Home » Posts tagged 'ash' (Page 3)
Tag Archives: ash
Quoted Micro 9 October 2017
NEX EXCHANGE
National Milk Records (NMRP) has changed its year end to June and its latest figures are for the 15 months to June 2017. This is a period when the dairy information and data services provider sorted out its pension deficit problem and this removed significant, and volatile, liabilities from the balance sheet. The market has been tough for at least two years because of the weak milk price but it is starting to recover. In the 15 month period, revenues were £25.3m and operating profit before pension and one-off charges was £1.1m. The total loss before tax is £11.9m, which is after a pension related charge of £12.5m. Trading is improving.
WH Ireland believes that Ashley House (ASH) could report a pre-tax profit of £1.8m for the year to April 2018, although it is likely to be second half weighted. This follows a decline in underlying pre-tax profit to £53,000 last year because of uncertainty about government policy. The community care properties provider has a strong pipeline of potential developments. The acquisition of an off-site manufacturing business will help the group to win modular buildings business.
Energy efficiency products supplier Sandal (SAND) reported a 14% rise in full year revenues to £3.75m. The Energie MiHome range grew by 154%, albeit from a low base. The loss was halved to £135,000 but refunded tax reduced the cash outflow from operations. Development expenditure will broaden the product range in the smart home sector.
Ace Liberty & Stone (ALSP) reported a jump in pre-tax profit from £612,000 to £1.12m in the year to April 2017 and this is prior to the disposal of all the residential properties. The property investor made a £1.02m gain on disposals but this was offset by a £391,000 unrealised reduction in property values, compared with a £283,000 unrealised gain in the corresponding period. NAV was £18.1m at the end of April 2017.
Capital for Colleagues (CFCP) had a net asset value of 42.58p a share at the end of August 2017. Recent investment include £400,000 in timber frame buildings company Employee Owners Group and £150,000 follow-on investment in Computer Application Services.
London Nusantara Plantations (PALM) has £129,000 in the bank following the disposal of its initial land investment. There was a small gain on disposal but it was not enough to wipe out the interim loss. Management is assessing acquisition opportunities of plantations and mill capacity in Sumatra and Kalimantan, Indonesia. This will require additional funding.
Black Sea Property (BSP) has completed the €5.4m fundraising, at €0.01 a share, which it requires to progress the acquisition of the office building in Ivan Vazov Street in Sofia from UniCredit Bulbank. Debt funding of €7m still has to be secured from UniCredit Bulbank. Black Sea Property has paid a deposit of €1.04m out of the purchase price of €10.5m.
AIM
Bushveld Minerals Ltd (BMN) has published the circular for the demerger of its tin interests. Shareholders will receive one share in Afritin Mining Ltd, which will own the company’s Greenhills business, for each Bushveld share. Afritin will own the Mokopane tin project and Zaaiplaat tin tailings project in South Africa plus an interest in the Uis tin project in Namibia. Bushveld will still have coal assets but the main focus will be the vanadium assets and the potential value adding battery-related products.
Toilet tissue supplier Accrol Group Holdings (ACRL) has asked for trading in its shares to be suspended because of uncertainty about its financial position. It has been difficult to pass on extra raw materials costs and operational problems have also increased costs. There is also going to be a large fine relating to a health and safety incident.
Earthport (EPO) has raised £25m at 20p a share. This cash will be used to expand the corss-border payment services company’s market and global presence, develop further products and invest in the operating platform.
The requisitioner of the general meeting at Conroy Gold and Natural Resources (CGNR) failed to get any of its resolutions passed so there are no more changes to the board. Conroy raised €240,000 at €0.30 a share. The exercising of warrants raised €167,000. The cash will be used to develop the Clontibret deposit and pay for additional exploration at the Slieve Glah gold prospect.
Reabold Resources (RBD) is raising £1.76m at 0.5p a share. This follows a £3.96m subscription at the same share price. Reabold intends to change its focus to European oil and gas projects. Two former M&G analysts have joined the board.
City of London Group (CIN) has completed the reverse takeover of Milton Homes, which provides equity release products for residential property owners.
Stanley Gibbons (SGI) has found a new buyer for its interiors division. Gurr Johns is paying £1.25m with up to £400,000 deferred consideration. Stanley Gibbons is retaining £300,000 of inventory and the Mallett premises in New York. It has also retained the Mallett and Made by Meta brands. Millicent had agreed to pay £2.4m for the assets and brands and it has to pay a termination fee. Stanley Gibbons reported a £30.2m loss for the year to March 2017. Even taking out exceptionals the underlying loss was £11.1m. The NAV is £18m.
Kin Group (KIN) has raised £1m at 0.001p a share and every four shares come with a warrant to subscribe for a new share at 0.004p each. A CVA is proposed where unsecured creditors will swap their money owed of £2.27m for shares at 0.01p each. A capital reorganisation is required to reduce the nominal value of a share to below the placing price. John Taylor, who has been involved in the aerospace and military sectors, and Lindsay Mair, a corporate financier at SP Angel, are joining the board.
Redcentric (RCN) has appointed Chris Jagusz as chief executive. Net debt is falling but it is still £33.3m. Working capital management has improved. Profit should start to recover this year.
Orosur Mining Inc (OMI) has announced a drilling programme for the Anza gold project in Colombia. There will be 15,000 metres of diamond core drilling and the first results should be available by next February. The plan is to define a maiden resource and the potential for further mineralisation.
Avacta (AVCT) has announced a research collaboration with FIT Biotech in order to assess the effectiveness of is Affimer technology with FIT’s vector technology for delivering a gene.
The Environmental Protection Agency in the US has asked Tristel (TSTL) to resubmit its application for its Duo surface cleaner. This means that approval could be five months later than planned.
Northland has initiated coverage of Venture Life (VLG) and it expects the consumer healthcare firm to move into profit in 2018. Northland believes that Venture Life will benefit from growth in demand for self-care products because of the ageing global population. Venture Life already sells its products in more than 40 countries.
