Ark Therapeutics has spent most of the past two years struggling to stay afloat after the spectacular failure of its Cerepro medicine for brain cancer in late stage trials two years ago. In the meantime, a re-organisation has cleared out much of the old senior management and the situation now appears to have stabilised in the short term. However, there is still a pressing need to properly licence the products in its pipeline - there has been no progress so far with this - and only the very bravest investors should get involved with a company whose ultimate survival remains a binary bet.
Cash burn has been kept low because of grants and awards from various government and EU bodies worth €1.7m (£1.4m), along with a one-off £6.5m milestone payment from German pharma giant Boehringer Ingelheim. The money will be used, in part, to build up data for Ark's angina product EG011, which will then be used to attract potential licensing partners. Total research & development expenditure was £7.7m, down from £10.8m in 2010. Ark also has its production facility in Finland that can produce complex viral-based products, but management has so far eschewed contract manufacturing in favour of partnerships with academic institutions.
Broker Collins Stewart forecasts a pre-tax loss for 2012 of £8.7m, giving a loss per share of 3.9p.
ARK THERAPEUTICS GROUP (AKT) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 3.5p | MARKET VALUE: | £7.32m | |
| TOUCH: | 3.3-3.5p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 6p | LOW: 3p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 7p | NET CASH: | £9.5m | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 1.12 | -20.0 | -11.0 | nil |
| 2008 | 0.93 | -17.6 | -8.00 | nil |
| 2009 | 2.96 | -21.2 | -10.0 | nil |
| 2010 | 0.76 | -16.9 | -8.00 | nil |
| 2011 | 7.13 | -4.44 | -2.00 | nil |
| % change | +838 | -74 | -75 | - |
