The Latest from "ANO vs. ASX":

02-Apr-2020:

Retraction of Announcements 
 
The ANO Board requests that if we can’t agree, we retract all announcements since 16 March 2020, except for the patent application, ANO Business Update 26 March 2020 and the Appendix 3Y, from the ASX platform and have the suspension lifted. 
 
The ANO Board advises that patent application #2020900820 was filed on 17 March 2020 with joint 50 / 50 ownership between Advance NanoTek Limited and Astivita Limited. There is not likely to be any material positive impact on sales with this patent application #2020900820 in FY20. 

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As it turns out, the patent was for products including mouthwash that have not been tested at all for their effectiveness to inhibit the replication of any virus, let alone COVID-19.  In fact there have been no tests at all. Tests - on a cat - or cats - were planned to be conducted within the next three weeks apparently, but have not yet commenced.

Further, the "inventors" of this "invention" are listed as Dalia Mizikovsky and Joseph Mizikovsky.  ANO confirmed that they are "...obviously relatives of Mr Mizikovsky."  Can we safely assume they mean Lev?

Joseph is also the CEO of Astivita (AIR).

When asked by the ASX about ANO’s understanding of Dalia and Joseph's qualifications and experience in the research and development of anti-viral products for ingestion by human patients, ANO's reply was:

Dalia Mizikovsky – Bachelor of Advanced Science, majoring in Biomedical Science. Currently completing her Honours in Developmental Biology at UQ (GPA 6.7) and has been employed by ANO since 17 April 2019. Joseph Mizikovsky – has completed 2 subjects at the London School of Economics, and is currently studying a Bachelor of Business, majoring in marketing at QUT and has been employed by AIR since 26 September 2017.

And that mouthwash was not meant to be ingested except in very small quantities.

Looks like Joseph has some catching up to do.  Still, many fine inventions have been thought up by people with little to no relevant qualifications.  This could be one of those.

All in all, considering that this latest stoush is due to both AIR and ANO requesting a trading pause and then a trading halt back on March 16th while they sorted out the IP ownership split for a "highly progressed opportunity regarding the development of oral care products which could prevent the coronavirus cells multiplying", a request for further details by the ASX does seem entirely reasonable in the current environment. 

In one of their latest responses to the ASX, ANO argues that the ASX did NOT request this level of detail with a previous patent announcement that they made, and the ASX pointed out that the announcement in relation to that other patent was not even regarded as market sensitive by ANO - let alone feeling the need to request a trading halt.  Fair point.  Of course that prior patent announcement also did not have anything to do with COVID-19 and didn't use the word "coronavirus".  This one did. That tends to get people's attention at the moment.  We now find out that the whole thing is based on the supposition or hypothesis that it "...could inhibit the replication of the novel coronavirus inside the cells of the oral cavity / mouth” (from the 17th March "Clarification" announcement).  I say supposition or hypothesis because there has been no testing done yet to back up that theory or possibility.  They do however plan to test it on a cat (or cats) in the next three weeks - or begin to.  

Good-o.

Doesn't sound "Highly Progressed" to me, but I guess everybody has a different interpretation of what that means.  ANO's interpretation was clearly not the same as the ASX's.
 
 

27-Mar-2020:  From the ASX (at 5:03pm, after the market closed):  Continued Suspension from Official Quotation

In this update from the ASX (link above), they explain why they consider that a continuation of ANO's suspension from trading is appropriate.  They include the query letter that they sent to ANO regarding their draft announcement regarding their new patent for various oral care products that may use various combinations (compositions) of "at least one zinc compound or at least one zinc salt and hinokitiol or a salt thereof".  The ASX also include ANO's response (reply) to that query letter, and it's not hard to understand why the ASX regarded the ANO reply as lacking in detail and not adequately addressing all of the questions that the ASX had asked.

Just one example: 

Question 12:  

"Please advise whether ANO has received any legal advice regarding the statement in the Draft Announcement that: “The initial sales are contemplated on the Amazon EU platform as no regulatory approvals are needed.” If it has, please provide a copy of the advice (not for release to the market). If it has not, please explain its basis for making this statement." 

