‘Yes, I thought that was probably the case, so it’s Christine I need to speak to is it?’
‘Yes, but I wouldn’t for a few days she’s snowed under at the moment with her new boss, Melanie,’ and Amanda leaned forward to whisper. ‘Melanie has been making all sorts of demands on Christine, asking her to find all back copies of accounts, drawing up costings for this and that, she’s terribly stressed by it all. Christine has been working late every evening this week. It wouldn’t be fair to ask her to do anything else at the moment unless it’s urgent of course.’
‘No, no, not urgent, well thanks for the info. Everything OK with you?’
‘Yes, fine, but Piers is very stressed at the moment. It all started after he got a letter marked for his sole attention on Monday,’ she was speaking very softly now, so softly that Nick had trouble hearing and he leaned forward even closer to Amanda, breathing in her enticing perfume. ‘Well, after that letter he seemed very upset and called a senior team meeting and they all met in Meeting Room 1 with the blinds down so I’ve no idea what was going on.’
‘Goodness, I hope it doesn’t mean we’re going bust or anything,’ said Nick seriously.
‘Well, it could be something and nothing but I don’t think so. He asked me to make sure that the same meeting room was reserved for him all day next Monday as well, some visitors coming although he didn’t say who the visitors were, that’s also a bit odd.’
‘Well, well, very intriguing.’
‘But please don’t say anything, I really shouldn’t have told you but.. well, I sometimes just need someone to talk to. It’s a bit lonely being stuck outside Brett’s and Piers’ offices.’
‘Don’t worry, I won’t say anything. Anyway, my reaction should be ready to check now,’ said Nick, ‘speak to you soon,’ and he raised his hand as a valedictory sign to Amanda.
As he walked back to his desk he mulled over what Amanda had said. It was worrying on two counts, firstly their ordering system appeared to be from a past era with little accountability and secondly there was something going on at a senior level. His primary thought was that the company might be about to be taken over. That could mean job security was very flaky. How unfortunate that would be, he might have to look for another job again and he’d only been here for three years. Jobs in the pharmaceutical sector were starting to look like short-term contracts rather than jobs for life as they once were. He sighed, he mustn’t get carried away though, it might be something else which the senior team had to deal with and there was nothing he could do about it.
However, there was something he could do about his other niggling problem. He looked up some phone numbers on the web, jotted a couple of things down and went down to the coffee area which was empty at this time in the afternoon. He punched in some numbers to his mobile and waited, after the usual message about calls being recorded for training purposes he then got a series of options to chose. Selecting option two he then waited and was told he was in a queue but with only one person ahead he decided to hang on. He almost started to drift off as the music and the “your call is important to us” message played in a loop, suddenly a voice interrupted the music.
‘Oh, good afternoon, I’m phoning from BioQex about an order which had to be returned as you sent the wrong items.’
‘Do you have the order number sir,’ asked the customer services operator whose name Nick didn’t catch properly.
‘No, sorry, but I’ve got the date the order was returned and the product numbers, is that any help, and it’s BioQex in Persford.’
‘Hold on, I’ll just go through some menus but I should be able to trace it,’ and the music started playing again.
‘I’m sorry sir, BioQex, did you say?’
‘Yes, that’s correct.’
‘No orders were returned on the actual date you said, but there was an order the previous week which we had to resupply. And let me just check back,’ Nick heard some tapping on the computer keyboard, ‘ah, yes, I can see two more orders in the last month which had to be returned. We are experiencing some difficulties here with staff turnover and it’s possible some of our personnel picking the orders have been making mistakes. I can only apologise and we are working to rectify the mistakes. Is there anything else I can help you with today.’
‘No that’s very helpful, thanks, bye,’ replied Nick, feeling a bit confused.
‘Goodbye sir,’ said the helpful operator.
Nick sat for a few moments, things seemed even more confused now. The customer services lady had confirmed that some orders had been erroneously supplied but he was sure that he’d read the date on the invoice correctly today. So the one which Kevin had said was wrong was in fact correct. Nick had hoped that the customer services would have confirmed that no orders had been returned but it seemed that Kevin had spotted an opportunity to exploit this confusion thus creaming off some items for his own use and the fact that orders had to keep being corrected was providing a useful smokescreen. Nick wondered how long it had been going on. It would be very hard to prove that those consumables hadn’t all been used by the labs, they didn’t monitor glove use, nor tissues or paper towel consumption, so Kevin would deny it. The trouble was that if he went to the management now it would be his word against Kevin’s. It would be impossible to unravel at the moment and Nick didn’t want to look stupid by acting prematurely. However, his gut feeling was that somehow that stuff was leaving the site and Kevin was selling it on. Right my old mate, Mr Kevin, thought Nick, I will catch you out. I’m going to watch what you get up to and follow you. All I need is a couple of photos with my mobile and you will be out on your ear. Not clever enough are you, Kevin, you thieving git he muttered to himself on his way back to the laboratory.
**
Alex Goodwood was taking a break from his desk wandering around his office sipping his latte. Suddenly there was a knock on his door and Olivia opened it, looking into the room tentatively.
