RE: After the results we were surprised16 Jul 2021 19:51
Maybe this will help (a bit).
On the 3rd time of asking, Walbrook PR - after liaising with ORPH - came back a few days ago with this :
Q : ."Staff costs 2020 of £ 15m : is this a reasonable baseline for going forward ?
A : Yes, this is a reasonable baseline going forward but you should consider that as revenues grow staff costs will also need to grow in line with this growth. However, we do not expect that staff costs will grow at the same rate as revenues so we would anticipate scale efficiencies to be delivered in the course of 2021 as we utilize our platform functions such as quarantine facilities, laboratories and volunteer recruitment, which is part of the reason we expect the business to return to profitability for the full year of 2021.
Q : 'Other' expenses 2020 of ca.£ 6m (= 25% of revenue) : there doesn’t appear to be a breakdown of what these were ? and : is this a reasonable baseline for going forward?
A : The “Other expenses” contains the following elements
· Cost of Sale: Pass Through Costs clinical services, outsourced services;
· Admin costs: Insurance, Marketing, Travel & Entertainment, office consumable costs (printing/postage/stationary/cleaning/utilities), telephone/broadband, bank charges, , FX on currency payments
Again, this is a reasonable baseline going forward but we would expect some growth and scale efficiencies as we grow our revenues.
Q : The Chairman’s statement when talking of bed capacity omits any comment regarding the Royal Free, which Cathal has always pointed to in the past as a sign of HMG support.
I’m wondering whether – given the 8 months that have passed since contract award – that situation has changed in any way that might delay start of the contracts, once characterisation studies have finished ? The facility might have been re-allocated elsewhere in the interim, for example.
A : The company continues to execute a COVID-19 characterization study in partnership with the UK government at the Royal Free Hospital. This collaboration is progressing very well, and updates will be provided in due course.
The Royal Free Hospital remains a potential preferred option to complete future COVID-19 related studies but the precise details of the operational plan for such studies will need to be finalized in collaboration with our clients, in the course of a study design and set-up. "
HTH
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