Re-invested Versarien proceeds in Centamin

I couldn't shake the wrongness of the fall in CEY:Centamin share price over the last few days. 160p to 122p in a couple of days. That's a 24% drop based on a production update that suggests short term production may be reduced by around 14%. These updates tend to be pessimistic, and the short term nature of the drop has been stressed. They are also a sound company with £221 million free cash flow last year.

It's not surprising one of their non-executive directors immediately bought 40,000 shares.

I couldn't let the opportunity slip, and in an attempt to prevent myself spending the cash on yet more OPTI:Optibiotix shares, I used the proceeds from yesterday's VRS:Versarien sale to buy 1,198 CEY:Centamin shares at 126.365p costing £1,525.80.

The bid price climbed to 126.8p by the end of the day so spread is covered, but I'm down £18 commission based on a total commission of £23.90 for buying and selling.

I figure VRS:Versarien will take a while to drop down to my target price, so I may as well hold these in the hope of a quick rebound back to 160p. I'll then sell up so I can get even more VRS:Versarien, as getting this to 10% of my holding is still a priority.

I had a major scare this morning, reading an OPTI:Optibiotix RNS with great excitement only to find there has been a placing at 62p. I was gutted - just as things were looking up, the inevitable drop to placing price would hammer my portfolio once more.

I was feeling betrayed - we were assured there was enough cash - what on earth did they need a placing for?

Reading the RNS revealed all. There is great interest from pharma companies in LP-LDL, but in order to satisfy the most basic pharma demands, the processing plant has to have an independent production line for this product. That will cost £500K.

So if we invest £500K now, then it could result in a 7-figure return once the pharma companies have put our product through phase III trials and regulatory approval.

Add to that retail interest in Slimbiome requiring ramp up in production and increased Sweetbiotix activity, and the benefits of raising cash to move faster on these channels seems to outweigh the relatively small dilution that will result.

Thankfully the market agreed, and rather than tanking to 62p as I expected, the bid price climbed to 66p and is only 1p from going back into profit.

Meanwhile VRS:Versarien has dropped from the 94.82p I sold for to 88p and is validating my decision to top-slice a few. I just need the timing to be in favour with CEY:Centamin so I can rescue my cash and get an enlarged VRS:Versarien holding.

In the SIPP CAML:Central Asia Metals went mental today, with a 6.4% increase, but N4P:N4 Pharma sneaked back into a small loss.

At the mid-week point I'm up by a spectacular £3, but that's including the loss in portfolio value from banking £353 VRS:Versarien profits, so I'm feeling decidedly up.

The last few weeks have seen disastrous Thursdays and Fridays though, so I won't get excited unless I can take a positive snapshot on Friday evening.