Just quick summary to bring this to your attention; more detail will hopefully follow.

This stock floated yesterday at 10p and has since doubled. It has, needless to say, suddenly become very popular on another BB.

The company is profitable already and trading on an estimated (by yours truly) forward PE for the current year of 9 at SP 20p. EDIT: Hoodless Brennan estimate EPS for Full Year 2006 will be 2.18p - see article (link below).

Free float is 11.4% of the 81.2 million shares in issue - most are held by the directors.







Extremely useful Investegate article LINK


Extremely useful Hoodless Brennan analysis LINK


PDYOR, etc.

will most likely go further up come November, but Im now in a comfort zone for September and October

Speculation about brokers note due out at end of Sept, has risen from 45p to 80p.

80p price target? sounds nice. Just in from work, noticed they knocked it down but advfn forum says you couldn't buy any near the end! Think i'll have a few more on Monday morning.

assuming bernanke does not disappoint this evening, then markets could be rocketing yet agin on Monday - which of course is the time to be aware that there will be almost inevitable over-reaction upwards, with an ensuing bump down.

Hope you are right about the move up I think we can handle the move down when and if it comes!!

Wall Street currently (18:55) +145 and has been at least 50 higher ......

now go to http://money.cnn.com and read bernanke and bush on this issue ...... long w/e in US just starting, so hard to know how Dow will finish .... my guess is about where it is now, which i take as a positive sign

From Proactive investors 29/08/07

Market: AIM
Shares in Taihua have been one of the star performers of late on AIM. After raising 782,000 before expenses at 10 pence per share in December, and initiating trading at slight discount to that, the shares have easily outperformed the wider market. The bulk of the capital raised at listing was for the cost of listing, with some spare change left over for working capital. Taihua didnt require additional cash as it is already a cash generative business, highlighted in full year results for the period ending 31 December 2006, which showed profit before tax of 2 million on revenues of 3.48 million impressive margins - and up 74% and 64% on the previous year respectively.

Taihuas primary reason for listing on AIM had more to do with the groups short to medium term ambitions; we will come back to this later. Taihua produces active ingredients for use in medicine. A little known fact is that more than 50% of all medicines are derived from plants. The many plant species used in medicine are harvested and purified to produce particular ingredients, which are then often converted into pills or injections. Sometimes other ingredients are added to help with varying issues such as dissolvability in the blood, or consistency for making into pills. The key point, however, is that many of the active ingredients in many of the drugs we use everyday are derived from plants. Taihua is one of the companies who extract the desired active ingredients from plants into a form ready for use by drug manufacturers. There are a number of factors that come into play when a drug company chooses a supplier of an active ingredient, but arguably, the most important factor is purity. Not far behind purity is cost and deliverability of the desired product in the right quantity and quality. This is where Taihua has worked on differentiating itself from many, many competitors.

Taihua is focused on two key areas. First, and not surprisingly, the company is licensed inside the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) to supply traditional Chinese medicines. This is a fierce market with over 2000 companies with licences. Taihua has an internal sales team of 56, and claims it is one of only 500 companies that operate in such a manner. The AIM listing wasnt to support Taihuas desire to promote Chinese medicine, however. The second division of Taihua is focused on two active ingredients used in cancer related medicine. The first is Paclitaxel, an ingredient extracted from the bark of a particular species of Yew Tree (named Taxus) which is relatively abundant in Northern Asia, India and North America. The drug was first commercialised by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 1993 under the brand name Taxol. Taxol is used in the treatments of many types of cancer, as it acts as an inhibitor on cancer growth by stopping cancer cells from splitting. Since Bristol Myers-Squibb brought the drug to market 14 years ago, it has generated revenues in excess of US$9 billion. The patents protecting Taxol from competition expired in the European Union and United States in 2003 and 2004 respectively which, not surprisingly, created a surge in new players producing generic drugs; as many as 55 companies in Europe and 12 companies in China, of which Taihua is one. This surge in competition and demand for Paclitaxel forced the Chinese government to restrict the wild harvesting of the specific species of Yew Tree used with the obvious impact on input costs and supply issues for Chinese manufacturers including Taihua, who sold less Paclitaxel in 2004 & 2005 than in 2003. Taihua decided to take control of its own destiny, and leased tens of thousands of square metres of land to grow its own supply of Yew trees. This investment is nearing pay day, with sapplings planted now ready for harvesting in two years time. The company has a 10,000 square metre estate for seedlings to grow, which are then transferred to a 34,000 square metre estate to mature and harvest. This offers Taihua a considerable advantage over its competitors as it has taken control of the single largest risk to its business the cost and reliable supply of raw materials.

