Building for growth
Ergomed’s strategy is to become a global leader in pharmacovigilance and orphan drug development services by 2020. This refocusing of the business, communicated earlier in the year, moves Ergomed away from its reliance on the risk/reward profile of development deals and will ultimately result in a much better, more visible, and cash-generating story.At the Full Year results, the new CEO Stephen Stamp outlined a value-enhancing vision for the business: a move away from co-development projects towards its existing Clinical Research Services (CRS) and its drug safety and medical information (DS&MI) businesses. Both the CRS and DS&MI businesses have been providing clear, repeatable project revenues and these markets are growing substantially.
However, a number of issues have impacted business performance in the first six months of the year including the delay in the timing of a few key contracts and the lag effect of training up new staff to cope with the influx of expected work over the next few years. The former impacted revenues, the latter weighed on costs.
Stephen Stamp took over as CEO while the business was in a period of rapid growth and change. For some months, the role of CFO was unfilled, making Stamp’s job tougher still. The recent appointment of the new CFO Stuart Jackson should help improve information flow to the investment community. Stuart has 20 years' experience at CFO level, having managed companies on the London, NASDAQ and Oslo Stock Exchanges.
Our FY2018 and FY2019 estimates have been trimmed to reflect the revised projections. Updating our valuation using peer-based metrics of c1.8x EV/Sales and c18x PE gives a fair value for the Services businesses (CRS and DS&MI) of 215p / share. The Development and Haemostatix businesses add a further 120p to that, based on an NPV (Net Present Value) analysis.
Ergomed is engaged in the provision of specialized services to the pharmaceutical industry and the development of new drugs. Co. focuses on oncology, neurology and immunology and the development of orphan drugs. Co. is building a portfolio of co-development partnerships with pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Co. has two business segments: clinical research services, which provides clinical development services to clients ranging from pharmaceutical companies to small and mid-sized drug development companies; and drug safety and medical information services, which includes Co.'s subsidiary, PrimeVigilance Limited, a pharmacovigilance and medical information services company.
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