…and no, we don’t mean the National Rifle Association.

The National Restaurant Association’s newest member is Universal Delivery Solutions (UDSG.PK). Though not a restarauteur itself, they do have an interest in the industry - it’s their proverbial bread and butter (no pun intended). Being a part of this organization gives the company instant visibility to those restaurants possibly interested in using UDS Group’s delivery/pick-up service.

The key membership benefit to UDS Group, however, may be a bit underestimated with just a casual look. As an NRA member, UDS is also able to attend the organization’s trade show in early 2008. The ‘big deal’ is how nearly all of the major food service chains send management members to the show to check out the latest and greatest ways to improve their restaurants. We expect UDS to be a stand out for one key reason - there’s nothing else like their service, anywhere.

More than that, UDS will be able to tell them some words these restaurateurs want to desperately hear…..a curbside pick-up or delivery offer can realistically help a restaurant improve revenues by as much as 25% within a couple of years. We believe that statistic, coupled with the novel way UDS can help them achieve that goal, should make a big splash with the 75,000 show attendees.

From an even wider view, being in the NRA and attending its trade show may end up being a catalyst for the company, and by extension, its stock. They’ve never been to the show before, and very few people within the industry are aware of who and what they are. Only a handful of restaurants are currently utilizing the service, as UDS has spent the last several months refining it before it’s rolled-out on a mass scale.

The service, however, is now ready for a mass roll-out. And by the time the show is over, most of the industry will have been introduced to UDS Group’s offer. We expect the company’s revenues to start growing exponentially shortly afterwards.

It’s been a while in the coming, but now that it’s here, we believe Zupintra Corporation (OTCBB: ZUPC) should be able to start making tangible progress towards revenues…and profits. 

Without rehashing the entire background on the company, Zupintra’s intent and business model is to serve as a telecom ‘termination’ point for most of Central and South America. In fact, their infrastructure and licensing is set up (or is being established) at this time. The fruits of their labor will be ripe when long-distance carriers start to route their customer’s calls through Zupintra’s network rather than someone else’s.

On Thursday we learned that Zupintra has already been doing so - successfully - for about two weeks. It was a testing period to make sure the technology worked as needed before rolling the service out on a major scale. We don’t know how many clients inter-connected with the Zupintra network, nor do we know who any of them are. That’s Zupintra exercising their right of proprietary secrecy, which is fine. 

However, a more important (and perhaps more obscure) milestone may have been passed. As part of the normal course of doing telecom business, a smaller termination network like Zupintra also needs to be able to extend credit to top tier providers. The big players ‘don’t pay as you go’, but rather expect to be billed on a monthly basis. That’s not unusual, but to be able to bill/invoice massive dollar amounts (relatively) you need the financial backing to do so. That backing is two-pronged. The first prong is accounts receivable insurance, which Zupintra had. The second prong was a credit line, which Zupintra did not have at the time of our last look, but has since acquired - apparently in just the last couple of weeks.

With both of the financial pieces of the puzzle now laid side-by-side with the technology piece of the puzzle, the company is in a good position to start delivering results - something that was largely stifled before. It’s our understanding that Zupintra has a $5 million letter of credit from Londesborough Finance - more than enough to get them started  in a way big enough for the company to reach their short-term goal of 2.5 million in revenues per month.

Though that fact has not been trumpeted, we believe it was a bigger deal than the company has stated. There was no official announcement the Londesborough deal had been approved, and only one mention of it in Thursday’s press release. Nonetheless, it has largely unshackled the company. Our research staff remains eager to see what kind of numbers can now be generated. We suspect they should be respectable within a few weeks.

And as far as the stock is concerned, good fundamental news couldn’t come soon enough. ZUPC shares reached a low of 10 cents on Wednesday, after peaking at 29 cents in April. The 20 day line has been resistance, while volume has been thin. Today’s news, however, may well be the needed catalyst to get the stock going again. An irony really…..the company is closer than ever to reaching its potential, but interest in the stock appears to be at an all-time low. Perhaps it’s an entry opportunity, in the sense that things are often ’darkest before dawn’.

For more on the news, click here.

Universal Delivery Solutions - otherwise known as UDS Group Inc. (UDSG.PK) - announced on Thursday that their delivery mapping procedure was to going to be handled in house, rather than outsourced. Aside from being an upgrade in terms of functionality, the decision will also save the company about $800 for each store represented by UDS Group’s pick-up or delivery service.
 
