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so I take it all back it wasn't utter ******!! a placing it is
raising £45m that's impressive:
Use of Proceeds
Rapid Scale-up of Diagnostics Business, £10 million:
· Working capital for the COVID-19 testing opportunity
· Expansion of in-house diagnostics product development capabilities including facilities, capital equipment; scientific, commercial and senior leadership teams
· Acceleration of broader diagnostics product pipeline and commercial partnerships
Accelerated Expansion of Pipeline of Differentiated Cancer Therapies, £35 million:
· Rapidly growing the pre|CISION™ pre-clinical pipeline and delivering pre-clinical packages for several pro-drugs (pre|CISION™ velcade, paclitaxel and oxaliplatin).
· Expanding the Affimer® immunotherapy pipeline (PDL1-TGFß inhibitor and PDL1-cytokine bispecifics).
· IND/CTA filings for one or more Affimer immunotherapies (TMAC drug conjugate (PDL1-IDASH) or first bispecific candidate) and one or more pre|CISION pro-drugs.
· Obtain first-in-human data for the Affimer® platform.
· UK phase I clinical trial for first pre|CISION™ chemotherapy AVA6000 pro-doxorubicin covered by current balance sheet. Proceeds will fund IND filing AVA6000.
Well, the reason for the price drop is now over. A good old fashioned placed at 120p. So the sp will gravitate to that level and stay around there for an indeterminate period. And it may also explain @MylesMcMulty's radio silence, with Parts 2 and 3 of his report, if he was made an insider.
This is still a multi-pronged biotech/diagnostics business. More so now than ever, as the placing proceeds are geared 35/10 towards the therapeutics division vs diagnostics (Covid-19). So now Avacta will have proper scale of funds to develop both sides in tandem, without the urgent need to scurry around and find a larger pharma partner in a rush and accept less than best terms, for Avacta. Develop the AV6000 IND and other pre-clinical studies, and increase value-added. This is where the real long term value lies for Avct.
But the £10mn for the Covid-19 effort presumably implies some WC needed to ramp up reagent supplies in readiness for a commercial scale production/marketing effort, once validation and regulatory approvals are cleared. This RNS suggests that is still about to happen. My only concern was that something might be going a bit awry with the Cytiva LFD prototype design. I think not after this rns.
Not happy to see the sp drop from £2 but I can definitely live with the use of proceeds explanation. It's for LONG and NEAR-GROWTH, and not to keep the lights on.
Still on track to become another UK £bn+ MC biotech company.
Obviously why Myles has been silent for a few days while he sold a lot of stock higher to be replaced at £1-20 for the next rinse.
It’s illegal to comment positively in an attempt to manipulate the market while selling. All the big players go quiet while they’re selling.
Should have been a big indicator. All the placees dumping stock higher up all week.
Punters mugged off again. Far too common an occurrence I’m afraid. Good luck in making back losses. Hoping for the best
Very clear now all the gurus, brokers and ceo were in on it to get the price up for a placing
The little people have been stitched up here.... Will this be formally investigated?
RODE UP TO 2 POUND seems all the covid companys are milking it
So as I suggested the 'massive buys' over the last couple of days were in fact massive sells and in my opinion some were forward sells to be bought back with the placing shares and some were from the original 18p placing the owners of those being well aware of what was coming......pretty disappointed really.
it was obvious they were sells..
stocks don't go down on buys:)
Oldandwiser,
I agree with your post. Initially, one would think a placing as a bad thing for the share price, which indeed could have a relative short effect to the price. However, in the case of Avacta, the funds will be immediately used to bring forth the pipeline projects, which will bring a direct incremental share value for the medium and long term. For the short term, the funds will also help to bring manufacturing and distribution to the fore and obviously help to increase the short term value of the company exponentially.
As explained briefly in the RNS there is great interest from institutions at the moment and these new issued shares will help avct to accelerate our growth via rapidly developing and trialling our oncology pipeline. For me this is great news as I see the oncology pipeline development as the real future of avct, and as a long term shareholder I am thrilled.
The covid test kit is happening and the confidence is expressed in the interest by institutional demand and the expectation from the company and its labs expansion as well as the managerial side.
For anyone who has any doubt of the future of avct, today it should have been a clear sign to where we are going. This is a multibillion company in the making.
St
PS: this is my opinion and not a financial advice. DYOR.
Problem I now have is whether to believe the science?
GUYS no disrespect WITH THE AIM MKT when you have nice profits you must bank them.. DONT go poor banking profits .
