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Quoted Micro 6 January 2025
AQUIS STOCK EXCHANGE
Global Connectivity (GCON) is investing £50,000 in PLUG Group, which is a 4% stake. PLUG is developing opportunities to extract decommissioned copper cables for South American telecoms companies. Livia Meyer has returned 32.5 million shares and paid £50,000 for the other five million shares subscribed for. Executive chairman Dr Keith Harris has paid the £200,000 he owes for shares he acquired. Barry Hersh has still not paid the £375,000 for the 37.5 million shares that he subscribed for.
SulNOx Group (SNOX) reported a rise in interim revenues from £136,000 to £440,000. The loss increased from £870,000 to £1.17m. There was £804,000 in the bank at the end of September 2024.
KRI (KR1) had net assets of 100.04p/share at the end of November 2024. Income of £771,347 was generated during the month. There is cash of £624,000.
Walls and Futures REIT (WAFR) maintained its NAV at 85p/share at the end of September 2024. There was a small reported profit after a £40,000 increase in property values. Management is hopeful that government plans for social and affordable housing will provide opportunities for the company.
Video technology company Visum Technologies (VIS) improved revenues from £63,000 to £130,000 in the year to June 2024. The cash outflow from operating activities was £133,000, leaving £49,000 in the bank. The focus is the leisure market, but the company wants to find other applications for its technology. Costs are being controlled.
Consumer finance provider Investment Evolution Credit (IEC) generated full year revenues of £455,000 and lost £247,000. There was cash of £101,000 at the end of June 2024.
Coinsilium (COIN) has entered into a strategic collaboration with Otomato Inc, a Web3 technology platform for autonomous agent-based solutions. The idea is to maximise the value of Coinsilium’s digital assets. The initial term is 12 months.
At the end of September 2024, Hot Rocks Investments (HRIP) NAV was £698,000, including £342,000 in cash.
Supernova Digital Assets (SOL) has bought back 67 million shares at an average price of 0.2239p each. The buyback authority lasts until the end of 2025.
Tap Global Group (TAP) has been granted virtual asset service provider registration in Bulgaria. This is a step towards expanding in the EU.
Blue Sky Vision has exercised its option to subscribe for 20 million shares in Valereum (VLRM) at 10p each.
Three directors of Invinity Energy Systems (IES) bought shares at 14.85p/share. Chairman Neil O’Brien bought 135,000 shares, chief executive Jonathan Marren acquired 134,680 shares and finance director Adam Howard purchased 134,333 shares.
Evrima (EVA) has appointed Bowsprit Partners as corporate adviser.
AIM
Pri0r1ty Intelligence Group (PR1) joined AIM on 30 December following the reversal of the AI customer relationship technology company into Alteration Earth. The business provides AI tools to automate areas such as social media and governance for smaller companies. Spreadex has sold a 3.99% stake and retains voting rights through financial instruments of 0.75%. The share price declined by 24.1% from the placing price to 10.25p, although it is 18% down on the Alteration Earth suspension price of 12.5p.
Poolbeg Pharma (POLB) is in talks with potential bidder HOOKIPA Pharma (NASDAQ: HOOK) about an all-share offer from the Nasdaq-listed company. The indicated proposal is 0.03 of a HOOKIPA share for each Poolbeg share. Cancer and infectious disease treatments developer HOOKIPA intends to raise up to $30m. That will fund phase 2a trails for POLB 001 and trials of two other treatments. HOOKIPA shareholders would receive a contingent value right instrument entitling them to 55% of milestone payments made by Gilead for HB-400 and HB-500 programmes. This could be worth up to $407.5m. They are also entitled to 80% of the proceeds generated by the HB-200 programme.
SDX Energy (LSD) postponed the general meeting on 31 December. This was called to gain shareholder approval to leave AIM due the costs of the quotation and the greater potential flexibility as a private company. Potential investors would apparently prefer to invest in an unquoted company. The strategy continues to be to become a vertically integrated gas and renewable energy producer in Morocco. The general meeting will be rearranged.
