Technology news has been dominated by trade deals this week. Talk of services and Aussie innovation gaining greater access is good news for the technology sector. On the markets this week Vocus Communications was in exclusive talks with Amcom about a possible takeover. The news didn’t stop Amcom doing deals as it landed a $6.5 million four year contract from the Northern Territory government.
Viralytics received final approval for phase 1 clinical trials of Cavatak from UK regulators for patients with bladder cancer and the company has also released results showing improved anti-cancer activity from Cavatak when used in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Commentary
As part of the ASX Investor Series held in Melbourne last week, Finance News Network spoke with Ted Pretty, the CEO of Hills Limited
(ASX:HIL). This iconic Aussie company has undergone a major transformation in recent years and Hills 2.0 is laser focused on technology.
Your recent AGM highlighted pleasing trading conditions from your health solutions business, what’s supporting growth?
“The bottom line with health is the whole industry is growing around eight per cent compound, annual growth rate and revenue. That is why we’ve moved into health technology, we see it as a sector which has a lot of potential.”
“We’re involved in nurse call and patient entertainment, patient engagement technologies. We see that the continuing growth in healthcare will support the growth in those technologies. So we’ve been quite pleased with its performance in the first four months. It was the bright spot in otherwise difficult trading conditions.”
How does Hills’ technology strategy target quality assets and what do you believe sets it apart from the rest?
“We need to develop some unique and sustainable business value propositions. To a large extent our business has been focused on the distribution of third party product, into the Australian market. So that’s been important to us in terms of our earnings to date. But we see a lot of opportunity, particularly in the health sector where we will produce, design, manufacture that product ourselves and provide a bit more sustainability to our margins. Because if you’re importing a lot of product and you’re subject to variations in the Aussie dollar, that creates a vulnerability in your business. If you’re able to manufacture your own product and have some self-determination over how your margins work, then it’s better for the business.”
Economic news
In the wake of the G20 meeting in Brisbane talk has turned to trade deals and most notably an agreement between Australia and China. The deal will dissolve a whole range of tariffs and for the biotech sector the reductions could be up to 10 per cent. Australia has an innovative biotech sector and access to China will be a vital boost to demand.
M&A action
Vocus Communications Limited
(ASX:VOC) is in exclusive talks with Amcom Telecommunications Limited
(ASX:AMM) about a possible takeover. The fibre optic and data centre provider has entered into exclusive due diligence with Amcom after the company took a 10 per cent interest in later October.
The news hasn’t stopped Amcom doing deals as it landed a $6.5 million four year contract from the Northern Territory government. The fibre network and ICT provider will supply additional data network services throughout the NT, including many remote locations. Amcom has also been selected as a preferred supplier on the Fixed Voice Services panel for the Northern Territory government.
Social entertainment platform migme Limited
(ASX:MIG) has announced new collaborations with music and content companies. Singapore based migme says the partner companies include Sony Music Indonesia, Warner Music Indonesia, E-Motion Entertainment and GP Records. The collaborations are aiming to bring a broad portfolio of artists, entertainment and music content to the migme platform to grow, monetise and retain users.
Wotif.com Holdings Limited
(ASX:WTF) had its last day of trading on the ASX last week after its takeover by US based Expedia cleared final regulatory hurdles. The hotel booking website requested that its shares be suspended from the close of trade yesterday until the implementation of the final scheme of arrangement which is scheduled to occur on the 14 November.
Biotech
Starpharma Holdings Limited
(ASX:SPL) has been granted a Chinese patent for its Priostar dendrimers for use with agrochemicals such as Glyphosate. The biotech company says this will further strengthen and expand its patent portfolio for the use of its proprietary dendrimers in agrochemical products.
Viralytics Limtied
(ASX:VLA) has received final approval for phase 1 clinical trials of Cavatak from UK regulators for patients with bladder cancer. The biotech company says the phase 1 trial is a two part open label study designed to evaluate the safety and tolerability of CAVATAK administered alone as well as with chemotherapy.
Viralytics Limited
(ASX:VLA) has released results showing improved anti-cancer activity from Cavatak when used in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors. The immunotherapy company says a preclinical study has shown superior efficacy outcomes in a mouse melanoma study. The company explains that Cavatak is a proprietary formulation of a common cold virus that has been shown to preferentially infect and attack cancer cells.
