In today’s briefing:
- Chongqing Taiji Industry (Group) (600129 CH) – Investors Are Betting on the Merger with China TCM
- ETST: F1Q26 Earnings – Slight EPS Miss Setting the Stage for Growth
- LGND: Getting In Tune with MedTech
- Nipro Corp (8086 JP): Q1 FY03/26 flash update
- NRXBF: Company Treatment Outperforms Industry Standard
- Conant Optical (2276 HKG): Growth Optics Sharp & Clear with Expanding Margins, Robust Sales in 1H25
Chongqing Taiji Industry (Group) (600129 CH) – Investors Are Betting on the Merger with China TCM
- The current channel inventory digestion has been ongoing for nearly a year. If the terminal sales data in 25Q3 improves, it is expected to support the revenue recovery in 25Q4.
- China TCM and CNPGC had signed relevant agreement on the free transfer of equity. Investors think this is paving the way for the future integration of China TCM and Taiji.
- Investors have reignited interest in betting on China TCM’s privatization and merger with Taiji .According to Taiji, CNPGC will still fulfill its commitment to resolving the issue of horizontal competition
ETST: F1Q26 Earnings – Slight EPS Miss Setting the Stage for Growth
- Key F1Q26 takeaways include: 1) the company recently completed the acquisitions of Las Villas Health Care, a “brick & mortar” healthcare practice, and DOConsultations.com, an online telemedicine platform, along with an 80% ownership stake in Magnefuse, LLC, a retail consumer company, thereby further diversifying ETST’s industry/business mix 2) ETST benefitted from a considerably broader revenue profile in F1Q26 reflecting incremental contributions across the company’s compounding pharmacy, telehealth, “brick and mortar” healthcare, and retail consumer segments, with favorable lead indicators around increasingly activating recently acquired assets, ongoing consolidation across the compounding pharmacy industry, and recently launched marketing initiatives and 3) senior officials are increasingly focused on extracting synergies and maximizing profitability driven by elevated gross margins, limited hiring needs, and progressively leveraging centralized corporate functions, thereby streamlining expenses across the portfolio.
LGND: Getting In Tune with MedTech
- Ligand Pharmaceuticals holds a portfolio of revenue, royalty & milestone generating assets that have been vetted by its internal investment team.
- Ligand considers individual biopharmaceutical products, platforms, companies & income streams in its opportunity set.
- It targets late-stage and commercial income-producing assets when making investments.
Nipro Corp (8086 JP): Q1 FY03/26 flash update
- Sales increased by 4.5% YoY to JPY159.2bn, with operating profit rising 24.6% YoY, despite a 45.2% decline in recurring profit.
- Pharmaceutical-Related business saw a 268.6% YoY surge in segment operating profit, driven by increased shipments and accounting treatment impacts.
- The FY03/26 earnings forecast remains unchanged, with sales projected at JPY677.0bn, operating profit at JPY37.0bn, and net income at JPY13.0bn.
NRXBF: Company Treatment Outperforms Industry Standard
- NurExone (OTC-NRXBF) is a preclinical stage biotech company that is developing a breakthrough treatment for spinal cord injuries that has the potential to dramatically improve lives.
- The technology involved also has the potential to more efficiently get other treatments to the needed area.
- The company announced independent study results that show its exosomes delivered more than twice the amount of wound-healing signals than the industry benchmark.
Conant Optical (2276 HKG): Growth Optics Sharp & Clear with Expanding Margins, Robust Sales in 1H25
- In 1H25, Shanghai Conant Optical (2276 HK) reported revenue rise of 11% to RMB 1.1M buoyed by growth across segments like multifunctional lens (up 9%) and standardized lens (up 20%).
- In 1H25, the company kept up with its consistency of expanding its gross margins period after period, as margin expanded from 39.2% in 1H24 to 41% in 1H25 (2024: 38.6%).
- Shanghai Conant’s robust demand outlook, capacity expansion plans, R&D initiatives and margin strength offer a strong long term secular growth story.
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