Revolution Beauty (REVB) has come to a confidential agreement with Chrysalis Investments (CHRY) over the claims related to its investment in the company when it joined AIM in July 2021. Last year, Chrysalis Investments issued draft particulars of a claim £39m plus additional consequential loss of £6.2m. Chrysalis Investments will be paid a non-material amount of cash with out admission of liability.
Arecor Therapeutics (AREC) has signed an exclusive licence agreement for a formulation of liquid drug product AT351 for a large client. The use of the product is undisclosed. There is an upfront milestone payment with potential for further payments. The licensee will be responsible for further development and hopes to seek FDA approval within three years. Panmure Liberum has a target share price of 361p.
Marketing services provider The Mission Group (TMG) has completed its restructuring with the sale of AprilSix to US-based Marketbridge for up to £17.4m. The initial payment is £10.5m and reduces pro forma net debt to £17m. This will enable the company to negotiate an extension to its debt agreement. AprilSix generated 13.5% of 2023 revenues of £86.3m. A share buyback of up to £1.5m will be launched. There could be a dividend paid for 2025.
Cancer treatments developer Hutchmed (China) Ltd (HCM) has followed up the sale of its non-core 45% interest in Shanghai Hutchison Pharmaceuticals for $608m with news of the acceptance of a new drug application in China for savolitinib in combination with AstraZeneca’s Tagrisso as a treatment for lung cancer.
Cancer treatments developer ValiRx (VAL) has extended the exclusivity period with TheoremRx Inc on the sub-licence of VAL201 until the end of May 2025. This is the final extension, and it is due to TheoremRx Inc being involved in a transaction with a Nasdaq listed company.
Pulsar Helium Inc (PLSR) is raising up to $7.5m at 38 cents(30p)/share. A loan will be provided by University Bancorp Inc will provide a $4m line of credit to ABCrescent Cooperatief so that it can exercise 15.5 million warrants. The cash will finance exploration at the Topaz project in Minnesota and enable a decision to be made on a combined helium and CO2 production facility. Further drilling on the Jetstream #1 appraisal well will restart this week.
Restaurants operator Tasty (TAST) has received £2.5m from an insurer for breach of contract for insurance for losses in 2020. This will lead to an exceptional gain of £1.5m in 2024.
Huddled Group (HUD) acquired the 25% of Boop Beauty it did not own for £100,000 in cash.
Functional food ingredients developer Provexis (PXS) doubled interim revenues to £785,000. There was a reported loss, but a £17,000 cash inflow from operating activities. Cash was £478,000 at the end of September 2024.
MAIN MARKET
Power electronics developer for electric vehicles DG Innovate (DGI) is cancelling its listing in the transition category of the Main Market because of the difficulty in raising cash since floating on the now-defunct standard list via reverse takeover of Path Investments in April 2022. DG Innovate did raise £500,000 at 0.08p/share. This will help to support the joint venture with Indian electric vehicle manufacturer EVage Automotive for the production of DG Innovate’s Pareta e-drives and provide working capital until early February 2025. Much more cash will be required, though.
Roquefort Therapeutics (ROQ) is planning to sell Lyramid, which has a portfolio of antibody and mRNA based therapied that focus on cancer target Midkine, for a minimum of $10m. The business was acquired for £1m. This would mean that Roquefort Therapeutics would take a share stake in the buyer Pleiades Pharma. The deal replaces the previously announced licensing proposal.
Capricorn Energy (CNE) did not receive the final settlement payment of $22.5m from Waldorf Production UK for earnout considerations. As part of this deal, Capricorn Energy acquired a 25% stake in the Columbus field in the North Sea. Capricorn Energy is considering its options.
Andrew Hore
Atlantic Capital Markets Month Ahead – July 2020
Alan Green talks to John Woolfitt, Director at multi award winning broking and investment firm Atlantic Capital Markets. John looks forward to the coming month, and discusses US job numbers, Boris and Build Build Build, and the raft of UK job cuts. He then discusses ‘Covid’ stocks, including Novacyt #NCYT, upcoming key corporate announcements for July, including Royal Dutch Shell #RDSB and Hutchison China Meditech #HCM and trading ideas from the Atlantic dealing floor. John finishes with a recap on key points and trading ideas to help traders and investors in July.
