Member Info for Rokerpark68

Gabriele Cerrone, John Brancaccio and Kunwar Shailubhai were all made directors of Accustem on 6 October 2020 as per the Companies House filings. Willy Simon was the first director appointed on 5 June 2020.

All four are directors of Tiziana.

@MIKESM
Thanks for your post - very helpful.

At the moment I'd just settle for the Accustem website going live, but I admire your optimistic nature Jack.

Hi Greend100

As much as I am committed to TILS I agree that the board makes its life complicated and this, ultimately, can start to detract from the company's very positive pipeline narrative.

This would be easy to address in normal circumstances if there were influential non-executive directors and assertive institutional investors involved. As I have mentioned before, the company needs a strong Chief Operating Officer, a higher profile Chief Financial Officer and heavier-hitting financial advisers, brokers and financial PR. Another properly independent Non-Executive Director would help as well.

The reason these obvious corporate moves haven't been made is that GC is effectively in control with his 34% shareholding (combined no doubt with a handful of other friendly shareholders) and he doesn't see the need to make changes.

One thing we would all like to see is more institutional investor interest in TILS which could be of real benefit to the share price, but with the current shareholding structure and limited scope for new investors to take meaningful positions, I think this is unlikely.

Having stated all of the above, I stay invested because the potential upside from the therapeutic portfolio could be very exciting - so I accept there is a trade-off here. Perhaps this trade-off is part of the reason for the TILS share price performance.

The TILS shareholder document from September last year which outlines the process for the demerger of Accustem contains the following statement in the Q&A on page 28:

"12. When will the Demerger come into effect?
With the necessary approvals, it is expected the Demerger will be completed no later than on
30 October 2020. The Accustem Shares are expected to be admitted to the Official List and to
trading on the main market of the London Stock Exchange, and therefore capable of being
traded, later in Q4 2020. Accustem Shares will be allotted to you upon completion of the
Demerger but no share certificates will be issued nor CREST accounts credited until Accustem
Admission, or, if earlier, two months after completion of the Demerger."

As far as I am aware the Accustem shares have been allotted (they appear in my HL account as an allotted entitlement at zero value), but I haven't seen any confirmation that the shares have actually been issued which, according to the above, should have occurred two months after the demerger completed on 30 October 2020 (given that the Admission of Accustem shares didn't happen before the two month period came to an end).

This is not ideal - it really is up to the the TILS/Accustem boards to sort it out. In theory, if the Accustem Admission never actually occurred, we should at least have legal ownership of issued but unlisted Accustem shares.

I may have missed something here, so if anyone has a different take please do comment.

All rather clumsy really. Still, I am sure it will all be fine over the next few weeks.

Hi Greend100,

Very good post - spot on as Oldapache said.

Cheers

@nlondon1234
Well put - unless your strategy is to be an active trader, which is a perfectly valid choice, then it’s best just to keep your eye on the fundamentals of your holdings by following RNSs and any relevant significant press or market comment.. If the fundamentals change then you may have a decision to make, otherwise it’s better for your peace of mind just to stop sp watching every day.

@Ohnonotagainn
Sorry TILS is getting you down. One thing to remember, however, is that things would change very quickly if GC decided to bring Big Pharma to the table at some point soon, as that is a decision he can make and implement very quickly with his 34% shareholding. He is in the driving seat.

Yes that's the latest position I think, plus the comments during last night's call.

@Ridlevski
Hi there

Sunderland are on a roll now - a new wealthy Swiss owner, a manager who has got them on the front foot and a bit of momentum on the pitch at last. Happier days.

Sorry to see Charlton stalling a bit - they'll be there or thereabouts though.

TILS can be frustrating but it is such an interesting company with a lot going for it longer-term, but I can't help feeling it will be taken out by Big Pharma if the pipeline develops well over the next 1 - 2 years (obvious observation I know).

Cheers

Hi Oldapache

I have to say I have a personal interest in the TILS pipeline - particularly in Foralumab which is the main reason I stay invested in TILS and follow the company so closely. Anything that can deal with horrible autoimmune diseases like Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's disease deserves support. I had Ulcerative Colitis on and off for 25 years before I had to have a Total Procto-Colectomy in 1996 (Google this only if you have digested your breakfast fully). So I REALLY hope the company succeeds.

Yes it certainly is frustrating and was probably avoidable. But there we go.
Cheers

There is no choice but to be patient if (like me) you hold an Accustem entitlement. The Shareholder Circular for the demerger was quite clear that once demerged Accustem would be unlisted and illiquid for some time. I said at the time I didn't like this approach, as the Board could have elected to IPO Accustem straight out of TILS and raise new funding for it at that time without going through this clunky unlisted phase. Given the uncertainty and complexity around listing of early-stage companies, especially with a UK/US angle, it's not really a surprise that the listing of Accustem is taking longer than anticipated in the Shareholder Circular (the original target was the end of Q4 2020).

The Board will have had their reasons for going the route they did, with several of these having been speculated about on this BB (including by me). The fact is, the current position was always a possible scenario given the careful wording of the Shareholder Circular and now we just have to wait. We surrendered any leverage over the Board on Accustem when we voted for the demerger on the terms outlined. Yes there are timing delays, but we don't have any "recourse" to the Board for this given how the Shareholder Circular was drafted.

