Beximco Pharma Discussion Threads

[4spiel] 05/9/2014 11:07

I suppose with Glaxo in the doghouse this is an interesting company for the Chinese ! With current uncertainties in UK suppose this is a relatively 'safe' haven for a while - if not to hang ones shirt on. if the company would confirm they are committed in principle to regular cash dividends it would certainly help the share price. You can always get a cash return by selling stock dividends except for the dealing costs.

[237gmoney] 04/9/2014 11:11

More good news



Beijing to send team to help grow Bangladesh’s export to China

China is keen to send a business delegation here as it wants Bangladesh’s exports to grow, the foreign ministry has said.

The outgoing Chinese Ambassador Li Jun conveyed this intention in a farewell meeting with Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali on Tuesday at the office.

The foreign ministry quoting the ambassador said he was “very keen” to help Bangladesh’s exports to China grow.

The two-way trade is heavily tilted towards China.

According to the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce of Industry, of the $ 7billion two-way trade, Bangladesh’s exports were less than $500 million in 2012-2013 fiscal.

China is looking at investing an additional $500 billion in other countries, importing goods over $10 trillion, and sending 400 million tourists abroad over the next five years as new reform measures are getting underway.

The ambassador had earlier said as a neighbour “Bangladesh should have a good share of it”.

On Tuesday, he said the business delegation would come and discuss the ways of investing more in Bangladesh.

Both countries would celebrate 40 years of bonhomie jointly next year.

During the meeting, they discussed high-level exchange visits and different activities marking the 40 years diplomatic ties celebration.

The foreign minister thanked the ambassador for his support during the assignment and hoped that the relations would strengthen further during his successor’s tenure.

Li Jun arrived in Dhaka in Feb 2012

[237gmoney] 04/9/2014 10:15

This could be the start of the rise to match Dhaka. The UK listed GDRs should not be at such big discount to Dhaka and needs correcting. The large institutions selling over the last 18 months have been holding this back but now the only way should be up from here.

[blobby] 03/9/2014 10:33

237, thanks for that article. Very interesting.

[237gmoney] 03/9/2014 10:18

Pharma exports in fast lane
Gazi Towhid Ahmed

Pharmaceutical exports rose 15.65 percent year-on-year to Tk 553.3 crore in fiscal 2013-14, riding on the back of growing global demand, high quality products and competitive prices.

Demand for Bangladeshi pharma products is growing in Asia, Africa and European markets as manufacturers follow international standards that ensure better quality, said Momenul Haq, senior vice-president of Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries.

Exports grew 24 percent to Tk 478.4 crore in 2012-13 from the previous year, according to data from the Export Promotion Bureau.

Attractive packaging also helps attract foreign buyers, said Haq, who is also the managing director of General Pharmaceuticals that exported about Tk 25 crore of products last year to Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines and African nations.

Bangladeshi medicine makers meet 98 percent of domestic demand and export to 88 counties. The country exported 30 pharmaceutical items in fiscal 2013-14.

Export figures would have been higher if the country had not gone through a political crisis, Haq said.

The sector incurred losses in the first six months of last fiscal year due to political unrest, which almost broke the supply chain down, he added.

Most medicine makers are receiving new export orders as political setbacks subsided, said Haq.

“We import raw materials due to a lack of an Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Technology Park in Bangladesh,” Haq said.

Manufacturers in an API Park can produce raw materials needed by the medicine makers.

India has its own API Park and as a result, it can offer competitive prices in global markets compared to Bangladesh, he added.

“Bangladesh's only central API Park was supposed to be completed by 2012, but it is still uncertain, which leaves the entire industry dependent on raw material imports.”

Bangladesh pharma exports are driven by high standards in quality and affordability, said Shawkat Haider, head of business development at Beximco Pharma.

Beximco set a 25 percent export growth target this year compared to last year. It exported Tk 80 crore of medicines last year to European nations, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Kenya and South Africa.

“As Bangladeshi medicine is now being exported to Europe, which is known for stringent regulatory standards, it gives impetus to our pharma industry and creates awareness among global customers, particularly from emerging and developed markets.”

Although Southeast Asia and Africa are traditionally Bangladesh's major markets for generic drug exports, leading companies have now focused on advanced markets, said Haider.

At least five companies successfully entered the European market and received good responses from the buyers, he added.

