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It's not a capital raise Mani, TFG put the blocker in 18 months ago.

But I agree with you that Tommy-Fruits has been tasked with pushing negative remarks down the page, so there seems to be some company sensitivity as to who is potentially viewing this board currently... a positive sign perhaps?

Doc83 - fair comment, but a SPAC opportunity should have been Synairgen's to lose. And they lost it. They had Rick Bright, JPM etc. and still couldn't land one. Couldn't convince a BP to take a minority stake and leave them in charge of a ton of money, that's my reading.

Fruits, what you probably don't know is that Marsden was asked the question about the potential to use a SPAC, and he didn't rule it out as an option. The US General Manager post advertisement certainly suggested an intention. J&J's Board obviously wouldn't go along with taking a 15% minority stake for a $300m capital injection, and that judgment could well be vindicated shortly when they end up with 50% through the JV.

Tommy, I suspect some on here might find it strange that a fellow shareholder doesn't welcome the prospect of a massive improvement in the SP in the short-term, but instead choose to go on the offensive.

I find it stranger still that you're still on here all the time when you aren't expecting anything to happen until March.

Perhaps Fruits, that other half of your Chang & Eng Bunker tribute act, will be along shortly to enlighten us all?

Btw, I have zero appetite or interest in equities trading if you must know. But I would be interested to know how Chang and Eng do that spreadbetting stuff eh wink wink..?

(cont'd.)

I believe that an RNS could drop at any time.

AMHO. DYOR.

Surprised that posters here don’t see a corporate transaction looming this side of Christmas.

Universal has now been active for over 14 months, exceeding a full annual cycle necessary for J&J to extrapolate the commercial opportunity. In March, J&J cancelled their Evergreen vaccine programme in the RSV space - not for clinical efficacy reasons, but in line with a stated strategic switch to targeted therapeutics. A gap remains in their RSV pipeline.

One deterrent to a White Knight would have been Marsden’s original intransigence that continued until fairly recently. Remember that the Sprinter P3 “go it alone” strategy was around Synairgen pivoting from an R&D organisation into a fully-blown pharma (ref: Marsden’s desire to capitalise on what he described as Synairgen’s having done “all the heavy lifting” – maybe partly also an egotistical response to AZ’s jilting him in 2016, who knows). As recently as March this year, when the US General Manager job ad went out, the BoD still thought that they could retain control and bring in BP as a minority investor (probably through a SPAC vehicle given the JP Morgan attendance in January). But J&J must have taken the view that they hold the key and want a bigger cut of the spoils – a JV at least. Entrusting Marsden & Co. with $300m in a minority shareholder situation would probably have been a showstopper anyway, far too risky given the Synairgen management culture of complacency witnessed in Sprinter – no Plan B mitigation which was also an appalling lack of BoD oversight.

From Synairgen’s perspective, only by the time of this year’s AGM at the end of June was the idea of “the drug taking a different route to the company” finally espoused. But since then, the BoD and J&J have been on convergent paths.

I don’t see a dependency on the P2 cohort trials here at all. Sure, a certain regulatory route has to be followed, come what may, in order to achieve commercialisation, but J&J aren’t going to learn anything new, clinically, from hereon in. They now have sufficient information, clinically and commercially, to make a corporate transaction decision.

And I think that decision has been made and is currently playing out. Hence the continuing delay on any concrete information on the P2 trials since the JV entity will need to make that announcement. Hence the exit of John Ward as Synairgen plc changes shape and the attendant accounting requirements become more onerous; he was quite happily banking £25k every month ad infinitum, why stop otherwise? Hence Marcin Mankowski’s joining to build the JV operation, you don’t think he’s come in to play second fiddle to RM, really?

To all those LTHs who read and don’t post here – don’t despair at the talk of months and years down the line before there’s any recovery in the SP, there’s good reason for optimism in the short-term. If I had any sixpences left, I’d be buying.

I believe that an

Project manager par médiocre

You eschewed “Agile”

You invented “Haste”

But it didn’t work

Keith likes to make Gantt charts

Yours had unlimited resources but his have milestones and deliverables

EJ Thribb (-97%)

Doc83 - you're absolutely right, and there's no reason why a deal cannot be happening behind the scenes right now.

Thankfully, the TFG scenario you mention is highly improbable. Firstly, the company has sufficient cash resources to carry on Business-as-Usual for the next three years, so there actually isn't any existential crisis looming (despite a few traders on here claiming otherwise) that would justify a move by TFG. Secondly, any adverse move would obviously cause shareholder hostility/noise and potentially trigger legal disputes. Just the threat of all that would put BP off acquiring what might then be perceived as a tainted asset. I asked a friend who was an M&A advisor to BP for over a decade who confirmed that thinking, they just wouldn't sully themselves, certainly not for an asset that isn't an immediate revenue-generator.