Anyway, no doubt Accustem will be listed or sold before too long, but at what price I have no idea, and I never really have. We may get a pleasant surprise. We may not. Once it was demerged TILS no longer had any legal obligation to inform the market about developments at Accustem - it's legally separate. One thing is for sure, that without the rapid TILS share increase in May /June last year as market excitement built regarding Accustem, TILS would not have been able to do its $57 million fund-raising which underwrote the continued development and acceleration of its therapeutic pipeline. This price rise was mainly due to Accustem, not to TILS being seen as a "COVID" stock. This was obviously good for LTH of TILS like me who have put TILS in the bottom drawer as a potential high-risk/high-return investment - and I just can't be bothered to watch the share price gyrations because I don't need to given how I have sized the holding. If it succeeds, fantastic. If it disappoints, one of my other higher risk holdings will probably make up for it.

That the TILS board is over-stretched and dominated by the major shareholder, GC, has been a known for a long time. There isn't going to be any real governance overhaul here, which will obviously all be forgiven if Accustem and TILS deliver their products/pipelines, whenever that may be.

Hello Satallite /Plan2Retire Early

For what it's worth, TILS and OKYO as obviously very much from the same stable. I invested in OKYO a few months ago to complement my LTH in TILS, as both are effectively controlled by GC and OKYO provides another investment opportunity to benefit from GC's life science contacts and track record.

Once my Accustem shares are listed I will have a fully-liquid third leg to this strategy - I really like the way an investor can get access to different GC-led life science strategies without them being lumped-together in once company. This diversifies risk nicely but also gives an investor three bites at potentially high growth situations.

By holding OKYO (and also Accustem once listed) you can also cover-off that there may be some TILS/OKYO/Accustem corporate play that GC is planning (or some permutation of the three). Alternatively, he may just choose to sell them off to big pharma one by one.

So lots to go for if you can be patient a few years and you think the science is exciting. Also, GC has proved very good over the last year at ensuring that funding is in place for his plans.

But one word of caution - things can always go wrong even with situations which look very attractive, so I am always careful to size these types of holdings carefully across my portfolios.

It is a "known" with TILS that the BOD is not good at adhering strictly to time lines. We have seen "slippage" on a number of things e.g. the actual demerger of Accustem and the move to the Main Market. KS is always too keen to please and tends to get ahead of himself sometimes. GC effectively controls this company and does things at his own pace, in his own way and will no doubt upset investors along the way. As I have said before nothing is going to change unless GC has a change of approach and hires a proper COO and some heavy-hitting financial advisers and IR practitioners.

What I do think is that although there have been delays in the last year or do, the company has not yet actually failed to deliver anything really important, which gives me comfort. Also, although GC's effective control of the company may be a bit unsettling it also means he is fully aligned with the rest of us shareholder pygmies.

I don't know what's happening with Accustem, but I do think that GC will not want it to remain illiquid or unmonetised for long. So let's see.

I think FRP might attract some of the smaller cap yield funds as the dividend becomes more established.

The price is beginning to move a bit - it deserves more support given its prospects.

Thanks Mac4eye.

Just onto a bit of local history now with my “History of Nidderdale”. ....and another coffee.

Cheers

Hi Greend100

As you suggest I for one (a LTH) have taken a step back from the board in the last few weeks. I have really enjoyed the variety of insights from contributors over the last year or so and have learned a lot.

Recently though I have found the debate about trading versus investment a bit repetitive. In my view, for what it's worth, if people want to be traders, LTHs or a mixture of the two, then it's entirely up to them. It's a free market and it's their own choice which strategy suits them best, win or lose. Live and let live in the market is what I say, so I don't see the need to claim whether one strategy is better than the other. What I think is genuinely helpful is sharing good quality insights with each other - whether or not they have a potentially positive or negative impact on the share price (not that comments on this board ever really have an impact on the TILS share price).

For my part I have said a number of times that I am not good at/interested in figuring-out where share prices are moving in the short-term, although I do think if you become familiar with a stock over a period of time then you can develop some sort of feel for its trading range and rhythm.

So I remain a LTH of TILS. As long as the board continue to execute (that was for you SK) my current feeling is that there is still a large amount of value to come from the company. I am also obviously very interested to see what Accustem is worth, but I am not surprised that the target listing date slipped from Q4 as per the Demerger Shareholder Circular given the sheer volume of work that the TILS board have had on their hands in the last few months. When I take a step back it's actually amazing how much they have achieved recently as a relatively small (perhaps too small for too long?) senior team.

Anyway, I have my TILS/Accustem shares and they are in the bottom drawer for now. My average TILS purchase price is fine and I can't be bothered to try and trade the stock - I would probably get it wrong in the short-term and personally I have better things to do today, including making progress on my latest book purchase - "Arguments for Conservativism" by Roger Scruton. Fantastic thinker. So it's feet-up with a cup of coffee in my lovely cosy lounge this afternoon.

Btw, I also have similar sized holdings in Avacta and Synairgen, but I have never contributed to those boards.

Good luck to all.

Cheers

Very positive announcement this morning.
I have been a holder for a while now and continue to see this as a well-run business which will inevitably benefit from the increased level of restructuring and insolvency as government support for companies is gradually reduced.
Staff utilisation levels are still well below capacity yet results were still ahead of expectations.
The dividend yield is beginning to look attractive and there is scope for a re-rating here.
I still very much stand by my rather long post of August last year - although always do your own research!

What an interesting RNS this morning. A green product range? Sounds highly innovative and very exciting.

What a great investment this is proving to be.