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I wonder why Simon Bennett is not on the Group Team page on the Avacta site as CBO? Is this an odd omission? Also I wonder what he has achieved in the last nearly 5 months? This was what he said on 19th December 2023, 6 months ago;
“Avacta is at a pivotal point, having recently announced clinical data that have already begun to generate interest from potential commercial partners. I am delighted to be joining at such an exciting point in the journey of the business, to help the team optimise the commercial opportunities of their technologies and assets.”
Something has to be announced soon as all of this interest must have continued because the clinical results have continued to be excellent. The ex-ceo said 'smaller deals are easy' , was he blocking Bennett? Come on Avacta, its time to get motoring and bring this to market with a partner/partners asap.
SB listed here :
https://avacta.com/precision/therapeutics-team/
Digitalman, hardly an 'odd omission'. That page primarily details the Board of Directors. Simon is not on the board. The only other person it has on it is the head of comms but that is a group wide responsibility.
If you scroll down and select 'Meet the Therapeutics team' guess who is there unsurprisingly....Simon! This is where most people would expect to find him in the company structure being a TX focussed employee not on the board.
To suggest it is an 'odd ommission' is frankly misleading.
You only partly quoted the previous CEO who said "Small deals are easy but we prefer to fund the business from a position of weakness."
What does that mean? “We prefer to fund the business from a position of weakness."
I don’t get what that means..
It was a joke.
Indeed BV, it's one of the many comments he made that ultimately sank him. An "easy deal" would have provided the 3rd party validation the market craves. I've little doubt the SP would have responded positively allowing a raise at a higher price. Either he was lying, or he was unbelievably commercially naive and inept. It's comments like that and "optionality over funding" that simply don't align with a raise even close to 50p. As someone who has declared my doubts over his commercial acumen over the last few years, I for one am relieved he is gone.
LOL "It was a joke."
That stand-up routine of yours might need some work. I've never heard a decent joke ending with an audience member asking "What does that mean?" :)))
More irony than joke but I ticked it anyway.
Well, admittedly PJT12, it was a very cheap joke.
Hey Rambo, fair comment, should have been more diligent in my search. Hes a TX man, he's there, got it.
The main point is, what has he been doing all this time? Are the ex-ceos comments in any way related to him and when are we going to see some results from his efforts? At £20k a month (i think someone mentioned this figure), there sure as sugar should be some tangible results on the way.
If a smaller deal was essentially selling precision down the river then it may have been the right thing to do to block it. It might have saved on 20% dilution but screwed the path to greater value.
Digitalman, I think it is possible the assumption of SB being brought in to do a deal quickly is incorrect. Prior to this AS was doing much of this engagement himself and we don't really know what timetable AS was on to print a deal but I don't think it was quickly. Now the placing has happened they can afford to wait for Q2W data etc etc. My belief was AS wanted to go as long as he could before the PR or deals started. This backfired and he got removed.
As for SB being on £20k a month I think this is missing the key point. We care about him striking the right deal on the best possible terms. Any deals done should make his costs look academic given what he has to work with. I'm 50/50 whether we see a LD or TO first. If you were BP why would you do a LD and let someone else take the prize?
@Rambo, I appreciate your analysis. It says to me they are running out of time to stop a low ball TO and in fact, may not be able to prevent it now. I only hope the offer is not insultingly low and the buyer is committed to providing chemo without side effects as fast as is possible.
they literally said he was brought in to accelerate discussions... the company has no strategy other than to wing it and **** as much money up the wall as possible because loyal shareholders will bail them out. simon must be laughing his head off.
Who knows Digitalman but given the vast disconnect between the SP and the value and reach of the tech a low bid has to be on the list of risks. Get the SP up, get the house in order etc and that risk reduces but the numbers for a TO likely rise. This is why I'm not interested in what DX looks like in a year or two's time. I think realistically when they have Q2W with first line patient data, further outcomes on the efficacy front and revenue generation from 6k not that far away (attractive vs new drug dev timeline that is likely much longer) it is a no brainer. The question is when and how much? I want the BOD at the AGM to really discuss the valuation opportunity here once and for all. AS likely had to downplay it to go as far as he could.
It’s not rocket science, you get a bigger up front and greater milestone % at later stages, I’m not expecting them to announce a deal until p2 dose escalation starts h2 this year.