Bo-Peep's iPhone may have fallen into the elevator shaft. The super is checking because both of us would prefer to blame me rather than a pickpocket in the building.

Our griefs over email turn out to be the result of a new charge for linking your Hostmonster web-hosting for your website to gmail, imposed without telling the customer by the Salt Lake City-based company, which then cut of our main email account with a huge pile of contacts and archived material. This is what google encourages you to do with your mail.

The charge was $5. I paid it of course, but now there are complexities which Hostmonster says I have to clear with Google. The various toll-free numbers at google require that you input a code which Hostmonster refuses to provide, having taken the $5 however.

The 21^st century business model is clearly rotten. Our webmaster returns next week and of course I will change web-hosting companies.

Small Caps

*Small-cap Lingo Media of Canada, LMDCF, revenue in 2015 was double (up 965) from that of the prior year at C$4.926 mn and operating expenses only rose by 8%. The company incurred hefty expenses notably for C$ 3,5 mn, triple prior year levels, for financing its growth but nonetheless achieved a net profit of C$2.53 mn, vs C$144,013 the year before. EPS hit 10 loony cents, 10x prior year levels. After the year end, LMDCF repaid $580,000 of loan balances.

Q4 growth was a more modest rise of revenues by C$100,000 to C$1.276 mn and a net profit of C$633 thousand, nearly quadruple prior year levels, but only 2 loony cents/sh, double Q4 2015 levels because the number of shares out rose to over 26 mn from under 22 mn a year earlier.

The language education firm last year crossed an important milestone when its digital revenue beat its print one.

*Belgian Galapagos (GLPG) and AbbVie (ABV) will boost their joint venture in developing a triple drug combo to treat cystic fibrosis. The milestones to the Belgian company were upped for phase 1 and 2 goals from $350 mn to $600 mn. The combination will be made up of potentiators and corrector molecules to treat different genetic causes of the disease, covering some 90% of its victims. GLPG also will get sales royalties and commercial rights in South Korea and China and co-promotion right in the Benelux countries but ABV will handle phase II trials. The initial human trials will be in patients with the F508del mutation starting in 2017.

GLPG also has begun a phase 1 trial for its CF corrector GLPG2222 and a phase 2 trial for its GLPG 1837 in CF patient with a different genetic flaw. It also is moving into phase 2 with GLPG 1690 for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a different lung disease, and other phase 1 trials.

Galapagos Q1 revenues were euros 14.8 mn and net profit 35.9 mn (including milestones which are not sales.) Per share it was plus euros 35.9 vs minus 14.2 in Q1 2015. GLPG has cash on hand of euros 987.6 mn and expects to burn euros 100-120 mn this year.

Its Q1operating loss came in at euros 17.4 mn vs prior year 15.3 mn. Apart from CF the company is working on filgotinib (with Gilead) to treat rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease.

*Benitec Biopharma (BNTC) shorting declined by 48% this week after it filed a supplemental report to the Australia Stock Exchange an appendix to its 2015-6 Q4 report showing a reduced R&D spending level of A$2.7 mn (vs prior quarter A$3.4 mn) to conserve cash. While normally R&D spend needs to be maintained by startup biotech firms, in this case the money saved was by terminating its hepatatis C program to TT-034. The focus will now be on getting to human trials with a hepatitis B treatment BB-HB-331 which works on mice given human hpatocytes after the rodents are give the RNAi gene therapy. BNTC hopes the Hep C program will enable it to move faster on Hep B because it provides safety support for using its DNA-derived RNA silencing gene therapy.

BNTC also revealed that a substantial holder of its shares, Sabby Healthcare master fund, has sold 5.346 mn of its ordinary Oz shares and its manager Hal Mintz a similar amount. A word of warning: by filing only with the ASE BNTC avoids possible problems over its US listed shares with our SEC. However my view is that this is merely because of disarray while it seeks a CEO.

Big Caps

*Teva (TEVA) won FDA approval to launch its juvenile asthma inhalation system, Proair Respliclick, in children aged 4 to 11 to clear obstructed airways and prevent broncospasm.

*Vale (VALE) continues to climb out of the valley and was up 3.8% last week.

Funds

*Pershing Square Holdings (PSHZF) may be relieved that Canada's Valeant (VRX) has produced its required 2015 10K annual report and thereby met its loan and credit covenants. However, another controversial Ackman position, shorting Herbalife Nutrition, may be at risk according to an article in the April 25 issue of Bloomberg Business Week. The magazine says soccer heroes and the Israeli women's soccer team signing up to promote the sports performance side of the distributor system PSH claims is a pyramid scheme boosted its sales and credibility. It is recruiting more people to sell its vitamins and teas. The soccer biggies include David Beckham, Lionel Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo, who appeal to Latins and men, adding new markets for Herbalife. Moreover the mag says all these endorsers cost a mere 1.5% of sales which hit $.447 bn last year.

*Ascendas India Trust (ACNDF), run out of Singapore but invested in real estate in India. ACNDF or CY6U raised 4 trillion yen at 0.75% for 15 years to boost its ability to invest with low interest funds. It will build out its Chennai (Madras) tech site with part of the loot.

This REITs' 4^th fiscal quarter (to end March) net property income rose 17% in S$ to 1.114 bn and income to be distributed rose 14% to S$625 mn or 0.68 ¢/sh.

Abhimany Sisodia adds that it “posted healthy full year results with revenues up 11% to Rs 6.8 bn (~$100 mn) driven by higher portfolio rental and occupancy levels.Property expenses fell 2% on lower utility bills offset by higher costs at newly acquired sites. “

For the full year, net income rose 20% to S$ 4.415 bn, while income to be distributed rose 13% to S$2.393 bn or S$ 2.59/share. The 4^th quarter was much weaker than the third.

*Fibra Uno lost BBVA as a tenant as it moved into its own building, cutting its leased area by 124,200 sq meters. Nonetheless its Q1 revenues rose 1.8% sequentially and 43% year/year to NMP 3.174 bn as it maintained its occupancy level at 94.5% for completed buildings in the quarter. Funds from operations fell 6% to NMP 0.502 per share and distributions will be NMP 0.502, down 0.7% from Q4 2015, before Spanish bank moved out. Leaving out BBVA, monthly same-site rents rose 7.1% per sq meter from Q1 2015.

Meanwhile FBASF is joining together it Buffalo (former Mitikah) portfolio with its Colorado Centro Bancomer to create a new complex which will be the largest in Mexico City. It also acquired two large new sites in prime Guadalajara. Its new improved sites are almost all 100% rented out.

*SPDR Gold Trust, an ETF, NYSE-GLD, is going up along with gold as the US dollar sags. If you are not superstitious the rise to $123.93 heralds a rise soon to $130.