Angling Direct (ANG) is acquiring Fosters Fishing for £3m in cash. Fosters have a 17,000 square feet store in Birmingham and made an operating profit of £460,000 last year. When a new store in Slough opens Angling Direct will have 18 outlets.
SkinBioTherapeutics (SBTX) says that its technology has passed third party cytotoxicity tests. Phototoxicity and in vitro ocular toxicity tests are underway.
AdEPT Telecom (ADT) has declared a 13% increase in interim dividend to 4.25p a share. Recent acquisitions are performing well and are helping to focus the group on managed services.
Redhall Group (RHL) says delays on nuclear and infrastructure will hit its figures for the year to September 2017. The Hinckley Point C contract is expected to start in October 2017. The Chieftain facility is being closed. The 2016-17 profit forecast has been halved to £500,000. The 2017-18 profit forecast has been trimmed by £200,000 to £3.4m.
Adams (ADA) has taken its cash pile to £660,000 following the sale of £584,000 worth of shares in GVC.
Former AIM company Clinical Computing has sold its trading subsidiaries to TSX-listed Constellation Software.
MAIN MARKET
InnovaDerma (IDP) is raising £4.4m at 276p a share. The Skinny Tan brand owner needs the cash for working capital. Despite declaring a profit of more than £1m in the year to June 2017 there was a £607,000 cash outflow from operations as inventory levels soared.
Curzon Energy (CZN) raised £2.33m at 10p a share but the share price has declined to 9.25p. Curzon has acquired coalbed methane licences in Oregon. Curzon believes that gas could be produced before the end of the year.
Haynes Publishing (HYNS) has completed the acquisition of E3 Technical from Solera UK for £4.72m. This will expand the data-related operations of Haynes, as well as providing cross-selling opportunities. E3 provides repair and maintenance information and vehicle registration look-up services.
Andrew Hore
New Records For James Halstead
James Halstead plc JHD The year to the 30th June again produced record turnover and profits and saw the final dividend increased to record levels with a rise of 8.8%. Revenue rose by 6.5%, profit before tax by 2.5% and earnings per share by 3.5%, achieved despite the uncertainty caused by Brexit and tougher than normal trading conditions.
Stanley Gibbons SGI survived another difficult year with turnover falling by 28%. The adjusted loss before tax for the year to 31st March rose from £4.9m to £11.1m.and net asset value fell by a further 48%. Trading has continued to be difficult since the last update on the 9th May.
Ashley House ASH Preliminary results are so full of pipeline references that it sounds more like an oil and gas company, than a rather unsuccessful property company specialising in health and community care. The lack of success is of course the governments fault and apparantly nothing to do with the management or the Board. The best claim it can make for the year to the 30th April is that it remained profitable but only just. Revenue fell by 10% and adjusted profit before tax slumped from £1,160,000 to £53,000. On an unadjusted basis the figures were £67,000 compared to £241,000.
Angling Direct plc ANG confirms that the conversion of fishing from a hobby, to big business is proceeding apace with the announcement that it has acquired the entire issued share capital of Fosters Fishing Limited for £3.0 million payable in cash. Angling is the largest specialist fishing tackle and equipment retailer in the UK. Fosters on the other hand which trades from a 17,000 sq ft superstore some 3.5 miles from the centre of Birmingham, is one of the largest fishing tackle retailers in Europe and has been in business for over 30 years. It appears that the Fosters who have built the business up are not really required any more by the new management, with Mark Foster remaining for only a few weeks to help the hand over and Richard Foster reduced to working part time in the business.
Villas & houses for sale in Greece – visit; http://www.hiddengreece.net
Quoted Micro 1 May 2017
NEX EXCHANGE
Cyber security technology developer and consultancy Crossword Cybersecurity (CCS) continues to scale up its business and there is a product launch planned for this summer. In 2016, revenues jumped from £21,000 to £345,000 but the loss increased from £755,000 to £950,000 – even after £78,000 of R&D tax credits. There was £1.55m in the bank at the end of 2016. AIM-quoted Iomart is cooperating with Crossword on launching the Nixer machine learning DDoS platform on the market.
Brewer Adnams (ADB) says sales of beers and spirits continue to grow and its pubs are trading well, although the sale of smaller pubs will reduce the profitability of this part of the group. Currency movements, the sale of the UK distribution rights for Lagunitas beers and the renovation of the Swan Hotel will hamper overall progress in the first half. The £7m investment in the brewery is almost complete.
Sandal (SAND) has signed an agreement with Spanish smart home technology business Momit, which will redesign its smart thermostat so that it is compatible with the Energenie MiHome platform. This is part of Momit’s strategy to enter the UK market. The redesigned product should be launched in September and, along with related radiator valve sales, could add £500,000 to the annual revenues of Sandal.
Healthcare staff provider Healthperm Resourcing Ltd (HPR) has revised its strategy and candidates need to have passed the International English Language Testing System, which is required for a visa anyway. Healthperm has opened its own IELTS training facility in the UAE and this is focused on nurses. Healthperm has won two new mandates and there are three other potential mandates on the cards. Chief executive David Sumner has agreed to increase the maximum amount of loan notes he will subscribe for from £1m to £1.8m. The loan notes have a 10% interest charge.
Capital for Colleagues (CFCP) has raised £1.44m at 42p a share from its open offer and a further £980,000 in a placing at the same price. Coinsilium Group (COIN) has raised £118,000 at 2p a share and it will use £60,000 to finance the development of a blockchain-based management system. Goldcrest Resources (GCRP) is raising £380,000 at 0.5p a share. The cash will help to finance the competent persons report on the Norio block, which the company is in the process of acquiring.
NQ Minerals (NQMI) has entered into a A$6.5m loan facility to help finance the acquisition of the Hellyer gold mine in Tasmania. This means that NQ has A$15m of the A$20m in cash it requires to make the purchase.
