Genuit Share Discussion Threads

[maxwellsdemon] 11/6/2003 17:54

Latest announcement from GEN web site:


10 June 2003

Generics' investee company ImmBio raises €1million to finance respiratory disease vaccine development

Generics’ investee company, ImmunoBiology Ltd (‘ImmBio’;), has successfully completed a €1million equity offering to raise funds for its respiratory vaccine programme. Generics Asset Management Ltd led the current round for which the consortium included British Smaller Technology Companies VCT2, advised by Yorkshire Fund Managers Ltd, and Oxford Technology 3 VCT, advised by Seed Capital Ltd. The company is also looking to broaden its investor base by the year-end, with a view to raising further funds in 2004. These funds will be needed to finance the clinical development of the respiratory disease vaccine candidates being identified in the current pre-clinical programme.

ImmBio was formed to exploit advances in the emerging science of immunobiology that have clarified the mechanisms by which the immune system recognises and responds to infectious disease pathogens. The company is applying its HspC™ technology platform to identify vaccine candidates for clinical development as anti-infective products for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. ImmBio has a bacterial vaccine programme underway and is beginning a viral vaccine programme, initially focussing on respiratory diseases.

The initial target for the company’s bacterial programme is tuberculosis, an increasingly serious healthcare issue, and the programme has already identified candidate vaccines for both the prevention and the treatment of TB. The live BCG vaccine currently used for prophylaxis shows little protection against pulmonary TB, the major form of the disease.

There are no therapeutic vaccines available and the rise in the incidence of multi-drug resistant TB (especially in HIV patients), as well as safety concerns recently raised about therapeutic DNA vaccination, makes the need for an effective therapeutic TB vaccine a global health priority. The company is also working on potential TB booster vaccine candidates for use in BCG vaccines to combat the problem of short-lived immunity.

ImmBio’s Managing Director, Camilo Colaco said: “The funds raised will enable us to complete our current TB vaccine candidate identification programme and begin identification of HspC™ vaccine candidates for both annual and pandemic influenza vaccines. While fundraising was difficult in the current climate, the recent Severe Respiratory Distress Syndrome (SARS) epidemic has reminded investors of both the global healthcare need and commercial relevance of infectious disease vaccines.”

Generics Asset Management’s Managing Director, Chris Coggill, said: “Generics Asset Management is delighted to have led this funding round for ImmBio. Its business plan and the underlying science are rigorous and there is no doubting that ImmBio is trying to meet a significant need in the healthcare industry globally.”

The company has also appointed Dr Chris Bailey as Development Director. Dr Bailey was previously with Celltech and Medeva, where he was responsible for taking their Hepatitis B vaccine from laboratory through to European approval. This was the first recombinant vaccine product, manufactured in mammalian cells to be approved by the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA).

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Notes for Editors:

The Generics Group
The Generics Group (Generics) is a leading integrated technology consulting, development and investment organisation, with an international reputation for successfully commercialising emerging science and technology.

Generics invests in and develops technologies that underpin the future of the widest range of industries. Its key areas of expertise include: engineering, materials, telecommunications, life sciences, business innovation and electronics.

Generics’ facilities include state-of-the-art laboratories and are located in Europe in Cambridge, Frankfurt, Zürich, Switzerland and Stockholm; and in Boston and Baltimore in the USA. Generics has over 250 employees, of which 170 are high-calibre technology professionals.

Immunobiology Ltd
Immunobiology Ltd (ImmBio) is a biotechnology company specialising in the treatment of infectious diseases and cancer. ImmBio's approach is to apply advances in the emerging science of Immunobiology to the development of treatments for infections diseases and cancer. Immbio is developing a proprietary vaccine technology based on these advances. The platform technology is called immunovaccination.
Immunovaccination is designed to elicit a broad immune response that is specific to the chosen pathogen. Immunovaccination thus elicits a more powerful and longer lasting immune response than any alternate treatment regimes. Immbio will initially focus on treatments for infectious diseases (e.g. tuberculosis and hepatitis).
Dr Colaco set up Immbio in May 1999 to apply the principles of Immunobiology to the treatment of infectious diseases and cancer. In September 1999, ImmBio won a SMART award to begin development of a TB vaccine and this is the initial focus of the company.


