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"Flights from South Africa will be halted tomorrow as ministers and scientists become ‘deeply concerned’ about a fast-spreading coronavirus variant."
- it will be interesting to know if the Scancell South African Phase 1 trial of it's DNA vaccine is expected to protect against this variant."
At least somebody out there is asking a question, and giving publicity. And the answer ....
Premier Inns offer inexpensive, basic but clean accommodation in central London - I'm within commuting distance of London, but still prefer to use Premier Inn if it's going to be a late night.
Assuming that the plans for an "open" AGM meeting don't change (and there will be an RNS if there is any change) just a gentle reminder that you will have to give notice to your platform provider if you wish to attend - unless you hold the shares directly in your name.
These CLN’s fascinate me, and I’ll admit are the trigger that took my £200 ish investment some dozen years ago to a 7 figure holding last year.
The old adage of “follow the money” and it’s clear that RM know far more about the current workings of SCLP so I’ve followed them.
With apologies to those who know far more than me, but in essence CLN’s are instruments that give the holder capital rights ahead of equity in case of liquidation, may provide an income and offer an option to convert into equity (shares) at a pre-determined price and date.
RM were issued/invested in £5 million nominal zero interest, convertible into shares at 6.2 pence on 12 August 2022. In November 2020 approx £3.25 million were converted (the apparent reasoning to keep the RM equity holding to 29.97% given other events).
There was a further issue/investment of £17.9 million CLN’s with an annual coupon of 3%, convertible at 13pence on 10 November 2022.
All that is known and is in the public domain.
So RM hold CLN’s that cost them (I’m ignoring the profit they banked with the £3.25 million redemption) £19.65 M (£17.9M +£1.75M) providing them with an annual income of £537k (3% coupon on the £17.9m). I’ve known worse investments!
And they have the option to convert – a bit at 6.2 p and the majority at 13p.
These options expire in August and November 2022.
And, hey presto. Would you like to extend these options for a further 3 years at NIL cost? Makes me a bit worried that SCLP couldn’t extract better terms, or were they worried that RM might be pre-emptive? RM must have eyes on what is happening but they’ve said yes to keeping their chips on the table. I take that as a positive, but am very aware it could be more of a slow burn. Fingers crossed.
I was at a presentation/sales pitch this morning by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Cath Green on their book “Vaxxers”. Should be required reading by all of us (with apologies to the many of you who already are very au fait with the challenges and procedures of the journey to bring a vaccine to market).
I took home a couple of pertinent points
- The Oxford team several times decided on a “at risk” strategy, starting production before testing had even started, and other instances, making huge bets that their strategy would work, and if not …..
- Having manufacturing capacity in house was crucial to the speed of getting to market - using outside partners/manufacturers would have slowed the process enormously as they had confidence with their in house teams and the feed back loop was crucial.
- The scientific team had zero input to the decision of who to partner. In fact the first they knew of AZN was the press announcement.
- Cath Green suggested that by next Spring Covid could have as much impact as a cold (subject to no new serious mutations)
- In response to a question, she confirmed that their prostate cancer vaccine is still exciting, but has been in human trials for several years and still in phase 2. Vaccine development is very very slow, unless a pandemic!
And in a brief chat with both of them afterwards, neither were aware of Lindy Durrant’s work or DNA vaccines although Cath thought she recalled something about it.
Apologies for the layman type comments, but I found them interesting and remain a fan of Scancell. But keep telling myself to remain very patient.
C7 There is one reason for fewer bed and ISA's as HL state "Due to our COVID-19 service changes, we are not currently able to do this". Don't know about other platforms. I'd hate to be out of even a few shares at the moment so I'm using cash from elsewhere to invest my ISA allowance on Friday. And tempted to hang on to my non ISA shares. Must be my squirrel upbringing.
