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Quoted Micro 5 December 2016
ISDX
Kent-based brewer Shepherd Neame (SHEP) has acquired Village Green Restaurants, the operator of five freehold pub restaurants in the Maidstone and Ashford area, for £11.85m. The business made an operating profit of £900,000 on revenues of £6.6m in the year to October 2016. The cash for the acquisition has come from an extended credit facility.
IMC Exploration (IMCP) says that it is evaluating approaches from mining companies concerning IMC’s ten base metal licences in Ireland. IMC has already secured Koza as partner for its gold licences. IMC’s full year loss was slightly lower at £418,000. There was less than £4,000 in the bank at the end of June 2016.
Walls & Futures REIT (WAFR) floated on 29 November at 100p a share and ended the week at 100.5p (98p/103p). The residential property investor raised just over £1m in an offer for subscription and is capitalised at £3.3m. The REIT has acquired the assets of the Walls & Futures London Growth Fund and the additional cash will be used to invest in development and redevelopment assets in cities and towns around the UK. The focus is the private renting and social housing sectors.
Hearing and mobility products retailer DHAIS (DHAP) has been hit by a further decline in its mobility business. Three mobility stores have been sold and two others closed, leaving ten stores. The hearing aid division is the main focus. In the year to June 2016, revenues fell from £10.6m to £9.86m, while the loss increased from £186,000 to £295,000. There is £216,000 in the bank and cash was generated in the period but it went towards the regular repayment of an interest free loan from a hearing aid manufacturer. A notional interest charge is recognised on this loan, which is why there is positive cash flow despite the loss.
Welney (WENP) is still seeking a new direction and talking to potential funders and recipients of investment. There was £52 in the bank at the end of June 2016. Management admits it will need more cash this year and that is why the accounts are prepared on a going concern basis. The directors are not taking fees for the time being and loan note holders have agreed not to ask for them to be redeemed for at least the next 12 months. The investment in Nasdaq-listed Green Automotive Co has performed poorly and is illiquid.
Exploration company NQ Minerals (NQMI) has appointed Daniel Stewart as its broker as part of a proposed move to the standard list.
AIM
A strong second half meant that enterprise software provider Sanderson (SND) grew its full year revenues by 11% to £21.3m and ended the year with a strong order book. New customer orders were 18% of revenues – a higher level than normal. There was additional investment in development and support but underlying pre-tax profit still improved from £2.91m to £3.44m. There is £4.34m in the bank. The retail, manufacturing and logistics operations all have stronger order books than normal. A 2016-17 profit of £3.7m is forecast.
Park Group (PKG) made a relatively small interim loss. The consumer and corporate gift voucher and prepaid card business is still highly seasonal with the Christmas savings business maintaining its importance. New product launches will continue to reduce the importance, though, as will the acquisition of Fisher Moy International, which brings with it some large corporate clients. An increase in full year profit from £11.9m to £12.7m is forecast.
A strong performance in the industrials division of Gooch & Housego (GHH) offset flatter performances elsewhere. Acquisitions masked an underlying decline in defence and electronics and revenues also fell in the he much smaller life sciences division, which requires acquisitions itself in order to build its scale. Pre-tax profit was slightly better than expected at £14.2m. Despite spending on acquisitions, there is still net cash of £11.7m and the total dividend has been raised by 10% to 9p a share. The order book is worth £52.8m but it covers more than one year. A full year profit of £15.5m is forecast.
Active Energy (AEG) has received a $6m, five year unsecured loan facility to finance the construction of a reference plant for its CoalSwitch technology. The North American plant will have an annual capacity o 35,000 tonnes. This plant could generate revenues of $6.3m a year. CoalSwitch technology can use low value wood, pulp and saw-mill by-products to produce a biomass fuel that can be mixed with coal, or replace coal, in coal-fired power stations. The interest rate on the loan is 8%.
Billing and customer relationship software provider Cerillion (CER) reported annualised revenues 6% ahead at £14.8m but the mix of revenues changed with software revenues one-fifth higher. Underlying pre-tax profit edged ahead to £2.3m. The total dividend is 3.9p a share. A $2.8m (£2.4m) contract has been won in the Americas, which is the second phase of an existing contract. Cerillion should be able to achieve a pre-tax profit of £2.7m this year with scope to expand the customer base outside of the mobile sector in the next few years.
