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All of the usual Pumpky, ie all wages, cost of sales, operational overheads etc.
Anyone have a view on the fact that we no longer appear to have an FD? It’s great we’re promoting internally but I can find next to nothing about our new financial controller although I suspect this is likely to be her;
https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-towse-cgma-ba-hons-4a61bb82/?originalSubdomain=uk
If is is, and not to be disparaging, she doesn’t seem to me to be hugely experienced…
Seems to me that Yates is effectively taking executive responsibility for finance within the business. I’ve no real issue with that - it will save money and he has plenty of experience and qualification for that role.
We are left with Hand and Yates as the only remaining Exec directors, and Mary Tavener as the sole NED.
We don’t really a a covid business any more though, apart from being one of many distributors of a third party test.
I agree Apre, the drop today is just the traders moving on. We do still have lots to look forward to in the short term with Loop, Upfront, Folium and potential FDA approval of Salistick. CEO of Loop, BTW, just got recognised by Forbes as a “change maker”. The presentation later will be interesting.
And ref the concert party, it just seems odd to me that so much time and effort has been put into splitting the original and now making what seem very minor changes. The only outcome I observe is that the founder group now just consists of Yates, Hand, and their families, but then that doesn’t seem particularly strange.
Mixed feelings today because the update, whilst ok, was light on detail and not as good as I had hoped for. Period comparable at 118% looks great on paper, but then H1 last year was a poor period. Reality is that H1 this year has fallen £500k on H2 last year, but remember that Yates said in the last Investor Meet presentation that things quieten for the business in the first quarter of each year when academics holiday, so perhaps that’s unsurprising.
The elephant in the room is of course cash, which at current burn rate will last 9-10 months.
I don't know anything about charting or the reputation of this chap, but he has 17.6k followers and so this might help. stir some interest this afternoon.
https://twitter.com/Borg74/status/1744931684116836758
Hopefully John - I thought we might see a bit of buying today in anticipation but it seems either people aren’t interested or we just fly so far under the radar for most. Maybe we’ll see a bit more interest as we move towards the close.
Agree - it’s conjecture only.
Personally I think something is in the vaults; I just don’t think it’s what was originally confiscated. Why, because in early 2010 the mining minister took the parcel from the RBZ under false pretences and contrary to the court ruling, only to be ordered to give them back a few weeks later.
Conjecture again, but ask yourself, why would he do that.
ASI - looks to me like Sinarom are in Court on 16th for the next hearing in proceedings started in 2022
https://portal-justitie.ro/dosar/?dosar=11450/3/2022&institutie=TribunalulBUCURESTI
and Vast Baita on 15/1
https://portal-justitie.ro/dosar/?dosar=2096/100/2022&institutie=CurteadeApelCLUJ
Which looks to me like an appeal by the creditor against an earlier court ruling in Avacta favour
https://portal-justitie.ro/dosar/?dosar=2096/100/2022&institutie=TribunalulMARAMURES
But I could well be wrong and as SS says, it may be nothing to worry about because we seem to be perpetually in the Romanian Courts.
ASI - I tend to agree that a placing at these levels wouldn’t achieve much given current headroom authority. It would perhaps buy a little bit of time. Asking for more headroom would help, but doesn’t send a great message I think.
But then if we need cash soon (and that’s only an assumption), what are the alternatives?
- Diamonds? Well there’s hope (if no solid basis for that) at the moment.
- Debt restructure - again I suppose it’s possible we might be able to raise more through debt, perhaps as part of a full re-fi, but even if we could I suspect terms would be very painful and worse than the exorbitant 20% we agreed with Alpha.
- Revenue - it could be I suppose that revenue has risen sharply, but we have no evidence of that. Who knows what we will see in the BP production report, soon hopefully.
- Convertible bonds maybe, but again terms would be painful.
- Sadiq Khan’s magic money tree possibly.
Short term cash is the biggest issue for me here at the mo. Get past that somehow and the significant asset, and opportunity, potential can be realised. Fail and there is the possibility of administration - it’s notable that Vast Baita and Sinarom are both back in Romanian courts next week as part of bankruptcy/insolvency proceedings.
I'm "hoping" for it tomorrow or Thurs, like you say HD2U - would seem reasonable given the presentation on 11/1, but not guaranteed.
If I were an investor I'd want to know what the current situation is, as well as prospects, so perhaps we might get a little more detail about the pipeline? Who knows!
Just to clarify, it’s the Yates presentation to the investment community that’s happening on 11/1.
We don’t know when the TU will be issued, other than it will be in Jan.
Nevertheless, for me it’s not unreasonable to think the TU will be before or on 11/1. After all, why present to investors if you have nothing positive to say, and telling potential investors before us would be wrong I think.
I don't think it will be tomorrow Bill, just because its a Friday.
This was the bit that caught my attention in the AGM statement
"At that time (October), I said that I believed Abingdon was well positioned to meet the growing demand of the lateral flow market, through both our CRO/CDMO offering, and through our complementary direct sales and distribution platform. This is proving to be the case as evidenced both by the number of customers and projects we are working with, and our continued revenue growth"
So, Yates has already told us that revenue has continued to grow since October, which should I hope mean that the update reveals H1 24 revenue in excess of the £2.9 H2 23 revenue. If that proves to be the case and costs remain controlled (no indication they aren't) then we will be well on our way to FY24 target of being cash flow positive.
Alternatively, if the revenue growth and cost controls continue as indicated in the finals then management will need to be given real credit for making difficult decisions and turning the tanker round after being royally shafted by the DHSC.
I think everyone fully expected the H1 23/24 revenues to be significantly higher than the poor £1.1m H1 22/23 revenue, and so it’s not really a surprise that Yates has already confirmed as much.
The interesting things for me will be to see how H1 23/24 compares to the £2.9m H2 22/23 revenue, whether or not our cash burn continues to reduce (and so what our cash position is compared to the £3.2m at 30/6/23), and hopefully some indication of current and pipeline work.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the trading update turn up very quickly in the new year.
HNY all.
Good to have you here Karl.
Also nice to see the last two trading sessions being positive. Worth noting again that Yates had said he’s going to release a trading update in Jan, and is presenting to potential investors on 11/1.
Now, if I were Yates I’d only be presenting if I intended to release the update beforehand, and only if that data was good.
Might explain the positivity; either that or it’s Karl’s entry into the fray!