Oxford Biomedica (OXB) was unable to match the Axovant and Sanofi (Bioverativ) licence income generated during the first half of 2018. The impact on the top line was mitigated to an extent by a 23 per cent increase in bioprocessing and commercial development revenues. But the relative shortfall was most noticeable in the cell therapy group’s net operating cash flow, which came in at £1.31m, against £18.3m in last year’s half-year results.
Trade receivables increased as a proportion of revenues, although this was attributable to the triggering of a milestone payment to OXB in connection with its Sunrise-PD Phase II trial for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Other milestone payments could follow from a new R&D collaboration with Santen Pharmaceutical Co for development of gene therapies for a form of inherited retinal disease. That’s in addition to a collaboration with Microsoft that aims to improve the quality of gene therapies using cloud and machine learning technologies.
In May, OXB issued 10.1 per cent of its stock to Novo Holdings A/S – a prominent life sciences investor – in exchange for £53.5m, which was used to wipe out its debt as capital commitments increase in the ongoing development of the new OxBox bioprocessing facility.
Peel Hunt forecasts adjusted EPS of 7p for the full year, rising to 22.4p in 2020.
| OXFORD BIOMEDICA (OXB) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 617p | MARKET VALUE: | £474m | |
| TOUCH: | 617-628p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 930p | LOW: 581p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 104p | NET CASH: | £26.1m* | |
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2018 | 35.3 | 5.2 | 8.1 | nil |
| 2019 | 32.1 | -12.1 | -14.8 | nil |
| % change | -9 | - | - | - |
| Ex-div: | - | |||
| Payment: | - | |||
| *Excludes lease liabilities of £8.5m. | ||||
