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Andrew Scaife had an interest in 3,342,303 Ordinary Shares representing 2.673% of the then total issued share capital and an option over 1,501,500 Ordinary Shares (at £1.00 per share)..Scaife is likely to have sold most if not all of his shares likewise the previous CFO and his holding... The Options will have lapsed on his departure.. and at best will have received a maximum of 1 years salary on departure approx £300K ish... The value of Options granted to Directors of QP are still dependent on growing the share price and them retaining their jobs in the Company... There are a number of Institutional Investors with large stakes in QP... who will want their pound of flesh in terms of substantial growth in both share price and shareholder value the incentive / case for Chris Rigg and Co to make , themselves, the institutions and us shareholders richer is compelling.. The alternative option for the institutions is to arrange a marriage (merger) with a stronger partner and replace the current management team with more able bodies.
Robins... The Directors of QP have a nice clause in their Option entitlement...''Note the words 'Change of Control' The options shall vest and become exercisable at an exercise price of 30 pence, either on the mid-market closing share price being greater than 140 pence for an average of 90 days or on a change of control
Can QP survive as an independent entity ? Whilst the Company's share price languishes near the recent placing price... the need for growth in terms of both sales and profitability is becoming more urgent. Whilst full ear results in May are not likely to be pleasing ( i wold imagine everything including the kitchen sink plus Nu Pharm will be written off to enable a fresh start for Year 17/18 to begin... But perhaps the company might surprise its poorly served shareholders with a merger or acquisition to break with the past and a new redesign of the company for the future.. What about a merger with Futura Medical... Who until recently had the same Chairman John Clarke.. and commercial arrangements already exist between the two groups... The Power of 2 could address long suffering shareholders issues about both share price and future growth.
The QP Major shareholder register has still not been updated since 31st Jan..2 delayed trades from 11.06 am today of 495000 each which I take as sells are now shown... Without an update of the Major share register we cannot tell who is selling and importantly who is adding... The fact that these 2 large trades have gone through the market bodes well... We may becoming to the end of the large share overhang that has kept the share price low...
QP appear not to be keeping their Major shareholder Register up to date.... I do wonder why ? On the 31st Jan 2017 Legal & General Investment Management holding totaled 24,742,135 shares.. Today Legal and General have declared 25,409,135 to become the leading major shareholder.. an increase of some 667,000 shares... Talk about keeping the faith.. Now what does L&G recognise that the the rest of the market does not?
Having just checked again that there has been no change to the Major shareholder register of QP as at 31st Jan 2017 ... we still appear to have large blocks of share being both bought and sold ...Is this because we are coming to the end of the tax year ? or otherwise... There has been no news since the Full year trading update on the 1st Feb.. and I presume that any material changes would have been informed to the market... With a strong Institutional presence and a strong management board.. what is happening within QP at this moment... and where is the promised increase in shareholder value... Perhaps a further update from the QP Board is required to allay shareholder concern.
Issued Today Friday 24th Feb 2017 They currently have a £1.37 valuation of the stock..Finn Capp's price target suggests a potential upside of 437.25% from its current price.. They have maintained this view for some considerable time..We should know in the next few weeks / months if their valuation is realistic... With both Astra trial and Pharmaxis partnership on LOXL2 updates to come..
It is very interesting to see who is currently a major shareholder in QP and how these major shareholdings have changed since the last Annual report & Accounts 2016. There have been a number of substantial trades over the past few weeks including one of 450K, one of 737.5K and one of 500K... who has sold them and who has bought them...Yet no RNS's regarding changes in holdings have been issued.. I am hoping that the overhang of these large blocks of shares have now been found a more permanent home thus allowing for the QP share-price to move upwards towards its true value. The current major shareholder list is dated 31st January 2017 Major shareholders (as at 31 January 2017) from the QP website are shown below.. If you compare this list with the one from the QP Annual Report 2016 a number of key names are missing.. Royal London, Oryx International, River & Mercantile and Sanne Fiduciary (This held the shares from the ex CEO and FD).. Shareholders holding more than 3% of the share capital of the Company were: Shareholder Number of shares held % issued share capital Harwood Capital* 25,000,000 14.78% Legal & General Investment Management 24,742,135 14.63% Schroder Investment Management 14,630,383 8.65% Fidelity International 10,448,405 6.18% Aviva Investors 8,404,328 4.97% Cavendish Asset Management 6,836,445 4.04% Henderson Global Investors 6,602,092 3.90% Slater Investments 6,095,978 3.60% Milton Asset Management 5,551,297 3.28% Brian George Kennedy 5,398,134 3.19% Significant shareholdings As at 6 May 2016, the Company has been notified of the following interests in 3% or more of the issued ordinary share capital of the Company: Name Number of shares held Percentage of ordinary shares Legal & General Investment Management 15,701,800 12.56 Aviva Investors Global Services 8,910,561 7.12 Fidelity Worldwide Investments as agent for certain funds 8,870,000 7.10 AXA Investment Managers UK 8,650,000 6.92 River and Mercantile Asset Management 6,861,000 5.49 FIL Limited 6,642,676 5.31 Miton Asset Management 6,500,000 5.20 Sanne Fiduciary Services Limited 4,840,165* 3.87 Henderson Global Investors 4,000,000 3.20 Brian Kennedy 4,000,000 3.20 Royal London Asset Management 3,784,000 3.03 Oryx International Growth Fund Limited 3,750,000 3.00
The link below to the LSE provides a share price analysis relative to sector and index performance..Price to Sales and Price to Book should give both support to the current share price and the opportunity for real growth in shareholder value. The attractiveness of QP to other growth companies should not be underestimated. http://www.londonstockexchange.com/ftse-analytics/GB00BRTL8Q42GBGBXAMSM.pdf
From this mornings Directors Talk Quantum is valued at 9.4 X EV/EBITDA for Full Year 17 (year just completed) falling to 8.2 X for the coming year
Brought forward from the 7th Feb to the 1st Feb 2017... I wonder why? It reads though very positive.. Strange also that QP's Shareholder Information page has NOT been updated since the 28th Nov 2016.. It does not even include the new CFO's share purchase of 200000 Shares... Even more interesting is the fact that Major Shareholders holdings have NOT been updated to reflect the £15m share placing and are still showing many Holding %'s prior to the additional share placings... Is this just poor web site management or another reason?