Contacts:
Dr Camilo Colaco, Managing Director, ImmunoBiology Ltd, [e-mail]
Tel [phone]
Web:

Ruth Shaw, PR Manager, [e-mail]
Tel: [phone]
Web:

[shirtless dan] 11/6/2003 16:13

They will need to slim down further, and significantly to reduce the cash burn and demonstrate what their core business is - are they an incubator or a consultancy? - these have been contradictory goals and probably the cause in the drift of focus. all IMHO of course.

[richard599] 11/6/2003 16:09

So, anyone any views on the current:
- the current talks?
- cash burn, which is still a big problem judging by q1 results?

[shirtless dan] 11/6/2003 16:00

Thanks rambutan2

[rambutan2] 11/6/2003 15:35

off the top of my head, so to speak, 48%.

[shirtless dan] 11/6/2003 15:26

mmm.. silence!...speaks louder than words?

What proportion of GEN shares do Catella have?

[shirtless dan] 11/6/2003 14:11

Rambutan2 - I agree it could be the management, they have many VC contacts and know how to raise capital. With the current market valuation they wouldn't need to find vast amounts of capital either.

What do you employee shareholders have to say?

[shirtless dan] 11/6/2003 10:14

Who are THEY then??!!

[petersmith6] 10/6/2003 22:18

ive had a dable..any thoughts how much they would offer?

[biomax] 09/6/2003 08:57

fillme boots!

[ontley] 09/6/2003 08:36

Agreed. There is potential to make a significant short term gain with GEN. A definite strong buy IMHO

[biomax] 09/6/2003 08:16

strong buy! going up!

[hugepants] 09/6/2003 07:51

Be careful. There are a lot of grey areas. How do they stem the cash outflow (which is horrendous). And how much will this cost? The unquoted portfolio should not be valued at book value (or anything like it). dyor.

[mark p] 08/6/2003 21:21

loss-leader....

How can the vaulation of the port be 'bird in the bush' stuff? when even if you don't count the unlisted companies, Synapatics a quoted company on the Nasdaq who Generics own a tad over £3m, then there is the cash which at the low end could be aound £3m....these are both easily understood by inverstors.

Then after knocking the port, u then say the building is worth around £8-10m, well imo bldgs are certainly less liquid than the company above or cash.

The complicated bit imo is what value can you put on the past losses, and on the un-quoted investments? imo whoever is interested will certainly drive a hard bargain, and the true value will be higher than the current nav (adding usable losses) but even 50% of this will hopefully take us to 12p.

dyor etc etc.

[loss-leader] 08/6/2003 20:47

re value of portfolio ..its all 'bird in the bush' stuff .. look at Prelude which has FTSE quoted equities like Ncipher in its portfolio and is still quoted at a considerable discount. Anyone taking this on will have to REASLISE the value and stem the blood loss (some of the investments might even - need more cash before anything can be made of them).

A buyer will want a hefty premium for taking on this risk.

I still think the building is the jewel in the crown..probably 8-10mio (and whats more important, investors will understand its value)

ll

[shirtless dan] 08/6/2003 20:04

What about the cost of the new buildings - is this paid for yet, or is there crippling interest to pay with no tenants?.

I'm not convinced with the IP held in the non-listed companies - these have been burning investor's cash for some time.

I agree the building is worth a packet - say 4-5mil, and valuations last year put the asset and cash situation at around 60p per share. Not sure how much of this is burnt.

Employees were originally offered options at 2.40 a share ca 2 years ago and then 90p a share, something will need to be done to persuade the profitable consultants to stay.

I suspect this will go for around 25p a share. This is good value.

[ontley] 07/6/2003 13:19

any press coverage today?