TechFinancials (TECH) will receive a $1.02m dividend from its 51%-owned joint venture DragonFinancials. The dividend relates to the nine months to September 2016. This cash inflow should make it more likely that TechFinancials will restart paying its won dividends. TechFinancials had already said that its 2016 profit will be ahead of market expectations. House broker Northland forecasts a 0.42 cents a share dividend for the 2016 financial year and a decision will be made in early 2017. That level of dividend would be more than two times covered by forecast earnings.
Premier African Minerals (PREM) has increased the open pit mineral resource estimate at the RHA tungsten mine in Zimbabwe to 20.9 million tonnes at a grade of 2.34kg/t. The maiden mineral resource estimate for the underground mine is 1.3 million tonnes at a grade of 4.25kg/t. The mine could last 40 years. Premier owns 49% of RHA.
MAIN MARKET
There was an organic sales decline of 7% in the first half at electronic components manufacturer distributor Acal (ACL) but better margins and acquisitions helped earnings per share grow by 10%. Order levels were stronger in the second quarter and this augurs well for the second half.
Bluebird Merchant (BMV) is acquiring 100% of the Batangas gold project, where it previously held a 25% stake. Bluebird is issuing 1.25 million shares and it will pay a 1% royalty in return for taking full control of the project in the Philippines, which has a JORC resource of 445,000 ounces of gold and gold equivalent. The deal also means that Bluebird will have access to $20m of tax losses.
Opera Investments (OPRA)has reassured investors that the plan to acquire the Omweru and Lubando gold projects from Kibo Mining (KIBO) continues to make progress and a fundraising should happen in the New Year. The deal was first announced in September.
Andrew Hore
Quoted Micro 6 June 2016
ISDX
Capital for Colleagues (CFCP) has invested £770,000 in employee owned businesses in the six months to February 2016. Interim revenues grew from £257,000 to £364,000 but admin costs increased significantly so, excluding unrealised gains, the pre-tax profit dipped from £41,000 to £34,000. Unrealised gains slumped from £47,000 to £6,000. At 62.5p (60p/65p) a share, Capital for Colleagues is valued at £6m. The net asset value was £4.2m at the end of February 2016 and £1.15m has been raised since then. There are still plenty of opportunities for new investments as well as additional investment in existing investee companies.
Blockchain technology investor Coinsilium Group Ltd (COIN) reported a loss of £2.42m in the first 15 months of its existence to December 2015. That includes an investment impairment of £1.31m for an investment in Hive Labs. The investments are all early-stage so it will take time for them to bear fruit. More recently the company has branched out into providing training. The NAV was £2.33m at the end of 2015. At 4.1p (3.6p/4.6p) a share, Coinsilium is valued at £2.9m. There were seven trades in Coinsilium shares last week at prices between 3.2p and 4.25p. Five of these trades were the day before the results were announced. The most recent trade was 100,000 shares at 3.2p each. Coinsillium is one of the more frequently traded ISDX companies and there were seven trades in the previous week.
Contemporary art collector and trader V22 (V22O) says an independent valuation of its collection at the end of 2015 said that it was worth £1.67m, which is triple the amount invested in the collection. V22 also has a property portfolio and in May it paid £250,000 for a 125 year licence on a Grade II listed building in Forest Hill, which will provide exhibition and event space. In 2015, revenues grew from £568,000 to £822,000 and the loss declined from £78,000 to £34,000. Since then, V22 has raised £225,000 from selling half of its option interest in a company that owns the freehold to a building in South Bermondsey. V2 has already received £150,000 with £75,000 payable by the end of June. V22 retains an option over 15% of the holding company that owns the building. At 0.9p (0.85p/0.95p) a share, V22 is valued at £300,000. The NAV including the valuation of the art portfolio is 4.49p a share.
