Venn Life Sciences Share Discussion Threads

[b1ggles] 29/3/2017 13:24

Isn't there a separate board for handbags at dawn?

[lbo] 29/3/2017 11:49

Anthony Richardson (aged 52) – Chief Executive Officer Tony Richardson is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants. He co-founded Alltracel Pharmaceuticals PLC in 1996 and acted as CFO for the company until 2004 at which stage he assumed the role of CEO. During his tenure as CEO Alltracel headcount increased from twenty to two hundred and fifty and revenues increased from €3 million to €33 million. Alltracel listed on AIM in 2001 and successfully used this platform to complete and integrate two acquisitions in the area of Oral Health before a trade sale in 2008 to Hemcon Medical Technologies Inc. Tony joined Venn Life Sciences in 2007 as Non-Executive Chairman. In 2010 he assumed the role of CEO and in that year Venn completed two acquisitions that provide the basis for the current business. He is an alumnus of Stanford University where he completed an executive program in Leadership for Growth.

[buywell3] 25/3/2017 22:59

I see yump seems to have a penchant for lossmaking shares

His defence of DEMG is a bit of a puzzle V common sense as in this case

[yump] 24/3/2017 17:12

So says the person that ramped Alltracel in 2006.

You're not credible. Shame on you for continued posting.

[lbo] 24/3/2017 16:09

Alltracel went from 89p at IPO to less then 14p when management then decided to sell it. Venn has now gone from 30p at IPO to less then 18p. Anyone else see the pattern? Shareholders will be left with the losses again while the same old management will disappear with the salaries and free options at shareholders expense yet again. What's is they say? Fool me once then shame on you but fool me twice and its shame on me!

[rivaldo] 24/3/2017 12:19

For the record, Hybridan updated post-results with a particularly uninformative note. Their forecasts for this year are "under review", so we await to see what results.

There's no mention of the Integumen IPO, or any specifics on why the 0.4m euro EBITDA from continuing operations was below forecasts.

They point out that the shares are trading at just 0.65 of revenues. Which is indeed pretty cheap. And that cost savings being implemented from Q1'17 should improve profitability, in addition to the strong start to 2017.

[yump] 23/3/2017 12:20

Well I hope it goes the way of IDEA quite soon, by producing some meaningful profit. Then the acquisitions will be viewed as positive contributions, not just revenue jumps. IDEA were making profits from their business model at quite low revenue levels though. I guess that's the key bit of evidence missing here so far... can the model make profits, because with this project based service its not clear how scale leads to efficiencies.

fwiw my collection of worries doesn't include the current profit stuff. I've got:
- the relative lack of detail in reporting and updating
- the lumping of costs all together with no explanation of the how or why of allocation. So its nigh on impossible to make any judgement as to what happens to profits as revenue rises, as the overhead is unknown.
- the possibility that the model might not be profitable

That last one is of course just a small company risk. I think I'm waiting for the next lot of results to make a judgement.

[mulligut] 23/3/2017 11:51

This is not a high tech stock that multiplies overnight with a few apps and online sales. It is a steady as she grows service industry that relies upon trust from their service clients. These clients take time as they are required to be certain that the service is up to the task as millions of their dollars and future risk of litigation is in the hands of those companies in clinical trials that they have to trust.

These take time and build into a steady flow of business, each building on the previous results until VENN are indispensable to their clients for each new drug in their pipeline.

So that is why my money is on a rapidly growing company built on trust by their pharmaceutical industry clients. Once they get to critical mass, they will be able to acquired larger and larger acquisitions that are positive to the profits and lead to the high valuation in our shares. Not a scientist. Just an observation and one industry that is easily researched.

[mr hangman] 23/3/2017 10:40

Plenty of good healthy debate here, makes a change for an ADVFN thread

[leomes] 23/3/2017 09:26

One has to look at the evidence.

This company clearly should have issued a profit warning since earlier forecasts have clearly not been meet. Instead the situation was left without any announcement in January.

They decided to try to paint a picture as rosy as they could in the recent trading update prior to yesterdays results, but the update was light on the facts.

