China Pharma Holdings' Choice of IR Firm Looks Promising

Well, finally! It's been a long long wait for investors as China Pharma Holdings (CPHI.OB) languished with no IR firm and little visibility. Hopefully things are going to change. But how does HC International stack up as an investor relations outfit? Well, let's see.

At last count (and this may not be exhaustive nor completely up to date), HCI represents the following C.O.P. companies: China Housing & Land Development (CHLN.OB), China Solar & Clean Energy (CSOL.OB) and Gulf Resources (GFRE.OB). Let's examine them one by one.

1) CHLN issued 8 press releases since October 2007, but there was nothing before that. I'm assuming HCI came on board late in the year. Even so, this works out to almost 3 press releases a month, which isn't bad. CHLN's shares did well in 2007, gaining 119%.

2) CSOL had 3 press releases since November 2007, when it effected a name change from Deli Solar to China Solar. This is quite a short history, though the company was at the Roth Phoenix Conference in November. CSOL recently obtained a "Strong Speculative Buy" rating from independent research firm Dutton Associates. Its shares were up 188% in 2007.

3) GFRE had 23 press releases from the beginning of 2007 to now, including 2 sets of earnings guidance - a FY2007 guidance released in May 2007, and more recently, a FY2008 guidance announced in January 2008. The company participated in several conferences, including the Roth NYC Conference in September, the Roth Phoenix Conference in November, and the ICR Xchange in NYC in December. GFRE also did a 2-for-1 stock split late last year. Its shares performed extremely well in 2007, increasing by 180%.

I think HC International did a good job overall. Apart from releasing information, which was frequent and useful, 2 out of the 3 companies went out to meet potential investors. HCI also did their part in a name change and a stock split, as well as engineering obvious movements toward a listing on a major stock exchange (with appointments of independent directors, etc.). More importantly, all three companies DOUBLED their share price or more in 2007. Whether this is a result of the IR effort, or if HCI was chosen to egg the bull along, this is a very good sign. In short, I'm very hopeful for CPHI, and the company does deserve good IR.

My Position: Long CPHI.OB.