Cairn has resigned as the corporate adviser to Nordic Energy (NORP), whose shares are already suspended because it is unable to bring out its interim figures within the required time. At the end of 2015, Nordic relinquished its Danish oil and gas exploration licence because it was unable to fund the required work programme. Nordic had £42,551 in the bank at the end of May 2015. Former director Rudolf Kleiber has been awarded £14,210 for unfair dismissal and disability discrimination.
Carbon credits adviser China CDM Exchange Centre Ltd (CCEP) reported flat revenues of £1m in 2015 but profit dipped from £29,000 to £6,000. There was a cash inflow of £575,000, taking cash in the bank to £1.59m. The NAV is £46.1m, which is mainly based on carbon-related investments. At 0.25p (0.2p/0.3p) a share, China CDM is valued at £300,000, which is a large discount to the cash pile. There was a small trade of 936 shares at 0.2p each the day after the results were announced.
China-based LED products supplier Gowin New Energy Group Ltd (GWIN) reported a large loss for 2015 because of write-offs relating to the termination of contracts with its former manufacturing partner. The plan is to keep design and sales in-house but outsource production. There may also be opportunities for joint production development with other companies. This will reduce the company’s working capital requirements. There was cash of RMB1.3m in the bank at the end of 2015 but there are also shareholder loans of RMB12.6m.
Diversified Gas & Oil (DOIL) has raised a further £420,000, which is part of the additional £3.5m it wants to raise from the issue of 8.5% unsecured bonds. In 2015, revenues fell from $7.36m to $6.3m due to the lower oil price and there was a cash outflow from operations of $3.93m. The company continues to acquire oil and gas assets.
AIM
Constellation Software Inc has made a bid approach to Bond International Software (BDI) following the ending of a standstill agreement late last year. The potential offer price is 105p a share and Bond is still considering its options. Last month, Bond sold Strictly Education for £11.3m – £7m paid immediately and £4.3m to be paid within six months. The cash will be used to pay off borrowings, which were £5.9m. Bond had cash in the bank so this will have gone up following the transaction and there were plans to distribute some of the cash to shareholders. It was after this disposal was announced that Constellation converted non-voting shares and this gave it 29.9% of Bond. Constellation appears to have made the bid approach at this time so that it can retain the cash.
Air filtration and clean air equipment supplier MayAir (MAYA) has secured new contracts worth a total of $22.8m. The majority of this work will come from the installation of clean room equipment for two customers. There is also a contract to supply air filtration equipment for office buildings. The majority of these revenues will be generated this year. This is good news because a large contract was coming to an end. In 2015, MayAir’s revenues were $63.6m. Former broker Mirabaud forecast 2016 revenues of $75.5m. Cantor Fitzgerald has been appointed broker to the company.
Life sciences software provider Instem (INS) has acquired regulatory information management systems supplier Samarind for up to £2.5m and this has led to a profit upgrade. House broker N+1 Singer has increased its 2016 earnings per share forecast by 5% to 10.4p and the 2017 figure by 14% to 13p. Samarind adds post-marketing services to Instem’s existing regulatory reporting software. Two-thirds of Samarind’s revenues of £1.2m are recurring and most of the customer base is new to Instem.
Daily Internet (DAIP) moved into profit in the year to March 2016. Revenues grew by 22% to £4.76m and a loss of £140,000 was turned into a profit of £250,000. The managed hosting and internet services provider has been reducing its cost base and the benefits are yet to show through. There was £650,000 generated from operating activities and net cash was £206,000, although there is still potential contingent consideration of £435,000.
Building services provider Northern Bear (NTBR) says its net debt fell in the year to March 2016 and it intends to increase its dividend. Last year, net debt was £4.5m and the dividend was 1.5p a share, which was well covered by earnings of 8.5p a share. Earnings are set to be flat this year despite problematic weather conditions but the increased dividend should still be well covered. Reduced finance costs offset the effect of lower revenues.
Kefi Minerals (KEFI) says that it has reduced the funding requirements for the Tulu Kapi gold project from $145m to $130m following further refinements to the project and reductions in interest costs. At a gold price of $1,250/ounce, Kefi expects to generate $173m of cash in the first three years of production. All-in sustaining costs are $746/ounce. This is based on contract open pit mining and total production of 980,000 ounces of gold over ten years.
