JOBS LOST IN FIRM'S U.S. MOVE

DAVID ELKS

12:00 - 02 July 2003

A Medical research company has shut down its South Cheshire headquarters, despite winning 900,000 of orders for technology to help fight the deadly Sars virus. An undisclosed number of staff at Crewe-based Osmetech have been made redundant after the company transferred its research operations to America.

The news comes as the company reported a boom in sales of a blood gas analyser to China over the past month to monitor patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars).
A spokesman for Osmetech, which employs 38 staff at the town's business park, said the decision followed a 2.2 million deal to take over pharmaceutical giant Roche's sensor division OPTI in March.
He said: "When they bought the company they also took on about 50 new staff involved in research and marketing.
"It was felt that Osmetech is still a fairly small company and having research operations split between the two sites was not efficient."

Following the move, the majority of research will now be conducted at OPTI's headquarters in Atlanta, while the company's registered headquarters has shifted to London.
This will enable the company to continue its listing on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market. The executive directors will also be based in London.
The spokesman said that a number of workers in the North-West of England will remained involved in research while working from home.

The news comes as the company confirmed it had picked up 910,000 of orders for its equipment following the Sars virus outbreak in the Far East.
The handheld device cannot diagnose the virus, although it has optical sensors which can measure vital bodily conditions during treatment of its pneumonia-like symptoms. It measures blood gas, electrolyte and metabolite levels and can be used for measuring the oxygen saturation and acid-base balance in Sars patients.
Osmetech said this would be particularly useful in cases where treatment required the use of a ventilator for "supplemental oxygen" therapy.

The deal will help Osmetech, which is estimated by analysts Evolution Beeson Gregory to suffer losses of 3.2 million in the current financial year, push its way towards profitability. The orders received this month are already 10 times higher than the last financial year.

In January the company confirmed it had won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its sensor, which uses electronics technology to 'sniff' out bacteria which can cause miscarriages - a market worth between 900 million and 1.2 billion in the U.S.

The group cut losses by 20 per cent to 533,000 in the six months to January and is due to report its annual figures on July 30.

david.elks@thesentinel.co.uk

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Fly by Night

Red

MB,
OBV is "on balance volume",just an indicator which try to tell who is the BOSS at the time being.Generally speaking ,not much useful for analyst a small/tiny firm like OMH.Because JUST a big buy/Sell order can change the whole picture completely! But until that happen,you may guess who is the dominant group. rgds SBR.

from the iii board by "Professor Higgins"


"Brummell

Thanks for the analysis much appreciated....my research and analysis also arrives at the 10p plus area...it is the timing of the arrival in this area that I am now constructing...using set release dates of finals and suggested timings of release of new products....all a little subjective but I have been right in the past..thats why i invested further funds on the 29th dec before the rush with a target of 4.5p.

The wild card is news of further contracts eg Thailand etc and when I mean new contracts I mean new sales rather than reagents doubles up profit as reagents will ne needed further down the line.

My assumption is that there will be at least one 'wild card' piece of news before finals...this will help accelerate the price past 5p and settle arround the 6/7p range....The FDA submission is due within the next month or so from my research and again this will add momentum....The finals will show improved sales but more reinvestment into the up and coming product line ...the lead up to the finals will see the share price move to a solid base of 10p etc...so summer will see a radically different share price with still considerable news to come in the latter half.....now this is where it gets interesting...

on the basis of the dates suggested by the interims product launches will occur in the last quarter...it would be prudent to assume that initial contracts will be achieved on or near product launch due to premarketing, OMH exposure through SARs and Bird virus related news...this will propel the share price into new waters...the difficult part as I have already said in previous comments is difficult to predict...and i will work this into my projections after finals are released...gut feel will be a similar rise seen by other certain companies who have moved from development to product launch....200/300% moves are not unknown...and this would derive a share price around 30p to 40p...well lets see.

Caution - There will be plenty of healthy pull backs and these should be seen as buying opportunities once the pattern is established (we are seeing it now with the share price trading well within the bid and offer prices and then the MMs reduce the offer to make it look like it is falling...however the price is consolidating around 4.5p...all that is happening is that some investors are being tempted to pay a higher price thinking good value but then see the offer price fall backn - any offer price below 4.5p would be a good price to buy for a medium/long term holder)

variables

New contracts for SARS and Bird Flu
New contracts for new product launches
Timing of FDA submission and sanction
Further progress with VIP5 to Asian countries and progress through any European body (version of USA FDA)
Any takeover activity (very doubtful at this time)

Anyway just a few thoughts. DYOR and be patient.

The Prof"

Can anyone explain all the activity on this one today?

Thanks,

Madison

OMH`s price supose to move from end/march-begin/april for its mini cycle,seems happen early this time!? But i won`t joint the party yet,patient is the name of the game. :))

does anyone know when osmetech q1 starts