It is a tricky thing the whole negotiating from a tiny pebble of a footprint when you're dealing with a giant such as RHC... the timing is always going to be on their side. My concern is that RHC is deliberately prolonging the sign off in order to extract better terms. JHC on the other hand were instrumental in the development of HeraCARE and clinical proving of the ability of the HeraBEAT device as well as the site that did the peer reviews and publications etc, they are the first cab off the rank for a full commercial deal etc... JHC are ALL OVER HeraCARE but RHC is dragging the chain.... not sure why? In the meantime there has been a second RHC affiliate sign off on a pilot... seems odd to promote the use on something that you're not going to approve more wholeheartedly.... dunno? The other point to consider is that the initial deal was for 1500 or thereabouts in signups so they have already exceeded that... why implement a tech that requires sign off by the Head of Legal and the CEO of RHC , allow it to overflow and then expand only to can it? seems unlikely as an outcome so it comes back to the issue of timing....
@InItEarly Sheba is an Israeli institution dealing with another collection of Israeli companies... it's hard to understand their motives WITH some cultural connection so even more puzzling without those links... Israel will always back Israel over all others and sometimes that manifests itself in somewhat strange ways. Sometimes Israeli companies (particularly startups) will assist their competitors in order that Israel gets the best deal, not the companies involved. It's a loooooooong game that is played and the rules aren't made clear nor are the players always apparent. That's an attempt to explain from a different cultural mindset... The other side is maybe HMD just wasn't what they were looking for? Maybe HeraCARE just didn't work well enough with Pulsenmore (probably the poster child of maternal Telehealth for Sheba). Maybe Sheba has commercial terms with Philips and it was disclosed off record to someone at Sheba that the preferred option would be Nuvo? Different countries have different disclosure laws.... maybe Nuvo was cheaper for Sheba in terms of tech integration? lots of possibilities and without having sat in the negotiations it's hard to understand the outcome.
e-Lōvu.... hmmmmm..... they cannot operate their offer without HeraCARE unless they change the whole tech platform from which they function. A win for e-Lōvu is a win for HMD pure and simple. However if a hospital doesn't want to offer or operate in an ecosphere of e-Lovu's choosing but they do want to use the HeraCARE platform then hopefully our new found US executive will capture that sale... he has the pedigree, now we just need to see some runs on the board. Again it becomes a question of timing......
The Australian state health systems would be fantastic space to win... with all this talk about the Voice and closing the gap etc coupled with classic Labor tax hikes there is a good chance that proper money will flow through to Telehealth in remote communities and that would probably put HMD close to the front of that pack especially given that it has been tried and tested in war zones such as Ukraine and Palestine Authority by charitable groups.. maybe that would help HMD get an ESG tick to make it easier for a state health system to approve... Labor loves spending on health and education...
all in all.... it's these swirly times in dealmaking that thoughts usually turn pessimistic. In a different unlisted business that I'm invested in, they had been waiting 2 years for someone to sign off on a government deal here in Australia... 2 years.... the initial scope of the deal is not what was signed and approved which has lead to a desperate capital call on investors to hire more staff to implement the terms of the contract. There exists the possibility that RHC will drag things out and then decide to sign off on a deal that they deem appropriate but may be at a material advancement to the initial scope of work? or maybe they won't... maybe the only wins that we will get anywhere in the world will be via e-Lōvu and then the marketing budget will disappear and HMD will just become some sort of white-label med tech operator? dunno??
HMD, as per the report, has put a number on the births expected out of geographically defined potential operator that has already passed the first hurdle of discussions and is now in the final DD stage prior to approving the start of a pilot... that should be announced in the next couple of months I would imagine. At that point, e-Lōvu should also be doubling their number of devices and JHC hopefully should get signed off.... maybe May or June will be a cracker of a month? dunno?
HMD Price at posting:
13.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)