cst to forrest and ridge , page-8

G'day all,

Apologies for not replying sooner but I had major technical dramas yesterday.

Anyway, I see that there are still plenty of people watching CST with valuable opinions.

I pretty much agree with what has been said, particularly Ridge's comments. My additional comments would be:

CST seems to have a pretty hard base at around that 160 mark (but I won't argue about 5c, acouch). I think that just at the moment the market has spoken and has valued the share at around this level. Clearly, the market as a whole is far more circumspect than it was a year or two ago - it now takes more than an announcement to spike the price. Clearly, the market fully anticipated the CDC guidelines and saw no reason to drive the price when they finally arrived. Of course any spike would have been followed by a retrace anyway - at least this way my blood pressure remains within the limits of normality.

Hopefully, CST will hold the 160 base and use it as a starting price once the sales start rolling next year. We are very very close now to the beginning of changing from speculative to a real income and profit producing company.

I am expecting the first sales to be to US jails. They will initially be orders in the range of a few thousand to 100,000 tests pa per jail. The US military have scheduled the Quantiferon presentation for 18th February 2003 (postponed from September 2002). I suspect that their decision will be forthcoming shortly therafter. Of course there is the possibility that an invasion of Iraq may temporarily force a change of focus but the worst case would be only a delay.

2003 should be a big year for CST.

Merry Christmas and a healthy, happy and prosperous 2003 to all.

Peace and goodwill
Fforrest