Indigo Holdings (INGO) is investing £200,000 in Iranian Fast Moving Consumer Goods Ltd, an online retail delivery business associated with a convenience store chain.
Ashley House (ASH) has secured a £500,000 loan facility from its non-executive deputy chairman Stephen Minion. The secured facility lasts for 12 months.
Housebuilder St Mark Homes (SMAP) has appointed Alfred Henry Corporate Finance as its corporate broker. Merchant Place had performed this role for 18 years.
AIM
Mortice (MORT) has made a second UK acquisition. The facilities management services provider is paying up to £4.5m for Elite Cleaning and Environmental Services – £3.5m in cash and shares plus a 12-month earn-out of up to £1m in cash and shares. Elite provides cleaning services and clients include ITV and BMW. Elite made EBITDA of £1m on revenues of £12.3m. finnCap has increased its earnings forecast by 5% to 7.8 cents a share.
Internet domain registry company Minds + Machines (MMX) moved into profit in 2016. Revenues grew from $5.5m to $13.5m, while a loss was turned into an underlying pre-tax profit of $3.5m. This follows a restructuring of the business and the sale of non-core operations. Sales of the .vip domain in China were the major factor in the growth in revenues and .boston should be launched later this year. Cash conversion was poor due to restructuring costs and increased working capital.
Directa Plus (DCTA) had technological problems which held back the progress of the graphene producer last year. In 2016, revenues fell from €1.7m to €0.8m and the loss more than doubled to €4.1m. The reason behind the fall in revenues was the lack of sales of mobile decontamination units with sales of G+ graphene nearly doubling. The focus is textiles and environmental uses of the company’s graphene. Directa Plus has net cash of €6.8m and this will be enough to absorb the expected cash outflows for the next couple of years.
Diagnostic tests supplier Omega Diagnostics (ODX) says that its underlying pre-tax profit will fall from £1.3m to £1.1m in 2016-17. All divisions increased their revenues, helped by currency movements. Field trials are planned for the VISITECT CD4 test and the CE mark could be obtained by the end of the year.
TLA Worldwide (TLA) continues to embarrass itself with disastrous trading statements. Having issued a trading statement at 6.26pm on 23 December 2016, it has released its latest profit warning at 4pm – management probably thinks that is a big improvement because it was before the market closed. It turns out that four months after the end of the financial year TLA’s 2016 figures will be even worse than expected. Changes to revenue recognition and provisions for money that TLA thought it was owed but has not been paid are the reason. There is also money that TLA believed it was owed in financial periods prior to 2016 but has not been paid. That will lead to write-downs and the current estimate is between $1.5m and $2.5m. The 2016 figures may eventually be released in late May, according to the company.
Imaginatik (IMTK) says its revenues for the year to March 2017 will be flat at £3.9m but the loss should still be reduced. Bookings for the innovation software were lower at £3.5m but new clients were won in the second half. Imaginatik could be on course to breakeven in the current financial year.
AstraZeneca has returned the rights to AZD9412 to Synairgen (SNG) following a phase IIa study. The inhaled interferon beta did have a beneficial impact on lung function but the positives were not enough to continue with trials. The data will be returned to Synairgen for it to analyse. Synairgen has £4m in the bank.
Avacta (AVCT) has signed its first non-therapeutics licence for its affimers. The licensee is a major global diagnostics companies. The upfront payment is probably small but this is a significant deal.
Radiation detection technology company Kromek (KMK) is trading in line with expectations and it expects to continue to win new contracts.
Property management services provider HML Holdings (HML) has confirmed that its 2016-17 profit will be in line with expectations of £1.8m. There were six acquisitions during the year. A 2017-18 profit of £2.2m is forecast.
Instant communication mobile services provider Mobile Tornado (MBT) has raised £1.1m at 5p a share and the cash will be used for further development of its technology and support the launch of the Dispatch Console service. Last year, revenues fell 10% to £2.02m but recurring revenues increased to more than 90% of the total. The loss increased from £2.03m to £3.73m. Net debt was £9.06m at the end of 2016.
MAIN MARKET
Sealand Capital Galaxy Ltd (SCGL) has completed the acquisition of social media business SecureCom and Sealand hopes that a share split/bonus issue will improve liquidity. Existing shareholders will receive nine bonus shares for each one they own, leaving them with ten times the number of shares and the share price would be adjusted from 25p to 2.5p. The November 2015 flotation price was 10p and earlier this year a further £1.4m was raised at 20p a share. Pro forma cash was £3.26m at the time of the acquisition.
A number of standard list shells have reported their annual figures so that they beat the deadline of the end of April. Financial services-focused shell Vertu Capital Ltd (VCBC) is still discussing the potential acquisition of VCB Malaysia but there is still some way to go before a deal is secured. There was £553,000 in the bank at the end of 2016. Auctus Growth (AUCT) still had £1m in the bank at the end of 2016 and it continues to assess potential acquisitions.
Papillon Holdings (PPHP) is still proceeding with the long drawn out acquisition of Myclubbetting.com and it is near to lodging a readmission document with the UKLA. The publishing of the accounts of Papillon has been delayed because of difficulties concerning quantifying the costs of the acquisition.
Andrew Hore
Quoted Micro 20 March 2017
NEX EXCHANGE
Health and care properties developer Ashley House (ASH) is widening its area of operations through the acquisition of a modular off-site construction business by its subsidiary F1 Modular, which already works with the company. The acquired business was in administration and assets have been acquired for £113,500 and a lease taken out on its premises – there is an option to acquire the premises. Ashley’s stake in F1 Modular has been raised from 52% to 76% for up to £250,000 depending on performance and the repayment of a previous loan. If F1 Modular makes more than £4m in profit over the next three years then the additional stake will be transferred to the minority shareholders. F1 Modular could win housing business and there are already potential housing deals with two local authorities, as well as a prospective customer for retail pods. Other potential markets are schools and student accommodation. There are also opportunities in Ashley’s core business. Ashley has reiterated it warning that the figures for the year to April 2017 because of contract delays due to a consultation on supported housing. This means a small full year profit is likely. Non-executive director John Moy acquired 2.4 million shares at 7.5p each from his son and then transferred his entire holding of 6.9millionshares to his wife, although he is still deemed to have an interest in this 11.6% stake.
