Member Info for LordSnooty

due any day now, then AGM towards end of June.

A couple of points: I don't know your degree of knowledge in these scientific matters, so forgive me if I speak out of turn, but aren't you making quite a leap in comparing what may be two very different animals? XEN has had a licensing deal with Baxter for one of its technologies for a number of years now. It is worth up to $75m to XEN and is expected to enter Ph I human trials next year. As I understand it, ours is for a third generation blood factor, the second generation being the PEGylated products that Polytherics mentions on its website. So it could be we are one step ahead of the game. As I say, that is only my layman's understanding. More immediately, PSA-EPO will start Ph II trials in Australia very soon, and it is XEN's stated intention to licence this out ASAP, before it gets to Ph III. I understand there are interested parties. It would be worth considerable amounts both in licensing fee and royalties. So I think we can assume both that XEN's technologies work, are fully patent-protected and that there is a market for them.

I recommend an early night.

Some time in the next few weeks we should have an RNS from XEN, announcing the start of PSA-EPO Ph II trials in Australia, based on data out of India. Whether the market will recognise it for what it is worth, I don't know, but in my opinion it will mark a milestone: it will be the first time that XEN has had a candidate in clinical trials that is FDA/EMA compliant in a Western country - i.e. out of the hands of our partners in India or Russia. I feel the significance of this cannot be overstated, since XEN will have it's first clinical candidate finally under its own control. The hope, as you know, is that PSA-EPO will be licensed out for a substantial fee and royalty at some point while still in Ph II. This will provide our first licensing income after Baxter, which incidentally is due to enter clinical trials too in the next few months. Whether AIM, in its present parlous state, recognises this is, of course, another matter.

a restorative long weekend to all followers of the XEN; in particular a chance to forget the steadily more ghastly "jokes" from Leeson.

can one add that hasn't already been said? With this new low the louche Leeson has managed to combine a whole range of -isms in one dreadful joke.

OncoHist Ph I trial (Ph I trials establish safety of drug): NO maximum tolerated dose NO immunological reaction

from Mr M's Proactive presentation in February: – Cash on hand end of 2012: £7M Expected News Flow to end H1, 2013: -- Commence MS vaccine trial: November - started – Sign alliance and development partnership with one of world’s leading cancer institutes - done – ErepoXen start Ph II clinical trials in Australia – Cystic Fibrosis clinical trial commence – India ErepoXen SC trials Ph IIB start – India ErepoXen IV trails Ph IIA results – Russia ErepoXen SC Ph III trials start - started – Expand Boston operations - continuing – New product-based license deal -- Russia Ph II MyeloXen for MS - started Expected in next few months: -- Russia OncoHist Ph I results -- Baxter - 3 blood factors. Penalty payment for start to Ph I delayed from Q1. -- Baxter - start of Ph I - stage payment?

XEN are developing yet another technology. With this one, code name 'LeesoXen', you can apparently read just one bad joke and next thing you know you wake up to find yourself in July. A quick check of a handy newspaper then confirms that XEN's share price has hit the roof several times since your trauma.

FIrestone's estimate of 2015 for Plant 2 to be installed and running is beginning to look wildly optimistic: due diligence will take six months to complete, then they still have to find someone to stump up the better part of £110m. After that comes the building and shipping of modules and associated infrastructure to Liqhobong, over poor roads to an altitude of 2600m. Bad weather in winter sometimes shuts down operations. When finally in place, testing, ironing out teething troubles and working up to nameplate capacity will take several months.. As an indication of how slowly things move at Liqhobong, see this from Kopane days in January 2009: http://www.kopanediamonds.com/i/pdf/factsheet.pdf. As of May 2013: grid power still not connected, funding for Plant 2 still not arranged.

Why would the Pope be on a plane with Clegg?

Typically and historically for a junior kimberlite, CapEx would be raised in a debt/shares ratio of about 70/30, or less usually 80/20. However, raising £22-33m would clearly be a very tall ask for a company now worth about £17m, hence directors are going to sell off the family silver to raise financing. This of course has the effect of delaying the inflexion point when the company becomes profitable, which is especially not good for impatient PIs. Firestone would have shareholders believe that raising finance can be relatively painless, but I would not take too seriously any soothing words about minimising shareholder dilution. As I explained below, one way or another the shareholders will pay for CapEx, either through debt financing, through dilution of shareholdings or through forward sales of assets. Apart from these methods, there is one other way forward if they are unable to raise finance (still a good possibility in my view), and that is to sell the company out from under PIs and take it private.

Rampant Sexist Disgraceful Americanisms The Suspect from Singapore has them all.

can applaud in a minor way the fact that, after several years' trying, they have finally found a 'leading international bank' to try to find finance for Plant 2. Other than that though, there are several items of not such good news: DD before even finding institutions to finance the MTP will take six months. They are selling off $6m worth of the family jewels in advance to provide working capital, thereby implicitly confirming that debt will continue to burden FDI until P2 is built. And then a further forward sale agreement "as an added source of finance for the MTP". What is not mentioned is that this is robbing Peter to pay Paul, in the sense that it kicks profitability and therefore enhanced shareholder value further down the road.

I smell a tick-ump

Anyone who follows RHPS, particularly in times like these, has no business investing in AIM, in my opinion.

If you are speaking of share price, SCLP took off some months ago but has since settled. There may be others I don't know, but our beloved XEN must surely be near the front of the queue to do so. If you mean flown the coop of AIM to take up residence in the US, Mr M has talked of XEN following the 'Shire' model.

Serendipity, I'd say. Let's see if it's just a blip, or if that cove Leeson has been signalling to parties unknown.

looks like Leeson's started something....

1pm too. Well done that man (or lady)!