Coming back to the original theme of the thread - the new CFO's appointment has been formally lodged at CH today. So Marcin is definitely not on the plc Board. And Helen Gearing, eminently employable, hasn't gone off in a huff at not getting the CFO role (according to her LinkedIn profile). Hmm, so far so good...

Anylum recently did a deal with Roche and banked a $310m up-front payment, based on P1 results:

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/07/24/2709218/0/en/Roche-enters-partnership-with-Alnylam-to-co-develop-and-co-commercialise-RNAi-therapeutic-zilebesiran-to-treat-hypertension-in-patients-with-high-cardiovascular-risk.html

(The total potential revenue to Anylum is $2.8 Billion)

Synairgen's development lifecycle isn't in exactly the same place as Anylum who had completed recruitment for a small P2, but there are still no results from that, and the next stage to come is a larger scale P2 not a P3, so clinically and commercially there is reasonable comparability.

A similar deal for Synairgen is possible and obviously would be transformational for the market cap.

Take Synairgen at face value?

Earlier this year Marsden met with two shareholders for a periodic update. No discussion on the US. The day after, a job ad for the US General Manager position goes out. He clearly didn't want to explain anything about US strategy.

(Immediately) after the H1 results Marsden called another periodic update with two shareholders. No mention of a CMO appointment or a change in CFO, or even an allusion to organisational change. The day after, the first happens, followed by the other a few days later (hence the immediacy of the meeting request - to avoid the need to elaborate once again).

Before anyone cites the price-sensitive BS reason, a skilled sophisticated communicator (which is what £360k pa should buy you) is able to convey these messages without breaching legalities or compromising negotiation positions. RM chooses to starve the shareholders of information presumably because he thinks that's the least personal risk option (it's actually far from that in fact).

The most appalling aspect to this is the abuse of two peoples' goodwill and time to tick a corporate governance box (as he thinks).

Face value?... Nah.

Hasn't been appointed to the BoD.

Although he could have been - Synairgen's company secretarial competency is a questionable, it took them six months to notify Companies House about Polygon. (There's a 14 day window btw, and Marcin started first week of October)

But assuming he hasn't been made a director, then the question is why? He has the necessary personal credentials, and the CMO role would justify Board representation given that the Chief Scientific Officer is on it.

It might become clearer in the next fortnight if they file the new CFO's appointment and Marcin's name remains absent.

If anybody's interested, it's worth researching the corporate governance aspects of JV structures (inc. CEO role) around independence.

I think it will be that Gunto, but I also think it will be a much more holistic (bigger) deal.

Leave J&J to one side for a moment. The biggest (and unstoppable) reason why Synairgen will announce a funding solution soon is that old self-centred “personal risk” thing.

The Synairgen BoD will be on Marsden’s back, have no fear of that, because those individuals don’t want to be answering to the Administrator, the Insolvency Service, the LSE, and sundry lawyers bringing class actions in three years’ time.

And they will consider that they have no escape now, it’s too late to stand down. That Teddy Harold character might have squeaked it, but the three-year retrospective insolvency investigation rule will enmesh the rest of them. Personally, I believe the company could last beyond the three years on current reserves, but that’s the first risk that the directors just won’t countenance. It’s a gamble to quit right now and hope the company limps through the three-year mark, particularly whilst no longer having any influence that staying on the Board would have provided…

…so John Ward must be confident that something is fairly guaranteed, to have stepped down now and forfeited his seat at the table. Equally, why would Joseph Colliver walk into such a risky situation with no solution in sight? And Marcin Mankowski? (Make no mistake, they both get hooked into all this as shadow directors even if they aren’t appointed as officers of the company).

And before anyone mentions directors’ liability insurance, these risk-averse characters won’t rely on that kicking in either.

The directors will be pushing for a deal closure now, have no doubt. Self-preservation is a powerful driver.

You don’t need any other reasons.

AIMHO.

Your criticisms are nearly always reasonable Mr C, and I welcome the cathartic help as someone who is equally irritated by a totally carefree CEO (ask the Clarke household), but they should be balanced by a more optimistic broader view.

John Ward suddenly stepping off the £25k per month gravy train suggests changes ahead on the finance compliance front. And Marcin's arrival is not about some nebulous P2's with no start date in sight. And J&J hasn't funded Universal for fun. There has to be a transformational event/s being planned in the background.

Synairgen have been looking to do a deal with J&J since Universal was first initiated, TFG won't allow them to risk going alone into P2's and blowing what's left in the bank on what is a binary situation. Conversely, separate the drug from Marsden and co, and it's worth a few hundred £mil.

Remain optimistic LTHs!

