RE: Re. Expanding the uses28 Feb 2024 17:42
BigSlick7, of course you're absolutely right in what you say about investors being duped by the newsflow with Saietta. I was indeed one of them! And of course you're absolutely right about Vox pumping things up all over the place - they are paid by the companies to disseminate their corporate PR so it really is to be expected. It's not about losing respect for Paul Hill - he knows his stuff - but to pump companies is his job at Vox. However, Justin Waite is particularly clueless. I notice he's been removed from Vox and stopped from hosting his daily podcast, having completely lost it in one of his shows a couple of weeks ago.
However, when you say, referring to Saietta shareholders, "It did make me wonder how much research they do, and how much of an understanding they have in that type of business process before investing... I personally think they just wanted to invest in a company with a lot of news flow", the irony is not lost on me, because I can't help wondering if that description doesn't apply to you, BigSlick7, in relation to Polarean? After all, a few months ago Vox were shamelessly propagating endless PR, or newsflow as you put it, about POLX too.
I don't mean to doubt in any way your or any other bullish poster's understanding of the company and its products. However, what pre-profitable companies like Saietta & Renalytix have painfully taught me is no matter how well put together the corporate PR, no matter how genuinely amazing the product is, there 's absolutely no certainty at all that decent sales will follow. In the case of RENX, the company recently presented me with a 'get out of jail free' card in the shape of a massive short spike up in the share price that allowed me to substantially reduce my holding for a much diminished loss.
We all know the simple equation: a pre-profitable company + no news on substantive sales = a tricky fundraise looming. In the case of Saietta, it was so tricky that, at the time of writing, they haven't raised a dime... it would seem none of the investors who ponied up 17p a share at the last fundraise are interested! So the entire company has a mkt cap of < £1m and is a week away from turning out the lights.... but I digress...
I'm not giving up on UK companies, but after my experience of SED and RENX, I'm de-risking my portfolio and focussing my attention more on cash-generative mid-caps with strong(ish) balance sheets which are seriously undervalued (and there are plenty of those). In that vein, I sold half my (fairly small) holding in POLX this morning. Took a nasty cold bath on it, but I'm worried this might go much lower so am happy to get some money out of it. I hope for the sake of all holders that it multi-bags and I've still got some skin in the game if it does. And if decent sales start getting RNS'd, I'll certainly consider eating humble pie and buying back in - no problem - even at a higher price - I keep an open mind.