Member Info for shychap

Six times in as many weeks, the SBTX SP has hit resistance at exactly 25p and today was the first time we ended the day above that level, albeit fractionally. So are we about to re-rate? Big day tomorrow…

Average salary for a COO in 2025 according to GlassDoor is £91,453.

COO duties: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/coo.asp

"There is nothing to prevent a formal bid while both parties are bound by NDA, provided the bid and any related disclosures comply with the terms of the NDA."

There isn't a way to vote on a takeover bid or major asset sale while the NDA is place.

The rules also prohibit Croda and any other predator from bidding for the company or even buying SBTX shares while the NDA remains in place:

"If a bidder possesses inside information in relation to a target, the insider dealing rules mean that the bidder will not be able to acquire any shares in the target company until the information ceases to be inside information. The fact that the bidder is considering making an offer for the target company can, of itself, constitute inside information. However, if the bidder does not possess any inside information other than the knowledge that it expects to make an offer for the target, it should still be possible for the bidder to acquire shares before the announcement of the offer without breaching the relevant insider dealing legislation."

https://www.burges-salmon.com/our-thinking/guide-to-public-takeovers-in-the-uk/

"Why bother when soh has nine million the would willingly sell for 35 to 40p"

It would take a lot more than SOHs 9% of the voting rights to get a t/o bid approved.

And if Croda are really predators, why haven't they been buying Opti's SBTX shares?

" Consumer care in Q1 last three years. Q1 23 £237m Q1 24 £237m Q1 25 £255m"

Good for Croda, but none of that growth came from our Beauty Actives sector.

Presumably Zenakine made a positive contribution in Q1 while other ingredients continued to decline, but we don't know.

Maybe Croda's analyst call will tell us more.

Croda hold all the cards. If they do want to buy us then they would possibly downplay the benefits of Zenakine this year – which imho they have done – in order to manage demand and so keep us at a digestible valuation.

Of course, they wouldn't need to buy the Plc: they might try to buy just Skinbiotix and the IP…but they would need 75% of shareholders in favour for that, which is a big ask.

Logically, if Croda were wanting to buy SBTX or Skinbiotix, they or their agent would be buying shares on the open market to reduce the voting power of the minority shareholders; and there has been no sign of that.

So, until or unless Croda starts to buy our shares, I would assume that they are not likely predators.

Good to see a Croda Instagram post focusing on Zenakine's skincare benefits (without mentioning sleep) but they are still underselling it – presumably to safeguard their existing anti-ageing portfolio business while they gradually transition. I hope their VIP clients will be bolder following their own trials.

https://www.instagram.com/croda_beauty/p/DIi9Q4Dsmv7/?img_index=6

Cliostock, it's not about the number of days but the number of participants.

One test per participant should suffice. And these aren't expensive tests. London's Royal Free advertises EEGs at £173 for private patients.

"After 13 EEG tests, if 7 product tests showed relaxation and 6 placebo tests showed nil, I’m comfortable with that if Croda are."

Cliostock, I'm sure Croda wouldn't go into print with it if they expected any criticism so I must be the one out of step. But presumably these EEG tests don't delivery binary results: they measure each volunteer's emotional state on a sliding scale, comparing measurements before and after the application of Zenakine to the skin. Unless every volunteer produced identical results (impossible I assume) then, logically, the more data collected the more credible the claimed benefit.

I have no idea how long it takes to set up these tests but the results are instantaneous with no need to monitor for a month, a week or even an hour. So, compared with other types of testing, the EEG study seems to be quick and cheap.

" Https://beautymatter.com/articles/the-biggest-ingredient-trends-from-in-cosmetics-2025 "

See also: https://evrimagaci.org/tpg/beauty-industry-set-for-major-innovations-in-2025-333017?srsltid=AfmBOoqjZtx3k0-WXkZVjlF5zYZGa1eQPgkr8hixP04HbOFvHlrx2IsU

More rigorous testing under way apparently – and possibly regulations and certifications.

AquaeSulis01, thank you: I hadn't appreciated the difference between trials and studies. To be fair, I don't think that either SBTX or Croda has claimed to have carried out any clinical trials and it remains to be seen what any VIP customers will do. It muddies the waters when others, including the Lemming substack, misdescribe the studies as trials.

I'm still underwhelmed by studies among 13 volunteers, half of whom are given placebos, producing marketing claims but I hope the VIP customers will come up with something more credible.

While presumably normal/acceptable to the cosmetics world (about which I know very little), I was underwhelmed by the scale of the trials quoted by Croda in their Zenakine technical presentation. 20 volunteers – 13 in some trials – half of whom are given the placebo, sounds too low to me to support any statistically valid marketing claims. This journalist thinks so too: https://skinrocks.com/blogs/caroline-hirons/cheat-sheet-consumer-and-clinical?srsltid=AfmBOoo3asywYUDpFl7c9jl2hqzzRhPnQ8UNwHBD3_ON-MUlpv2w-AnV

Have the VIP customers been conducting their own clinical trials to produce the data they will promote to the end user or will they use the Croda data?

And what about the trials conducted by SBTX? Do those results get presented to any Croda customers?

I am more familiar with medical trials which, for safety reasons, demand bigger trials. But I wonder whether a new lysate could potentially pose any health risk and therefore warrant more extensive trials before being marketed to the consumer…

WIILG, suggest you plough through the SBTX IP to find out what differentiates Zenakine from other lysates. It's quite a read but maybe start with https://patents.justia.com/patent/11759484 - and then for a general overview, check out the paper on Probiotic Bacteria by Prof Catherine O'Neill and Andrew McBain (Manchester) at https://patents.justia.com/patent/20230088050. All your questions are answered – as well as a trillion other questions you didn't know you wanted to ask.

Netcurtains, I apologise but due to my own shortcomings I have now filtered you. I don't have the necessary patience, tolerance or vision to read your lengthy ramps/theories/interpretations which have become too frequent for my taste. I do wish you well and I too hope that SBTX will make you (and the rest of us) rich.

Winnifrith has just fallen in love again. Looks like the whole world is suddenly in full hyperbolic ramp mode. Did Ashman spike their drinks?

how will croda supply it? the same royalty formula can't work for ****tail blends which include some other non-sbtx ingredients.

It has never been a royalty on the sales to wholesalers/retailers by the cosmetics houses.

The only excitement I'm interested in is the number of new Zenakine Inside retail products which get announced. The excitement in the Croda presentation was at least partly attributable to Croda's own staff of whom maybe 50 were in attendance.

The technical slides were useful but the good Doctor's lacklustre delivery made him a liability to any presentation. But the potential for adding Z to just about any cosmetic and sleep product in the world is there and exciting. Not sure whether SBTX are free to plough their own commercial furrow on the lysate's sleep benefits…

More reassurance on the numbers from the acquisitions and the promise of an imminent deal with a big retailer.

Disappointing Q&As as time ran out. Hopefully they will upload as many answers as possible.

The directors can't buy shares.

I don't mind the negativity, it's the constant bot-like repetition of the same point that ruins the board. Negativity is healthy.