MAIN MARKET
Specialist electronics supplier Acal (ACL) reported underlying revenue growth of 3% in the year to March 2016. Including acquisitions, revenues rose from £271.1m to £297.2m – it would have been higher at constant exchange rates – and improved margins meant that pre-tax profit jumped from £11.8m to £14.4m. Trading conditions are not easy and this is likely to continue to be true for the rest of the first half although an improvement is expected later in the year.
ANDREW HORE
Quoted Micro 15 February 2016
ISDX
ZimNRG (ZIMO) is changing its investment policy and its name to MetalNRG. The new policy is to invest in natural resources businesses with no particular focus on any area. AIM-quoted Metal Tiger (MTR) has taken a 28.3% stake via a £50,000 investment at 0.2682p a share. That is a large discount to the market price of 1.25p (1p/1.5p), although it is similar to NAV at the end of August 2015. The par value of the shares has to be reduced before the new shares can be issued. Loeb Aron has become corporate adviser. Christopher Latilla-Campbell will be appointed as chairman and Paul Johnson of Metal Tiger as a non-executive.
Care housing and health properties developer Ashley House (ASH) joined the Social Impact segment of ISDX on 10 February but it is retaining its AIM quotation. Ashley House (ASH) moved from ISDX (Plus-quoted) in January 2007. At that time £4m was raised at 150p a share, which valued the company at £40.6m. In the six months to October 2015, revenues jumped from £5.6m to £10.6m and went from a loss to a small profit. Net debt was £2.6m at the end of October 2015. The company has £10.7m of tax losses. At 9.5p (9p/10p) a share, Ashley House is valued at £5.5m.
New Haven Trust has sold 3.2 million shares in Coinsilium (COIN) at 3.5p a share. Coinsilium floated at 10p a share and the shares are trading at 5p (5p/6p). New Haven had 3.53 million shares prior to the recent fundraising. There had previously been share issues at 8p a share and prior to that at 0.01p a share. So, New Haven could still have made a large profit on its shareholding. Just over 3.2 million shares were subsequently traded at 3.9p a share. There is no news about who bought these shares.
Healthcare recruitment business Positive Healthcare (DOC) has secured a further £1.08m of funding through an issue of 7% bonds 2021. This takes the value in issue to £1.33m. The company had previously stated that £2m of bonds had been issued but it turned out that it did not receive the subscriptions for all these bonds.
AIM
Management has tabled a cut price bid for printing services provider Tangent Communications (TNG) but marketing communications services provider Writtle Holdings has suggested that it may top the offer. The 2.25p a share bid values Tangent at £6.69m and it is 64% higher than the previous closing price. The bid is well below the net asset value of £31.6m at the end of August 2015. Even if you take the view that management has overpaid for its businesses then the NAV excluding goodwill is £6.79m. Tangent is profitable but the profit has been declining. However, Writtle’s indicative offer of no less than 2.75p a share, which is still a large discount to NAV. Writtle is run by the ex-management of former AIM company CA Coutts. Between 2005 and 2010 Graeme Harris was a director of Tangent Communications. Before that he was finance director of CA Coutts and since 2011 he has been a director of Writtle.
DP Poland (DPP), the Domino’s Pizza master franchise holder for Poland, has achieved 13 consecutive quarters of double digit like-for-like growth in system sales. There are 24 stores in five Polish cities – 16 managed and eight sub-franchised. The stores are making a positive EBITDA but the group is still loss-making. Pro forma cash was £8.8m at the end of June 2015, so even with large cash outflows over the coming year there should be plenty of cash left at the end of 2016. However, the group will still be loss-making so the cash will decline as more is invested in new stores.
Real Good Food (RGD) has acquired Chantilly Patisserie for £1.75m and it will become a division of the Haydens business. Devon-based Chantilly makes frozen desserts for caterers and pubs and this could provide an opportunity for Haydens to expand its own customer base, which is focused on retailers.
