Member Info for Spacman

Because she's being held in reserve for the JV vehicle, as explained.

Tommy D "On the one hand spacman tells us the new CFO has no BP big deal credentials and on the other TP tells us why didn’t we employ HG who has even less experience than the new CFO."

Have you bothered to look at their CVs Tommy?

She is Big 4 trained, he isn't.

She was CFO for the large BP division, heading up a Finance function with over 100 staff. She has spent over 20 years in BP. He, on the other hand, hasn't been anywhere near BP apart from shopping in Boots. The companies he is involved in these last few years typically employ no more than a dozen people in total.

She has been involved in BP M&A transactions. The only M&A transaction for which I could find him leading on was an acquisition at £3.5m. Somebody on here talked about "multi-million pound deals" he's been involved in... er, product/service sales which are what salesman do, of which he was one, once. They are not the same as company transactions duh. Ooh that naughty word "deal" is so ambiguous eh?

HG is the best CFO fit for the vehicle that takes over the development and commercialisation of the current patent portfolio in a BP sponsored JV where you send Marcin too (Fruits's IQ couldn't quite scale the dizzy heights of this concept).

Forgiving your ignorance and looking on the bright side, they do have the right CFO coming in to buy them one or two early stage CBD businesses at a few £mil to give them a faster start in their new line of R&D, once the spoils come in from a BP JV transaction. The ancient weed gags are a bit late, did you not pick up last week that this is what our new CFO has been about for the last four years?

Someone (a company insider/apologist?) referenced the AZ transaction as evidencing management's credentials to bring home a BP deal. But that was a milestone deal that ultimately flopped, Synairgen saw a fraction of the headline money. What is being pursued now is a proper irrevocable commitment from BP. RM at al have no expertise to bring to that type of forum, it's out of their hands.

Doc 83 - of course Shaw will say that, the Bod is duty bound by the Companies Act to act in the best interests of ALL shareholders. He isn't going to acknowledge influence (which IS actually legitimate) for fear of misinterpretation. Equally, TFG don't want to bear the legal risk of being a Shadow Director. Whatever is happening around a BP transaction, the parties can never all be together in the same room. Kerching for the lawyers and bankers.

Any more ancient weed gags or some actual constructive thought to offer? Play the ball not the man guys.

It seems that Synairgen will not announce/elaborate on the next set of trials until the BP partner (with long-term funding solution) is in place. But I don’t believe the Synairgen management are leading discussions, maybe the CCO is in there, but largely the other stakeholders are probably moving it along (BP, TFG).

The incoming CFO is not a dealmaker, certainly not at BP level. His experience is largely sub-AIM micro-caps (all cannabis related, more on that further on). If a deal is in train, then RM et al are not in the driving seat, as evidenced by John Ward’s exit.

However, the company would be engaged in supplementary activity and some of the latest events are potentially quite revealing. I don’t think Marcin Mankowski joining was originally in the (latest) plan, but opportunistically fits with a separation strategy for SYN001 and associated patent portfolio (JV/franchise/licence or whatever collaboration vehicle). Maybe he’s standing by to become CEO of that entity, together with Helen Gearing as its CFO.

What happens to Synairgen? If they want to continue as an R&D business and not just a holding company channelling dividends back to the shareholders, then perhaps they return to their core competency around novel respiratory treatments. How about CBD where the incoming CFO has a lot of experience with nascent businesses? A quick Google search found these references in the CBD arena:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7677512/

https://www.medicinenet.com/does_cbd_help_shortness_of_breath/article.htm

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilyearlenbaugh/2020/07/06/cannabis-may-reduce-deadly-covid-19-lung-inflammation-researchers-explain-why/

If Synairgen 2.0 is now being mobilised, then this may mean we’re coming to the end of Synairgen 1.0 and a BP deal is on track, which is the rocket fuel for the SP.

Sampling Tommy Steele…

“Half a sixpence

Buys you half a share

But don’t despair”

AIMHO

GLALTH!

You ran a monthly payroll for twenty years

And made £1.75 turn on a sixpence

Keith’s mum wanted to be your sales ledger clerk

But no such job existed

EJ Thribb

Please don’t kill the optimism, it’s all I have apart from these 7p shares that Marsden was flogging at £1.75. Grrr.

GLALTH

There’s nearly four years’ worth of cash left to fund the current payroll and overheads. After the end of 2025 there might be a fight then with the auditor over Going Concern qualification, that’s all.

The real urgency for the BoD will be from the fear of trying TFG’s patience for too much longer. However, it’s clear that the suggested roster of P2 trials is not a stand-alone strategy, and that’s why we have had precious little detail on trial designs, sizes, locations and even start-dates. After Sprinter, I would think that TFG’s message would have been “get an expert partner next time around and don’t risk the asset.”

