Ultimovacs plummets after disappointing results. Nordnet customers’ shares worth NOK 430 million are now priced at just NOK 30 million.
Photo: Erik Flaaris Johansen / NTBPublished: Published:
Yesterday 14:15
A number of well-known investors take large paper losses in Ultimovacs after the share collapses on the news that the company’s cancer study failed.
But many small investors also go on a rampage. According to Nordnet, 3,900 customers owned the share before today’s price drop.
Nordnet customers sat with 3.66 million shares, says investment economist Mads Johannesen.
Read on E24+
It is still 100 percent down for Ultimovacs
– Sad story today
The shareholding was worth around NOK 430 million on Wednesday. When trading opened on Thursday, the price immediately plunged by more than 90 percent.
The value of the shares has thus been reduced to around NOK 30 million.
– It was a good journey until yesterday, but a very sad story today for both the company and the shareholders, says Johannesen to E24.
– This is one of the more brutal price reactions we have seen in a long time, he says.
Investment economist Mads Johannesen at Nordnet. Photo: Nordnet / Nordnet
Ultimovacs announced on Thursday morning that the company’s cancer study with the vaccine candidate UV1 did not reach the goal of extending survival for the patient group.
Ultimovacs tests its products through several studies
This was the second of five results in the so-called phase 2 programme. The other three studies are ongoing and results from a study are expected in the third quarter of this year.
– This is very bad news for the company. This has been their main study and now we get the main result, that you don’t see any effect of the vaccine on the end point you measure, which is progression-free survival, says analyst Geir Hiller Holom in DNB Markets to E24.
– This is dramatic with a negative sign for the company, he says.
Starburst
The share fall shrinks Ultimovacs’ stock market value from NOK 4.1 billion to NOK 325 million.
The biggest financial blow goes to the profiled investors Bjørn Rune Gjelsten and Stein Erik Hagen, who top the list of shareholders.
Gjelsten’s share of 18.9 per cent of the biotech company through the company Gjelsten Holding will be shaved off by around NOK 700 million.
Stein Erik Hagen and his family’s investment company Canica were left with 2.7 million shares and a paper loss of around 300 million. On Thursday morning, the Hagen company had sold off 1 million shares, according to a stock exchange announcement.
The foundation and health investor Radforsk, billionaire Helene Sundt, heir to the shipowner Petter Sundt, and the Sundt family are also major owners in Ultimovacs.