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It’s the quarterly season again as the ASX market announcements page becomes increasingly flooded with update lodgements.
To save you the trouble of trudging through it all, we’ve wrapped up the highlights from some of the reports that caught our eye.
Highlights:
With its innovative erectile dysfunction (ED) nasal spray treatment in advanced development, LTP has provided its first trading update since its ASX listing on December 11, 2023.
The clinical trial for SPONTAN is forecast to kick off in Q1 CY24 in Sydney with the objective to assess bioavailability of the approved ED drug vardenafil following administration of SPONTAN as a nasal spray compared to vardenafil approved tablets (Levitra).
Bioavailability is a measurement of the amount of drug administered and entered into the blood stream and the rate at which this occurs.
There is no other nasal spray for the treatment of ED that has been approved on market and the trial is expected to provide LTR with vital clinical data for both the US FDA and Australia TGA expedited regulatory pathways.
LTP says manufacturing SPONTAN to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards was scaled up during the quarter for the upcoming clinical trial.
LTP’s key scientific and clinical advisor Professor Eric Chung presented the successful proof-of-concept trial data at the World Sexual Health Meeting in Dubai in December 2023, introducing the potential treatment to a worldwide audience of key opinion leaders in the field of ED.
Chung was awarded the prestigious EMIL TANAGHA Prize by the International Society for Sexual Medicine (ISSM) for the best innovative research.
Net cash used for operations in the quarter was $2.04 million, including $1.4 million in one-off non-reoccurring payments, including IPO costs and a patent milestone payment.
R&D expenditure was $1.05 million, which included clinical manufacturing preparations for the upcoming bioequivalence study and successful commercial packaging studies.
The company’s cash balance was$6.02 million as at 31 December 2023.
Highlights:
Fintech lender WZR reported expanding margins and sustainable revenue growth for Q2 FY24.
Net Interest Margin of 5.11%, slightly up from 5% on pcp, with run-rate December 23 new loan origination NIM of 7.16%, up from 6.12% in Dec-22.
WZR says originations of $53 million for Q2 FY24, a 54% decrease on pcp, and loan book of $847 million, an 8% decrease on pcp was both “driven by deliberate moderated loan volume settings”
Loan book average credit score remained strong at 781, the same as pcp with 90 plus day arrears of 1.31%, broadly flat to Q1 FY24 and slightly higher versus Q2 FY23 of 1.07%), driven by both a small decrease in and a maturing of the loan book
The company reported net losses of $4.9 million, a 10% decrease on Q1 FY24 and an increase on pcp of $2.8 million as prior period loan book vintages mature.
Unrestricted cash of $19.9 million was broadly flat to Q1 FY24 and down from $24.5 million on pcp. Equity capital in Wisr Warehouses increased to $46.9 million from $44.3 million on December 31, 2022.
WSR balance sheet strengthened in Q2 FY24 through the $2 million sale of Freedom 2022 G1 notes. Wisr has now closed four term deals, raising a total of $875 million.
Two warehouses are in place to support originations with a total commitment value of $650 million and an undrawn capacity of $278 million.
The customer net promoter score is +78 with the Wisr App facilitating the payment of $7.7 million in round-ups on customer debt and $11.3 million in extra loan repayments.
After quarter end in January FFG established a wholly-owned subsidiary Fatfish Applied AI Labs (FAI), which will be dedicated to identifying, investing in, or acquiring emerging generative AI startups and technologies with commercial applications in its key sectors including digital entertainment, fintech, and e-commerce.
FFG says $1 million will be invested in FAI from the recently completed capital placement with a further $7 million planned to be invested over the next 3 years, funded from operating cash flow.
FFG says it considers generative AI a crucial technological advancement, offering efficiency and innovation, making AI adoption strategically imperative for staying competitive globally.
Building on FFG’s investments in AI, the company has identified new business opportunities in the AI-powered social casino games and casual games segment.
Ex-Virtual Gaming Worlds’ executive Rhys Campbell, who was recently appointed as director of social gaming, will be in charge of this segment of FFG’s business.
The soft-tissue repair company says its is now actively pursuing a new partnership to commercialise its resorbable dental barrier.
ARX’ says US commercial operations is expected to deliver strong 70-85% year-on-year (full-year) Myriad sales growth.
The company has revised its FY24 full-year guidance, adjusting total revenue to NZ$67-70 million, reducing product revenue to NZ$66-69 million, 85% product gross margin, and normalised EBITDA loss to NZ$1-3 million.
ARX has attributed the downgrade to a one-off decrease in expected revenue from TELA Bio in H2 FY24 due to a prior overestimation of ARX’s revenue share on inventory supplied to TELA Bio and a delay in a joint product development project.
The company says OviTex and OviTex PRS continue their strong growth trajectory, but the Q3 data has identified the need for a “re-calibration to better align AROA’s revenue share estimation with TELA Bio’s recent inventory management measures”.
“Whilst we now anticipate a more moderateFY24 performance, this is a short-term dynamicand we expect to returnto the previoustrajectory fromthe next quarter (Q1 FY25),” CEO Brian Ward says in an ASX announcement.
As of December 31, 2023, ARX had a cash balance of NZ$30.5 million and is free of outstanding debt.
ARX this month also announced its Enivo system may reduce secondary complications in mastectomies, with positive results emerging from its pilot clinical trial of the device showing promise in the all-important management of dead space.
Highlights:
The semi-conductor company advancing working to advance quantum computing and medical diagnostics reported strong progress in Q2 FY24 including its biochip graphene field effect transistor sensor devices for multiplexing also validated by whole wafer runs with a commercial foundry partner in the Netherlands.
The company completed first joint-fabrication through a multi-project wafer run of Biochip graphene sensor designs with a commercial foundry in Germany with ew Biochip graphene sensor designs sent to a foundry in Spain.
AXE says it continues to strengthen its relationships with global foundry partners to deliver its chips using a streamlined ‘fabless’ commercialisation model.
“The team progressed the 12CQ chip readout capabilities,including starting measurements on Archer designed readout circuits,” executive chairman Greg English says in the ASX announcement.
“Readout is important for semiconductors as it provides the results from quantum calculations.
“The company’s Biochip gFET designs have progressed closer to acting as a lab-on-a-chip.”
AXE maintains a strong cash position to fund activities with $21.5million and no debt.
At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While LTR Pharma, Wisr, Fatfish Group, Aroa Biosurgery and Archer Materials are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.
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