inphyy wrote: Biosensors - BioFreedom Continues To Demonstrate Comparable Long-Term Safety And Efficacy To Conventional DES
01 Nov 2013 17:50
Biosensors International has announced four-year results from the BioFreedom First in Man study, which demonstrated similar clinical outcomes between BioFreedom, a polymer-free drug-coated stent, and Boston Scientific's Taxus Liberté drug-eluting stent, with no evidence of definite and/or probable stent thrombosis. Results were presented by Dr. Ricardo Costa, Instituto Dante Pazzanese de Cardiologia, São Paulo, Brazil, at the 25th annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics meeting, sponsored by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation...
SMRT - 2 culprits behind SMRT's 'nightmarish' earnings results
Net profit crashed by 57%.
According to CIMB, SMRT's earnings were disappointing, no thanks to a nightmarish mix of higher opex and the lack of a fare hike.
The only positives are that the risk of significant dividend cuts is lower now and management is proactive in growing its non-fare business domestically and overseas.
Here's more:
2QFY3/14 net profit was 34% short of our below-consensus estimate, with 1HFY14 making only 35% of our FY14 forecast. We reduce our FY14-15 forecasts by 6-30% to account for higher operating expenses.
Bottomline got hit again
Revenue rose 5.3% yoy, thanks to the strong ridership in Singapore. However, with relentlessly higher operating costs, 2QFY3/14 profit was dragged lower by 57% yoy.
Costs escalated in several business segments. The large jump in costs was the result of a sharper rise in staff costs (+27% yoy), wage adjustment and higher headcount.
Higher opex but higher dividend payout ratio too
We increase all the key operating expenditure assumptions, although we think that staff costs should hover around this level for the rest of the year (c.40% of revenue).
SMRT has proposed to pay an interim dividend of 1 Sct/share, a significant jump in payout ratio in this case. We believe the risk of further dividend cuts is now less of a concern given the more robust cash flow structure.
Revenue-cost misaligned
Fare adjustment remains a problem and revenue growth will still lag behind cost inflation. We believe that SMRT is making inroads with regulators regarding the accounting of asset transfers under the new rail-financing framework.
Once this is resolved, the end result will be predictable cash flows and a more sustainable financing model, which will alter the fate of the company.
Riverstone - Fast-growing Riverstone Holdings faces 3 main growth risks
Possible pricing pressure is one.
Riverstone Holdings is seeing booming demand for its cleanroom and healthcare segments, but it remains vulnerable to 3 risks, according to OSK-DMG.
First, it could experience possible pricing pressure arising from its expansion in healthcare glove capacity.
"Riverstone’s European customers are increasingly asking the company to boost capacity to help them diversify their supplier base, which may potentially triple orders," noted OSK-DMG.
"If the company achieves its plan of expanding to an annual production capacity of 8.0bn pieces in FY19, we expect its earnings to grow at a CAGR of 22.4% starting from FY13, up more than 4.1x to MYR163.4m by then," it added.
A second risk for the firm are potential raw material price fluctuations, while its third vulnerability lies in its exposure to forex volatility.
If Riverstone manages to avoid these risks, then Riverstone could be well on its way to joining the the big league, according to OSK-DMG, due to its blistering rates of demand and expansion growth.
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