Bid Target?8 Sep 2017 19:43
07-Sep-17 Buy Trade Notifier Information for Vectura Group Andrew Derodra 89.7 GBX 82,000 415142
07-Sep-17 Buy Trade Notifier Information for Vectura Group James Ward-Lilley 90.45 GBX 82,918 461860
RSI has jumped from 20 to 33 indicating buyers have returned but this still remains in oversold territory. Once we get rid of the day traders we should see this run up back to the 108-110p range.
I would think predators have noticed this is now trading around book value and may make an offer.
As The Motley Fool pointed out yesterday it is trading at a deep discount.
Market cap at the time of the merger was £1Bn combined.
Market cap now is just £551M
Anyone looking to obtain a high quality respiratory portfolio could buy Vectura on the cheap after this fall.
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Shares of FTSE 250 pharma firm Vectura (LSE: VEC) dived 14% to a new 52-week low of 94p in early trading this morning. This despite it releasing first-half results “in line with board expectations for the full year” and stressing its “multiple opportunities to create substantial shareholder value” for the remainder of the year and beyond.
Excellent progress
Vectura posted a 6.6% rise in H1 revenue, with recurring revenue increasing 26.1%. However, losses widened, although this was mainly due to amortisation of the intangible assets recognised on its merger with Skyepharma last year. If we look back to that deal, we can get an idea of how much value may be hidden in the combined group.
On 15 March 2016, the day before the announcement of the all-share merger, Vectura’s shares closed at 146.6p, giving it a market capitalisation of £602m. Skyepharma’s market cap was £412m, making the aggregate of the two companies £1,014m. Today, the market is valuing the combined group at just £665m.
Vectura reported “excellent progress” with the merger integration in this morning’s results. It said it remains on track to deliver its original £10m target annual cost synergies by 2018 and has identified further synergies of £1m to £2m from 2018.
Over-reaction and under-appreciation
The reason behind Vectura’s current depressed valuation is downgraded analysts’ earnings forecasts. These were the result of an announcement in May of a delay in approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for a partner’s generic version of GlaxoSmithKline‘s asthma medication Advair Diskus. While Vectura and its partner are confident of receiving approval in due course, it no longer anticipates receiving an approval milestone payment or sales royalties this year.
I think the market is both over-reacting to the issue of the generic Advair approval and under-appreciating the strength of Vectura’s overall business and growth prospects, post-merger. The City’s downgraded underlying earnings-per-share (EP