As shares in $GID/GI Dynamics climb from the floor to a 52 week high, $HHL/Hunter Hall appears to have sold its second-ranking stake.
But did HHL sell because it's disillusioned with $GID or did it sell because of changes to top HHL management and portfolio policy settings as it fields a couple of takeover bids?
The group appears to have sealed a deal with Guernsey-registered Crystal Amber Fund run by UK activist managers Richard Bernstein and Jonathan Marsh.
CAFL paid Hunter Hall $2.3m for 92.5m shares. It hoisted its $GID stake from 22.65% to a lofty 38.73%.
While the opportunistic fund has larger investments in its portfolio, I suspect in percentage terms it has no higher commitment to a single stock than it now has to GID.
The GID purchase decision was important enough for the fund's Board to issue a press release.
The AIM-traded fund notes that GI Dynamics is the developer of EndoBarrier, the first minimally invasive device therapy approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity.
EndoBarrier is a temporary bypass sleeve that is endoscopically delivered to the duodenal intestine, offering similar effects to the surgical gastric bypass, Crystal's Board says.
It is CE mark-approved and commercially available in Europe and a number of countries outside of the United States.
"The fund supports the current management's strategy to commercialise the device in Europe, initiate a new FDA trial and continue to gather clinical data.
"This would build on 2016's successes, including the 300 patient UK trials led by the Association of British Clinical Diabetologists and the data announced from the German registry, which included 243 patients.
"The company has achieved partial reimbursement in Germany and Israel and has received preliminary reimbursement codes in Holland and Switzerland."
Crystal Amber Directors conclude that GID has a world class technology, addressing an unmet clinical need, with its current share price a function of "shareholder disillusionment" resulting from past management disappointments.
GID Price at posting:
3.5¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
