ISDX
Ace Liberty & Stone (ALSP) has launched an open offer at a large discount to the market price. Ace wants to raise up to £3.5m via a one-for-two open offer at 1p a share. The open offer is not underwritten and the minimum subscription level for it to go ahead is £2m before expenses. Shareholders can apply for more than their entitlement. The mid price is currently 3p (2p/4p), having fallen from 3.75p prior to the open offer announcement. There had been a number of trades during January at around 3.75p a share. Prior to the open offer, Ace raised just over £1m at 3p a share. Management says that the cash will enable Ace to buy properties in a higher price bracket and continue to build the portfolio. The latest acceptance date is 22 February.
DXS International (DXSP) reported a 31 % increase in revenues for the first half but the IT supplier to healthcare professionals reported a similar loss. In the six months to October 2015, revenues grew from £1.16m to £1.52m, while the underlying loss was £11,000. That reflects a rise in admin expenses in order to comply with NHS conditions of service. Management says that DXS is generating cash. Annualised revenues are running at £3.4m and DXS is supplying 37 client commissioning groups and is set to win more. There was£308,000 in the bank at the end of October 2015. At 13p (12.5p/13.5p) a share, DXS is valued at £4.3m.
Blockchain technology company investor Coinsilium Group Ltd (COIN) says that its investee company SatoshiPay, which has developed technology that enables online payments of a few pence per transaction, has undergone a beta launch of the platform for web publishers. Coinsillium owns 14.5% of SatoshiPay, having invested a total of €200,000. At 7.5p (6p/9p) a share, Coinsillium is valued at £5.4m.
Carduus Housing (CHPD) has raised a further £1m from an issue of 6.5% unsecured bonds due in 2020 and this takes the total in issue to £3.5m. Carduus is focused on the affordable residential housing sector and it will initially invest in Scotland in areas where rental demand is greater than supply. The purchase of a portfolio of 15 properties was announced last December.
AIM
Immupharma (IMM) has raised £8.3m at 26p a share. However, £3.76m of this cash is subject to a sharing agreement with Lanstead Capital. This appears to effectively be the same as what used to be called an equity swap, so just how much cash the company receives, whether it is more or less than the £3.76m figure, will be dependent on the performance of the share price. The benchmark share price of the agreement is 34.6667p, which is significantly higher than the placing price and the market price. The cash will be paid in 18 instalments but if the share price at the time of the transaction is not as high as 34.6667p then Immupharma will receive less than one-eighteenth of the £3.76m figure. If the share price is higher then the company will receive more. The cash will finance the phase III trial for Lupozur, the potential lupus treatment.
Imperial Innovations (IVO) is raising an additional £100m for investment in new and existing investee companies and it manged to raise the cash at a premium to the market price. The 425p a share placing price was a 8% premium to the market price and a 39% premium to the last reported NAV. The placing was backed by existing shareholders Woodford, Invesco, Lansdowne and Imperial College. Imperial Innovations is estimated to have had cash of around£90m before the placing.
OptiBiotix (OPTI) has raised an additional £1m at 78p a share from Seneca Partners, which has increased its stake to 7.13%. This follows the £1.5m raised at 75p a share at the end of 2015. The cash will help OptiBiotix to invest in the various products and opportunities that it is developing through its microbiome expertise and technology.
TechFinancials Inc (TECH) has entered into a B2C joint venture with Hong Kong-registered developer of online businesses, IBID Holdings. The 51/49 joint venture will operate a B2C binary options brand. TechFinancials will provide the trading platform and other intangible assets for its 51% stake and IBID will inject $300,000 in cash and provide working capital until the joint venture is making a net profit of at least $100,000 a month for three months in a row. It will take three months to integrate the platform into IBID’s systems. This follows a previous joint venture with Optionfortune late last year. The expected improvement in pre-tax profit from £303,000 to £663,000 in 2016 has not been adjusted for the latest joint venture.
Technology-focused investment company MXC Capital Ltd (MXCP) is proposing to launch a tender offer for one in every 142 shares at 3.6p each– slightly higher than the market price at the time of the announcement. Shareholders can tender more than their entitlement but they may be scaled back. Up to £800,000 will be paid back to shareholders. The closing date for the tender is 19 February and it has to be agreed by shareholders at a general meeting. The strategy is to distribute up to one-fifth of realised gains from its portfolio. At the end of August 2015, MXC had £28.4m in cash and in the subsequent months it has invested £22.5m in AIM-quoted companies Castleton Technology, Castle Street Investments, Pinnacle Technology and ECV, as well as unquoted big data analytics company Sagacity Solutions Ltd.
MAIN MARKET
Quarto Group (QRT) has acquired The Harvard Common Press, which publishes cooking and childcare books. This deal will add hundreds of titles, built up over four decades, to Quarto’s back catalogue.
ANDREW HORE