All they have achieved with their actions is to illustrate that we as investors cannot trust them now. Their forecasts and their statements are without any credit.

I would never encourage anyone to hold shares here.

[king kong dong] 23/3/2017 08:44

and mine....

[tradermick1] 23/3/2017 07:42

Bit oversold imo

[mulligut] 22/3/2017 22:45

LBO, you made your point. I fully agree that applies to companies who are not growing, not raising funds for growth and are not making the most of AIM to buy companies for growth. VENN appear to be the opposite growth story to BIOM.

BIOM management has consistently sold off assets and squandered the cash while not participating in buying a single share or giving up a bonus with each of the last 8 years of shareholder losses.

Comparing the two companies allows me an objective perspective of seeing one company growing my pension fund and the other ripe for AIM Regulation to act. My money is on VENN.

[mulligut] 22/3/2017 15:18

I get your point and appreciate you making us aware of managements previous form.

One obvious question. If they were seen to be doing something wrong in Alltracel, why would they be allowed to run another listed company like VENN and get the IPO of Integumen away by the FCA?

[yump] 22/3/2017 15:15

I'm not going to be so polite.

LBO posted this rampy thread:


at a time when the Alltracel share price had already tanked from float.

I say rampy, because the header is full of everything except financials.

So I don't value your posts here, because they quite simply do not add up to a disappointed investor and certainly not to an investor who has an objective hat on.

What would be useful is if you could point us in the exact direction of the apparent wrongdoings of the management, so we can make our own minds up.

'This lot are a load of dodgy dealers' doesn't really cut it.

Especially given the detail of your Alltracel 2006 thread.

PS
It looks to me as if Alltracel turned LBO into a permanent bear, judging by other posts.

[lbo] 22/3/2017 13:55

You can invest in a great business with average management and lose all your money or invest in an average business with great management and make money. The problem in Venn like Alltracel is the management who want to profit at shareholders expense no wonder they say the definition of stupidity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.

[mulligut] 22/3/2017 13:31

LBO it happens to us all in small cap. Just look at BIOM. That pain is ongoing for 8 years. Thankfully a stop loss in place limited my downside.

I acknowledge and respect your right to vocalise your disappointment with your investment choices. However, your repeated comments relating to your bad experience in an apparent historical investment decision, without positive or critical commentary to the underlying share in question, (i.e. VENN) does not benefit those of us who do contribute and have done so for decades in multiple companies.

[lbo] 22/3/2017 12:57

Alltracel went from 89p at IPO to 14p and everyone lost out except management who paid themselves with shareholders money until they then sold out themselves. Venn will be no different.

[mulligut] 22/3/2017 12:36

LeoMes, there is also the issue of many larger investment funds unable or unwilling to buy into companies below a certain market cap. A bit of chicken and egg here. If they continue to keep growing by acquisition at the same rate, I suspect that this will provide the support longer term. So far here I see a growth story with a large workforce, getting on with their business.

[yump] 22/3/2017 12:33

I think the Integumen part has gone because its R&D and they are concentrating on the commercial side of the business, or commercial acquisitions, which makes sense.

From what I can make out, Alltracel had an R&D / explorative focus, so perhaps that's a bad memory which has focussed their attention on the more tangible service industry.

[leomes] 22/3/2017 11:56

Well confusion appears to be the key word with VENN I would say.

Venn said that they wanted to offload Integumen because they thought it better if the company was completely focused on it´s core business or something like that.

Fair enough, but in today´s statement they mention that they would be on the look out for further aquisitions!

It´s true that the market cap here is frankly peanuts, and it therefore has failed to impress many serious investors therefore.

[yump] 22/3/2017 11:40

Out of curiosity...
Did you just get carried away and then unfortunately lose out?

LBO
17 Dec '06 - 18:52 - 1139 of 1151

Viking6 why do you bother following Alltracel if you are so negative? Why not just sell out and move on?

As to a route to market, they have a few. They have links with Devro, Coca Cola and the company is already in discussion with a number of partners, including functional food makers and pharmaceutical firms, to produce a food or nutraceutical containing the compound.