10 February 2017 Trading Update.... With a confirmed CEO and the new CFO in place for over 2 weeks. this update will be eagerly awaited ... and should update the market on progress with the new Company Strategy / Focus.
The latest RNS details the departure of Zeus and the appointment of N -1Singer is in my opinion warmly welcomed...Having over hyped the company leading to its launch on AIM...and supported both a failing business model and failed management team..its time was up... The new Nomad and new management team will no longer be shackled by the failures of the past.. A brighter future for shareholders is about to begin.
Disagree Robins.. Further reduction in effective Senior Management...and a further reduction in central office numbers required...Does QP need to have its own in house Legal Firm when outsourcing this to a partner organisation would save huge amounts.. Sales and Marketing need to be overhauled..likewise communications to shareholders... This Company has real potential and the new board has the experience, talent and desire to turn QP into A real dynamic growth and profitable enterprise.
In support of Robins comment .. zeus the In-house Broker in a recent interview on the 10th Oct said :- has your view on Quantum Pharma changed? We’ve downgraded our profit forecasts for the current year and the coming year so now we expect adjusted EBITDA of £10 million in the current year, to January 31st 2017 that is, and £11.5 million and £13 million in the subsequent 2 years. Now we remain confident that the company can hit these targets based on the revised strategy of focussing on its key operational strengths in the Specials division without Nupharm and the niche pharmaceutical division with more unlicensed to licenced emphasis. So the current share price of around 37p and on the basis of our lower profit forecast the company is very attractively valued at just a little over about 7 times EBITDA multiple which is a significant discount to other companies in its peer group.
They have already purchased 13.85 Million shares see : http://ir.quantumpharmagroup.com/content/news/news_archive/2016/06-10-16b.asp
Delighted that John Clark and Sheila Kelly have immediately left... It has become apparent (at least to me) that Andrew Scaife and the previous CFO were never held to account by a very weak Board... Chris Rigg knows where the skeletons are in the QP structure... He will now be under big pressure to both reform QP, Refocus QP with possibly more disposals.. eliminate layers of unnecessary Senior Management and look to reform the balance sheet..A rights issue or placing may be on the cards.. The Board now has the look of a Professional Pharma Company..with good business connections across possible partner companies..The need to move away from low margin products and focus on value add should be sooner rather than later... The Board needs to ensure that it has Quality Sales and Marketing personnel of the highest order..Currently I am very underwhelmed by QP.s .. Communication ability, Marketing ability and Partnership building capability... If they can get this right the shares will blossom significantly ..
Following a formal search process, and having taken into account the feedback of a number of Quantum's major shareholders who are fully supportive of the strategy to simplify and focus the Group, the Board has today appointed Chris Rigg to the position of Chief Executive Officer ("CEO") on a permanent basis. Chris was appointed to the Board as Chief Financial Officer ("CFO") in March 2016 and has been Acting CEO since 1 August 2016. The Board has commenced a formal search process for a new CFO but, in the interim, as well as permanent CEO, Chris will remain as CFO until a replacement for that role is appointed. Quantum is also pleased to announce the appointments to the Board of Ian Johnson as non-executive Chairman; Christopher Mills as non-executive Director and Dr John Brown as Senior Independent non-executive Director. The Board has commenced a formal search process for a further non-executive Director. John Clarke and Sheila Kelly, non-executive Chairman and non-executive Director respectively, have resigned from their positions on the Board with immediate effect to focus on other Directorships and new business appointments.