Outlook: Critical year ahead

2015 is a critical year for Xcite and its shareholders. Having seen its Bentley development delayed, the company is taking an innovative approach, engaging early with major service contractors to put in place a development group that would get it through FID as well as reduce execution risk to both cost and schedule. With the consortium complete, we examine how potential terms could affect returns, concluding there is strong upside potential for all parties, Xcite and contractors alike, with an aligned development strategy. However, we caution that investors need to be patient, as a sequential...

Institutional Comment: Daily comment

Actinogen Medical - First patient dosed in Phase IIb XanaMIA study

Actinogen Medical announced that the first randomised patient in its Phase IIb XanaMIA trial of lead candidate Xanamem received their first treatment on Friday 12 April. This study is designed to enrol c 220 patients with cognitive impairment (CI) associated with biomarker-positive mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease (AD), as confirmed through an elevated level of phosphorylated Tau-181 (pTau-181) protein in their blood at baseline. The study has commenced at 13 Australian sites and will concentrate on domestic sites for the first c 100 patients, and initial efficacy and safety results will b...

Cereno Scientific - CS014 (thrombosis) progresses towards the clinic

Cereno Scientific has taken a step closer to advancing its second asset, CS014, a novel HDAC inhibitor with epigenetic effects, to the clinic with the submission of the clinical trial application (CTA) to the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The CTA is for the first-in-human Phase I trial for CS014, which Cereno is developing for thrombosis prevention, without increased risk of bleeding. We believe this has the potential to address the main limitation of current standard-of-care antithrombotic medicines and offers a sizeable opportunity for Cereno (backed by supportive preclinical data). Subje...

Tetragon Financial Group - FY23 growth driven by idiosyncratic factors

Tetragon Financial Group (Tetragon) posted a 6.4% net asset value (NAV) per share total return (TR) in US dollar terms in FY23. Tetragon’s returns normally have a low correlation with broader markets, and therefore its FY23 performance was below the 26.3% return of the S&P 500 Index, which rallied on the artificial intelligence (AI) theme. Tetragon’s FY23 return on equity (RoE) of 5.5% was below its target of 10–15% pa. That said, its performance since listing was within the target range at 11.3%. Tetragon continues payouts to its shareholders, distributing US$83.6m in FY23 through buybacks an...