Ann: Singapore Government Provides Financial and , page-6

re: Ann: Singapore Government Provides Financ...
LTInvestor

Yes, the quandary is between how much notice to take of the past and how to view the future. Often one would take history as an indication of what will happen. But is the present situation the same? Has anything been learned? Has management?s perspectives of its own products and their markets sharpened significantly? I think the changes have been dramatic.

I have made it my business to attend every company meeting in the last few years and I come with prepared lists of questions. They generally answer these very well, keeping in mind that it is easy to ask questions and we tend to want to know the future before we come to it. I also talk to their staff to gauge their competence, the general company morale, and observe the manufacturing processes in their labs at Lane Cove. From all this I do find that they are very professional, the products are all excellent, they are genuinely committed. There is a healthy openness and a clear perspective of the desired goals and the means of achieving each in the respective divisions of the company, i.e. a very achievable business plan.

As in any business there will be some unknowns. Competitors can do big things but conversely NSP seems to be stealing a march on them instead (marketing nUView gels in the Bio-Rad and Invitrogen format cassettes, etc). In the bread and butter lines of gels gaining a colossal distributor such as Thermo Fisher is a real coup. They will demand a greater margin but the volumes should increase very significantly. Thermo Fisher also happens to be the second largest seller of Mass Spectrometers and now they are assessing NSP?s ProteoIQ software for potential selling with the hardware. In this way major inroads are being made in the US markets.

The big new thing is the expansion into Asia with the PrIME plasma separation technology. Here a major opportunity has presented itself as Asian countries strive to upgrade their standards to First World particularly in health areas. NSP?s plants have the advantage of being small but modularly upgradable in volume. They can also safely use the collected plasma that would otherwise be discarded. The five large international fractionators cannot do this. It is a game changing situation and NSP is striving to rapidly move into the market gap.

One might be tempted to think, ?Why not build up the company slowly?? but the opportunity is presently available, leading decision makers in those countries are on side, and offers of support have been made. In those circumstances NSP management has taken the bull by the horns. It is a large project but the potential returns are a real company maker.

The last two NSP presentations are really worth studying in detail to gain a perspective of the scales and the relative contributions that the separate divisions will make. I think management have made the right decision in this instance.

Juke