Andrew Hore – Quoted Micro 19 November 2018
NEX EXCHANGE
Renewable energy supplier Good Energy (GOOD) has traded slightly ahead of expectations and been cash generative in the first ten months of 2018. Customer numbers have remained flat. The financial year should be in line with expectations. This reassurance led to a 17% increase in the share price, although it is still more than two-fifths lower than one year ago.
Capital for Colleagues (CFCP) has made a further investment in TG Engineering Ltd, which makes steel and aluminium components for the aerospace and medical sectors. A loan of £150,000 takes the total loan to £625,000, alongside a 35% stake.
MetalNRG (MNRG) has raised £159,500 from a placing at 1p a share and the exercise of warrants. This will fund the investment in the uranium mine in the Kyrgyz Republic, over which MetalNRG has an option, and progress work at the Gold Ridge project in Arizona. There was £77,000 in the bank at the end of August 2018.
NQ Minerals (NQMI) has produced its first lead, gold and silver concentrate from the Hellyer polymetallic project in Tasmania. This has been delivered to Traxys Europe and payment has been received.
Tectonic Gold (TTAU) has mapped a large intrusive intersection of two major crustal faults at Mount Cassidy. This could a significant intrusive related gold system.
Clinical support systems provider DXS International (DXSP) has set a target of achieving a six-fold increase in turnover over the next five years and it believes that post-tax profit could reach £7m a year. This would come on the back of past investment in developing new products, two of which have been launched recently.
Ganapati (GANP) says that its Malta-based subsidiary has signed a games licence agreement with NYX Interactive for the supply of gaming software. After the initial software is supplied, Ganapati will supply one game each month for three years.
TechFinancials Inc (TECH) will receive a $867,000 dividend from 51%-owned Asia Pacific-focused subsidiary DragonFinancials.
Frontier IP (FIPP) has raised £2.49m at 65p a share from existing and new investors and this will finance an expansion of the management team and provide working capital for the business. The value of the company’s investment portfolio has increased by one-third to £9m and there was £1.1m in the bank at the end of June 2018. The NAV increased from £11.8m to £12.7m. The cash should last into 2020 even if there are no proceeds from investment realisations.
SVS has pulled the £532,000 placing at 8.5p a share for TomCo Energy (TOM) and resigned as broker. SVS says that there has been a material change because of the suspension of the field test on the Holliday block in Utah. Trading in the shares has been suspended. TomCo has cash of £250,000.
There were disappointing phase III trial results for the Hutchison China Meditech (HCM) drug Fruquintinib, which did not achieve the primary endpoint in treating non-small cell lung cancer patients. That knocked nearly one-fifth off the share price.
AB Dynamics (ABDP) continues to grow strongly and is already planning to add to its capacity at its new site. Forecasts were raised for the automotive testing and simulator systems supplier earlier in the year and the full year outcome was a 51% increase in revenues to £37.1m and a jump in underlying pre-tax profit from £5.9m to £8.6m. A profit of £10.4m is expected this year.
Eve Sleep (EVE) is changing its focus following the appointment of a new chief executive. The mattress supplier will focus less on heavy marketing for one-off purchases and instead expand its range and generate repeat purchases. Lower marketing spending will reduce the growth rate of revenues. There was £7m in the bank at the end of October 2018 and the company wants to raise a further £15m.
Genedrive (GDR) has raised £5.6m after expenses from a placing at 23p a share, jointly run by Stanford Capital Partners and Peel Hunt, and an issue of loan notes to the British Growth Fund. There was £3.53m in the bank at the end of June 2018. The funds will finance the launch of the Genedrive HCV-ID kit for hepatitis C diagnosis and further assay development for antibiotic induced hearing loss and tuberculosis.