You may recall how UDS is a facilitator of delivery solutions for restaurants wanting to increase sales by offering delivery, but may not have the tools or infrastructure to make it happen efficiently. UDS offers a solution by acting as a call center to accept those orders, but also creates a line-by-line ‘optimal’ delivery route for the restaurant’s driver. The new maps won’t change anything from the store’s perspective, but the ability to create maps just got a whole lot easier for UDS….and a whole lot cheaper.
 
Before, the map was essentially purchased at an average price of $800 per restaurant, and generally took three weeks to receive the data. Now the company can instantaneously create the same map themselves, eliminating any wait time for a restaurateur that’s ready to start making deliveries as soon as possible. Thus, it serves as one more selling point for the service - a store can start delivering practically immediately.
 
Ultimately, we believe this will allow the company a substantial cost savings when operating at full capacity. UDS is gearing up to be able to handle thousands of stores. Versus $800 a pop, the new mapping system won’t be a fiscal annoyance. Moreover, the new system is much more effective at creating driver maps - a small detail on the surface, but a preemptive avoidance of a headache later.
 
For more, click here.

Though it could still be considered a start-up by some measures, based on its current rate of progress, UDS Group (UDSG.PK) may not be a true start-up much longer. Thursday morning the company announced their operational test with Salad Creations was expanding by two stores. Only the Boca Raton, Florida store was utilizing UDS Group’s order processing service. With the logistics of the partnership refined using the Boca Raton as a testing ground, now the Coral Springs and Weston units are being added to the effort.

In general, we consider this is a sign of feasibility. Given that Salad Creations is comfortable enough with the results so far that they’re expanding the offer, we believe the news speaks well for the whole concept. And, from UDS Group’s perspective, three stores can be handled as well as one store….or as well as 300 stores for that matter. The order processing model is completely scalable; once one store’s process is optimized, the others can follow that model.

Eventually, we expect all 25 Salad Creations units to utilize the UDS delivery/pick-up ordering system. However, success here should make it much more likely the concept can be sold to much bigger restaurant franchises later. Nationwide, there are over 900,000 restaurants - a far cry from 25 Salad Creation storefronts. The sheer size of the underlying growth opportunity is clear.

Beyond restaurants, similar delivery/pick-up opportunities exist for grocers, pharmacies, and dry-cleaners just to name a few. In fact, an order processing agreement with a group of convenience stores has already been forged. The logistic details should be worked out soon.

As we’ve discussed before, there’s really no viable direct competition for UDS Group. Our opinion stands - UDSG appears to be a highly-compelling speculative investment.  

For more on the Salad Creations news, click here.

Shortly after our first (and last) look at Cougar Biotechnology (OTCBB: CGRB) in a June 1st blog entry, we saw the beast turn into a kitten. It pulled back from a high of $27.80 the next trading day, all the way to a low of $21.00 reached just a couple of days ago. Not impressive.

Like we said last week though, sometimes it pays to keep names and ideas on your watchlist…..to cure the right stock/wrong time syndrome. Cougar’s last three days may point to brighter days ahead.

On the same day the low of $21.00 was reached, we also saw the opening and closing price for the day at the high end of the intra-day range (it’s called a dragonfly doji by some chartists). You can also see the bottom was made at what was roughly the 100 day line for this stock, which had only been trading for about 105 days at a time. All the same, that can be a hint of an upside reversal.

The very next day we saw some follow-through on the buying effort….a higher volume, 2.7% bounce. We’ve seen another higher range today, though the stock hasn’t held onto all of those intra-day gains. Part of that pullback may have been sparked when shares bumped up into the 50 day moving average line.

Framing all of those peaks, ceilings, and bottoms, however, are some key Fibonacci retracement lines.

Anyway, some technicians might consider this good, though not great. A close or two above the 50 day moving average and/or the Fibonacci line right around there might qualify as ‘great’ in most regards.

When we published ‘Water, For Thirsty Investors’ a couple of weeks ago, we never imagined it would prompt so many questions, additional contributions, and above all else, more investment ideas. However, true to our word, we want to share some of the themes and company names we received in response to that newsletter.

One of the more remarkable advancements recently made in terms of water line maintenance is the ability to repair or refurbish a broken line without digging. We actually uncovered a couple of companies doing this, but we didn’t have time or space to highlight them at the time. We’ll make time now though.