Let’s assume that J&J are lined up as said partner, fully informed from Universal and the opportunity that has afforded for legitimate clinical dialogue with Synairgen since the middle of 2022. Let’s say a $300m investment is required from here to get SYN001 commercialised, involving a raft of trials of which the P2 cohorts represent just one small part. Can J&J really justify taking a minority stake in a £15m market cap company for a $300m investment, whether in the AIM vehicle or a derivative SPAC entity? Maybe some time ago when £2 was still a recent and therefore authentically referenceable SP (and when the planned US GM appointment suggested such a strategy), but the company is now an irrevocably tainted UK penny share.

So how do you maintain independence and facilitate the funding solution from here? TFG have already got the Special Resolution block in on raising finance.

So have TFG sanctioned a strategy to licence/franchise SNG001 out to a brand spanking new JV that receives the funding from J&J, and all of this is about to play out? That would then leave Synairgen as a small-scale entity simply sitting on the 50% investment in the JV. The additional reporting and compliance that goes with a small-scale listed non-trading company holding investments is what the new CFO is all about (and something the incumbent CFO probably didn’t fancy despite previously being happy to continue picking up £20k every month otherwise). But the main tell here is that in this scenario, the much meatier Finance role is in the JV which becomes the more complex operating company… and which perfectly suits the stronger CV of our current Finance SVP, who would otherwise have been a shoo-in for the Synairgen CFO role.

Now, if our Finance SVP hands her notice in tomorrow then my theory of an imminent JV crashes and we’re back to Doc Dan’s quite plausible “nothing to see” around the CFO change…

…but there’s also our new CMO who surely hasn’t come in to play second fiddle to Marsden for any length of time, maybe CEO of the JV?

And if a JV or other funded collaboration isn’t on the cards, then what has our Chief Commercial Officer been doing since February 2022?

Please don’t kill my optimism, it’s all I have apart from these 7p shares that the unapologetic Marsden was

Doc83 , I just ask myself why would J&J have started funding Universal unless there was a potential revenue opportunity somewhere down the line? And why collaborate with Synairgen from the start?

I think Marcin joining is a huge tick, yet the SP still doesn't flicker. I guess the problem is market fatigue and absolute disinterest/exhaustion really with the whole Synairgen saga. And the company does nothing to address that.

If there is a J&J collaboration announcement (whatever form that takes) then we are on for some re-rate.

Ultimately a significant positive signal in my view, but there will be no positive market reaction to Synairgen until a formal collaboration with J&J is announced that provides visibility of a roadmap that leads to monetisation of the drug.

Interesting to look at the background to the appointment – seems that Marcin goes out and gets some PE investment from Palatine for Transcrip to acquire Real Regulatory, but doesn’t deliver on the integration, so then a slash-and-burn CFO implant, courtesy of Palatine, makes his position as CEO untenable, and he walks. Or something like that. Anyway, an unexpected departure. Opportunistically, Synairgen step in, with his fellow Transcrip founder Flic on the BoD possibly oiling the wheels.

I think it bodes well for a few reasons:

1) The BoD are sanctioning a significant payroll commitment/liability in what is still a pre-revenue company. Alright, there’s four years’ worth of payroll in the tin, but it’s still finite and auditors get cross about Going Concern qualification and the BoD Audit Committee will be sensitive to that.

2) The appointment of a CMO suggests an organisation structure being prepared for a significant trials framework, not just a couple of self-financed P2 cohort trials.

3) Marcin plumping (fairly) quickly and decisively for Syn, and not as a consultant but as an employee which qualifies him for the share option scheme. So, he certainly sees future value. And it could be soon, but that depends when J&J decide to announce that Universal has moved into intervention phase, however Marcin will know that timeline as well as anybody can – look up his CV.

GLLTH

Sorry I didn’t respond to your SPAC enquiry earlier; it’s still a possibility but if it was likely then it would probably have happened already. SPAC vehicles are ten-a-penny (effectively) but you need the PIPE investment to make it worthwhile. That’s where you would need J&J to come in, and that’s what I thought might be happening.

I was told (second-hand) that the reason a Finance SVP was appointed 2 months prior to Sprinters results was for a move to NASDAQ assuming a P3 success. That skillset would have still been relevant given the later given Rick Bright panel thing and the trip to the JP Morgan event in early January this year that all looked like it was all gearing up (see what I did there?) to a SPAC announcement come March/April, so why not?...

You have to go back to shortly after Sprinter results when TFG accumulated over 25% to get the Special Resolution block in, and then at the June 2022 AGM they forced the company to rescind the remaining capital-raising capacity. Ever since, TFG have the say-so on any transaction, so they must not have the appetite for a SPAC exit route.

There are a number of other reasons why a SPAC route may not be the preferred option from the company’s and the management’s personal viewpoints, but in the end it’s really TFG’s call as to one way or the other. And they don’t seem interested in a SPAC so far. Which you could take as a positive sign that they see a bigger prize.

