To the best of my knowledge, Ambri’s senior management team is in the US at present. While it is not uncommon for ABI’s CEO (Dr Wright) to be in the US, it is uncommon for the whole management team to be in the US at the same time. And with the CVT announcement approaching, the timing of this trip is potentially significant. In the absence of facts, let me make some guesses about what ABI's management are presently doing in the US. First, they could be showcasing ABI’s technology (perhaps early results of the hospital trials??) to nanotech peers. Second, they could be conducting discussions with licensing partners/potential takeover suitors/third parties, etc. I’m guessing that some of these discussions (if they are indeed taking place) must be at a reasonably high level and must be financial in nature because Jeff Carter — Ambri’s CFO — is also part of the delegation. Carter is an excellent CFO, but knows precious little about ambri’s technology platform, so he would be redundant in discussions that focused only showcasing ABI’s technology. Furthermore, with the full year results due soon, it is unlikely that Carter would be dispatched to the US unless there was very good reason.
A takeover of ABI once CVT has been achieved by a large pharmaceutical company would fit the recent pattern of takeover activity within the rapidly expanding POC industry. Have a close read of the following sites to get a sense of what I’m talking about: http://www.roche.com/med-cor-2003-07-24a http://abbott.com/news/press_release.cfm?id=663 http://abbott.com/news/press_release.cfm?id=652
I want to emphasise that this is all pure speculation on my behalf, and my gut feeling is that a takeover is unlikely in the short term. However, it is also my gut feeling that something significant is presently taking place in the US re CVT. What do others think?
Management will be back in the Sydney office on Monday.
ABI Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
