008: A-Power Lets CFO Go] We'll see if this company can communicate better with the new team....

• A-Power Energy Generation Systems Ltd., a China-based power equipment company, on Tuesday said it named Kin Kwong "Peter" Mak to the position of Chief Financial Officer. Mak, 48, joins A-Power from New Dragon Asia Corp., where he held the CFO position from 2004 and 2008. Currently, Mak is a director at a number of publicly traded Chinese companies, including Trina Solar Ltd., China Security & Surveillance Technology Inc. and China Grentech Corp.
• The company said John Lin, who had been serving as the company's acting CFO, has been named to the role of Chief Operating Officer.

A-Power is still cheap at 12x 2009 earnings but that said people were selling it off at 3-4x earnings. This was one boggling experience.

[Jan 12, 2009: A-Power Energy Connects with General Electric]
[Dec 30, 2008: A-Power Energy Warns on Fourth Quarter]
[Nov 20, 2008: A-Power Energy Bit of a Miss but Business Metrics Solid]
[Oct 20, 2008: A-Power Energy Provides Follow Ups to Last Week's Conference Calls]
[Oct 13, 2008: A-Power Energy Up 55%]
[Sep 11, 2008: A-Power Energy Update]
[Aug 28, 2008: China to Subsidize Wind Turbines]
[Aug 25, 2008: A-Power Energy Earnings/Guidance Remain In Line - Wind Business on Track]
[Jul 23, 2008: A-Power Energy Signs $300M Contract with Thailand]
[Jul 14, 2008: A-Power Energy Generation Systems Hot and Heavy with Press Releases - Up Another 7%]
[Jul 9, 2008: A-Power Energy Generation Up 15% on Announcement of Completion of Largest Wind Turbine Plant in China]
[Jun 27, 2008: New Position in A-Power Energy Generation Systems to Create Alternative Energy Mini Basket]