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Printer version: Neal St. Anthony: Wave-power company ready to raise capital Page 1 of 2 <br /> startribune.com Close window <br /> • Last update: July 12,2004 at 7:54 PM <br /> Neal St. Anthony: Wave-power company ready to raise capital <br /> Neal St. Anthony <br /> Star Tribune <br /> Published July 13,2004 <br /> Mark Thomas, president of a fledgling Eden Prairie company that has an agreement to build a electrical <br /> generation plant powered by ocean waves off the coast of Humboldt County, Calif., expects to select an <br /> underwriter or venture capital company within a few weeks to raise about $4 million to finance the pilot <br /> project. <br /> Manchester Companies and Feltl & Co. are among the local firms interested, in addition to venture <br /> capital firms here and on the East Coast. <br /> As described in these pages last month, Independent Natural Resources and its engineers have <br /> developed the Seadog pump, which uses wave energy and buoyancy to pump sea water uphill to an <br /> elevated on-shore reservoir. The water is released to spin electricity-generating turbines before it returns <br /> to the ocean. <br /> Thomas acknowledged in an interview that he's had run-ins with state securities regulators in the past <br /> and said that his background will be fully disclosed in an upcoming prospectus on the deal. <br /> • "In that memo, there will be full disclosure about me, and we will be open with people," Thomas said. <br /> "I've got nothing to hide." <br /> In 1990 and as recently as 2002, Thomas consented to cease-and-desist orders issued by the Minnesota <br /> Department of Commerce over the sales of securities in Mark Allen Thomas Limited Partnership, a <br /> real estate-related entity, and Intercontinental Travel Services, a now-dormant travel company. <br /> Department investigators, alerted by disgruntled investors, alleged that in both cases Thomas sold <br /> securities that were not properly registered with the state. <br /> Thomas and his lawyers resolved both matters without enforcement hearings by agreeing to halt sales of <br /> the affected securities until they were properly registered. Although Thomas acknowledged having <br /> disgruntled investors in those businesses, he said he was not sued by other shareholders in either <br /> enterprise. <br /> If the Seadog pilot project, set to begin installation this summer, works, the next step would be building <br /> a$15 million, 200-pump system, with peak output of seven megawatts, or enough to power 7,000 <br /> homes. That could be followed by a mile-square pump system that would generate as much juice as a <br /> 750 megawatt, coal-fired plant. <br /> Cymbet financing <br /> Cymbet Corp., which raised$4.5 million in 2001, is closing out a round of about $10 million from <br /> • <br /> venture capitalists and high-end individual investors who believe in the Elk River company's ability to <br /> commercialize next-generation battery technology. <br /> http://www.startribune.com/viewers/story.php?template=print_a&story=4872781 7/14/2004 <br />