Shield Therapeutics - Tim Watts succeeds Carl Sterritt as CEO

Shield Therapeutics (STX) has announced that founder Carl Sterritt has resigned from his role as CEO with mutual agreement from its main shareholders. Tim Watts has been appointed as CEO from his position of CFO (since August 2018). While the timing does come as a surprise, we do not expect any disruptions to the business strategy; successfully commercialising Feraccru through partners is key to STX realising its value. Importantly, the company reported an end-FY19 cash position of £4.1m and the post-period end upfront payment of $11.4m from ASK Pharm received in January 2020 extends the cash runway into 2021. Our valuation of STX is unchanged at £344.7m or 294p/share.