Insituform Technologies (NASDAQ: INSU) is probably the most founded name in the line-repair arena. The company has three product/service divisions:

• Rehabilitation - provides a procedure to rehabilitate sewers, pipelines, and other conduits utilizing a custom-manufactured tube, or liner, made of a synthetic fiber
• Tunneling - conducts tunneling, microtunneling, and other pipe system rehabilitation services
• Tite Liner -  provides a method of lining new and existing pipe with a corrosion and abrasion resistant polyethylene pipe

Insituform has been in business since 1971, and perhaps more importantly, is profitable.

Though we’d put this company in the ‘infrastructure’ category, we think the novel idea deserves a special mention of its own.

Underground Solutions Inc. (USGI.PK) was a close second in the line-repair category. Their refurbishing abilities don’t seem quite as extensive as Insituform’s, but then again, that’s not all they do. Underground Solutions relines currently-deteriorating pipes with their own PVC pressure pipe. Once in place, the PVC pipe is heated up and pressure-expanded into the walls of the current conduit, thus lining the old pipe with a new interior surface.

The final name that caught our eye was Bio-Organic Catalyst Inc. The company is actually a subsidiary of International Daleco Corporation (ILDO.PK), but organic catalysts are the company’s sole focus (bet that’s some company Christmas party, huh?). They don’t just do water treatment, but it is one of their key projects. Basically, their bio-organic catalysts purify water without enzymes, bacteria, or oxidants.

Trading is fairly thin, and as a pink sheet, information on ILDO is a bit hard to come by. But, it does qualify as a clean water opportunity.

Just a few days after retiring 27 million of their 208 million outstanding shares, UDS Group Inc. (UDSG.PK) took another stride towards improving their per-share value. Up to 10 million shares could be bought back by the company, according to CEO Ryan Coblin. There is no timeframe for the completion of the buy-back, and they will be purchased through the open market at the prevailing price at the time.

Stock repurchase plans are generally considered a positive for current shareholders. Besides the increased demand for shares - which can cause the price to move higher - the reduction of the number of shares in circulation means a slightly higher percentage stake in the company is represented by a single share. Think of it as reverse dilution…..the earnings could remain the same in terms of a dollar amount, but there would be fewer shares to ’share the wealth’ with.

Once they own (or re-own) those 10 million shares, UDS can do one of two things with them.

Their first option is, do nothing. Those 10 million shares can be held as treasury stock, which has no voting rights, nor do they pay dividends. However, treasury stock can be re-sold later (at hopefully a higher price than the purchase price) if the company wanted to raise funds/cash.

The company’s second option is to retire those shares permanently. The actual act of retiring them would have no impact on the stock’s price or value, as the shareholder benefit would already be fully realized by the repurchase in itself. However, by retiring any treasury stock, the odds of future dilution from their resale are wiped away. Thus, UDSG becomes a more attractive investment opportunity, which in turn means demand for the stock may improve. And don’t forget, retiring shares is not unfamiliar territory for UDS - they just retired 27 million shares a couple of weeks ago, so they’re at least willing to think along those lines.

Either way though, the basic message is simple - UDS Group believes their stock is undervalued, and is putting their money where their mouth is. Investors may do well to take the hint.

If UDS buys all 10 million shares they intend to, we estimate the number of outstanding shares will be somewhere around 171 million. Considering the company expects sales to ramp up while dilution is headed lower, this UDSG appears to be a pretty compelling prospect.

For more, click here.

As the company described they would several weeks ago, another key Latin American market has been brought into the Zupintra Corporation (OTCBB: ZUPC) fold. Thanks to the receipt of three key licenses, the company can now hit the ground running in Panama.

Zupintra announced they have been granted three licenses by the Panamanian government….one to offer international long-distance, one to offer Internet access (act as an ISP), and one to operate a call center within the country. Being permitted to do those three things will allow the company to proceed with its expansion plans in the region. Zupintra expects the Panama infrastructure to be in place and driving revenue by the end of their next quarter.

From a macro-view, these licenses represent tangible progress toward the company’s expansion plans. This is the third telecom license Zupintra has received for the region (networks in Argentina and Uruguay are already up and running), and more are said to be on the way. Considering the relative rarity of these licenses for most of the continent’s countries, this could be considered a big victory for the company, and its shareholders.

For more, click here.