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No it is not direcon. The x is against acquisition/disposal and the NUMBER of shares held (as opposed to just the percentage) has reduced
Worth remembering the other study underway with wellbiome that should be reporting in the near future
"I will be testing the effects of WellBiome on cardiac surgical outcomes following a pre-operative 6-week nutritional intervention. This project will be starting in Q3 of 2023."
https://www.hull.ac.uk/staff-directory/james-hobkirk
Toyin I know he was and at no point have I said I agree with not raising at this point in time have I, in fact I have stated in early posts what a good raise it was at 19p in the current market conditions? In other words I get the need to negotiate without a going concern on the books
Toying, when I made my original comment it was never intended as a opti v sbtx debate, just been taken out of context by Mad. As you state, and I made a similar caveat, TW spoilt his valid points by his aggressive manner. As for the £70k making a difference, that is more than the budget set aside for marketing and every little helps
How about handsomely rewarding a CEO when he delivers on his promises and we all share the rewards rather than before?
Mad, you missed the point entirely, it is about one CEO who salary sacrificed to reduce costs in a non- profitable organisation and another who increased his salary and Tom made a valid point in flagging that up.
Yes the rant was over the top but ignoring the language used it did contain some very valid points. Firstly, contrasting the action taken by SOH at Opti where directors took a voluntary 20% pay cut in the light of difficult trading conditions, Stuart initiated no such action to preserve operating funds preferring to dilute shareholders more than necessary to cover costs., and Secondly, he rightly pointed out that 70% plus acquisitions fail to deliver the benefits expected and that the sheer number of acquisitions being proposed by Stuart did not auger well for the Business with the incumbent debt that would entail.
Regarding the acquisitions, having studied the paper on why acquisitions fail and more importantly, the ones that succeed, I believe there is a deal of merit in initially acquiring a couple of companies if he intends to purchase their Business Models rather than Leveraging Skin's current Business Model, and I believe (hope) from the interview given to Elric that there is every chance that is what he intends with the early acquisitions. SA spoke of acquiring both manufacturing capacity as well as end products with sales through retail outlets so that the profitable sales of those products could continue whilst providing outlets to sell our own complimentary products such as axisbiotix alongside and longer term backing our own science (lysate) to improve further the products on offer.; a manufacturing capacity would provide that capability. So as Skin does not currently have either manufacturing or retail sales processes I suspect the intention will be to operate the acquired businesses separately and use them for transformational growth.
That said, once these additional capabilities have been acquired, I see little merit in further acquisitions and it may well be that there will be no such further activity necessary as Stuart may well be using it as a bargaining chip with the multi nationals to extract timely and satisfactory deals.
On a separate note, I await with interest the clarification sought by Elric surrounding the Oral Health and Wellbeing R&D end date which was originally scheduled for 2024, seemingly advanced to end of this Summer and has now reverted back to 2024 with a chunky £300K to cover it. As one of the lead candidates for the Oral Study was the lysate manufactured by Croda, and the activities and properties have been improved significantly on scale-up, the tests already undertaken on it using lab scale version of the product now have to be repeated using the scaled up version to see what further improvements are found.
Still has a lot of skin in the game having not sold any shares in this company, in fact has steadily added including his intention to take part in the pi retail raise. Also retains enough shares in Opti to affect his pension retirement age
TC, whilst TW has pointed out that 70%+ M&As are not.advantageous, until we know the target company, cost and strategy to incorporate it, no way of telling whether it is likely to be successful or not. Here is a useful article on what makes a successful acquisition including upgrading the acquired companies products. https://hbr.org/2011/03/the-big-idea-the-new-ma-playbook
Well NickE, having re-listened to the 1st Interview for what must be the third time, my understanding of what Stuart was talking about differs to yours; Stuart was clearly talking about acquisitions driving transformation by end of Q1 2024 starting with the first of those acquisitions by end of this year. He also spelt out how that would be achieved; Channel to put our science into, Brings Revenue, and finally puts the Company in a stronger position when negotiating with Multi Nationals as we are not in desperate need of the money.
Stuart also waxed lyrical about the science that Skin has , hence his determination to achieve the best possible return from any negotiated deals which will likely include more than one deal with Croda as the current license is purely for cosmetics.
So, expect negotiated deals for skinbiotix once the clinical trials have concluded and the bulk lysate with its proven up additional properties is made available by Croda as medibiotix relies on the final version of this lysate as does the Oral Health product which may explain the confusion over the end of phase 2 date. Stuart also informed you in the first interview that negotiations for axisbiotix partnering were dependent on demonstrating other product streams such as for acne treatment, so nothing to deceive you there in terms of timescale either
Must admit I was a little confused with the oral study response as we had a RNS on 31 St Aug 2022 informing us phase 1 of the oral study had completed so are we on phase 2 part b or something? Also forgot to confirm whether croda study has actually commenced.
Well done elric, one acquisiotion by end of Dec and a second by end Jan 24 with axis sales currently running at £25k per month, certainly informative
Agree, Cath will be pretty fed up to see SOH credited with hose deals
Withering bonus bearcast from TW, don't think there will be any cosy fireside chats for a while
Of course it is a spoof, SOH has already stated that he wont allow "sweetbiotix" to go out as a named ingredient until the scaled-up versions have undergone full structural and taste tests and hence can be declared as GRAS. The US Partner has apparently "soft launched" some of their scaled-up product but it has not gone out with the sweetbiotix label
Turtle, I understand what you are saying but as a LTH I think back a couple of months where the SP was stagnating at 13p so with the only tangible deliveries since then being launches of axis into Italy and France, quite a relief to see £3m raised at only circa 10% dilution. The acid test now is SA who once told us he doesn't miss a deadline, actually needs to deliver on his promises
Yes the placing at the minimal discount was an exceptional piece of business in the current climate but until I am satisfied we won't be in the same position next year because of continuous slipping delivery dates I will not rest easy. For instance, in August SA told TW in the podcast that the Oral Study was ending this Summer as an example of falling R&D costs, so why do we need £300k of new placing money earmarked for Oral Study R&D? He told TW that the Croda Study started early in September and yet the language in the placing RNS infers it has yet to start. I have posed these questions through Elric and will await with interest the response
Thomas, there are two product groups, skinbiotix and axisbiotix and 5 pillars associated with those product groups. Croda have a contract for cosmetic use only for skinbiotix leaving for usage in other pillars and health groups up for negotiation with multi nationals. The acquisitions are seen by SA as providing him with a stronger bargaining chip when negotiating the terms of any future agreements ashe has said in recent interviews.
Is it recent mol? Seems to have been involved through lgbco for a number of years
https://www.lgbco.com/lgb-helps-fund-microbiome-therapies-for-skin-through-equity-raise/
To be fair the India deal was just a restatement of something Tom missed in the Commercial update RNS " Ongoing discussion with a publically listed large pharmaceutical company in India for a launch of SlimBiome® containing products in India in Q2 2024 with forecast sales for OptiBiotix in Y1 of £1.2m and Y5 of £6.7m"
The anticipated update on second gen products before Christmas following taste tests as a precursor to formal soft launch(es) in 2024 would be good though