$0.53 beats by 2 making this 11 out of 12 quarterly beats. More importantly book value leapt.

Book Value Per Share of $9.03 Increased 12.4% During the Quarter and 38.1% Year to Date
At $11.39 after hours that’s a price to book of 1.26 for a fast growing superbly manged insurer.

Relenza sales were £182 million reflecting continued orders from Governments for pandemic stockpiling. That’s around $24M in royalties for Biota. Production increases on target for 190m by end of 2009.

£45M in US
£38 in Europe
£99 RoW via GSK announcement
Royalties owing to Biota Holdings (BTA) from GSK’s Relenza sales of $23M, narrowly beating consensus estimates.

Production increases on target for 190m by end of 2009. Waiting confirmation from conference call.

Neptune Marine Services Limited (NMS.AX) today announced that its patented NEPSYS dry underwater welding technology has been qualified to 70 metres.
Early this year NEPSYS was qualified to 43 metres for the North Sea project Neptune are working on. NEPSYS was introduced in 2003 and qualified to 30 metres in 2006. [Updated, based on baglimit's comment]
This new qualification open up further markets for NEPSYS and the company is planning on testing to 100 metres in 2010.
According to the 2009 accounts Neptune’s Offshore Services revenue, which NEPSYS is grouped under, was $128M …

Prana secured an additional $6M in exchange for 20M shares and 10M 30 cent options. This funding brings the total dilution since the successful 2A trial to 31%.

Guinness Peat Group Plc (GPG.AX) via it’s subsidiary Ecurb Australia has announced a low ball takeover bid for MMC Contrarian (MMA.AX).
The $0.48 offer which GPG details in this bidder’s statement is less than MMC Contrarian’s net tangible assets.
Nicholas Bolton must have sniffed out the likelihood of the offer and has taken up a 5.3% stake in MMC.
I last posted about MMC back in early March during the market nadir. The current price represents a lackluster 40% return from then, though I’ll take that…or actually I won’t take it. GPG will …

Biota Holdings Limited (ASX: BTA) intends to make a return of $20 million to shareholders, estimated to equate to approximately 11 cents per share. The good news is Biota management are attactively managing their capital and are clearly confident in their future cash flows to be returning such a large chunk to investors.

Biota released the following two significant announcements today, LANI is a success and RSV a dud. The market continue to digest the news in volatile fashion. Initial infatuation is currently giving way to fear of rejection. Putting this in perspective RSV was in P1, the likelihood of getting a P1 compound to market is low, so the RSV failure should come as little surprise and barely move the valuation needle on Biota. The LANI results are excellent news and it should beget more excellent news in the coming months; approval, licencing and prophylaxis.

Fusion Investing Portfolio constituent Harmonic Inc. (HLIT) turned in a solid quarter. The market rewarded this video delivery darling with a 12% thank you very much, HLIT closed at $6.93.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation Amend Agreement to Develop and Commercialize Telaprevir in Asia

Vertex to receive $105 million from Mitsubishi following signing, plus the potential for additional milestones upon commercialization. Phase 3 registration program for telaprevir in Japan expected to complete enrollment in the third quarter of 2009.

While I don’t normally comment on daily news, the 12%+ jump in Macquarie’s share price intra-day caught my eye. MQG opened down 74 cents at 24.26 and then jumped suddenly at around 1.24pm, MQG last traded at $27.40.

It seems this takeover announcement for Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group (MCG) sparked the rally. Cash is king and it seems investors are now seeing the king clothing. As the phrase goes, when the tide goes out we’ll see who is naked and it appears Mac has been wearing speedos after all.