Bulgaria property investment company Black Sea Property (BSP) has successfully tendered for a Sofia office building called the UniCredit Building. UniCredit is the current occupier and owner. Black Sea Property bid €10.52m and €7.6m of this will come from a loan, while the rest will have to be raised from shareholders. A deposit of €1.04m has been paid. That deposit will be forfeited if the deal does not go ahead. UniCredit can remain in the building for six months after the transaction is completed, expected to be May assuming the fundraising is successful, and will not have to pay rent. The property is more than 100 years old, has five floors and covers 98,000 square feet.
Capital for Colleagues (CFCP) has been taken on by cosmetics firm LUSH to help it introduce employee ownership. An initial stake of 10% will be held by the employee benefits trust.
AIM
There could be a bid battle for FIH (FIH), formerly known as Falkland Islands Holdings. Staunton, which is backed by the Rowland family, has bid 300p a share and has acceptances of just over one-third of the shares in issue – it owned 25% prior to the bid. Eduardo Elsztain has entered the fray via Dolphin Fund, which says it is willing to offer even more. Elsztain is an Argentinian who has built up significant property and agricultural interests having initially been backed by George Soros in 1990. FIH has refused requests for further information because it was not provided with answers to its request about ownership and control of Dolphin. There has been a change to the current bid which no longer require 90% acceptances to go unconditional. The figure has been reduced to 50%.
Audio visual products distributor Midwich Group (MIDW) grew its 2016 revenues by 18% to £370.1m via a combination of acquisitions, currency movements and organic growth. Gross margins are strong for a distribution business but they still edged up from 14.9% to 15.3%. Underlying pre-tax profit was 23% higher at £17.9m. Net debt was £15m at the end of 2016, while the dividend for the eight months that Midwich was quoted on AIM was 8.62p share. Displays and technical products are becoming more important and there was also growth in projection products sales although not as fast as the main parts of the business. Sales of scanners and other document-related products fell. France, Germany and Australasia made significantly better contributions. Further acquisitions are likely to supplement continued organic growth.
Crossrider (CROS) has refocused its business on apps and a mobile security acquisition further boosts this side of the business. CyberGhost will cost an initial €6.2m in cash and shares with up to €3m more payable dependent on performance. The acquisition should be earnings enhancing in 2017. Last year, Crossrider group revenues fell from $84.6m to $56.5m but the core apps business grew both its revenues and its profit contribution. Net cash was $72.1m at the end of 2016. Next year, revenues and profit should start to grow again and Crossrider may even pay a dividend.
University technology commercialisation business Frontier IP (FIPP) has raised £3m at 40p a share in order to finance existing investments and make new ones.
Igas Energy (IGAS) wants to raise £45.2m via a placing and up to €5m through an open offer as part of its financial restructuring. There is also a proposed debt for equity swap and the majority of these bondholders have indicated that they will accept this proposal.
Software provider Cerillion (CER) has won a €2.4m (£2.1m) with a European wholesale telecoms company. So far this financial year, £13.2m of work has been won. That will not necessarily all be delivered this year but, along with the year-end order book, this provides backing for the £16m revenues forecast for 2016-17.
Trading and risk management systems provider Brady (BRY) is restructuring its business but the 2016 figures do not show the benefits. The company has grown by acquisition and the strategy is to fully integrate them all into one platform. Revenues increased 11% to £30.3m, mainly due to currency changes, and Brady returned to profit before exceptional charges.
Recurring revenues continue to grow at performance measurement software provider Statpro (SOG) and they were running at a rate of £39.7m at the end of 2016. House broker Panmure Gordon expects an increase in underlying pre-tax profit from £2.7m to £3.3m in 2017. The dividend is being maintained at 2.9p a share in order to build up earnings cover and invest in software development.
Training technology and services provider Pennant International (PEN) has already secured orders that underpin the 2017 revenues forecast by house broker WH Ireland, although the timing of orders can be delayed. Revenues are expected to grow from £17.2m to £18m and pre-tax profit should edge up from £2.2m to £2.4m. There was £3.5m in the bank at the end of 2016. Two additional facilities have been secured to help cope with demand for the group’s services. Defence clients dominate the business but there are plans to increase exposure to other markets. Phil Walker has taken over permanently as chief executive.film Sandy Wexler 2017
Wealth adviser Brooks Macdonald (BRK) has increased its discretionary funds under management by 19% to £9.33bn. Underlying interim pre-tax profit were one-quarter higher at £8.87m. New chief executive Caroline Connellan will start work in April.
Investment manager Miton (MGR) has grown its funds under management despite a large decline in its value fund due to the departure of its manager. The funds under management increased from £2.78bn to £2.91bn with a recovery in multi-asset funds and growth in other funds covering the loss of value investment funds and growth coming from market improvements. Miton is seeking a new chairman and it will then find a permanent chief executive. On 23 March, Miton is launching its new global infrastructure fund, which is aiming for a 4% yield.
C4X Discovery (C4XD) has raised £7m from a placing at 85p a share. The cash will be used to strengthen the balance sheet while c4X is negotiating with potential partners and strategic collaborators.
EMIS (EMIS) has managed to grow its business even though there is continued uncertainty in the NHS. The GP, pharmacy and health-related administrative software provider reported a 2% increase in 2016 revenues to £158.7m, while operating profit was 6% higher at £38.8m. Net debt fell to £400,000. The total dividend was increased by 10% to 11.7p a share, which is covered more than four times by earnings.
Somero Enterprises Inc (SOM) continues to benefit from the global upturn in construction activity, particularly in North America and Europe, although the revenues from the latter are still not back to their peak levels. The dividend payout level has been raised from 30% of earnings to 40% of earnings but there is still more than $20m in the bank so a special dividend is possible later in the year.