Asset management performance software provider StatPro (SOG) is injecting its StatPro Portfolio Control (SPC) compliance software contracts into South Africa-based InfoVest Consulting in return for a 51% stake. This is a part of the software suite that has not migrated to the cloud. StatPro will consolidate the full revenues of this investment from 2016 so pre-tax profit will look better but there will be a minority adjustment after tax. The 2015 results are due to be published on 9 March.
Lok’nStore (LOK) says that like-for-like self-storage revenues were 5.4% ahead in the first half. Higher prices and improving occupancy rates are behind this growth. Newer sites at Reading, Maidenhead and Aldershot are performing strongly. The document storage business is improving its performance.
Herencia Resources (HER) has sent out the circular for the disposal of its Picachos project to a Chilean company. Herencia will receive $2m for 70% of the project, after six months $600,000 is payable for 7.5% and after a further nine months a final $2.5m is payable to take the stake to 100%. The company that holds the project has a book value of £1.36m. Due diligence is being undertaken. Herencia will concentrate on the Paguanta and Guamanga projects in Chile and the cash will finance their development. The general meeting will be held on 26 February.
MAIN MARKET
Specialist electronics distributor and manufacturer Acal (ACL) is trading in line with expectations so revenues growth should be nearly 10% to £297m in the year to March 2016 – organic growth will be around 2%. Profit is expected to rise from £11.8m to £14.4m. A small bolt-on acquisition, custom transformers manufacturer Plitron, will not make much contribution in this financial year. Plitron increases Acal’s exposure to North America and the medical sector.
Oil and gas company Aminex (AEX) is selling a 3.825% interest in the Kiliwani North development licence to AIM-quoted Solo Oil (SOLO) for $2.16m. Solo will then hold a 10% stake and Aminex will own 51.75% and be the operator.
ANDREW HORE
Latest AIM Journal available here.
Quoted Micro 11 January 2016
ISDX
Healthcare recruitment business Positive Healthcare (DOC) has raised £2m from a bond issue that was admitted to trading on ISDX on 5 January. The focus of the core Positive Mental Health business is providing doctors and nurses that are specialists in mental health. Positive Mental Health, which has been operating since February 2014 and was acquired from Recruitment Capital Partners, generated revenues of £601,000 and a pre-tax profit of £28,000 in the first half of 2015. The directors include Garry Ashworth, who is executive chairman of InterQuest. The strategy is to build up a group of recruitment businesses offering a full range of services to the NHS and the healthcare sector. The money raised from the bond could finance one or two add-on acquisitions.
Mining investment company Imperial Minerals (IMPP) has raised £50,000 at 0.5p a share and the newly issued shares account for 34.5% of the enlarged share capital. There was £46,000 at the end of June 2015 plus £282,000 of financial assets available for sale. James Hamilton has been appointed as a non-executive director and he owns 18.1% of Imperial. Frank Moxon has resigned from the board.
MiLOC Group Ltd (ML.P) has signed a distribution agreement with a distributor of traditional Chinese medicine skincare products in Taiwan. The minimum order level of MiLOC’s TCM PLUS skincare products for the first 12 months is HK$20m.
AIM
Business aviation services provider Gama Aviation (GMAA) is acquiring Jersey-based Aviation Beauport for £2.6m in cash and one million shares – a total payment of £5.325m. In 2015, Beauport is estimated to have generated revenues of £6m and EBITDA of at least £725,000. This deal should be earnings enhancing this year. Beauport offers aircraft charter, maintenance and handling services, as well as managing four aircraft. Gama is keen to be involved in the Jersey market, where aircraft traffic appears set to increase. A new £10m bank facility has been secured from RBS.
Digital music streaming business 7digital (7DIG) plans to acquire French rival Snowite, which will help to update the group’s digital platform without additional cash costs. 7Digital is paying 7.32 million shares for Snowite and taking on debt of around £1.3m. The deal should add £1.2m of annual revenues, of which £864,000 is recurring. There should be £500,000 of annual cost savings next year. Snowite is in French bankruptcy protection so the completion of the acquisition depends on negotiations with the French courts but this should happen by the end of March.
