“BSDM may have restrictions in reporting what is going on now, and anyway, it would hard to put together a precise report anyway. When one is expanding into a new intermediated channel of distribution there can be questions of when sales should be booked. You can bet the CFO is going to have his hands full trying to figure out what sales to report on the 10Q's.”
As BSD M. has a strategic alliance with Terumo, I suppose the issue of when sales to them are booked is a somewhat open question – perhaps complicated by how ownership of the products is handled. And, public statements re sales are also likely to be complicated – and, I believe, likely to be mainly under Terumo control.
“Maybe the best indicator of growth will be the actual cash receipts coming in from sales of the antennae, and cash flow in general.”
I don’t ignore or doubt BSD M.’s statements about Terumo’s sales going better than “expected”. I think that simply means more sales than those contemplated in the contract. And, since sales of the MTX line have been indicated as up sharply and this rise identified clearly as being due to Terumo, I see the situation as very positive. Granted, BSD M. has not been stating unit numbers sold, but that lack is unimportant, IMO – and more-or-less expectable. In fact, many companies do not issue ongoing tallies of unit sales – right? They just report units sold or net sales income at the end of each accounting period – usually broken down into various product lines, if more than one important product is involved. Announcing unit sales as they happen is more a trait of a small, struggling company. I believe BSD M. has changed its publicizing to match its new posture – a successful, established company. And, of course, Terumo surely insists on handling publicity for their sales – and got that concession written into the contract.
I think BSD M. has changed their reporting practices to be suitable for their new situation:
(A). a strategic alliance with a major distributer a) operating in many countries and b) clearly putting much effort into marketing c) what they tout as a major new product. Such an alliance normally places obligations on both parties, and we do not yet know specifically what these obligations are. However, I think one of them is that BSD M. cannot speak freely/specifically about how Terumo is doing. And, I think BSD M. also introducing new rules regarding income reporting. So, I am not concerned about the fact that BSD M. is now not specifically reporting sales as they happen.
(B) Impending, soon, new contracts for the 2000 series products in several countries. When in action, after marketing approvals are obtained by the distributors in the various countries, minimum contracted sales of the BSD-2000 series call for several times higher rates than prior sales – more like 8 units/year (or more) rather than 2 units/year (or less).
Why no 10K yet? My guess is that they are in the throes of re-hashing their accounting practices to serve their new situation – and that the 8K might mean the 10K is expected to be delayed. If so, this 10K should be especially carefully read. |