Ilika (ILK) admits that it is unlikely to generate any licence income until the next financial year. The advanced materials developer still has plenty of cash in the bank. Development deal revenues should still double revenues to £1.2m in the year to April 2017. A £1m bioelectronics deal and an additional agreement with Toyota mean that there is a good revenue base going into the new financial year, which should reduce the annual loss even without licence deals.
Active Energy (AEG) has raised £11.6m via a convertible loan note issue. The five-year convertibles will be quoted on the Channel Islands Securities Exchange. The yield is 8% and the conversion price is 3.3p a share. The cash is required to build a commercial scale plant to produce CoalSwitch biomass fuel for use in coal-fired power stations.
Sunrise Resources (SRES) has identified additional potential for the CS project in Nevada. New zones of pozzolan and perlite have been discovered in the Tuff zone and another zone. A project development concept study is due in the next few months.
Haydale Graphene Industries (HAYD) has secured a four year deal to supply silicon carbide micro-fibre to a manufacturer of tooling and wear-resistant parts. The deal has been won by the US subsidiary acquired last September. The minimum annual order quantity should generate revenues of $600,000 a year.
MAIN MARKET
Sportech (SPO) is investing £100,000 in 123gaming Ltd as part of a £1m fundraising via crowdfunding platform Seedrs (www.seedrs.com/123bet). The offer is eligible for EIS relief. The cash will be used to update the US betting platform and to launch an online site in the UK. Sportech already provides technology for the US online wagering site and the pari-mutuel-type offering, which combines traditional wagers and fantasy elements as part of the game. Several US racecourses licence 123gaming’s free-to-play contests as a marketing tool. Sportech is selling its football pools business for £83m – that is lower than the £97.25m offer that fell through last year. Sportech plans to return £20m to shareholders via a tender offer. The result of the tender will be announced on 21 March. There could be a further tender offer after the disposal proceeds are received.
Avation (AVAP) has decided to sell six of its turboprop aircraft at a price above book value. This could generate $31m after related debt repayments. A deposit of $3m has been received and the deal should be completed by the end of June. A further 16 turboprop aircraft are being retained and the additional cash can be used to widen the portfolio of aircraft. House broker WH Ireland estimates an underlying value for Avation of 270p a share.
PRE-IPO / OTHER TRADING FACILITIES
Former ISDX and GXG company US OIL & Gas (USOP) has raised £1.18m at 27p a share via a ten-for-63 open offer to existing shareholders. That is 54% of the amount that the oil and gas company was seeking. A placing had already raised £470,000.
Andrew Hore
Quoted Micro 30 January 2017
NEX / ISDX
There was a sharp improvement in operating profit from £120,006 to £213,657 at Hydro Hotel, Eastbourne (HYDP) in the year to October 2016. Revenues improved from £3.13m to £3.21m, while gross margin jumped from 9.9% to 13.6%. Pre-tax profit rose from £133,576 to £224,352. Improved marketing has helped to boost trade but the hotel will be hit by increases in the national living wage. Further refurbishment is panned at the hotel. Strong cash generation has increased the cash position from £651,000 to £1.39m. The second interim dividend is being raised from 12p a share to 14p a share, taking the total to 21p a share, up from 18p a share.
Rail track technology supplier Wheelsure Holdings (WHLP) reported an increased loss in the year to August 2016 because of higher admin expenses. Pre-tax loss moved from £228,000 to £262,000. Revenues increased by 21% to £290,000 even though London Underground orders have been delayed by budget restrictions. Orders have been received since the year end. Wheelsure has issued shares at 1p in lieu of £14,000 of commission owed to the company’s Italian agent, which has generated the first order for track equipment incorporating Tracksure.
Ashley House (ASH) remained profitable in the six months to October 2016 even though trading conditions were tough and there remains uncertainty about government funding for supported housing. It does appear likely though that there will be increasing demand for extra care housing schemes. Interim revenues were flat at £10.7m and the gross margin was much lower. The underlying pre-tax profit was halved to £200,000. Full year profit is still forecast to rise from £1.2m to £1.5m but this depends on three schemes reaching financial close by April.
Building projects manager and developer Formation Group (FRM) maintained its pre-tax profit at £2.2m in the year to August 2016, even though the recognised profit share from the development at Norwich House in Streatham fell from £2.42m to £1.42m. Group revenues were one-quarter higher at £29.4m helped by sales of apartments at Iverson Road, London N6. There was also a £1.02m post-tax write back relating to past properties. NAV increased from £7.6m to £10.4m. Since the year end, cash has been received from disposal proceeds, which will reduce net debt from £3m.
Mechan Controls (MECP) has appointed administrators from Leonard Curtis to its subsidiary PJO Industrial, following a deterioration in its prospects. PJO supplies mining and pipe laying equipment. Mining demand has been weak. PJO was hit by a bad debt in 2015 and lost £206,000, while net liabilities were £514,000.
Forbes Ventures (FOR) has raised £530,000 from Gravity Investment Group at 0.3p a share. Gravity has a 60.8% shareholding in Forbes. The bulk of the cash will be invested in £500,000 worth of 12%, two-year convertible loan notes in residential care provider Primus Care, where Gravity director Chris Bateman is on the board. The conversion price will be 80% of the fair market value of an ordinary share.
There was further fundraising activity last week. NQ Minerals (NQMI) has raised £125,000 at 7p a share in order to finance working capital. Energy efficiency products supplier Sandal (SAND) has raised £52,000 at 28p a share. Milamber Ventures (MLVP) executive chairman Andy Hasoon has invested a further £16,300 in the technology investment company at 13.55p a share. Property investor Etaireia (ETIP) has generated £10,000 from the issue of shares at 0.09p each.
