Echelon flips on valuation of Prometic Life Sciences from 25Sent to Ministre, AMF, Ouellette, TSX, Trudeau etc.
Echelon flips on valuation of Prometic Life Sciences from 25 cents to issue a "FAIRNESS OPINION " AT 1.5 CENTS 10 DAYS LATER
Echelon, on April 2, 2019 issued a hold rating valuing Prometic life Sciences at 25 cents target and a HOLD. Yet on April 14, 2019, just 12 days later, they would issue a "FAIRNESS OPINION” to the Special Committee of PLI for the 1.521 cent value chosen by SALP interests for the debt conversion and the restructure. This so called “fairness opinion” should carry absolutely no weight and was obviously the work of a “hired gun” who knew and was willing to provide the opinion desired for the appropriate FEE! So at the very least, SALP stole some 23.5 cents of value through their hardship application from the shareholders WITHOUT A VOTE with the hardship application where in fact non existed but for the greed of SALP to take all for themselves.
The AMF must investigate the hiring of Echelon and the basis upon which they reached such a drastic change of opinion just a few short days later. The notion of a restructure was already known on April 2, when the first Echelon opinion was published, but it was thought the debt conversion if it came might double the current shares heavily diluting the shareholders but not wiping them out. So what happened a few days later to make wiping out the shareholders “FAIR”? Simple – A SIZABLE FEE FOR THE NEW “FAIRNESS OPINION”! The AMF should investigate just how large a fee it took for Echelon to sell out the shareholders.
sincerely,
.................
PLI investor
The following is from that Echelon April 2 published opinion:
https://docdro.id/YMvAyaF Echelon Wealth Partners:
2 April 2019
ProMetic Life Sciences
Hold ↓ (Prev. Spec Buy)
$0.25 ↓ PT (Prev. $0.60)
Projected Return: 4.2%
Shifting To HOLD On FQ418 Outlook. Attractive Pipeline, But Sustained Financial Risk Influencing Development Timelines Event: QC-based plasma products & anti-fibrotic small molecule drug developer ProMetic Life Sciences announced FQ418 results for the December-end quarter.
Bottom line: While we remain positive about ProMetic’s longer-term medical prospects, both with its capture affinity resin-purified plasma products operations (though now limited to soon-to-be-regulatory-stage Ryplazim/plasminogen) and its anti-fibrotic small molecule program led by PBI-4050, financial risk for the firm is intensifying and development timelines on all programs embedded in our model are now confirmed to be pushed forward based on FQ418 commentary. With Phase III-stage IVIG no longer assumed by us to be advanced through BLA review to approval, in contrast to peer firm ADMA Biologics (ADMA-Q, NR) just receiving its own FDA approval yesterday of plasma-derived polyclonal immune globulin formulation Asceniv (see below), and with timelines on other pipeline activities now pushed forward in our model (Ryplazim BLA re-filing now expected in FH219, with FDA review timelines thus extending into FH120; PBI-4050 not expected to advance into pivotal Phase III testing in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) until end-of-F2019, pending capital considerations), we are revising our revenue/EBITDA forecasts to cater to these adjustments, as shown in Exhibits 1 & 4-8. Ryplazim/plasminogen still an attractive lead plasma product in our view, but financial risk limits possibility of expanding plasma products portfolio in ways we originally assumed: As we reflect on ProMetic’s recent drug development history in comparison to its quarterly operating cash losses, we are disappointed that the firm’s suite of clinical-stage plasma products does not yet extend materially beyond Ryplazim/plasminogen, since the firm’s more mature plasma product peers have already established a medical market for multiple such products that we believe ProMetic could have purified and clinically tested with its capture affinity resin platform. Relevant candidates include but are not limited to alpha-1-antitrypsin (AAT; targeting lung & liver diseases associated with AAT deficiency), C1 esterase inhibitor (angioedema), Factor VIII & IX (blood coagulation factors, targeting hemophilia A/B), to name four of many just from CSL Behring’s (CSL-AU, NR) approved product list alone. Interestingly though, ProMetic does have a partially differentiated plasma product portfolio with plasminogen, which no peer firm has yet developed to FDA approval.
PBI-4050 Phase II data already available certainly supports future Phase III testing in Alstrom Syndrome & IPF, pending capital availability: We are encouraged to see anti-fibrotic phenylacetate derivative drug PBI-4050 remain on pace to commence pivotal Phase III testing in Alstrom Syndrome before end-of-F2019 (pending FDA endorsement of IND filing, and pending capital availability of course) and to commence Phase IIb testing in IPF also before end-of-F2019 (same qualifiers as for Alstrom syndrome also apply); however, we are shifting forward our assumed approval timelines specifically for IPF (Exhibit 7), while maintaining our previously projected timelines to approval in Alstrom Syndrome (Exhibit 8).
We still believe that IPF represents a core focus market for the firm, especially with interim evidence already available that ‘4050 could positively impact lung function in IPF patients and not just slow down disease progression as other small-molecule drugs do, mainly Roche’s (ROG-SW, NR) Esbriet/pirfenidone and Boehringer Ingelheim’s (Private) Ofev/nintedanib, the latter potentially to be incorporated as a combination therapy with ‘4050 in pending Phase IIb testing, as originally proposed. We still believe that valuation comparisons to Esbriet developer InterMune (US$8.3B by Roche in Aug/14) provides an attractive valuation reference that could become increasingly relevant once Phase IIb data are available.
Summary & valuation: But with only $7.3M on the balance sheet and a quarterly operating cash loss that while trending downward during FH218 was still considerable in FQ418 at ($19.0M), we believe unambiguously high financial risk coupled with extension of clinical/regulatory timelines on Ryplazim/plasminogen and PBI-4050 beyond our previous expectations, we are shifting our rating from Speculative Buy to Hold, while simultaneously reducing our price target from $0.60 to $0.25, with valuation still based on multiples of revised F2025 adjusted EBITDA/fd EPS forecasts as shown in Exhibits 1 & 2. Our share-based projections are still based on fully-diluted S/O of 910.3M, though we are mindful that capital structure revisions could be pending if the firm seeks to fund near-term operations through a combination of new partnership-derived capital and equity capital. At current levels, our revised PT corresponds to a one-year return of 4.2%.