Investment summary

Q3 sales picked up marginally to $89k after Q2 of $44k. This implies 6 months without any system sales and with low rates of SmartChip use. The operating loss YTD was $13.4m. After the $30.4m May fund raising, cash on 30 September was $19.8m. there is an annualised cash outflow of $18.1m before funding. The expected 30k SmartChip may help FY12 sales. WaferGen urgently needs to boost its published applications to help generate sales. Good H1 12 sales performance will help to cut the burn otherise the company needs to cuts costs urgently. The CEO has resigned but remains as Chairman. A senior management team is fulfilling the CEO duties until a new appointment. We have suspended our forecasts.

Last updated on 09/12/2011

Industry outlook

Fliudigm with its digital RT-PCR chip had a good YTD with sales up 35.5% to $28.1m. Of the big players, Life Technologies YTD sales grew 4% due to budget pressures; Illumina's Q311 was static vs Q3 10 at $235m. In Q3, Bio-Rad paid $162m for QuantaLife to get its not-yet-launched digital PCR system.

Last updated on 09/12/2011