Wishing and Hoping - Eden Research (EDE)
11/12/2009
(119264)
Wishing and Hoping
Will it never end, this wait for Eden Research to translate expectation into real sales and hard cash income?
Two announcements in two days, one with cucumber trial results which confirm that Eden’s terpene formulations work at least as well as the chemical rival in tackling nematodes, and another reflecting the fussy move by Plus Markets to have companies report quarterly.
Neither adds much to our sum of knowledge. Eden continues to teeter on the brink of financial disaster by conventional standards, but with a basic product which appears to address enormous and growing markets – and a share price which drifts down in the face of sporadic selling.
The shares added a token 2p today at 17p to 20p as over 130,000 were traded. More than 300,000 traded on Thursday. Perpetual hopes that a big forced seller or two had finished always appear to be frustrated, with good news always just around the corner.
Once again, it appears that it is just around the corner. New managing director Clive Newitt says that talks are going well with current and potential licensing deals, and looks forward to announcements soon.
The cucumber results are important, and support convincing evidence that Eden’s natural products perform at least as well as the kind of nasty chemicals which are falling out of favour and are being outlawed. The results will influence talks with prospective licence holders who have been sniffing around for months and who could bring – relative to Eden’s size - big money deals. Trials roll on constantly, and results should keep coming.
None of this is much immediate use while the company is trapped in red tape, still awaiting final clearance from the Chemicals Regulation Directorate of the terpenes which formulate 3AEY, the lead product. That has been hanging fire for more than a year, and Eden answered all of the queries months ago, even gold-plating the response.
That response would clear the way for licensees to go to their national regulators and obtain final clearance to start making and selling Eden products. It is hard to believe such clearance is many weeks away – though it is folly to bet much on it, and hard to believe that some bureaucrat will not place another obstacle in the path to actual sales.
It is not clear what announcements Newitt has in mind. Perhaps, at last, we could be close to one of the deals which brings in a big partner to exploit terpene technology outside agriculture. That could cheer the share price.
Meanwhile, Eden continues to look like an outstanding idea struggling to succeed. Believers will cling on to what remains an outstanding high-risk, high-reward gamble.
I have a holding in Eden Research.
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