frustrating for all

I share the frustration of many who have been sitting waiting for news of a deal for ATC, or a takeover, or an agreement with Tibotec - or anything! I've expressed my frustration to folk at Avexa and made the point that we've been told for years that ' we're in negotiations and that shareholders can't be given updates until deals are completed.

I made the point that those considerations need to be balanced with Avexa's responsibility to shareholders because its very disheartening for all to watch the AVX SP fall further than the market in general during downturns and then lag behind during times when the broader market is in a strong recovery phase. In some ways, ongoing chats with big pharma and arrangements such as that with Tiboec could see AVX locked up in an extended period of silence without them having any obligation to act in the short term, while the SP falls due to lack of news. Then late in the piece, Tibotec or others can simply swoop in and scoop up the good bits for a song because the company (Avx) no longer has the luxury of time on its side.

The company sees those arguments, and although it doesn't believe there are stalling tactics being employed to suppress the share price, it does share the frustration of shareholders with how long this is all taking. In essence, they argue they have no choice but to play by the big company's rules which involve long waits, strict confidentiality and enormous amounts of inefficiency (I commonly hear that the big pharma people seem to have an inefficient process simply because their company is so big and so many people are involved at different levels, all taking a ridiculous amount of time). The agenda of a small company like Avexa is irrelvant to a monster such as J&J for instance.

My understanding is that the company (AVX) remains very confident. They see no immediate problems with funding that would require a change in strategy, and believe they are much further advanced in dealings with prospective partners than they were 6 months ago (although I have heard that before!). They also point out that they continue to advance their major (ie likely most valuable) projects (undoubtedly true given trial results etc).

I honestly believe the company is in pretty much in the same situation as shareholders - they believe they have a good chance of success, but are in a waiting game that is not in their control and are bound by confidentiality agreements with big companies who don't want any details about negotiations to be released to the marker until those negotiations are settled one way or the other. I got the impression they will be releasing an update of some description in the not too distant future, although it was not clear whether this was in expectation of an early resolution to a deal (Tibotec most likely I think) or just a general explanation of where things stand in terms of progress and short term plans.

Keep the faith seems to be message. I sold a few a while back, but continue to hold now.