Myanmar-focused social media business MySQUAR (MYSQ) has increased its number of users to more than two million, up from 775,000 at the end of May. The original target was to double the number of users by the end of 2015. MySQUAR needs to focus on generating revenues from these users and the MyPAY mobile payment operation is the first step. There is also a cross-promotion agreement with telecoms provider Ooredoo.
MAIN MARKET
Electronics designer and distributor Acal (ACL) is paying £17m in cash and shares for custom cabling and connectors designer Contour. This more than doubles Acal’s business in this area and is expected to lead to a 4% earnings upgrade for the year to March 2017. There is a deferred payment of £1m due in April 2019 and contingent payments of up to £6m depending on performance. The deal is part of Acal’s strategy of increasing its exposure to higher margin operations.
ANDREW HORE
ACAL TO THE INTERNET OF THINGS: (LSE: ACL) Part Two
When I concluded writing my first blog with regards to ACAL on 28th August 2015 the share price was £2.95p and the Market Cap was £186M.
Well a lot happened since then and this is an update on the progress that ACAL has made since August.
@Conker3 From LSE Share Talk
Quoted Micro 9 November 2015
ISDX
Leni Gas Cuba Ltd (CUBA) joined ISDX on 2 November and its shares went to a sharp discount to the 5p a share offer price. The share price ended the week at 1.875p (1.5p/2/25p), which values Leni Gas Cuba at £9.3m, which is still more than double the pro forma net asset value of the company. There have been 2.3 million shares traded at prices ranging from 1.25p to 2.5p. Most of the cash that has been raised by the company was at 2p a share but the majority of shares in issue at the end of July 2015 were issued at 0.01p a share. Leni Gas Cuba has set up a joint venture trading company with Cuba-focused Groombridge Trading Corporation, which is a Canadian company with approvals to trade in Cuba.
Chapel Down (CDGP) brewing subsidiary Curious Brew has raised £790.500 in its crowdfunding offer via Seedrs.com. This is more than double the level a fortnight ago. The minimum investment is £1m and the maximum is £3.65m and the offer closes in 112 days. Meanwhile, the wine maker has reported its second largest harvest, following last year’s record harvest. Chapel Down is holding a general meeting to get permission to issue a new type of share. The growth shares will be issued to management and will only have value if the Chapel Down share price exceeds 33.6p. The management will each receive £2,000 of ordinary shares in returning for giving up redundancy and other employment rights. There will be a total of just over 18.1 million growth shares. If the share price reaches 60p then the board says that the growth shares would have a value equivalent to 14% of the market capitalisation of Chapel Down, which is £32.8m at 32.5p (31p/34p) a share.
Capital for Colleagues (CFCP) is investing £200,000 in Cotswold Valves Ltd, a Stroud-based supplier of specialist valves for the process industries. This will give the employee owned businesses investor a 49% stake in Cotswold Valves, while the cash has been used to provide the company’s employee ownership trust with the funds to acquire the other 51% from the retiring owner. Capital for Colleagues has also made a further loan of £75,000 to The Homebuilding Centre.
Via Developments (VIA1) joined ISDX on 5 November having issued £530,000 7% debenture stock 2020. The Manchester-based residential property development funder is raising up to £3.5m.
Western Selection (WSE) has acquired 600,000 shares in AIM-quoted Northbridge Industrial Services (NBI), taking its stake to 13.6%. Western Selection director David Marshall is a non- executive director of the electrical testing and oil equipment rental business and along with chief executive Eric Hook and chairman Peter Harris a total of 4.6% of the share capital was acquired. Investec halved its stake to 3.74%. Although the share price has recovered since these purchases, it is still well below the peak of just over 600p less than 15 months ago. The share price was more than 300p six months ago. Northbridge depends on demand from the oil and gas sector and it has slumped into loss this year. Reduced need for capital investment and working capital means that net debt could be halved to £9m in the two years to the end of 2016 despite reported losses and the expected final dividend of 1p a share. Banking covenants are being renegotiated. At 91p a share, Northbridge is trading at a discount to its net tangible assets of around one-quarter.