‘Olivia, come in, come in,’ ushered Alex.
‘Forteen Bank has just contacted me, they’ve been so helpful. I’ve got a printout of all the transactions they’ve handled on BioQex’s shares. The funds for the share purchases are still not fully traceable as they are in their nominee account and it will take further investigation to find out where the funds originated from,’ Alex sighed, ‘but it’s work ongoing, I’ve not given up,’ and she smiled. ‘I’ve saved the best bit till last. We have the date and time of the large share sale which happened this week and settled this morning. The cleared funds were paid into an account then most of the money soon left that account and seems to be heading towards an offshore account, again that’s where things get rather less clear,’ Alex’s initial euphoria was beginning to deflate slightly. Olivia passed him a piece of paper and his smile returned.
‘That’s the name on the account which seems to have benefited from the recent share sale,’ said Olivia.
‘Is it indeed? That’s very interesting,’ smiled Alex, ‘how convenient, I think we will be able to speak to him next Monday. On our visit, we will have a few more things to discuss than we had previously thought. I think someone has made a rather big mistake, don’t you?’
‘Certainly looks that way. Someone could have some very serious charges to answer,’ added Olivia, smiling in unison with Alex and they high fived each other.
Chapter 17
On Friday morning Bob was busy working on the biological data and preparing a document for the Contract Research Organisation which was going to be running the clinical trial on BQ-561. It was a while since he’d prepared such a document and the calculations were complex. The company had engaged clinicians to advise on the calculations for the trial as so many factors had to be taken into account. As well as potency and duration of action there were projections based on how the compound would be cleared from the body. Clearly, the compound had never been administered to humans before so all data had to be based on the way it behaved in animals and then correlated with some enzymati
c data for how it would be handled by human metabolising enzymes. Another senior colleague was going to check his calculations before he wrote it all up into the package for the clinical trials. He needed to get this done in the next couple of days as he’d had a message from the clinical unit preparing the solutions for the trial that they needed at least a couple of days notice to factor in the workload. The date of the trial couldn’t be changed as the participants had been selected and would be on strict guidelines as to what they could eat or drink in the three days leading up to their voluntary trial.
He was struggling to concentrate. Perhaps Piers had been right, it was the day after his beloved wife’s funeral and they had advised him to stay at home. That would be a sign of weakness though, he wanted to get back to normal. His work had been his life for so long now, he’d never been one for relaxing or hobbies. He and Joan did enjoy some nice holidays but she never made demands on him to entertain her much. She had her own hobbies, so it had left him free to devote himself to his job, bringing home a good salary and supporting his wife and two children.
He was just calculating the fraction of the free drug for the first dosage when there was a knock at his door. Inwardly he groaned, ‘Come in!’ he shouted.
‘Oh, morning Bob,’ said Piers. ‘Just wondered how you are feeling today?’
‘OK,’ replied Bob gruffly.
‘I just wanted to say on behalf of the senior team what a beautiful service it was yesterday for your dear wife.’
‘Thanks,’ replied Bob without emotion.
Piers wandered over to the office window and looked out through the one which wasn’t boarded up after the vandalism spree the other night.
‘I wondered whether you’d had the chance to reconsider my suggestion of some help at this difficult time.’
‘Aye, I have actually,’ replied Bob.
‘Oh, excellent,’ smiled Piers sympathetically.
‘And I don’t want to, waste of time, so if you don’t mind I’d best get on with my figures for the clinical trial. I assume you want it to go ahead on time,’ said Bob, a note of aggression creeping into his tone.
‘Of course, well, sorry to bother you, perhaps we’ll speak again about it. When things, well ... well when.. in a couple of weeks maybe,’ and Piers left feeling powerless. It was sad seeing a valued colleague clearly hurting so much yet unable to yield to his emotions. Piers wasn’t sure what he could do short of insisting Bob be signed off sick and that just seemed so heartless. After all, he seemed to be coping with work, doing his job. It wasn’t as if he was making a hash of things. Perhaps it was best just to leave him be. After all they did need to sort out the arrangements for the clinical trial and Bob was by far the best placed to do this. Perhaps he was worrying too much. He wandered back to his office to confront the next item in today’s diary.
**
Disconcerted by his recent phone call to the suppliers, Nick decided to pop down to the storeroom to check on supplies. Stock levels of gloves, tissues and paper towels also blue cloths were still depleted. Kevin was wandering around with a clipboard making an inventory of the laboratory glassware.
‘Afternoon Kevin,’ said Nick breezily.
‘Hell Mr Nick, how’s things?’
‘Fine, fine, just wondered whether that replacement order arrived but I see the shelves look somewhat empty still.’
‘Oh, no, they messed up again, didn’t send the order back when they said, should be arriving Monday morning, and I hope so, otherwise, they’ll get a very stroppy call from me,’ said Kevin blustering, making out he was the tough guy.
‘Oh, I see, well I’ll just take some of those flasks and some vials whilst I’m here then, have a good evening,’ and with that Nick was gone.