Trouble is, the BoD don't care about the SP ergo the shareholders, so we don't hear anything. We're all just guessing from fragments of info.

I agree with most of Mr Costs' critique of the company (and management) and more importantly so does the market.

However, the company itself hasn't been the story since February 2022. The story is about TFG and "J&J innovative Medicine" as Janssen have now rebranded themselves. It's a shame Polar capitulated or they would have had the moral high-ground to force more urgency from RM (More speed LESS haste Dickie - you obviously missed that lesson at school) and the BoD. But we've still got an activist shareholder who's down £60m, and a BP who initiated Universal for a reason and who have had a strategic gap since they pulled their Evergreen P3 in March. A proper trials package that's fully-funded with a roadmap to commercialisation should now be informed by a full annual cycle of Universal, and they had 300+ observed patients through by the time of the AGM... so maybe we're just waiting on J&J to announce. If that wasn't in the offing then TPG would have stuck someone on the Board and forced a fire sale of the asset to recoup their investment by now.

RM & co. seem to have bought time with their nebulous and unconvincing P2 strategy announcements, but that is starting to run out. The fact that Synairgen have now been allowed to disclose Universal data recently suggests something could be brewing, let's hope.

All conjecture. GLLTHs.

...back on the website.

Obviously didn't fancy the brickbats at the AGM (where there were some mealy-mouthed inconsistent responses on the matter of her departure from various Board members when questioned).

The BoD (and TFG) are clearly content with the SP at seven pence and Synairgen flying under the market radar... for some reason.

Let's see if Janssen close their China franchise deal (they said Q2) and their M&A team moves onto a mirror deal with Synairgen shortly...

In all seriousness though, the REAL tragedy of all this is the continuing non-availability of a such an important treatment to improve and save lives. We know who is responsible.

Doc 83 - Oh yes. Partly to see whether "Rug Doctor" does actually cope with blood stains.

Paladin - forgot to mention that the NEDs magnanimously took a £5k reduction this year, as did the Chair - he down from £85k to £80k which I calculate to be a 5.8% reduction...

...such empathy with LTHs who have lost 95% of the £1.75 for each share the BoD sold us in 2020.

Still, there's £20m in the tank to keep funding their salaries for a few years yet, "yippeee, whose round is it?" I hear them shout.

Hmm, either there's a transformational funding plan in the pipeline that they're concealing from us retail investors, or Reade Griffith will shortly be unveiling a plan of his own and halting the jamboree.

GLALTHs

Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells.

Palladin - there is a string on here on NED pay, this is an extract:

"The company has issued a notice for a Special Resolution to be voted on at the AGM.

The matter in question is the aggregate remuneration of the NEDs, which the Articles of Association currently limits to £200,000, and the company is seeking to lift that ceiling to £350,000 (75%).

Well, someone seems to have suddenly just noticed the oversight, because the company has been breaching the limit ever since they awarded every individual NED an 80% increase from £25k to £45k a couple of years ago. Oh yes, and they put the Chair up to £85k then too. Now, you might think that attending half a dozen meetings a year (any committee membership pulls in another £5k time btw) produces a somewhat generous hourly rate, but “these are the brightest and the best and must be paid the market-rate” (I’m paraphrasing whichever supine remuneration consultants were brought in to provide “expert advice”) so let’s examine their actual performance, what do they do for this money?"

On a related issue, is Flic Gabbay - whose company Transcrip Marsden has been awarding contracts to for over a decade - really the best person to oversee HIS remuneration? I'll scratch your back etc...

No need to worry about Brooke, Hubby C is sitting on 16 grand's worth!...

...but wait, RM did his reverse King Midas trick on that particular portfolio and the Clarkes now have 800 quid. Might get them a glamping weekend away if they shop around!

Fruits - what, do you THINK, would entice senior people with impressive BP CVs to a 30 person organisation with no customers led by a CEO who got the job by gluing himself to the founders twenty years ago and has demonstrated little else.

Answer: They see the same outcome as the LTH's and want a part of that action.

Have you thought about PaddyPower as a more suitable place to apply your powers of insight and strategic thinking?

Good point Professional, although it seems strange that she and others are not classed as "Persons Discharging Managerial Responsibilities" when the payroll says something quite different lol.

In terms of a "plan" certainly RM et al are not trustworthy, but ultimately TFG must be plotting a return on their investment.

Interestingly, Helen Gearing is not at "the feast of the undeserving." One suggestion could be that she is expecting to participate in a transaction vehicle instead (quite soon)? Certainly, TFG will have sanctioned all this, so they must be happy on where things are heading.

Titania, when did you find this - can see it is dated June, just wondered if it is in the last day or so?

Could be particularly important because it now articulates an intent where they previously announced a strategy gap around RSV:

https://www.janssen.com/janssen-provides-portfolio-update