The latest Investing Matters Podcast with Jean Roche, Co-Manager of Schroder UK Mid Cap Investment Trust has just been released. Listen here.
Well another 10 covid lab positions have just been posted on their website for a fixed term contract until Dec 31.
https://yourgenehealth.livevacancies.co.uk/#/
Bakky not sure - maybe a question for the investor presentation next week.
Boots are showing out of stock for all my local stores including the major shopping centres in the south east.
Following on from the Boots system glitch which lasted a couple of days earlier this week this is not the time to be having these sort of issues. Poor IMO for so many stores to be out of stock if true when it’s clear that we are in peak demand time for the PCR travel tests.
I also spotted some social media posts from NPH and which stated they have done over 10k tests in the last three months which again should be much higher volumes now we are into peak summer with more countries on amber/green. They also have an agreement with virgin cruises but not sure whether they are using us for those tests.
Absolutely Twix.
Ultimately I had much bigger hopes for the share price but the reality has never met the expectations - always waiting for the next set of results or news prior to results which never have any sustained positive impact on the price.
Take a look at the Source Bio trading update this morning and they have raked in the cash through their covid testing offering. They did a lot of Gov work initially but they are now experiencing big demand re travel testing with this from their update:
"The Group has already seen a marked uptick during July with daily testing volumes rising from under 4,000 tests per day in June to approximately 9,000 tests daily" and "Testing demand is expected to rise further and, accordingly, the Group has made preparations to expand its capacity to more than 20,000 tests per day.".
That does provide hope that our volumes are big and growing as we approach peak demand (you would think) over the next two months.
The share price doesn't suggest a blockbuster update is imminent though but I still live in hope of an unexpected sentiment changer.
Actually I take back my take back - just added two tests to my basket, applied the code ‘HOMETEST’ and it knocked off £32.50.
Let’s hope we get some material news next week with some figures - have a good weekend all.
Apologies the buy one get one half price refers to sunscreen lol!
Also from Boots’ results yesterday:
“ Meanwhile, the multiple has also administered three million COVID-19 tests, “in addition to testing partnerships with several major airlines”, Mr Kehoe added. Yesterday, Boots announced it had partnered with easyJet to offer COVID-19 tests for travellers this summer.”
Of course that’s not 3m Mhc tests but surely any sort of covid update from us would show massive sales considering all our other covid partners?! Shame any uplift in share price would be from such a poor level.
Boots are now doing ‘buy one get one half price’ on the MHC test so along with the EasyJet tie up they should be shifting some serious volume of test over the next 8 weeks.
Actually looks like Randox is still listed on their website.
Regardless it should be a few more Clarigene sales.
Looks like it was only three weeks ago that they announced they were using Randox so that obviously didn’t work out too well!
PerkinElmer have won a £50m contract under framework lot 4 for covid testing.
Very little detail but we could really do with something like that right now!
https://bidstats.uk/tenders/2021/W26/753926301
Good find over on Mhc board:
“EasyJet will allow passengers to book Covid tests through its app after agreeing a partnership with Boots.
Customers will be able book an in-store test for £85. Alternatively, a home PCR test will be £65.
The results will come 24-48 hours after the sample arrives in the lab.
Asif Aziz, Director of Healthcare Services at Boots UK, said: 'This new partnership between Boots and easyJet is designed to make lives easier for people who are travelling abroad this summer.' “
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9744847/Where-holiday-Offers-Ryanair-sells-5-flights.html
He has been a massive supporter of the company over the years and certainly backed that confidence up with his money.
Let’s hope he has finished now and maybe this will hit home with the company.
Q1 of the financial year is done so a covid update with number of tests sold and processed is much needed. Those numbers should be good and can only get better up until the end of H1.
Re Manchester it was Randox/Collinson:
https://bidstats.uk/tenders/2021/W25/753336467
I don’t know if we would have gone for this one possibly too big for us?
Notice another small framework award today - for antibody tests. Hopefully we’ll get our piece of those when PCR and/or sequencing type contracts start to be awarded.
Try this:
https://bidstats.uk/tenders/?q=national+microbiology+framework
We could do with something from that to reverse this absolutely shocking share price performance.
News that MHC have purchased £1.4m worth of sample collection devices to support the supply of covid test kits is probably helping.
https://www.**********.co.uk/rns/announcement/74089175-85aa-4a3c-ad77-92343d1eae79/
I’m quite certain that the 2k daily testing capacity that LR spoke about on the last video is being met now purely from the Boots and MHC contracts alone.
No idea on daily Boots sales now the counter has topped out at 100+ but you can check stock at your local stores and more of these are now starting to show as out of stock. Also, I think I saw on tweet from Boots that they are planning on using our test for ‘test to release’ as well as fit to fly which would see a further big increase in sales.
If all of our other private providers are experiencing a similar uplift then I wonder how close we are getting to the daily 10k capacity that LR said was possible if needed.
Obviously the amount we make per test would have come down since those broker projections but even so the figures on paper should surely see a higher share price than where we are at?!
Not sure when the next covid update would be due but if those figures are being hit then that is a big material shift in revenue and surely we would need to be updated soon?
And this from Twitter makes a good read:
"Covid test providers could be overwhelmed when foreign holidays resume"
https://www.itv.com/news/2021-04-29/covid-test-providers-could-be-overwhelmed-when-foreign-holidays-resume
Standout snippet from the video update is that covid testing capacity is now 2K per day and they can expand to 10K per day if needed. That's a big increase from the 20k per month.
Of course they just need to fill that capacity now.
Named on Framework 2 so another RNS on that soon but as per previous two I doubt any increase in share price until we get an actual contract.