Taihua isnt a new company; having been established 13 years ago and focusing on traditional Chinese medicine, it brings considerable experience to the supply of active ingredients. The company has already secured licences to supply Paclitaxel into Russia and South Korea, and has third party distribution agreement for South America. This logically brings us back to Taihua and why it listed on AIM no prizes for guessing. Taihua has its sights on regulatory approval in Europe, which will first require a Good Manufacturing Practice Certificate and then a Certificate of Suitability. Once those are awarded, which Taihua stated in its listing documents that it anticipates in the second half of 2007, a country by country approval process, that will likely take at least 2 years and several millions of pounds, will be required. No clinical trials are required, but Taihua does need to show that its product is a bio-equivalent to Taxol and that their quality of product is of a high enough standard for western regulators, and that their manufacturing process is in compliance with western standards. So a lot of hoops to jump through, but the end game is the ability to supply a high quality active ingredient into one of the largest drugs markets in the world, and to be able to compete on cost by having their own supply of raw materials in China.

Taihua also produces Homoharringtonine, which has been used in China since the 1970s to treat acute myeloid leukaemia. Recently homoharringtonine has undergone clinical studies and received clearance in the western world for human use. Homoharringtonine is now undergoing various clinical trials for use in the treatment of a range of cancer related illnesses, and it is for this reason that Taihua has been increasing its production from 0.5 kilograms in 2003 to nearly 9 kilograms in 2007.

Meanwhile back in China, Taihua has benefited from installing its own sales team with group revenues of Chinese medicines rising to 622,000 during 2006. The company now sells traditional Chinese medicines into 302 hospitals across 10 provinces and supplies, through third parties, a further 1174 clinics and pharmacies in 13 provinces. Taihua sells seven plant-derived products all targeted at the cancer market.

As of yet, House Broker, WH Ireland, has not provided guidelines on revenues for 2007 and 2008; however, Life Sciences Analyst, Oliver de Giorgio-Miller, said that the consensus from the company and the broker was that growth would continue at a strong pace in the current financial year. More specific details dont exist yet, but a maiden research note in the 3rd quarter should help clear up exactly what kind of growth prospects are on the horizon for Taihua.

proving impossible to buy a good amount this morning as per bloody usual. Getting fed up with being stuck at work when this stock goes down and not being able to buy ( works firewall). Just rang up to buy 50000, quote "27 and a third pence" nice that they want to add just 1 1/3 pence on. Greedy barstards.

perhaps a silly comment for a change, but why do you not just leave an order with broker at a set limit, with acceptance of partial fill? ..... of course, you have also highlighted the prob of stocks with minimal float/liquidity, both when heading north or south

Yes i should do really. Think i'm trying to be too smart and catch perfect timing. I'm not sure there's a liquidity problem, more the old marketmakers playing the usual manipulation game. Apparently you could have bought 25000 on friday and with no apparent big sells or big buys (there was a few decent buys right at the bell on friday) you now struggle to buy more than 5000. Of course the dreaded MMs have to 'earn' a living though..

MM's buying at mid, they are desperate for stock. This should really start to move soon as long as everyone holds on.

looks like this could be a big blue day, stock being bid for at mid price and people paying over the offer, looks like a few have done their homework.

be careful, chinese stock market 'due an inevitable collapse' according to the times, whilst this won't have much of an impact to this company's profit it will hammer sentiment of chinese stocks. I may short SOLA this week.

i think SOLA is a good short anyway, enhanced by its "china factor"

ITS ALL GONE QUIET, THE SP ON THIS STOCK IS ABOUT TO BREAK OUT AT A FANTASTIC RATE, AND NOBODIES TALKING ABOUT IT.

MY MATE RECKONS THAT IT TOOK SOMEONE NEARLY 3 HOURS TO COMPLETE A TRADE FOR A FEW THOUSAND SHARES THE OTHER DAY.

DONT BE FOOLED INTO THINKING THAT THIS IS WORTHLESS. FAR FROM IT, ITS ONE OF THE BEST PLAYS OUT THERE AT THE MOMENT.

oilyrag
Well I can buy 30k shares with Barclays no problem.

PREHAPS YOU SHOULD CONSIDER IT. IMHO, DYOR.

DRIVER, ARE YOU IN YET? +0.75P SINCE YOUR LAST POST.

oilyrag
Was in I got out in April, no funds at the moment but still on my watch list.

results any day and hopefully soon a european license. Possibly a nice spike and then the usual sharp drop-plenty of time to pick some up but it's almost impossible to get any when they spike up so buy on dips if you fancy some. lol.