Kevin left his inventory and sat down. There was no replacement order waiting to be delivered and so he had needed to put in a duplicate order for the one which was now enjoying a new home in several small businesses in the area. He’d been careless and missed the deadline by an hour and hence the order wouldn’t be arriving until next week. He’d tried to cover his tracks but he couldn’t help feeling that Nick was on to him. That was all well and good but without proof it would be Nick’s word against his. After all, from what he’d heard Nick had rather a reputation for getting involved and poking his nose into things. He’d been clever enough to work out what Zac was up to, he was definitely a dangerous character, of that there was no doubt. However, just at this moment, he had no idea what he could do about Mr Nick. He desperately needed to think of something though.
Chapter 18
Friday afternoon arrived and the senior team comprising Piers, Brett, Melanie and Jonathan were assembled to hear Melanie’s financial plan to take them forward. Despite it being the start of a new phase for BioQex with their new Chief Financial Officer at the helm, the mood was generally subdued. They had the visit from the FCA hanging over them the following Monday, added to that, the team minus Melanie had attended Bob’s wife’s funeral, and they also had the worry that perhaps animal rights activists were becoming more active in the area. As usual, on Friday afternoon, everyone was tired. They’d considered postponing to next week but Melanie was champing at the bit to show what she was made of so Piers felt it would be unfair to take the wind out of her sails. Also, they had no idea whether next week might be dominated by providing files and documents to the FCA investigators.
Brett had been the last to join the meeting. Piers sensed a palpable tension between him and Melanie which he found irritating. After all, they had taken a chance with Brett, he’d had no experience of running a whole science department and their judgement had been proven. As far as he could see Brett had been an excellent choice. Piers wished that Brett would extend the same feeling of magnanimity towards others and give Melanie a chance to prove her worth.
‘Right, well we won’t delay, so I’ll ask Melanie to take us through her financial plan for the next six months. Then there will be an opportunity for questions. After that, we need to agree whether we support the plans as a team. If we are in agreement then each of the team will have actions assigned which we need to implement in order to carry the plan forward.’
His short introduction was accompanied by discreet nodding from his colleagues. Melanie remained seated as it was an informal presentation, woke up her laptop and her first slide appeared on the screen. Unsurprisingly it contained the word vision.
‘Thanks, Piers, I’ve got about ten slides summarising my analysis of the financial landscape of the company. Then I’ll move on to my specific costings for how we allocate resources and my plans for expansion. OK?’
‘Sounds great Melanie,’ fawned Jonathan, embarrassingly.
‘OK, here we go,’ enthused Melanie.
‘As you can see, BioQex is operating well within its means, which is good but as I’ll come on to in a later slide, in my opinion far too conservative, and could mean that the company gets left behind.’
Melanie then produced a mind-boggling set of screenshots of spreadsheets along with bulleted points summarising each major topic of assets, liabilities, equity and capital. She rattled through figures relevant to property and equipment, followed by intangible and financial assets. She touched on prepaid expansion which was baffling to Brett as he momentarily lost concentration. She then moved on to cash and accounts payable, then deferred tax before moving on to issued capital and no controlling interest in equity which was even more confusing.
Then it was time for a couple of summary slides which were a slight modification of the plans she had flagged up to Brett in their initial encounter on her first day. Melanie wanted the company to take on an extra eight scientists and use all their remaining laboratories which were currently dormant and she wanted the extra staff to be in post by the end of the next quarter. As it was now early autumn she would be expecting staff to be recruited by Christmas, just when people didn’t want to move thought Brett.
This whole scheme was to be partly funded by borr
owing and partly by the company offering additional services which Melanie claimed would reduce their actual expenditure as well as providing revenue.
‘So any questions?’ asked Melanie, smiling broadly.
‘Yes, I have several,’ said Brett, unsmiling.
‘Fire away,’ said Melanie, her confidence undented.
‘You are proposing that the company borrows ten million to fund your plans. This is double the amount we raised from a rights issue. Don’t you feel that this is a huge increase in our debt burden?’
‘Well if I can bring up my slide, here, it shows that due to the increase in the share price, the actual debt ratio is no higher than it was six months ago. Borrowing is very cheap at the moment and we can take advantage of it, we really aren’t doing that at the moment.’
‘So why don’t we relinquish some of our capital, that is, take advantage of the increased share price to generate money rather than take on extra borrowing?’
‘It’s more cost effective to borrow than relinquish capital,’ replied Melanie sternly.
‘Oh, can you explain further? I don’t quite understand,’ challenged Brett.
Melanie stood up and wandered over to the flip chart, Brett thought he detected a surreptitious sigh of exasperation. She picked up a marker pen and proceeded to go through an example at a rapid rate. Brett knew he was fighting a losing battle but he was determined to put her under as much pressure as possible. There was no chance she was going to get an easy ride.
‘As this example shows, it’s a complete no-brainer,’ she said smugly, casting around for approbation.
‘So couldn’t we at times buy back shares to increase their value, even if we were to use some capital to finance expansion. That would serve to increase our market capitalisation and counter any reduction in the capital.’
‘We could, but as your Chief Financial Officer I wouldn’t advise it,’ replied Melanie, her steely gaze piercing right through Brett.
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