ANO's answer:

"No."

Hmmm.  Perhaps they didn't read the whole question?

The ASX felt that they needed to release this announcement (link above) in response to ANO releasing their ANO Business Update announcement the previous day (2:20pm on 26-Mar-2020) in which they do make assertions about the ASX that the ASX clearly felt they needed to address.

Apart from the spelling and punctuation errors in the last line of ANO's response to the ASX - "The balance of information sort by the ASX is in the opinion of the Board is not material." - ...the wording is dismissive and provocative.  I think they'll find that they won't get out of this trading suspension until they provide satisfactory answers to the ASX and let the ASX decided what is and is not material.  

Another fine mess they've got themselves into.  Such promising tech, and such a badly run company - from a communications and regulatory compliance point of view.

26-Mar-2020:  ANO Business Update

ANO Business Update 
 
Zinc Production 
ANO continues to produce zinc oxide and one of our large customers in the US has reconfirmed their prior orders for 80 MT plus for April, May and June.  We are sending additional final products (powder and dispersions) to the US and Europe and will continue to do this on a weekly basis. Despite two countries temporarily closing production facilities, we have raw material in stock and in transit and have placed additional orders from our supplier in a third country. We will have sufficient raw materials to meet future zinc oxide orders well into the next year if current trends persist. 
 
Merck 
We have today received two new orders from Merck which doubles their orders for calendar 2020 to $3.2 million. Again, we have placed significant orders for raw materials and are investing in spare parts to ensure we have continuous supply of Alusion to Merck over the next 12 months. 
 
Zinc Gluconate Production 
ANO is looking into the production of zinc gluconate with lab trials about to start. Given the current worldwide shortage, ANO will look to distribute this product to Europe, where no TGA approvals are required, as soon as possible. 
 
COVID-19 – Remote Setup 
Software has been installed successfully by SenterpriSys Limited to allow key functions within the business to be completed by staff from home if required.

Collection House Limited (“CLH”) & ASX 
Many of our shareholders may be unaware that our Chairman is currently in court with the ASX and CLH as a result of the ASX publishing a market release for CLH which was defamatory towards our Chairman. Further, CLH remains voluntary suspended. More concerning is that the issues raised by our Chairman appear to be the reasons CLH has extended its voluntary suspension for now 2 months. 

ANO believes this is in part one of the reasons we are having difficulties and delays with the ASX at present. 
 
Margin Calls 
In addition, we confirm to the market that the ASX have raised rumours in regards to margin calls by Directors on Wednesday morning, 18 March 2020. The Board confirms to all shareholders that there are no margin loans in place by any Director. 
 
Update on Suspension  
It is astonishing that the ASX would seek to impose forced suspension of ANO’s shares for what can only be understood to be a result of the brevity of some responses (which were in the Board’s view the appropriate factual responses to ASX’s questions).  The ASX has offered no clarification as to why the brevity is not acceptable to them nor have they tried to reframe their questions to elicit a different answer.   

So, shareholders are aware, some of the questions raised by the ASX were technical in nature and in, the Board’s view, only capable of answer by reference to the patent and the scientific papers referred to therein.  It is not appropriate for the Company to attempt to summarise for the ASX matters of such a technical and scientific nature, at the risk of being accused of not effectively summarising the matter.  The only appropriate response in the Board’s view is to direct the ASX to the source documents where all the technical detail is available.  Of course, this is the Company’s best guess at the ASX’s concerns as it has to date not offered any additional guidance on which responses are deficient or why. 

NASDAQ Investigation  
In light of the current situation between our Company and the ASX, and given 70% of our sales are in the US and our market capitalisation is in excess of $200 million, the Board is going to investigate listing on NASDAQ. We apologise to our shareholders and the Board will attempt to resubmit our announcement to have our suspension lifted as soon as possible. 
 
 
Authorised by: 
Geoff Acton (B.Com CA) 
Managing Director 

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Wow!!

I dunno about you guys but I wouldnt touch this again after the recent announcements.