The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
Ok, so we're divesting ourselves of a big chunk of CWR. We'll make a tidy profit there, which is what the company is there for and something that some investors complain they don't see enough of here. It seems a good decision given our mission but given April's events I just hope that we don't see a CWR rns announcing huge contracts with Bosch, Weichei and the rest on Monday. Well I suppose do actually as I also hold a chunk of CWR which is already about three-bagged for me, but even so...
I did contact the company to see if a comment would be made about this, and got a holding reply and an invitation to submit a question to the AGM in June. I do note additionally from RNSs by Avacta that on 2nd April Avacta announced a subscription for £2 million to two subscribers, including one Clare Hughes, at 18p. The same day, Avacta announced appointment of Zeus Capital as joint brokers. Founder of Zeus Capital is Richard Hughes, husband of Clare. The next day we sold down our 15 per cent share in the company. Five days later the big RNS came. Today Avacta is trading at 120p. Great news for Clare and Richard. Not so much for IPO it seems.
Oxford Nanonpore - much our largest holding - can offer rapid sequencing of the to " support ‘genomic epidemiology’- characterising the virus and helping public health authorities to understand the identity of the virus, whether it is changing and how it is being transmitted".
Intelligent Ultrasound has been providing simulation training for doctors treating Covid cases.
Modern Water - a real basket case - is showing signs of life having doubled the sp in the last month, mainly on its link up with a new manufacturer, but there also seems a sense that it's water toxicity testing products will have a role to play.
Oxehealth are commercialising their "contact-free vital sign and activity monitoring platform, the Digital Care Assistant (DCA)"
I suspect a fair few of other companies are looking at how their technology or research are looking might have a role in Covid work too. Obviously the private companies are not obliged to do the same level of reporting so it's hard to tell.
Well one obvious candidate is HVivo - - which at the beginning of this year merged with Open Orphan but as far as I can tell we still have our share in the new company. hVivo billed itself as "Europe's leading virology research compnay" and as "dedicated to creating the next generation of antivirals and vaccines", and now as part Open Orphan it announced yesterday that it has "commenced the testing of an anti-viral for treating COVID-19 on behalf of its client Nearmedic International Ltd."
Apologies if this basic "look at a couple of websites" approach to research is a bit basic for some. Please feel free to add more indepth perspectives.
Ok I know it hasn't been one of our largest holdings but the story unfolding at Avacta - up 400 per cent and rising , and we have 15 per cent of it - should look good on our bottom line here. It makes me wonder if we've got others in our life science portfolio with a shot at doing something amazing regarding the virus. Off now to do some deeper reading...
It's a good job I've not got any money because I would have been tempted to catch this falling knife on each of the last 12 working days. At some point this month I should get a few quid from some shysters buying a mine near Whitby - I wonder what Aviva will be by then. If our civilisation is still looks like holding together I'd probably be interested at around 280 if there was a vague sense of bottoming out.
On the basis that that after last night's result at Villa Park I need something to cheer me up, I'd like to point up out that over the last month portfolio companies hvivo are up 50 per cent, AVCT up 60 per cent and CWR up over 75 per cent. If it wasn't for pesky computer hackers we could point to a nice rise at TRX too. I'm sure there's balancing bad news somewhere, but hey, it's a sunny morning and I'm looking for a bright side.
So, we made £22 million today from sale of part of our Ceres holding to Bosch, to add to the £22million we made on 2nd January when we cashed in some Oxford Nanopore chips. So £44m realised already this year, compared to £30m in whole of 2108 and £75m in whole of 2109. I wonder if this is a shift in policy or just reflects where a couple of companies are in their lifecycle? And does any one think it might suggest the company does after all have some interest in shareholder value?
It's Nomlungu. The fact that you can't be bothered to get his name right says a lot. And as for "comes from nowhere", that's rich from someone who arrived here on 22 November along with a bevy of other over-excited traders. Nomlungu has been posting carefully considered posts here for well over two years. Not of all which I agree with but I'd urge everyone to reflect more on his posts than yours.
Do we actually do anything yet? Or are we just theoretical?
Presumably something that is not, like this, "in line with expectations".
Goodness knows I takes your point about poor performance elsewhere - I own most of them too. I suppose my faint optimism is that TRX, XSG and MWG barely have any further to fall, while the scale of growth at Nanopore could be huge. Of course the more serious analysts will be more aware of the progress in the unlisted companies and how many have serious potential - First Light Fusion seems like science fiction to me, but it were to happen then surely the impact would be astonishing.
Can't pretend to understand the full impact of today rns re Oxford Nanopore, but as by some distance the biggest item in our portfolio the future of Oxford Nanopore is vital to IPO and I get the feeling it really is starting to hit paydirt. Doubled it's revenues last year and this seems to be a major step forward. In any portfolio of our size there will be plenty of losers but the progress here - as well as at Ceres - is reason enough to be optimistic that that paper figures should improve considerably. Whether that translates to shareholder value is far from certain but I think this could be an exciting year coming up. If anyone can offer informed view on how significant the Abu Dhabi deal could be I'd love to hear it.
What's the story? The story is I should have sold when we were at three quid two years ago and bought back in on Monday. But beyond that, we just had a fund raise at one fifth of the already degraded sp, which was largely ignored by PIs in the open offer (I gave it £50!), but turns out IIs were taking it up, hence the return of a little confidence. The bigger picture, which you can read about, is we've got great tech for very low water cleaning, nearly ran out of money and are moving into a licensing model.
Today's release states "the drawdown of these tranches is now subject to MidCap's discretion and satisfactory recapitalisation of the Company at that time." So what do people think "recapitalisation" means here? Sounds wee bit like could involve a placing to me. Also someone suggesting it was significant how easy it was to pay back the loan - we just borrowed 7m, so it's not that much of a surprise if we have 5.5m ready to pay back is it?
I just googled "Pragma Ceres" wondering if there was a link. Not that I could see, but at least I do now have a new favourite Chilean rapper.
Ok, apart from "they are all evil frauds", can anyone suggest why this placing and offer is at such a ginormous discount. I mean, do you reckon 81 per cent is really necessary? In fact doesn't it suggest desperation? It feels like I've been mugged, but somehow I'm still tempted to take my (fairly tiny) allocation. Confused.
Well now. I'm pretty much used to this kind of narrative evolving on AIM, and the dilemma is always the same - is this is a dead man walking that will run out of money before reaching safety. Or is this actually a tremendous buying opportunity with the company posting news that will scare off short-termists, despite the fact that profitability and expansion is within sight. We are, of course, being given a fairly upbeat case by the company, although they have to be clear to the market about these delayed expectations. Ultimately investors will have to assess the realism of those management statements. Personally I'm very tempted at this price, but I'd like to hear the assessment of someone who knows better how to read balance sheets and financial forecasts.