are these guys for real?
the distributors' deal allow them to sell those shares anyway they want - including on market!!! The fact they are using these guys and these methods would suggest that they may have burnt their bridges with hedge funds and reputable brokers.
this is the opposite of an on market share buyback. Like a giant put option placed by the company on its own shares.
It might be some kind of bizarre insurance policy to cover their salaries in the event any, or all, of their trials flop. What is an extra 25 million meant to do otherwise? So, rather than those trials producing some much needed upward price tension, we will have no share price rise into those top line reports due to the dilution and the fact that the distributors will sell into any strength for their 3% commission.
Raising cash into this weakened market for BOTA is a complete joke, and especially when they have spent a year boasting of their healthy cash balance.
sadly, i think they have completely crossed the line into penny dreadful territory.
I cannot believe the major shareholders are allowing this.
I wish someone would take them over.
Perhaps one or more major shareholders have demanded it in preparation for a cheap take-over down the track - with promised votes in favour of salary increases for our top-notch Exec's. Perhaps But who knows? I don't that's for sure - just another stab in the dark. Which shareholders ultimately end-up getting knifed should be no surprise.
ReplyDeleteThey are very exacting. They do put a limit on the share sale price, though. They limit sale price such that the current number of issued shares to be worth no less than $25,000,000, or whatever the total raising finally comes to. They could end up doubling the current number of shares for $10,000,000, or maybe $5,000,000, or ...
ReplyDeleteMichael, you are not alone in your wish.
Chris and Andrew: could the raising be a poison pill? Designed to fend off a hostile takeover? The appearance of two new directors sound a warning that someone wasn;t happy. The on market raising might be designed to make any on-market approach more expensive.
ReplyDeleteI note on Whalewisdom that another fund (Bridgeway Capital) has sold all their holdings (150k).
I don't see it as a poison pill. I do see it as a high stakes game now though. Scenario: with a current enterprise value of next to nothing, poor trial results here on in will see the SP fall sharply on poor sentiment - perhaps to the point where a potential raider ends up with (following a capital raising) a sufficient % of outstanding shares to force an outright sale of the remaining shares of the company on a low-ball offer. Cash (including raised capital) plus proceeds of sale of remaining assets could easily morph into a very handsome profit.
ReplyDeleteIs this scenario possible? I don't know but either way, if trial results aren't positive from this point, I do think existing shareholders are screwed.
Mark Colonesse, the new CFO has just been handed 225,000 stock options with an exercise price of $2.02. Is he worth it? Our prestigious Mgt have been very generous to themselves in recent months while the SP is plumbing all-time lows. They ahad better start delivering for the long-term shareholders before long lest they start being viewed as self-serving opportunists.
ReplyDeleteWell, that makes 2 new board members and now a new CFO. Someone is taking to the company with a stick and breaking up the Inhibitex gang. Wish I knew who. The CFO has only been in his current job 6 months. I couldn't find any links between him and any major shareholders on a quick Google.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure, maybe this is a breakup or trade sale strategy from a major holder who wants insurance if any of the current trials fail. Or maybe not.
It's all pretty intriguing, and if it were a bigger company there would be plenty of speculation. Sadly, no one cares that much, so we get no clues.
And, still nothing on LANI ROW rights, and it's nearly the end of 2105.
Oh to be a time traveler Michael. I doubt that anything concrete will be forthcoming on LANI ROW rights this side of the US Presidential election. If the Democrats get in I think LANI will be a lost cause. If the Republicans, perhaps there will be life in it yet. Sadly, I believe that's what it comes down to for pharma's now: politics.
DeleteGiven the silence with regard to LANI, I feel it is a lost cause. Perhaps i should wonder why I still have Biota shares? Given the general anti science positioning of the Republicans I can't see any salvation coming from them.
DeleteFreudian slip: I meant 2015
ReplyDelete