Ann: Efti with Keytruda shows encouraging activity in lung cancer, page-15

Never quite sure who they ultimately serve, but nominee company holdings here have grown substantially while the rest of the register remains relatively similar/proportionate. Bearing in mind there have been raisings/placements/option exercises that more than doubled the shares on issue over the two year period above (Top 20s taken from the Annual Reports). If someone is throttling the price and accumulating via these nominee vehicles under informal arrangements, we won’t know for sure until they transact a reportable consolidation and lob an offer at us for the rest. But looking at those increases as a percentage of SOI, it makes you think something has been underway here for a long while. Unfortunately we can only see annual top 20s not a running real-time record.

Big Pharma will always do their best to keep a ceiling on a potential acquisition’s share price over a very long period if necessary to mask their intentions. No acquirer wants to pay a large premium if their friendly bankers can effectively already control the VWAP by keeping a longterm lid on it for them!