AIM
Transportation software and services supplier Tracsis (TRCS) has reported another set of better than expected full year results. The underlying profit for the year to July 2015 improved from £5m to £5.8m. The total dividend was increased from 0.8p a share to 1p a share. As expected, the revenues from remote condition monitoring equipment fell sharply due to ordering patterns. This was made up for by a full year contribution from software company Datasys and organic growth. There was net cash of £13.3m at the end of July 2015, with just over £2m of this spent on two subsequent acquisitions. SEP provides event parking and management services and fits into the traffic and data division. Mobile analytics provider Citi Logik, where Tracsis acquired a 29% stake, analyses the interaction of people and transport via the Vodafone network. WH Ireland forecasts a 2015-16 profit of £6.2m but history shows that the final outcome should be better than that, particularly if the remote condition monitoring orders pick up faster than forecast. The shares are trading on 24 times prospective earnings.
Document storage services provider Restore (RST) is paying £55.7m for Wincanton’s records management business and this will consolidate the AIM company’s number two position in the sector. The purchase will be financed by a £34m placing at 260p a share and new debt facilities, which total £80m. Wincanton Records Management has operations in the UK and Ireland and the occupancy level of its premises is 71%. In the year to March 2015, the business made a pre-central charges operating profit of £4.9m on revenues of £22.4m. Last year, Restore’s document management division made an operating profit of £11.5m on revenues of £37.4m.
Alliance Pharma (APH) has agreed compensation of £6.7m in settlement of its claims against Sanofi following the suspension of manufacturing of bladder cancer treatment ImmuCyst in the middle of 2012. Alliance hopes to recommence selling ImmuCyst in the UK before the end of this year but there could be supply constraints. Net debt was £26.5m at the end of June 2015.
Premature ejaculation treatment developer Plethora Solutions (PLE) has agreed in principal to an all share bid from Hong Kong listed Regent Pacific. Regent is offering 15.7076 shares for each Plethora share, which on 3 November valued Plethora at £102.9m or 12.5p a share. Regent already owns 29.9% of Plethora and it will be able to provide the finance to help commercialise the PSD502 premature ejaculation treatment.
NWF (NWF) has boosted its fuels division through the acquisition of Staffordshire Fuels, which will increase its annual fuels volume by 8%. The business was established in 1996 and sells 32 million litres a year under the Jet brand.
EKF Diagnostics (EKF), which recently ended talks with potential bidders, says that it will not have to pay any earn out for molecular diagnostics business Selah Genomics. EKF paid an initial $32m (£19.2m) when the return of the shares in escrow is taken into account. The total cost was going to be up to $70.6m (£42.3m).
Magnolia Petroleum (MAGP) says that Continental Resources is drilling 10 wells on the Woodford formation in Oklahoma. Magnolia has a 0.525% working interest in each of these wells. Five will be drilled in November and the rest next March. Gas is being targeted. Magnolia has proven reserves independently valued at $21m and these reserves are still profitable at the current oil price. Magnolia’s share of the production of the wells it is interested in is running at 309 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
MAIN MARKET
CIC Gold Group Ltd (CICG) has announced the potential acquisition of Gobi Minerals Ltd for £5.6m in shares at 2p each but it depends on a share issue raising sufficient cash for the deal to go ahead. Trading in the shares was suspended at 1.4p a share. Due diligence still needs to be completed on the acquisition. Gobi owns 100% of the mineral title to the Tsagaan Suvarga gold and copper prospect in the South Gobi region of Mongolia. There is no proven resource in this mineral interest so the valuation appears high but it is hard to judge without further information. HE Barsbold Ulambayar will be appointed as chief operating officer.
Commercial aircraft leasing company Avation (AVAP) is acquiring an eight year old Boeing 737 operated by a major Chinese airline. The remaining leases term is 5.5 years. This is the first Boeing aircraft acquired by Avation and it takes the number of aircraft owned to 34. .
Electronics designer and distributor Acal (ACL) has acquired magnetic components Flux AS for £3.7m. Flux will broaden the product range and provide an additional customer base. Next year’s profit forecast has been edged up slightly to 18.6p a share.