[basketcase21] 07/6/2003 11:59

Looks like theirs very good upside to this suffering stock i'll be watching carefully monday for a chance to get in. RAB

[biomax] 07/6/2003 10:09

Mark P,

excellent analysis of the GEN investments,

i agree that with the market recovery the gen investments are worth much more than their book value.


Also the new Gen office building could easily pull 5-10 mln,
(as now days a 6 bed house could cost 1 mln),
but probably in the book, the office building is valued at cost rather than its market value which, again, makes the real GEN NAV higher than the book NAV

Thus, the GEN NAV according to the results is 20 p,
but in reality it could be as high as 25-30p

current price is 6 p, in my opinion, there is an upside to 15-12 p


but dyor,etc

[mark p] 07/6/2003 01:26

Los-leader >>>

Don't forget Synapatics (nasdaq tkr syna) of which Generics holds 415k
is actually up today on the Nas $1.30 taking the price to $12.80, which equals a grand total of $5,312,000. At the last results the value of this in Geerics accounts was....

"The BVCA value of Generics' investment in Synaptics Inc has been written up to
£1.7m representing a 25% discount* to the market price of $7.30 per share on 31
March 2003. The gross value of Generics' holding at opening on 28 May 2003 was
£2.9m."

At close of play today the value in pounds sterling is £3,194,611 which is quite a lot higher than the sum of £1,700,000 which was placed on the balance sheet at the time, and nearly £300,000 higher than the gross value at the time.

Of Generics holdings 60% of the nbv = £8,000,000 of which was made up of the
companies below......

Flying Nul Ltd
Imerge Ltd
Synaptics Inc
SensoPad Ltd
Avantium International BV

Synapatics nbv was £1,700,000 if we take this from the £8,000,000 we are left with £6,300,000 add the other 40% of the nbv of the portfolio of £2,520,000 brings the nbv to £8,820,000, this nbv is at a discount of what these companies may be worth, of course some may and will be less attractive and could fail, but so far we have......

nbv of companies unlisted of £8,820,000
mkt value of Synapatics of £3,194,611

Total of investments £12,014,611

Cash of say 50% of what was mentiopned a very short while ago = £3,450,000

Building........no idea, lets be cautious and go a silly £1,000,000

Then there is the losses incurred which another company could use to offset against, but since i don't have clue how to work these out lets chuck em in for free and wildly assume that the value of these and the cash reduction above will pay for any fees/reductions/bankers etc, which stll leaves us with a possible value of £16,464,611 compared to mkt cap of £6,730,000. I realise that any company/persons wanting to take Generics over will want to pay the least possible, but even a doubling of the price from here only takes the take out price to £13,460,000.....So imo the present price could have a nice little run still, and maybe this is why the company advised shareholders to take no action today, imo anything less than 12p per share cash is robbery.

dyor.etc etc etc.

[supervisor] 07/6/2003 00:46

Biomax how much is this worth in a takeover any ideas?

[biomax] 07/6/2003 00:35

how much would they pay?
15p ?

[rambutan2] 07/6/2003 00:20

reckon buyout is a cert. never thought it would get quite this low. remember between them catella and management have controlling stake of 60%+, so its in their hands and if they have the slightest belief that it can survive – which they do – then they can buy an absolute bargain. catella could easily support it for say another year until again profitable.

[biomax] 07/6/2003 00:18

no smoke without fire, not bad,

NAV is 21 p, strong buy!

[tony14] 07/6/2003 00:05

RNS Number:0196M
Generics Group AG
06 June 2003

For immediate release

6 June 2003

The Generics Group AG ("Generics")

Statement re share price movement

The Board of Generics notes the recent share price movement and announces that
it is in preliminary discussions which may or may not lead to an offer being
made for Generics.

A further announcement will be made as soon as possible. In the meantime, the
Board advises shareholders to take no action.



ENQUIRIES:
The Generics Group AG Tel: [phone]

Gordon Edge

Peter Hyde

Martin Frost

Hoare Govett Limited Tel: [phone]

Chris Fielding

Ranald McGregor-Smith




This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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