George Frangeskides, Chairman at ALBA, explains why the Pilbara Lithium option ‘was too good to miss’. Watch the video here.
JSB
Having been invested here for nearly 6 years now, I am getting thoroughly disappointed at the continuing share price underperformance and I am tempted to flog my total holding in the Tender and move on.
Also being blanked by Puretech's Investor Relations for criticising the low Tender has really annoyed me.
The cursory comments by the new Chairman and CEO of Zohars contribution etc smacks of a Boardroom upheaval with no adequate reason given for her departure even though she deserved to go after failing to create any shareholder value over the past 8 years.
Interesting to what are the terms of the Tender particularly the date which valid holdings are deemed eligible etc.
ATB
Lesley
Zohar is NOT remaining on the Board of Puretech but is going to be "an observer" what ever that means.
A bizarre changing of the guard with Chowrira taking over as CEO who has been a senior executive in Puretech for some time.
I see Invesco as the main instigator behind the ousting of Zohar after 8 years of chronic underperformance in the share price ( £1.80 in 2015 ..£2.14 today)
Invesco has maintained its 24% over the past year or so but had c33% in 2021 /22.
It had to reduce below 30% to accord with internal Invesco rules on holding large stakes in companies after a major review in 2021.
I was quite critical of the buyback at £2.5 in my correspondence with Kana in Investor Relations and now appear to be blanked.
Strange behaviour indeed.
Unprecedented
Firstly Invesco hasn't been selling down recently and was instrumental in getting rid of Zohar imho.
Short term traders didn't effect the SP and it was the $50m buyback plus the BMS takeover of Karuna that generated a small lift in the SP.
LYT-100 is awaiting Phase 2 trial results later in the year which may spark a rise in the SP if positive but still will require a Phase 3 study which normally takes 2/3 years.
Seaport and Gallop are at an early stage of drug development and will require years of positive trials before commercialisation.
Vedanta is much closer to a breakthrough and could be a big winner.
The market and Invesco didn't appreciate Puretech trying to bale out Gelesis where Zohar's husband was CEO.
Why would Zohar leave Puretech to run an effective start up when she was CEO of a large Public Company which she founded if she wasn't pushed.
I presented an opportunity to Puretech to buy a small Pharma company where one of it's drugs is in Phase 3 trials and another drug in Phase 2/3 trial each with market potential of over $5billion with significant other assets for a cost much less than the tender offer amount of $100m.
Only a deeply unimaginative management would use its cash surpluses to buy back its shares at £2.50 which effectively says they cannot think of any alternatives to enhance shareholder value other than giving back the funds at a derisory valuation.
I didn't ask for a return of £2.50 a share but told them ,if they were going to do it....do it big at £3 to reflect management's view that the share price was totally undervalued.
It would have cost an extra $30m of our $300m proceeds from Karuns with the $400m royalties still to come and the cost savings in R&D from the hiving off of Seaport and Gallop freeing up major cash outlay over the coming years.
Unprecedented
I am not a short term trader and I have been invested in Puretech for 6 years.
My problem is that you live and die as a CEO of a Public Company on the basis of the share price .
The SP was £1.80 in September 2015 and par a brief jump 2 years ago , it remained at c£2 which when you apply an inflation discount over the past 8 years the £2 is worth a little than the £1.8 of 2015.
In other words a disastrous performance given the circumstances and Zohar had to go imho.
Hopefully the new CEO can be more investor focused
but how long more can we long termers wait for a return on our investment.
That's why I was disappointed with the £2.50 tender offer and is why I urged Zohar to be more aggressive with the surplus cash and look at acquisitions as a possibility.
The market has shrugged at Zohars departure and the tender offer.
Where are the next catalysts for a rerating of the share price?
I will continue to hold for a while longer but I am getting old!!
Lesley
Zohar also tried to get Puretech to buy Gelesis one of its founded entities who had developed a weight loss product, Plenity, and who happened to be run by her husband.
Once Ozempic the wonder weight loss drug arrived on the scene, the game was up for Gelesis and the Puretech Board aborted the bid.
The classic case of an Entrepreneur trying to manage a complex business in a Public Company without the experience and skills required and just holding 5% of the company.
Good riddance.
Soundman
Inevitable that Zohar had to go as 9 years of a stagnant SP was totally unacceptable to the big Institutional investors like Invesco.
She proved to be a poor CEO and letting Karuna and KarXt slip from the grasp of Puretech's shareholders and be sold for $14b was a disastrous decision...despite her protestations to the contrary.
The wheel / spoke model is too obscure for general investors and the last straw was the miserable $100m tender offer at a derisory £2.50 a share....in effect saying to the market that management felt this was what the company was worth.
Again the market couldn't care less and no reaction to the tender or Zohar being moved aside.
There may after all be a bigger offering in the Tender by shareholders at £2.50 than I originally thought but we will wait and see.
