Home » Posts tagged 'eight capital partners'
Tag Archives: eight capital partners
Andrew Hore: Quoted Micro 17 September 2018
NEX EXCHANGE
Renewable energy supplier Good Energy (GOOD) reported a 19% increase in interim revenues to £61.8m. Pre-tax profit has more than trebled to £2.4m, if discontinued activities, including the investment in the proposed Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon, are excluded. The interim dividend is unchanged at 1p a share. A brand relaunch is planned for the second half.
Eight Capital Partners (MORE) has made its first investment in the financial services sector. It is acquiring €111,100 worth of 8% corporate bonds 2020 in Italian financial services company Finance Partners Group. Management believes the link up with the Italian company will fit well with other potential investments.
EPE Special Opportunities (ESO) has completed its migration from the Isle of Man to Bermuda. Trading in the shares has been suspended. Trading should be restored by 21 September.
KR1 (KR1) continues to invest in new token issues. A $200,000 investment has been made in Foamspace Corp for 3.63 million FOAM tokens. This business intends to develop a protocol for a network of beacons providing location services. A further $100,000 has been invested in the Althea Mesh project tokens. This enables decentralised internet service providers to be set up. There has been $100,000 invested in Etherisc tokens. Etherisc is developing a blockchain service for the insurance sector.
Sandal (SAND) has launched an installer service for its MiHome smart home range. The service will be provided by Icon Heating Solutions.
Tectonic Gold (TTAU) has initiated a ten hole drilling campaign at the Specimen Hill discovery in Queensland. Four holes have been completed. The drilling should be complete in four weeks.
Panther Metals (PALM) has acquired the Bear Lake project, which is a package of gold and base metal prospects in north wester Ontario. The consideration is C$133,000 (£77,000) in cash and shares.
AIM
Manx Telecom (MANX) reported relatively flat interim figures but a deal by one of its developing investments could mean that the business could become significant in a couple of years time. The interim dividend was raised by 5% to 4.1p a share. Full year pre-tax profit is expected to edge up to £15.2m with a similar increase in the final dividend. Investee company Goshawk has developed a hearing loss product and signed up BT’s mobile subsidiary EE, which could provide a potential market of 3 million people.
Property Franchise Group (TPFG) grew all its letting brands in the first half of 2018 and its online estate agency eweMove went from loss to profit in the period. Full year profit is expected to increase from £4.3m to £4.6m.
Anexo Group (ANX) has reported growth in interim revenues and profit although the cash raised in the recent flotation has yet to be put to use. The legal services and credit hire provider is expected to increase full year pre-tax profit from £13.8m to £14.7m in 2018, and then to £16.4m in 2019.
STM Group (STM) increased interim revenues by 6% to £10.8m and pre-tax profit by 11% to £2.1m. The interim dividend was increased by 17% to 0.7p a share. The main growth has come from the pensions business.
K3 Capital Group (K3C) continues to go from strength to strength. The mergers and acquisition adviser increased revenues by 53% to £16.5m and net cash more than doubled to £7.5m by the end of May 2018. Pre-tax profit could dip from £7.3m to £7m, which would lead to a small reduction in dividend from 11.2p a share, but there is scope for upgrades in expectations.
Gatemore continues to build up its stake in TLA Worldwide (TLA) by taking advantage of the share price decline following TLA’s latest profit warning, which was released in the morning for a change, but there is no news about a replacement nominated adviser. The shareholding has been increased from 12.2% to 13.7%. No news about a new nominated adviser.
Audio visual equipment distributor Midwich Group (MIDW) increased its interim, constant currency, revenues by 24% to £264.1m. Organic growth was around 9%. Underlying pre-tax profit was 22% higher at £9.78m. A full year pre-tax profit of £28.4m is forecast.
Potatoes producer Produce Investments (PIL) is recommending a 193p a share cash bid by Promethean Investments. This values the company at £53m.
Orosur Mining (OMI) has secured a $2m investment from Newmont Mining at more than treble the pre-deal market share price. This will provide investment for the Anza project in Colombia. Orosur had been profitable and cash generative but it fell into loss in the year to May 2018 as gold production costs were in excess of the selling price.
Education services provider Malvern International (MLVN) made a small first half loss but it is on course to move into profit in the full year. The number of students signing up for courses means that enough revenues should have been secured for a full year pre-tax profit of £300,000. There will also be a second half contribution from the recent Manchester acquisition.
MAIN MARKET
Photovoltaic silicon wafers supplier PV Crystalox Solar (PVCS) had net cash of €39.6m at the end of June 2018. This could be returned to shareholders or used to finance an acquisition. The decision will be made before the end of this year. Multicrystalline silicon wafer production ceased in April 2018 and the focus is cutting of quartz and glass. Interim revenues more than halved to €6.2m.
Toople (TOOP) is raising £2.2m at 0.3p a share, following its recent contract news. This is no surprise, but the share price has fallen back from just over 0.9p near the end of August.
Contango Holdings (CGO) continues to undertake due diligence on a near-term producing asset in Zimbabwe. This potential deal was announced last December. There was nearly £638,000 in the bank at the end of May 2018.
Standard list cash shell Auctus Growth (AUCT) had £962,000 in the bank at the end of June 2018. The NAV is 35.5p a share.
Andrew Hore
Andrew Hore – Quoted Micro 13 August 2018
NEX EXCHANGE
Brewer Adnams (ADB) grew its turnover by 7% to £35.5m in the first half of 2018 but there was an underlying operating loss and lower gains from asset disposals. The reported pre-tax loss increased from £284,000 to £840,000. The second half is always more profitable. Depreciation is higher due to investment in the brewery and the refurbishment of the Swan Hotel. Adnams own beer volumes increased by 4.8%, compared with the market growth of 1.3%. Carbon dioxide shortages have affected the second half. The interim dividend is unchanged at 78p/B share and 19.5p/A share.