United Cacao (UCL) has raised further concerns about former chairman Dennis Melka. This involves a number of loans which were not previously disclosed. It also turns out that the small farmer programme has planted 70 hectares and not 194 hectares as said in the interim figures. The Peru-based cacao plantation operator has extended the exclusivity agreement with existing investors, in order to try to secure the long-term financial viability of the business, to 31 March. Cash is being raised from bond issues at large discounts. Just over $515,000 has been raised from the issue of $3.45m of nominal value bonds with a 7% coupon. One of the company’s directors will invest a further $40,000 at 18 cents per $1 bond.
AIM
Scientific instruments manufacturer Judges Scientific (JDG) had a strong end to 2016 and order intake grew organically by 3% during the year. This was too late to benefit the 2016 figures where slow orders and manufacturing problems had led to disappointment and pre-tax profit is expected to fall to £7.1m. Earnings per share will fall by nearly one-quarter to 82.8p a share. That is line with previously downgraded expectations. The year has started with an order book lasting 13.9 weeks and there are positive foreign exchange movements that will help in the recovery. A 2017 pre-tax profit of £8.6m and earnings per share of 102p are forecast, which is still below the level in 2015.
Imaging and radiation detection products developer Kromek Group (KMK) is raising up to £21m via a placing and one-for-30 open offer at 20p a share. Net cash was £2.3m at the end of October 2016 and the additional cash will provide a significant cushion for the company. Kromek is still a couple of years away from making a pre-tax profit but the cash outflow should decline.
Taptica Ltd (TAP) has issued a positive trading statement and this has led to a forecast upgrade for 2016. Earnings per share have been upgraded by 12% to 29.3 cents, which is 150% higher than the forecast was one year ago. Increasing mobile marketing spend by customers means that there should continue to be significant growth.
Beximco Pharmaceuticals (BXP) has formed a joint venture with BioCare Manufacturing in Malaysia. Beximco will own 30% of the joint venture and will provide technical support. The initial product is a metered dose inhaler. Beximco reported a 14% local currency increase in interim revenues but in sterling they rose from £58m to £79.7m, while the growth rate in pre-tax profit was slightly higher with the sterling equivalent rising from £8.2m to £11.6m. The first product is being sold in the US and approvals have been gained for two other products.
Walker Greenbank (WGB) has received a further £1m insurance payment relating to flooding at Standfast & Barracks at the end of 2015. This takes the total insurance payments for the Lancaster fabric printing factory to £14.3m and there could be more to come. The Milton Keynes warehouse has been restocked. Octopus has increased its stake to 13.1%.
Ultrasound training simulators developer MedaPhor (MED) says it still had cash of £1.4m, net of the litigation settlement, which has been formalised with SonoSim Inc. In 2016, revenues grew by 50% to £3.3m, partly thanks to an initial contribution of £850,000 from the acquisition of Inventive Medical. The loss has increased from £1.5m to £2.5m, after settlement costs.
ImmuPharma (IMM) has recruited the 200 patients it requires for its phase III trial for the Lupuzor potential treatment for Lupus. By the end of January, more than 80% of the patients will have been treated for three months. Patients have to be monitored for 12 months so the full trial will not be completed until the first quarter of 2018. So far, there have been no indications that the drug is not safe.
Headway Investment Partners has increased its offer for Ludgate Environmental (LEF) from 16p a share to 16.3p a share, which compares with the latest NAV of 21.7p a share. The bid, though, provides cash up front rather than having to wait for the portfolio to be sold off.
Ascent Resources (AST) has started a well test at Pg-10 at the Petisovci project in Slovenia and an announcement about the results of the test should be published later this week. Henderson took advantage of a share price rise to sell one-fifth of their stake taking it to just below 10% but then almost doubled the number of shares it owns by converting £1m of convertible loan notes into 100 million shares. There are still £8.14m of convertibles in issue.
Ramblers Metals & Mining (RMM) expects to achieve the milling of 1,250 metric tonnes a day by the middle of 2017. Saleable copper of between 5,100 and 5,800 tonnes is forecast to be produced in 2017, along with 4,400 to 5,100 ounces of gold. In 2016, there was 4,174 tonnes of copper and 6,132 ounces of gold produced.
Keras Resources (KRS) has raised £600,000 at 0.35p a share in order to finance exploration at the Klondyke gold project in Australia. Some of the cash will be used to repay a £265,000 loan.
A concept study for the development of the CS natural pozzolan project in Nevada should be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2017. Sunrise Resources (SRES) should have information about the potential timeline for commercial production for the pozzolan, which is more environmentally friendly alternative to Portland cement.
MAIN MARKET
East Africa-focused Rainbow Rare Earths has raised $8m at 10p a share ahead of its standard listing. Demand for the shares was strong. This cash will be invested in the Gakara rare earths project in Burundi. Rainbow requires $2.23m to enable it to commence production in nine months. The main rare earths will be neodymium and praseodymium, which are used in generators, electric vehicles and wind turbines. Rainbow has secured a ten year offtake agreement with thyssenkrupp Raw Materials, which covers the sale of 5,000 tpa of concentrate. Petra Diamonds founder Adonis Pouroulis is chairman of Rainbow, which could move into profit in the year to June 2018.
Andrew Hore
Quoted Micro 12 December 2016
ISDX
IMC Exploration (IMCP) and its partner Koza Ltd have started work on a mapping and rock sampling programme at the Goldmines River licence in County Wicklow and a licence in County Wexford. This work will help to prepare for the next phase of drilling.
African Potash (AFPO), which has lost its AIM quotation because of the resignation of its nominated adviser, has moved to ISDX, where Peterhouse is its corporate adviser. Dealings on ISDX commenced on 7 December. African Potash is attempting to build up a vertically integrated fertiliser mining, production and distribution business in the Republic of Congo.
Ashley House (ASH), which develops health and community care properties, is refinancing its loan from Rockpool through a £1.5m facility provided by Invescare Ltd, where Ashley non-executive deputy chairman Stephen Minion is one of the shareholders. The facility lasts until June 2018 and is secured against individual assets of the company.
