Why are these shares still trading at 35c given the 10 for 1 dilution that is about to be unleashed ?
Although these shares have not yet been issued, they will be soon, and one might think that a significant drop in the per share value of the company would result. There are two possible explanations I think:
- There are ‘investors’ who do not understand that all these shares are about to be issued and who will suffer significant losses
- Since the (effective recapitalisation) was announced (13th March) there have been a few nice little announcements:
- Cranial reconstruction and long bone trials showing excellent results (26th March)
- Market approvals secured in Vietnam and Singapore for a suite of proprietary products (27th March)
- First clinical trials for proprietary proteins that accelerate bone regeneration commenced in Singapore (23rd April)
Does these announcments justify a huge step up in enterprise value ? I think - not in themselves, but read on.
My view has always been that this is a world class, global leader in medtech, with IP and clinial data in the bag, valued at a pittance. The reasons that they have been so valued is simply that
- growth has been challenged – however there have been reasons for that, namely:
- covid was a bitch for these guys
- the market has underestimated the time and cost of gaining regulatory approvals, hospital ethics board approvals & market traction
The typical small cap punter expects the moon delivered overnight and that ain't how it works, particularly in healthcare.
- Cash runway has been a big flag
However look at the quarterly just landed - $726k revenue from $136 product manufacturing and operating costs and significant growth everywhere. And no-one in their right mind would withdraw their rights application now, so the cash position is arguably now fine.
So the second explanation, and my preferred explanation, is that the above problems are basically behind us and the market is belatedly realising this. The only thing the company needs is scale, and that is inexorably coming.
It is also possible that some market particants used the rights trading to position themselves into the stock for these reasons and are still topping up on market. Or alternatively - conspiracy theory alert - that some company-friendly participant is holding up the price to ensure that no rights applications are withdrawn. But either way, the company will get the cash they seek for the runway.
Likely the answer to the question is ‘a little bit of column A and some of column B’ above.