KSE is offering £29,419.64 a share in cash for Arsenal Holdings (AFC) and that values the football club at £1.8bn. KSE already owns or has acceptances totalling more than 97% of the shares in the company.
Healthperm Resourcing Ltd (HPR) increased revenues by 184% to £293,000 in the first half of 2018 and 144 healthcare staff candidates were deployed in the period, which was nearly three times as many as in the first half of 2017. More students are being trained in the English language. Healthcare recruitment contracts have been signed in the UK and they cover nine hospitals. Contracts have also been signed outside the UK.
Angelfish Investments (ANGP) is subscribing for 0% secured convertible loan notes in Wallet Ads Ltd. The first drawdown is £50,000 and this will be followed by five monthly instalments of £20,000. On payment of the final instalment, or under certain other circumstances, the loan notes can be converted into 20% of the enlarged share capital of Wallet Ads, which has developed a mobile engagement platform combining mobile wallet passes, web and social media and this enables digital vouchers to be sent to smartphones. Angelfish non-exec Richard Walker will join the Wallet Ads board.
Pelican House Mining (PHM) is investing in battery minerals explorer Kalahari Key Mineral Exploration (KKME), which is exploring for nickel and platinum group metals in Botswana, near the South Africa border. AIM-quoted Two Shields Investments (TSI) is a co-investor in KKME and it increased its stake to 22.2%. Two Shields Investments also increased its stake in cobalt explorer Cobalt Blue Holdings to 49% before swapping it for a 11.26% stake in African Battery Materials (ABM), thereby gaining a wider exposure to technology metals licences.
Clean Invest Africa (CIA) raised an additional £50,000 at 1p a share when it floated last year. Geremy Thomas holds a 3.1% stake.
Shareholders in Welney (WENP) have voted against the appointment of Mark Jackson and Mark Chapman as directors.
AIM-quoted TechFinancials Inc (TECH) joined NEX on 8 August. Monreal has changed its name to Eight Capital Partners (ECP).
AIM
Fryer management and commercial kitchen services provider Filta (FLTA) says that interim figures are in line with expectations. There will be a full contribution from GMG, which was acquired last year, while the sale of the refrigeration division has helped to improve margins. Revenues are growing from newer franchisees and the UK-based seals business also grew its revenues. The interims will be published on 4 September.
Former boss Philip Swinstead has sold his 9.82% stake in Parity Group (PTY) and Helium Rising Stars has taken a 10.9% shareholding. Parity is on track to achieve double digit profit growth this year. The IT recruitment and consultancy services provider is modestly rated on a prospective multiple of less than nine, even though the share price has risen following the share dealing.
Pebble Beach Systems (PEB) expects revenues to fall from £4.6m to £3.9m but the broadcast software supplier believes that the second half should be better. A backlog of £4.7m should help full year revenues to be nearer to last year’s level.
Frontier IP (FIPP) has announced its first Portugal-based spin-out. It is taking a 31.8% stake in NTPE, which is developing Paper-E technology that can be used to print electronic circuits, sensors and semiconductors. This opportunity came through the relationship with Universidade Nova de Lisboa Faculty of Science and Technology. Another investee company, 27.5%-owned Fieldwork Robotics, has secured a deal with soft fruit grower Hall Hunter to prototype and test a raspberry harvesting robot system.
Phoenix Global Mining (PGM) has reported that the first drilling results from the Empire mine in Idaho have been encouraging. There was 68 metres at 0.57% copper from the surface. The current JORC resource is 0.52% copper so it would be good news if the current drilling provides higher levels of copper.
Mereo BioPharma (MPH) had net cash of £36.9m at the end of June 2018, but a R and D tax credit of £8.2m was received in August. An adult Phase 2b study for Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) is due to complete enrolment by the end of September. There will be initial six month data from the open-label high dose part of the study by the middle of next year. A flotation on Nasdaq is still a possibility.
MAIN MARKET
Engineering and construction company North Midland Construction (NMD) increased its interim revenues from £135.1m to £160.9m and more than doubled pre-tax profit from £1.23m to £2.51m. The interim dividend has been doubled to 6p a share. Cash in the bank was 138% higher than 12 months before are £18.9m, although there are also finance leases of £4.5m. The order book is worth £320m. The telecoms-related part of the business is still losing money. There were much better profit contributions from the water and construction divisions.
Argo Blockchain (ARB) is developing a global datacentre management business facilitating cryptocurrency Mining-as-a-Service and has signed a deal that will provide 9.5MW of clean energy for two datacentres in Quebec (Argo already has one datacentre in Quebec). That provides the capacity for more than 150,000 subscribers and the centres will be operational in September and October. Argo joined the standard list on 3 August after raising £25m at 16p a share, which valued the company at £47m. However, the share price has fallen back to 11.13p.
Beauty and personal care products supplier InnovaDerma (IDP) has appointed Kieran Callan, who was a non-executive director, as chief executive with Haris Chaudhry moving to executive chairman. Callan used to work at PZ Cussons. This appointment follows poor trading and disappointing pre-tax profit in the year to Last October, InnovaDerma raised £4.4m at 276p a share and, having fallen by two-thirds at one point since then, the share price has recovered to 148.5p. Haircare brand Roots will be sold in Tesco.
Telecoms services provider Toople (TOOP) is holding a general meeting on 30 August in order to get shareholder approval to enable it to issue more shares to raise cash to keep the business going.
Andrew Hore