The top company in UTEK Corp.’s securities portfolio has encountered a series of setbacks in its attempt to commercialize a powder-coating technology for kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities and other wood products.
Trio Industries Group Inc. (Pink Sheets: TRIG) has been evicted from its offices in Dallas. Its phone and fax numbers have been disconnected and it no longer has control of the 650,000-square-foot building that it hoped to convert to a wood products plant.
UTEK (AMEX: UTK) is a Florida-based company that licenses technology from government and university labs and transfers it to other companies, usually in exchange for stock in the recipients.
UTEK has done five such deals with Trio and has received 7.79 million shares of Trio stock. UTEK valued that stake at $11.6 million on Sept. 30, making the shares the biggest single holding in a stock portfolio it valued at $55.7 million.
Sharesleuth.com published an investigative report on UTEK in October that raised questions about UTEK’s business model, the true worth of its securities portfolio, and some of the companies whose shares make up that portfolio.