“Top companies continue to explore new markets and in the current fiscal year have registered products in countries like Netherlands, Latvia, Azerbaijan, Costa Rica, Estonia, and Lithuania.”

Political setbacks in the last quarter of 2013 badly affected pharma exports and domestic sales, which caused a loss of hundreds of crores of taka, he said.

Many companies delayed making any new investment or expansion projects, Haider added.

“We need adequate support from the government to develop the API Park to make our medicines more competitive in global markets,” he said.

“The API Park has already been delayed by years and we do not know when this will be completed.”

“We also need a central drug testing laboratory to strictly maintain the high standards of medicine and a bioequivalence testing facility to do the clinical testing that is a prerequisite to register our products in the regulated markets,” Haider said.

Manufacturers also need an uninterrupted supply of power and gas to the production units, he said.

The country's pharma market is currently valued at Tk 12,000 crore. “We need special economic zones for the pharma industry with tax benefits. The API Park in Munshiganj must be completed without any more delay.”

He emphasised collaboration between the industry and universities to promote research activities, particularly in developing specialised drug delivery systems.

A special chemistry course needs to be introduced in universities to strengthen the API capabilities, he said.

“We also need improvements in pharmaceutical regulatory and legal affairs.”

[gpadfoot] 01/9/2014 23:46

blobby & 237,

Many thanks for your replies.

blobby: I was unable to add the ticker BXP to my monitor so that I could track the live price movements, even though I could produce a chart.

regards,

gp

[237gmoney] 01/9/2014 17:18

Another 100k trade gone through at 15p today (delayed trade?)

[blobby] 01/9/2014 11:44

gpadfoot, what do you mean be "price tracking"? If you mean charts they seem to work OK for me.

[gpadfoot] 31/8/2014 11:03

Anyone know why is there no price tracking ticker for this on ADVFN?

[237gmoney] 31/8/2014 10:04

Two 300k buys went through on Friday at 15p. Perhaps now this will start to improve?

[237gmoney] 29/8/2014 11:29

Dhaka to negotiate with WTO for waiver on patent protection till `25

August 14, 2014 12:16 am

Dhaka will engage in negotiation with World Trade Organization in Geneva on extending the current waiver up to 2025 from maintaining mandatory patent protection under the intellectual property rights criteria for pharmaceutical products, a senior trade official said.

The move has been taken to protect the thriving local pharmaceutical industry from international barriers, the official added.

As the current waiver on the IPR issues will expire on December 31 next year, commerce ministry has advised Bangladesh’s Permanent Representative to the WTO last week to push forward the issue with the multilateral trading organisation for an extension of 10 years from 2016.

In a letter, the ministry suggested Permanent Representative’s Office to negotiate the IPR issue in favour of all 49 least developed countries including Bangladesh and to make the appeal a stronger case as far as interests of all small economies are concerned, it was learned.

We have asked our PR office in Geneva to push through the IPR issue with the WTO’s TRIPS (trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights) council and outlined strategy to unite all LDCs as a common cause for extension.,’ a senior commerce official told New Age on Tuesday.

He said the issue is as crucial as existence of the country’s pharmaceutical industry as they would be liable to get patent rights from large global pharmaceutical companies at huge cost in case the present waiver is not extended beyond 2015.

Presently, Bangladesh, along with 48 other LDCs, enjoys exemption from the provision of IPR until 2015.

The industry people said they would be barred to import pharmaceutical products or manufacture the products using the methods of reputed global pharmaceutical firms in case the WTO does not entertain the request for extension.

A group of representatives of large local pharmaceutical companies last week met commerce minister Tofail Ahmed and senior trade officials of commerce ministry to pursue the issue, sources said.

The trade officials said the push from all LDC members of WTO would make the case stronger as the socio-economic backwardness of LDCs, lack of their capacity in trade and climate change vulnerabilities are the likely factors to influence the WTO general council in granting extension on IPR.

Currently, the number of LDCs is 49. Out of the total, only 33, including 25 from Africa, are members of WTO.

In Bangladesh, the pharmaceutical sector is one of the fastest growing sectors. The total size of the pharmaceutical market in Bangladesh is estimated to be worth US$ 1.0 billion and is growing at a steady rate.

There are about 270 registered pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in Bangladesh. The local pharmaceutical manufacturers cater to about 97 per cent of the internal demand. The pharmaceutical products are exported to some 70 countries in the world. The yearly export from the sector fetches about US$ 50 million.

