In this briefing:
- Amarin Q4 2018 Conference Call–Strong Sales & High Confidence
- CStone Pharma (基石药业) Post-IPO: Strong Debut but Lacks near Term Catalysts
- HK Connect Discovery Weekly: Geely, Great Wall Motor and Sands China (2019-02-22)
- Celltrion Healthcare: Well, We Were Warned
- ECM Weekly (23 February 2019) – Futu, CStone, Dexin, New Century, AB InBev, MabPharma
1. Amarin Q4 2018 Conference Call–Strong Sales & High Confidence
Q4 2018 Revenues Stronger Than Pre-Announcement on January 4th: Amarin released its Q4 2018 results today and held a conference call. Results of $77m in sales (+44% YoY), were stronger than the January 4th pre-announced range of $72m and $76m. 2019 revenue guidance of 50% growth to $350m was left unchanged, but management sounded very confident on the conference call (see details below).
Q1 2019 Revenue Growth Appears Stronger than Expected: On the conference call, Amarin was asked whether Q1 revenues were tracking the prescription data, which indicates +50% YoY growth so far. Management said that sales looked about the same, despite revenues tending not to track prescriptions that closely in Q1 normally.
FDA May Fast-Track Vascepa Label Expansion: While Amarin’s CEO, John Thero, is usually very conservative with guidance, today he explored the possibilities of fast-track treatment by the FDA for Vascepa’s label expansion for the first time. Amarin is still on course to file for this with the FDA by March-end. Fast-track treatment by the FDA would speed up the approval process to 6 months, versus 10 months, and if favorable, could have significant upside impact on 2019 revenues.
Approval for Vascepa in Europe to be Sought This Year: Amarin disclosed for the first time that it would seek approval for Vascepa in Europe this year. This is highly significant because the cardiovascular disease (CVD) patient population is 22% higher than the US. Amarin confirmed that FDA approval for label expansion would speed up the approval process in Europe.
Next Catalyst is the ACC Conference on March 18th: Amarin will be announcing “late-breaking” data from the Reduce-It clinical trial at the American College of Cardiology on March 18th. Because the Reduce-It trial results themselves were so powerful, we expect the ACC event to be of high interest among CVD specialists and investors.
Amarin Remains an Attractive Take-Over Candidate: Given the high efficacy of Vascepa in the treatment of CVD patients, Amarin continues to be one of the most highly attractive take-over candidates in the pharmaceutical world. Management’s confidence on today’s call appears to be linked to a stronger than expected response to Vascepa among doctors since its block-buster trial results were announced last September. For details about our outlook on Amarin, please refer to our deep-dive report published last month: Amarin–2019’s Biggest Buyout Target for Big Pharma
2. CStone Pharma (基石药业) Post-IPO: Strong Debut but Lacks near Term Catalysts
CStone Pharma’s IPO was priced at HKD 12.00/share and started trading today. In this insight, we summarize the allocation, the use of proceeds and recap our view on our valuation. We also look at past few biotech listings and discuss our thoughts on the market sentiments. We are of the view that despite a strong debut performance, CStone lacks near term catalysts that can continue to drive performance after the first day.
Our Previous Coverage of CStone
- CStone Pharma (基石药业) IPO: Strong Assembly and Backing (Part 1)
- CStone Pharma (基石药业) IPO: Thoughts on Valuation (Part 2)
3. HK Connect Discovery Weekly: Geely, Great Wall Motor and Sands China (2019-02-22)
In our Discover HK Connect series, we aim to help our investors understand the flow of southbound trades via the Hong Kong Connect, as analyzed by our proprietary data engine. We will discuss the stocks that experienced the most inflow and outflow by mainland investors in the past seven days.
We split the stocks eligible for the Hong Kong Connect trade into three groups: component stocks in the HSCEI index, stocks with a market capitalization between USD 1 billion and USD 5 billion, and stocks with a market capitalization between USD 500 million and USD 1 billion.
In this week’s HK Connect Discovery, we highlight the strong inflow to automobile stocks and Sands China.
4. Celltrion Healthcare: Well, We Were Warned
Celltrion Healthcare (091990 KS) reported preliminary 2018 results that were dramatically short of expectations as the company cut shipments to reduce distributors’ inventories. Management had announced plans to shift to a direct sales model to get better control over pricing decisions, but the magnitude of Q4’s shortfall (94% decline in revenue) raises questions about the role of “channel stuffing” in boosting prior periods’ results. In addition, we expect some spillover effect on Celltrion Inc (068270 KS)‘s Q4’s results. This Insight discusses the results in brief and contrasts Celltrion Healthcare’s results with those of Samsung Bioepis.
We continue to avoid these stocks.
5. ECM Weekly (23 February 2019) – Futu, CStone, Dexin, New Century, AB InBev, MabPharma
Aequitas Research puts out a weekly update on the deals that have been covered by Smartkarma Insight Providers recently, along with updates for upcoming IPOs.
Starting with listings in Hong Kong next week, CStone Pharma (2616 HK) and Dexin China Holdings (2019 HK) will list on the 26th of February. Dexin is said to have priced at the mid-point of its price range while CStone is priced above its mid-point.
We also heard that Haitong Unitrust International Leasing was given the green light by CSRC for its Hong Kong IPO. The company had previously re-filed its draft prospectus in September last year. Shanghai Dongzheng Automotive Finance has also received approval from CSRC for its IPO.
There had also been a small property developer, YinCheng, that had launched its US$100m IPO. Jinxin Fertility had also just filed its draft prospectus with the HKEX.
Back in the US, we are hearing that Futu Holdings Ltd (FHL US) could be starting its bookbuild as early as next week. Sumeet Singh had previously analyzed the company in his insight, Futu Holdings Pre-IPO – Great Metrics but in a Commoditised Industry, and he will be following up with another insight next week.
In Japan, there is an Aruhi Corp (7198 JP) placement in which Carlyle looking to sell their entire stake in the company. Sumeet Singh had covered in Aruhi Placement – Bigger than the IPO but Good Track Record and Price Performance Should Help. The placement would be more attractive if it corrects down over the next few days but the removal of overhang from Carlyle seemed to be very well received by the market and the share price had even traded up 13% on Wednesday this week.
Accuracy Rate:
Our overall accuracy rate is 72.1% for IPOs and 63.7% for Placements
(Performance measurement criteria is explained at the end of the note)
New IPO filings
- Jinxin Fertility Group (US$600m, Hong Kong)
Below is a snippet of our IPO tool showing upcoming events for the next week. The IPO tool is designed to provide readers with timely information on all IPO related events (Book open/closing, listing, initiation, lock-up expiry, etc) for all the deals that we have worked on. You can access the tool here or through the tools menu.
News on Upcoming IPOs
- Fund Companies Ask Hong Kong to Relax IPO Investment Rules
- Chinese Tech Giants Seek Further IPO Rule Changes in Hong Kong
- Sembcorp could delay India energy IPO due to market conditions
- PNB Metlife IPO likely next fiscal
Smartkarma Community’s this week Analysis on Upcoming IPO
- New Century Hotel Mgmt IPO Preview: Two-Speed Businesses
- New Century Hotel (浙江開元酒店) Pre-IPO – Improved Profitability Not Driven by Underlying Operations
- Ab InBev Asia Pre-IPO – Quick Note – More like CR Beer Rather than Tsingtao
- MabPharma (迈博医药) IPO: Assembled for a Trade?
- Hyundai Autoever IPO Preview
- Hyundai Autoever IPO Pricing: Likely to Be a Dull Event Given No Growth Story & Glovis Merger
- HLX02: Innovation Could Overtake
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