As we know Professor Sylviane Muller , the inventor of Lupuzor, is according to the Immupharma website a key collaborator in the current trials for the drug.
She was awarded France's Legion d'honneur , the highest accolade in France in 2021 and there is a photo of the two Tims at the ceremony with her.
She is currently the Chair of Therapeutic Immunology at Strasbourg University and on the Board of France's
National Science Council among other prestigious positions.
Apparently she has worked on the reformulated Lupuzor drug following the extensive FDA discussions and in light of the incredible progress made over the past 5 years in Peptide drug technology.
Great that she is still on board imho.
It is interesting that Lanstead hasn't been selling since it announced its revised holding of 15.89% on the 28th December 2023.
It is required to notify if its holding goes below 15% under Stock Exchange rules so it appears content to hold for now .
Obviously any further increases in the Immupharma SP means more Lanstead cash into the business as per the Subscription Agreement.
The issue of the warrants is also interesting.
Now if only management can provide the market with some positive news on commercial deals and the Lupuzor trial timelines , we would be on our way.
Fingers crossed for timely newsflow in the coming weeks.
ATB
Wigwammer
Since the original patents on the P140 peptide therapies were granted 10/15 years ago there has been an exponential growth in formulations, modifications and delivery systems leading to major integration of peptides in numerous drugs including human insulin , growth hormones and many auto immune diseases.
Todays announcement reflects that advancement in technology and CNRS and Immupharma will be applying for new enhanced patent protection to cover the improvements in its own P140 formulations and delivery.
So circumstances arose where the French State owned giant research institute in effect ceded the commercial rights to a major innovative drugs programme which it developed to Immupharma because of the connections of Zimmer and Muller and the need for funding from the markets with London being the then Mecca for funds for developing biotech companies rather than the moribund Paris market.
Zimmer got old and retired to Switzerland and McCarthy in fairness kept the dream alive.
He has surprised me but he must be given enormous credit for for getting Immupharma to this stage when all appeared lost.
With CNRS and Dr Muller still involved with Immupharma we should be thankful regardless of sharing patents and intellectual property and revenue sharing on future success.
Without them and the Alora Group we would be another AIM shell company or worse.
Now we have a Phase 3 Lupuzor trial, CIDP Phase 2/3 trial ( subject to funding from commercial deal) and the Anti Infection drugs plus Incanthera and valuable tax losses et al.
All for a market cap of c£10m.
Reasons to be cheerful
Cauldstream
Some of us have been here so long we cannot remember our own name!!
The CNRS ,under Dr Muller and her team , has spent tens of €millions on developing the P140 programmes and obviously being French , CNRS choose to share its scientific knowledge and intellectual property with another French company and that ultimately was Immupharma Biotech SAS in Bordeaux.
Also Robert Zimmer the founder of Immupharma was also a well known scientist in France and worked with Muller on the P140 drugs.
It has been a long and tortuous road but hopefully we are now getting closer to a major breakthrough.
I am not getting any younger!
Long term investors in Immupharma know all about the background to the unique collaboration between CNRS , the French State fundamental research institute which is the biggest in Europe employing
33,000 people and an annual budget of €5 billion.
Dr Sylvane Muller and other scientists in CNRS developed the P140 Peptide programme over 14 years ago and CNRS granted Immupharma exclusive worldwide rights to commercialise the resultant drug discoveries including Lupuzor and CIDP.
The patents and intellectual property rights to the full Peptide programme are shared jointly by CNRS and Immupharma France SA , a 100% subsidiary of Immupharma plc.
CNRS has affiliations with major research institutions worldwide including the top Universities and continues to work closely with Immupharma and Avion on the Lupuzor trials and on the CIDP and Anti Infections drugs and in return will receive a % of future revenues on commercialisation of the drugs
The % is assumed to be c20% but in the context of today's RNS on enhancing the intellectual property rights , I see the CNRS input to be crucial to expedite the matter.
To have the CNRS as our research partner is unprecedented for a small AIM Biotech company and if its support leads to successful outcomes for the P140 platform in multi billion $ markets then shareholders will not worry if the CNRS revenue share is higher than 20% or so.
Machin
Smart commentary and as a fellow long termer here with 4m shares at a breakeven of 6p I agree with you.
I have been a critic of McCarthy over the years but I must admit he has surprised me with his commitment and tenacity in recent times in turning Immupharma around after Zimmerman and Demetriou were ousted.
His somewhat bizarre left field investment in Incanthera was laughed at by many here but could be a big winner for us.
The deal with the Alora group changed the landscape entirely and the exhaustive meetings and dialogue with the US FDA on the Lupuzor trials were highly commendable and management deserves their 2p options if it delivers.
We are in a totally different space today with 3 interesting drug programmes and our investment in Incanthera plus a reinforced Board with Laurence Reilly etc.
The announcement of commercial deals on Lupuzor and CIDP plus the anti infection drugs would be transformational for the company and the SP.
Fingers crossed
ATB