Think there is a combination of panic and more than a bit of disingenuity by some posters over this placing. Yes, we don't like dilution, yes it is at a discount to the current SP, but let's be clear here, this is not a bottom-of-the-barrel AIM stock raising to keep the lights on. This is a big company with a very bright future (RNS hints at short term news flow from Cytiva) that is looking to strike while the iron is hot and accelerate their projects. The dilution is also minimal and doesn't mean an awful lot when looking at the potential MCap for the company.
To be honest, my biggest concern is over how the news managed to leak out yesterday afternoon.
I think the sp will rise this is positive
If the sp was £2 might of been a different story
Taking the opportunity to bring cancer treatments forward is a positive
Anger people feel is understandable as the company said they had enough money into 2021 BUT this raise is to develop faster in a rapidly changing world. Speed is of the essence to stay ahead and be among the first with a fast reliable affordable test and then to develop the other strands. It is an investment unlike some fund raises to keep the lights on and pay undeserved salaries. I have been in here more than two years and the company has truly exciting potential to help many patients and enrich investors.
You could say they have done well to raise that amount at that price considering where they were and what they actually have achieved versus what they are claiming to be able to achieve.
Didn’t like the CEO from the moment he did the presentation. I hope they can get this POC test to market but I would put the chances of success no higher than 25%. What’s the £10m for aren't Cytiva doing the development?
Chengdo, pull yourself together, man! ;0)
I understand what you are saying, and like you and most people here, we want yo see the share price go up, but what about share value?
What happened today was another huge step to build share value, dude!
Let me ask you something... if you are the CEO of a company in the making and things are moving do fast around you, and your advisors tell you, "there is a window open now that can help us move faster reference the funding of our pipelines at the same time as our covid kit and we think we should go for it, although we told our small shareholders we would not till 2021" what do you think you would do? Especially with big institutions asking for a slice of the cake, which in turn would help propel faster our avacta?
I know I had to make decisions faster to adapt to fast pacing environment in my hobbies (sailing and flying) and make no mistake, dude, our CEO is looking after the company in my view.
I am really thrilled by what this will mean to many cancer patients and, sure, the health of everyone's wallets here. Patience is all it's asked. I trust the science here.
Cheers mate.
St
Funds in place for few years going forward, and it shows in the share price right now .
Mixed feelings today, like many.
Yep I feel the pacing is a great business move. It was clear from the annual report that their therapies business was somewhat stifled in terms of capital, and had been forced to put nearly all its eggs in the AVA6000 basket, as the best use of funds available. This raise will enable many other therapies to be progressed in parallel and gives more “shots on goal” as they say.
The £10m for diagnostics makes sense - yes Cytiva are developing the tests, but this is to scale up the “R&D and production facilities ... to meet the anticipated demand for Affimer reagent production”. I had wondered if they would need some additional capital for this, but they had suggested in the investor webinar the use of OEMs to produce the Affimers. I guess the returns from doing them in-house are greater and more sustainable going forwards.
Like many though, I am somewhat disappointed by the communication of this after saying they were fully funded through to 2022. Notably, last placing was immediately before news that rocketed the SP... And we know what news is due any day now. The institutions know a good time to get in. At least they are giving PIs the chance to be involved in the placing this time.
And another thing...
One notable omission from the placing RNS is any talk of the neutralisation therapies. Not in the Covid-19 “Key Market Opportunities” section, nor in the “Outlook” section. The only related mention is “Obtain first-in-human data for the Affimer platform” under accelerated expansion of therapies. Perhaps this is seen as a rate-limiting step vs more tried-and-tested antibody therapies, and explains the lack of a major partner announcement to date? Happy to be proven wrong. Perhaps that is lined up as one of the post-placing good news items.
Chengdo, you're one of the best contributors on this board. You were working on the information available at the time, nothing wrong with that!
If Alistair has any integrity left he should have some serious RNSs up his sleeve really soon. Then even I might forgive him
I've been invested since February and have been pleased to see the rise especially have some oil stocks going horribly wrong! People say they are disappointed and feel they have been treated badly by AS which I understand. But the funding that was in place was for the business at that point and based on the plans then and there. Covid 19 has changed the potential of the business massively and also very quickly. The business now has many more opportunities than before and surely it needs to adapt quickly and move quickly to capitalise on these so it needs funds. Things change in business and people need to react to lose out, a business plan is just that a plan and not is not set in stone. If it is then businesses fail or do not rich their full potential. I think this is a smart move and gives me even more hope!
IMO and DYOR and all that...
Definitely appreciate your contributions Chengdo, and MrST you are clearly a better man than I! Nice to see more of the decent humans on this forum today.
I am personally more excited than ever now to see what positive news they’ve been holding back while working on this placing.