Beaufort's note published this morning is up on Research Tree... The aforementioned updates are mixed for AstraZeneca. The successful trial of Faslodex 500mg offers earlier treatment options to post-menopausal women with HR+ locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer. The drug has more than 10 years of clinical evidence and was recently approved by FDA for use in combination with palbociclib in the treatment of women with hormone-receptor-positive, humanepidermal-growth-factor-receptor 2-negative (HER2-) advanced or metastatic breast cancer (MBC). On the other hand, disapproval of AstraZeneca's new drug (ZS-9) for high potassium levels due to a manufacturing issue is a major setback. AstraZeneca paid US$2.7bn for ZS Pharma to gain access to the drug. Moreover, many of its drugs are in the development phase. AstraZeneca has been facing certain growth-related issues, as some of its key drugs are approaching patent expiry.
Just pulled this from Research Tree... Bodycote delivered satisfactory performance in the first four months of 2016. The company's performance was impacted by its exit from Brazil and the restructuring actions announced in 2015. The oil & gas and industrial sectors witnessed a fall in revenues owing to weak demand. Car and truck revenues surged, with strong performance across North America, Europe and the emerging markets. Bodycote expects full-year results to be in line with the expectations. Although, some of the company's divisions are currently under pressure, we believe it would bounce back to growing terms owing to its fundamentally strong position.
From AlphaValue's note out this morning on Research Tree... The weak oil market weighed on the strong US market, deceleration in RevPAR growth in its Q1-16 results, IHG posted a low 1.5% rise in RevPAR at CER (vs +5.9% in Q1-15) in part attributable to the negative impact of weak oil markets and the earlier timing of Easter (in the Americas and Europe notably) in several IHG markets. Prices were up by 1% while occupancy rose modestly (+0.3%). A significant deceleration was seen in the Americas, which recorded a 1.9% rise in RevPAR (occupancy level at c.65%) despite record levels of...
Edison's note from this morning: Ultra has announced the disposal of its ID cards printer; once completed there will be some modest dilution to earnings but the deal needs to be taken in context. The business is clearly non-core, is highly cyclical and requires regular technological refresh. As such, while the selling price is optically low, this increases Ultra’s capital focus and modestly improves its debt finance metrics. It also sharpens the focus on the core business...
Just pulled this from Research Tree... Angle has raised £9.6m (net) via a private placing. This supports Angle’s focus on commercialising Parsortix, with the funds being applied to a range of clinical studies to demonstrate utility of the Parsortix system. Additionally, Angle announced that Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute is adopting Parsortix for routine research use, which will provide recurring sales. FY16 results in July will provide a trading update and more details on the R&D expansion strategy, likely to be scaled up with the benefit of the fund.
Edison's note from Research Tree... "Hogg Robinson’s (HRG’s) development of software-as-a-service (Fraedom) is paying off impressively with “excellent†performance in the year to March. A near-doubling in technology trading profit more than made up for relative softness in travel management and looks set to continue to drive HRG’s growth in addition to likely increasing benefits from corporate restructuring. Bumper cash generation (FY16 net debt/EBITDA of just 0.6x) offers ample scope for profitable investment and returns to shareholders. ..."
SP Angel's note out this morning... "Excluding the post-acquisition expenditure on the feasibility study, Xtract is realising 40% on its investment in Manica in less than a year. It appears that management considered that harvesting a profit now was a better solution than seeking to raise the US$35m of capital to develop the mine and that the funds can be better employed on the less risky development of its Manica mine in Chile..."
"Tertiary Minerals has continued to intersect multiple fluorspar beds in its drilling in the western part of its MB project in Nevada. Although not all of up to 16 individual horizons intersected in recent drilling may ultimately prove to be economic, the company continues to extend the area of known mineralisation and is likely, in due cource, to be able to expand the already defined indicated resource of 6.1mt at an average grade of 10.8%CaF2 and inferred resource of 80.3m tonnes grading 10.7%. The recent fundraising should help to keep the project moving forward...." Note on Research Tree this morning...
"Savannah Resources has announced the completion of 3 gravity surveys within its Block 4 and Block 5 licence areas in Oman. The results of the survey are expected in June and are likely to further refine the definition of drill targets within areas already defined by electro-magnetic surveys and limited drilling. Meanwhile, the previously announced drilling programme at the Maquail South and Mahab 4 prospects in Block 5 and the Dog’s Bone prospect in Block 4 “is continuing as plannedâ€. We look forward to the results of the gravity programme and further news from the drilling in due course...." SP Angel's note from this morning...