Geologist Gareth Northam has been appointed to the board of Goldcrest Resources (GCRP). Goldcrest has raised £70,000 by issuing convertible loan notes to natural resources investor Pelamis Investments. The loan note is convertible into 28 million shares at 0.25p each – a price relating to after a planned 50:1 capital reorganisation.
Valiant Investments (VALP) has raised £40,000 at 0.1p a share in order to provide finance for 84.7%-owned apps developer Flamethrower. Kryptonite 1 (KR1) has raised £155,000 at 0.05p a share, while Imperial Minerals (IMPP) raised £35,000 at 2p a share.
AIM (Latest AIM Journal available)
Fairpoint (FRP) made a profit warning just prior to the close on Friday but there was still time for the share price to halve. Dividend payments have been suspended. The legal services business has not been trading as well as hoped in November and December. The closure of the debt services business is on course to be completed in early 2017 but overheads are still higher than the management planned that they would be.
MP Evans (MPE) has sold its Malaysian joint venture and intends to pay a special dividend of 10p a share. The disposal will raise $100m and the deal valued the plantations at $13,000/hectare. That is more than the remaining assets are being valued at by the current bid. Kuala Lumpur Kepong has received 12.9% acceptances for its 740p a share bid. The disposal means that one-third of the cost of this bid will be covered by cash.
Expect more shares to come on to the market following the announcement that a further £1.15m of loan notes in CloudTag Inc (CTAG) have been converted into shares by L1 Capital. The conversion price is 6p but the market price has risen to more than twice that level. There are £50,000 of loan notes left.
AB Dynamics (ABDP) is raising additional cash to give it a larger buffer as it invests in its new facility. The automotive testing equipment manufacturer already had cash in the bank but it has raised £5.4m at 475p a share and it is offering shareholders the chance to subscribe up to £1m at the same share price.
Northacre (NTA) has been on AIM for 19 years but it has decided to end its association with the junior market. This is not a surprise because the main shareholder owns 94.3% of the company. That shareholder is offering to buy any shares at 100p each – a 35% premium to the previous market price.
Formation Group (FRM) has also decided to leave AIM but it is switching to ISDX. A general meeting will be held on 4 January and the property developer could join ISDX as early as 12 January of shareholders agree to the AIM cancellation.
Clean room equipment manufacturer MayAir (MAYA) says that it generated revenues of $52.4m in the ten months to October 2016 and there is an order book worth $20.4m most which should be recognised this year. This provides some comfort that MayAir can achieve full year expectations. Management still hopes to be moving into a new factory before the end of 2017.
Vianet (VNET) reported lower interim revenues but stripping out discontinued fuel-related activities revenues grew slightly thanks to the vending division. The core operations grew their profit contribution but higher losses from the technology business held back overall profit growth. In the six months to September 2016, pre-tax profit improved by 9% to £1.13m. The US loss in the leisure division was halved and the number of sites continues to grow, unlike the UK where the number of sites continue to decline. The vending division offers good potential for profit growth now that it is covering its costs and more of the additional revenues drop through to profit. The uses of the technology for the Internet of Things should help to boost growth. Net cash is £1.98m and the interim dividend is unchanged at 1.7p a share. A full year profit of £2.4m is forecast.
Gas and electrical services provider Bilby (BILB) is restating last year’s results. This will reduce reported pre-tax profit from £1.37m to £718,000. This is due to additional costs and disputed revenues. The share price is less than one-third of the level it peaked at less than 12 months ago. The interim figures will be published later this month.
Share (SHRE) has sold 20,000 shares in London Stock Exchange for £540,000. Share retains 100,000 shares in London Stock Exchange.
TV technology developer Mirada (MIRA) says the roll-out of its technology by izzi Telecom will be slower than expected and demand in Mexico is uncertain. This means revenues, particularly higher margin licence sales, will be delayed. This year the expected underlying loss is likely to be around £1.4m higher at £1.8m. Capitalised development spending is rising so there will be a significant cash outflow even when amortisation is taken into account. A pre-tax profit is not expected until 2018-19.
Armadale Capital (ACP) has announced a JORC compliant resource of 40.9 million tonnes @9.41% graphite content for the Mahenge Liandu project in Tanzania. This is a particularly high grade and it should be easy to extract – and that could be confirmed early next year. There will be additional drilling and a further upgrade could happen in the first half of 2017.
Evgen Pharma (EVG) reported interim figures in line with expectations and there is £5.5m left in the bank. This is enough to push ahead with two phase II clinical trials for SFX-01 and to investigate other potential uses. The results of the trials should be available in the first half of 2018. The US Food and Drug Administration has given orphan drug status to the treatment for subarachnoid haemorrhage.
Premier African Minerals (PREM) has decided not to increase its stake in Casa Mining from 4.5% to 30%.
MAIN MARKET
Project engineering consultancy Waterman Group (WTM) says that its performance has been in line with expectations in the first four months of this financial year. Exchange rates have helped to ensure a small increase in revenues in the period. This suggests that dividend growth will continue. Waterman has won work for the MoD, Brent Cross shopping centre and UK roads. The interim figures will be published in February. Michael Strong has been appointed as a non-executive director.
Andrew Hore
Small cap awards 2016
Company of the year
Bioventix (BVXP)
Bioventix develops and supplies sheep monoclonal antibodies for clinical diagnostic applications. Bioventix originally joined ISDX (Plus-quoted) in 2010 at a share price of 198p and then moved to AIM in April 2014. The share price is more than five times the original flotation price in 2010.
The antibodies can be used in tests for specific ailments and illnesses and it can take one year to develop an antibody for a specific diagnostic test. Customers include Roche, Abbott and Siemens. The majority of revenues come in the form of royalties based on the number of tests using the company’s antibodies. Two antibodies, used in tests for heart failure and vitamin D levels, accounted for nearly three-fifths of revenues in 2014-15. Newer antibodies should help to reduce the dependence on a limited number of products, while one licensing deal with a major customer for one of the two main revenue generators ends in 2017. The vitamin D-related product is expected to continue to grow in importance.