AIMHO

Yes Tommy, to qualify with PwC (which is the point I was making, do you recognise the difference between Big 4 and non-Big 4, professionally, btw?) she would have had to have started as an Audit Trainee like ALL chartered accountants do.

Do you really think she's going to reference price-sensitive JV prep work at Synairgen in a public profile? Oh lordy. I was told (by an AGM attendee) that she was brought in to orchestrate a NASDAQ listing post-Sprinter success and then to lead the Finance function from there. She probably wishes she'd never joined, but must now be on track for the JV role, why else would she stay in a job that consists of running monthly payroll and processing Marsden's expenses claims.

She didn't come into to be the CFO of an AIM-listed 30 person business. She thought she was getting the CFO position in the enlarged post-Sprinter NASDAQ-listed company, and Ward was meant to step aside then. The next best thing is the JV, it becomes the business operation that Marsden had planned for Synairgen. Synairgen, by contrast, probably scales back to a dozen people and starts doing something else, CBD for instance. She would never want the Synairgen CFO role as it now looks.

Anyway, no more, it's a side issue. The purpose of my hypothesis was to generate debate as to what Marsden and 30 staff, plus Marcin now adding another £300k to the annual payroll, are all doing, including a Chief Commercial Officer who's been in situ two years. If they're not doing this "blue sky" guess of mine, then what are they doing? I'm more interested in your ideas on that, not an interminable evaluation of Helen Gearing's skills, particularly as you are clearly not an accountant.

What is the company up to? I'm sitting on penny shares that I paid £1.75 for, and I'm nursing a six-figure loss. I'd like some answers, but the company won't provide, so we have to guess. So I am guessing, but would like to hear others' constructive ideas, not just endless vacuous responses.

Read more carefully Tommy, it's in the summary:

"Senior finance executive, CFO and Transformational leader, with extensive experience of acquisitions, integrations, and business turnarounds."

In 16 years at GSK she'll have done plenty of that, just doesn't mention it, it's a not a promotional puff piece. Setting up a JV Finance function will be child's play to her.

...and she qualified with PwC.

Joseph qualified with Mazars.

Here you go Tommy lad...

Senior finance executive, CFO and Transformational leader, with extensive experience of acquisitions, integrations, and business turnarounds.

Delivers results with high integrity. Global experience.

Specialities: Governance and stewardship (accounting, auditing and controls); Financial insights and decision support; Process re-engineering and systems implementation; Change management; Functional set up including global finance shared services; Leading and developing global teams.

A driven and highly energetic leader, establishing and leading teams of 5 to 100 people, including building a global finance function from the ground up. An inspirational values based leader, with a problem solving analytical mind set.

Global CFO

Seqirus

Dec 2015 - Aug 2020 · 4 yrs 9 mos

Seqirus is a multi billion $ revenue global group formed from the acquisition of the Novartis Influenza vaccine business in 2015 and the CSL Australian influenza business. The group has transformed from significantly loss making in 2015 to a highly profitable group today. In 2015 we were reliant on legacy systems, processes and people. The last 4 years have seen us build the organisation, systems and processes. In finance I built a global finance shared service, business partnering and group control functions. Hugely proud of the team and foundations I have built.Seqirus is a multi billion $ revenue global group formed from the acquisition of the Novartis Influenza vaccine business in 2015 and the CSL Australian influenza business. The group has transformed from significantly loss making in 2015 to a highly profitable group today. In 2015 we were reliant on legacy systems, processes and people. The last 4 years have seen us build the organisation, systems and processes. In finance I built a global finance shared service, business partnering and group control functions. Hugely proud of the team and foundations I have built.

EY

Executive Director

Apr 2015 - Dec 2015 · 9 mos

GSK

Finance Director

Feb 1999 - Mar 2015 · 16 yrs 2 mos

Tommy D, I suggest you look on LinkedIn at Helen Gearing's profile and then comment.

That's not research Fruits, that's just cutting and pasting promotional puff.

But if you insist... all divisional roles, some with great titles as happens in lots of organisations these days. For example, TNS have dozens of "Global Commercial Directors" who are account managers, salesmen basically. "CFO" of Kantar Futures - KF is just one of numerous business units within Kantar which is itself a division within WPP. So WPP will have dozens of accountants at that level.

An example at random - Unilever has, literally, thousands of employees with "director" in their title.

I'm not disrespecting the guy, and wish him well (God knows we need some talent on that Board) but don't compare him to Helen Gearing. Her CV, for anyone who understands the accounting profession and how Finance functions work, perfectly matches the requirement for a BP sponsored JV. His CV matches a small entrepreneurial organisation in the medicinal cannabis sector.

HG is the heavyweight CFO of the pair of them. Have a look at her CV, and dig a bit into his, no more mindless cutting and pasting naughty Fruits!

You must try harder Fruits.

C-