“Initial research is underway and Scancell anticipates initiating a Phase 1 clinical trial ("COVIDITY") in Q1 2021, subject to funding. The Company is actively seeking development partners and additional funding (including non-dilutive funding from governments and global institutions) to support the rapid development of this vaccine.” Source :- RNS 24 April 2020
By the time of the recent presentation, as LL points out, the expectation had slipped to H1 2021.
Also worth remembering that the SKY News story published on 14 February 2021 stated “The prototype has already passed pre-clinical tests and will start trials in volunteers within weeks.”
Many, but not all, shares traded on AIM are potentially free of IHT. I say "potentially" as HMRC will not confirm the status until after death.
And be mindful that a takeover or a move to NASDAQ without retaining an AIM quote would lose this advantage.
Market price sensitive information cannot be revealed at a shareholder meeting. So logically it has to be a RNS in the next day or so, or the shareholder presentation will be a bit of a non event.
Why do I notice no questioning of the actions (?) of the professional advisors to SCLP? Panmure Gordon have been corporate brokers to SCLP for some years, have been around for decades (please someone remind me who their senior partner was back in the 1980's who was also chairman of the Stock Exchange). The role of the bod is to manage the company. The corporate broker uses its expertise to advise the bod how to liaise/communicate etc with shareholders and the wider market. I know that some members of the bod have expertise looking outwards towards the wider market, but if you pay a fee to a broker to advise you should you not expect them to do a few sums on the votes for a simple resolution at a general meeting. But what do I know? Only a career in the city!
Hi C7 and thanks for the warm welcome. I may be a new poster but I have kept an eye on SCLP for possibly longer than anyone else here – there’s a challenge which I’m sure will be embraced.
In January 2002 I had some capital gains tax payable and in those days you could defer the tax by buying a VCT, and I put a small amount into BioScience VCT , renamed Hygea and now Seneca. BioScience paid themselves a handsome fee and slowly lost most of my investment. But they refused to die and I was intrigued why they held on to one investment, SCLP. They still do, for anyone wanting a difficult to trade way into SCLP at a huge discount. On the basis that they may actually have stumbled on to a decent company, having squandered all my other money, I bought a direct holding in SCLP, and over the last decade I squandered further monies of my own volition in various OO’s.
So my original investment, via BioScience was probably at 100p. But thanks to you guys who I have been following for a long time, but with nothing to contribute myself, I’ve gone major on this with an in price of just over 8p.
PS. The 2002 capital gains problem arose out of a multi bagger event I had in ARM, and in the early 1980’s (remember pre internet and the time of “microchips”) I went banco on a company which intrigued me as every one of the directors had at least a PHD. Psion put 3 kids through school and paid for the first divorce, so I do have form. And patience.
Unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future, not least as there is a requirement of a minimum share price ($2 to $4 depending on other factors). I have large long term holdings in my share account and ISA and, whilst I'm hoping to be around for many years yet, it is likely (depends on HMRC clearance) that as they are traded on AIM they would be free of Inheritance Tax. My conflict is that I want and expect SCLP to be successful, but not too much than it is taken over (unlikely in the near time as its assets comprise to a large extent the expertise of individuals) or changes to another market. I see little benefit in moving to Nasdaq.
Shares in AIM companies are usually exempt from Inheritance Tax. Though the only way to confirm that SCLP is in that category is by dying. So my inheritance tax planning would be blown out of the water if SCLP is either taken over, or moves to the main market. So I want it to succeed but not too much!
Hi all. As you can see I'm a new poster, though a very long term holder of SCLP.
Please may I just add a bit of analysis to the discussion on options. I think that the important words are "vest in 12 months from the date of grant" as it ties in the senior management team - ie if they leave employment before vesting day they have nothing. Thereafter they have the right to buy shares at the option price, though I haven't seen anything about the exercise period. Normal practice would be not to exercise the options until near the end of the exercise period, unless you wanted to sell them or leave the company.
So these options are "handcuffs" for the next year. They also demonstrate the confidence of the SMT as they have swopped 25% of salary for this jam tomorrow.