The business is highly cash generative and Bioventix has a progressive dividend policy – this year the dividend is expected to increase from 32.6p a share to 40.2p a share. Pre-tax profit is expected to improve from £3.1m to £3.6m in the year to June 2016.
IPO of the year
Bilby (BILB)
Bilby joined AIM during March 2015 with plans to build a business focused on gas installation, maintenance, electrical, water and building services. The customer base is local authorities and social housing organisations in London and the south east. The initial acquisition at the time of the flotation was gas installation specialist P&R Installation and Bilby subsequently bought Purdy Contracts, which provides electrical services, for £8.07m.
Safety concerns mean that local authorities and housing associations need to spend money on repairing and maintaining gas boilers and pipes. Bilby has a strong position in the gas installation and services market and it can use this to build up revenues from its customer base in other specialisations.
Earlier this year, Bilby made two further add-on acquisitions providing gas and building services for social housing and local authorities. DCB, which will cost up to £4m, provides refurbishment, maintenance and disabled adaptation services in south east England. Spokemead Maintenance provides electrical and repair services and will cost up to £8.7m. A placing raised £5m at 118p a share. Via this placing, ISDX-quoted Western Selection (WESP) invested a further £545,000 and owns 5.9% of Bilby.
P&R has won preferred bidder status for gas support work for the South East Consortium, which is a group of housing associations that manage more than 140,000 residential properties. This framework agreement starts in 2016 and lasts for four years. It could contribute £7m to revenues in 2016-17 and the margin may be better than other work. A full year profit of £3.09m is forecast, rising to £4.88m in 2016-17.
Impact company of the year
Ashley House (ASH)
Care housing and health properties developer Ashley House joined the Social Impact segment of ISDX in February but it retained its AIM quotation. Ashley House moved from ISDX (Plus-quoted) to AIM in January 2007.
Ashley House developed its first GP surgery in 1991 and it provides services to help to resource, fund, community healthcare and supported living properties. The properties are energy efficient. There is a pipeline of 32 schemes with a value of £186.7m, with the vast majority of this pipeline relating to supported living properties. This is despite the fact that there has been uncertainty about housing benefit. Ashley House blames a lack of government funding for the rentals on healthcare properties for the slowdown in activity in this part of the business since 2010.
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. A full year profit of £1.1m is forecast, rising to £1.5m in 2016-17.
Executive director of the year
John McArthur – Tracsis (TRCS)
Transport optimisation services and software provider Tracsis has a strong growth record and has got into good habits, such as beating its broker’s forecasts, and that is reflected by the premium rating. John McArthur has guided the company as its chief executive since it floated at a market capitalisation of £7m at 40p a share back in 2007. The share price has risen by more than 1,000% and the company is currently valued at around £127m.
Tracsis made solid progress at the interim stage but it is expected to do much better in the second half thanks to higher contributions from last year’s acquisitions Ontrac and SEP Events, which provides events management and parking services and is second-half weighted. In the six months to January 2016, revenues increased by 19% to £14.3m, organic growth was 7%, with adjusted pre-tax profit flat at £3.2m, excluding the Australian business sold in the period. The growth came in the software and consulting operations. Sales of remote condition monitoring equipment remain flat because of a lack of demand from framework agreements. There is potential for significant sales in the US but this will not contribute in the short term.
The interim dividend was raised by one-quarter to 0.5p a share but that will not put much of a dent in the cash pile of £8m. That cash figure was reduced due to acquisition spending but it should grow until there are additional acquisitions. Full-year profit is expected to improve from £5.6m to £6.8m.
Transaction of the year
1PM (OPM) acquisition of Academy Leasing
Small business finance provider 1PM is growing rapidly on the back of the lack of lending by banks to the smaller end of the market and it has still managed to keep bad debts low. Academy Leasing was acquired for up to £12m at the end of last August. This is the company’s first major acquisition. 1PM has been growing its profit for six years having recovered from the downturn in 2008 and the strategy is to treble the market capitalisation of the business to £100m.
Warrington-based Academy provides finance for the acquisition of equipment with the leads coming from the equipment suppliers. The strategy is to provide finance for every opportunity but riskier opportunities tend to be broked-on in return for commission.
The businesses have been integrated and the management team rationalised, with the former chief executive of 1PM leaving. The chairman Ian Smith has become chief executive with three main executive directors reporting to him. These three cover sales and marketing, strategy and risk and finance. The first two came from Academy.
More recently, 1PM acquired Bradgate, which provides finance for businesses buying construction, recycling and haulage equipment, for up to £2.75m and a book of receivables for £1.6m. Full year profit is expected to nearly double to £3.1m but more importantly earnings per share are forecast to improve from 3.7p to 5.1p.
Alternative financing deal of the year
Capital for Colleagues (CFCP)
ISDX-quoted Capital for Colleagues provides finance that helps employees to invest in the businesses they work for. Last year, Capital for Colleagues raised £302,000 at 59p a share from a crowdfunding campaign via CrowdBnk. The minimum target was £250,000.
Capital for Colleagues raised £2.19m at 50p a share when it joined ISDX on 17 March 2014 and last August it became a member of the Social Stock Exchange. The company has investments in 14 employee-owned businesses, as well as a portfolio of quoted shares in companies’ that have significant employee involvement. Subsidiary C4C Ownership Partners provides advice and support to employee-owned businesses or companies looking to turn themselves into an employee-owned business.
Capital for Colleagues 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. The net asset value was £4.2m at the end of February 2016 and £1.15m has been raised at 59p a share since then. There are still plenty of opportunities for new investments as well as additional investment in existing investee companies.
Analyst of the year
Charles Hall – Peel Hunt
Journalist of the year
Simon Thompson – Investors Chronicle
Adviser of the year
Zeus Capital
Fund manager of the year
Conor McCarthy and Darren Freemantle, MFM Techinvest Special Situations
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.