Personally I'm quite happy with them sitting on the $60m to fund the GSK trial (or at least have it ready so they can negotiate with GSK). They can also use the funds and any potential future outcome of the GSK legal battle to invest into new drugs, speed up existing programs, delay out license till Phase III (start or even end)... industry consolidation in aussie biotech land is yet to occur. There are some super cheap companies out there with excellent technologies just waiting to be bought with cash/script offers... 2008 is the year for this.
I just don't like companies who have the urge to pay large dividends or engage in share buy backs... it tells me they have nothing to do with the money which just isn't the case in biotech land which is scattered with takeover opporunities.
Longer term (1-2 years) a token dividend is acceptable to build shareholder confidence and gain a new type of investor (yield of 1% or so).
How they manage their bank accounts is not really why I'm investing in the company... but agree they could have generated some more interest on those balances.
BTA Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
