Rightly or wrongly it’s time to make a statement at this year’s AGM. This should start at the top with our chairman Paul Hopper and CEO Leslie Chong.
One of their many responsibilities is to provide value to the shareholders which clearly they are failing to do and have failed for over 2 years now. I’m not naive and I understand there has been some macro influences impacting the market, but particularly this year the bio sector has bounced back quite strongly and a lot of companies in this sector are performing exceptionally well whilst our company is heading in the wrong direction.
I feel Paul’s role was extremely important early on, but now that IMU is somewhat established I think him in this role is providing minimal value.
Leslie is clearly an extremely hard working individual and is no doubt trying her best to turn this ship around. As strange as this sounds I think she is trying too hard. This shows in some of her interviews and presentations too. When the CEO says “ I don’t know why our share price is so low!” We have a problem. It was a poor response that provided shareholders minimal confidence that she is able to turn this ship around. In addition words like“ data is coming soon!” “ I don’t want to steal Yuman’s thunder!” “Data will be presented at upcoming conferences!” I think you get my point. When this isn’t followed up with action, retail investors lose confidence and think the worst. It’s human nature.
I think her business acumen to run what was once a 3 billion dollar company needs work. It feels like she was thrown in the deep end and is drowning. She could do worse than to start to delegate some of the interviews and presentations to some of her staff. I think Dr Glover is a good start. A different face who speaks extremely well and can offer shareholders and potential large investors a different perspective on things.
No doubt we will get some positive announcements prior to the AGM that will bump the share price up, but I fear it will be too little, too late. Time will tell.
They certainly have some work to do between now and then and it’s coming up very quickly.
I sincerely hope that we go on a monumental run in the next couple of months for our sake and for theirs.