[237gmoney] 29/8/2014 09:28

The loan restructure is purely for the textiles and Garments part of the group and not the Pharma company. I can't imagine that Beximco would sell off the Pharma assets as they are growing year on year with plenty left in the tank...

[davydoo] 28/8/2014 11:50

hxxp://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/beximco-in-severe-cash-crunch-39033


A possible sale of BXP to save the parent?

[237gmoney] 28/8/2014 11:49

4spiel, i see that now also. Odd article really as it refers to
problems from 2002 to 2008. In 2009 the company restructured loans
and terms with numerous banks to 2029.

This is not an issue about paying back the loans per se as it is
about the times of the repayments that the Chairman has an issue
with with regards cash flow at the group level. Not sure why this
is being brought up now as the results at the individual companies
under the Beximco group are showing that the individual businesses
are all in profit and have plenty of cash.

Like you say maybe this is a ploy to attract potential bidders, if
not for the group, maybe for certain parts of the business and
hence the real reason behind the spike in share prices for the
individual companies.

I notice the Beximco group share price is also up 30% in the last
two weeks similar to Beximco Pharma.

The UK price for BXP should start to improve though now the likes
of Vidacos Nominees Ltd have disposed of their holdings.

[4spiel] 28/8/2014 11:09

Read a headline on Google saying BXP were in a cash crunch.Could
not get to the report in Daily Star and a Dhaka newspaper. But with
surging exports looks odd to me. The dividend cash surely not so
sufficient. Is a bid in the offing?

[237gmoney] 28/8/2014 09:04

Another 3.5m odd shares traded today in Dhaka with the stock up
another 3%. It really has shot up and is nearly at 59 BDT or 46p a
share. I'm sure it will wake up here soon enough

[237gmoney] 27/8/2014 14:10

Also this from a couple of weeks ago...The discount to Dhaka is
even more appealing now.

hTTp://alphavulture.com/2014/08/15/beximco-pharma-london-gdr-trading-at-50-discount/

[237gmoney] 27/8/2014 14:06

Perhaps this could be behind the recent rise in BXP in Dhaka?

hTTp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2014/08/19/51134


July Pharma Exports surge 31%

[237gmoney] 27/8/2014 11:18

Did you also check the trades over the last few days Davy? Has gone
a bit mental over there this week. Over 6m shares traded the last
few days when it usually only averages a few thousand.

The Pharma sector does seem to be flavour of the month over in
Dhaka but I haven't found the reason why just yet.

Very interesting indeed with the new shareholders on board here as
well. Our seller must be long gone now so any moderate buying will
push this higher from here.

[davydoo] 27/8/2014 11:01

When I saw today's rise I checked Dhaka. A lot of catching up to do
even to just maintain the previous price disparity

[237gmoney] 27/8/2014 10:50

Is anyone following the price of this over in Dhaka???

Has shot up in recent days from low 40's BDT to 57 BDT in the last
few days?!?!?

Somethings afoot here. London still has to follow suit.

Currently worth > 44p a share and only 14.5p to buy.

I am back in today.

GLA

[237gmoney] 21/8/2014 16:18

Understand that Blobby but for a Nominee to dispose of all their holdings it is note worthy. Good to see that Beximco at least keep their shareholders upto date on the website of the major holders even if only once or twice a year.

[blobby] 21/8/2014 13:05

237gmoney, I'm not sure if any of those are beneficial holders.

My shares are not held in my name but by a nominee (probably) for my online account and so may well be with one of those nominees you've listed.

[237gmoney] 21/8/2014 12:44

Interesting developments here. I no longer hold but I see that the current list of shareholders has been published on the website


Richard Griffiths (of Barnard Nominees who previously owned 16.2m GDRs) has now sold out completely. Barnard have no GDRs currently. So the big seller has gone.

Or at least the stock has been transferred to Secure Nominees Ltd. They now hold 14.61m GDRs from a previous holding of zero.

Vidacos previously held 2.7m which rose last year to 8.77m but they have now sold some and currently hold 7.39m GDRs.

State Street have sold some as well and have reduced their holding from 7.87m to 7.06m.

Pershing Nominees sold all their stock last year and now Credit Suisse have sold all theirs. They have gone from 8.63m to zero.

The BONY look to be new holders as do Ferlim and Nortrust Nominees.

Hopefully this is the turning point for this share in the UK.