Trakm8 (LSE: TRAK) slipped out its interims on a Friday, albeit at 7am and not at Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings (IDH) o’clock (around 4.30pm). In the six months to September 2018, revenues fell 38% to £8.84m and even excluding contract manufacturing, which is not done any more, the decline is 26%. Recurring revenues fell by 7%. Even taking the most flattering figures, a pre-tax profit of £363,000 last time was turned into a £2.46m loss. Net debt more than doubled to £5.73m.
Marshall Motor Holdings (MMH) is going to make a better full year profit than expected despite the disruption of new testing rules. That has helped used car sales. The 2018 pre-tax profit is still expected to decline from £29.1m to £25.7m, but that is an improvement for the continuing operations.
Beximco Pharmaceuticals (BXP) has increased its first quarter revenues by 26%, although some of the improvement came from Nuvista, which did not contribute in the corresponding period. Pre-tax profit was 17% higher at BDT973 million. Beximco reported a 37% increase in export sales for its last financial year and they accounted for 12% of total sales. There are five treatments with US approval and it will take time to build up sales. The plan is to eventually generate two-fifths of revenues from exports.
Trinidad-focused oil and gas producer Touchstone Exploration Inc (TXP) generated $9.12m from operations in the nine months to September 2018, up from $2.22m in the corresponding period last year, thanks to higher production and selling prices and slightly lower operating expenses. This cash has been used to increase development spending.
Wynnstay Properties (WSP) is increasing its interim dividend by 8% to 7p a share. The NAV was760p a share at the end of September 2018 and 99% of the property portfolio is let. There was a decline in income due to disposals.
AIM shell Stirling Investments (STRL) had £7.7m of cash at the end of September 2018. Management includes ex-Melrose management. The share price has fallen from 100p to 74.5p, which is less than the cash per share.
IFA Lighthouse Group (LGT) has signed an agreement with Tavistock Investments (TAVI) for the use of the latter’s investment products, which will be offered by Lighthouse as well as its own Luceo Asset Management products. Tavistock raised £1.2m at 3.28p a share and Lighthouse subscribed for £1m of the total.
Event driven marketing technology services provider Mporium Group (MPM) has raised £2.3m at 5p a share.
Mercantile Ports and Logistics (MPL) is raising £27.75m at 2p a share and could raise a further £2.07m via an open offer.
Fastjet (FJET) has raised £9m at 1p a share in order to keep itself going. There has also been a £3.16m subscription from Solenta Aviation and £19.1m worth of shares have been issued to acquire four Embraer 145s from Solenta and settle various fees, charges and loans. A further £4.1m could be raised via and open offer at 1p a share. This should finance the airline business for 2019.
Empyrean Energy (EME) has raised £1m at 10p a share and this will provide working capital.
Allenby Capital has resigned as nominated adviser to CSF Group (CSFG) and will step down at the end of 2018. CSF has been turned down by potential replacements and trading is likely to be suspended at the end of 2018 and the quotation cancelled at the end of January 2019.
Rasmala (RMA) plans to cancel its AIM quotation and tender for up to 20% of tis share capital at 150p a share.
MAIN MARKET
Resources-focused standard list shell Cobra Resources (COBR) floated on 15 November when it raised £523,500 at 1.5p a share. The share price ended the week at 1.75p. The board believes this is a good time to identify and acquire undervalued base and precious metals projects, which are already have a good management team and are well on the way to becoming a producing asset. There could be direct investments or farm-ins. There are 59.9 million warrants exercisable at 2p each.
The former Golden Saint Resources, now known as Golden Saint Technologies (GST), is planning to join the standard list. A placing at 0.75p a share will raise £911,000, of which £270,000 will go to pay directors fees that are owed. The rest will pay other costs. The company has switched from diamond exploration to an installer of network and connectivity products.
Trifast (TRI) reported interims in line with expectations and the fastenings supplier is on track to improve full year pre-tax profit from £22.2m to £23.1m. Management is cautious about the UK, but two-thirds of revenues are overseas.
Andrew Gaughan is stepping down as chief executive of Sportech (SPO) in February. The chairman will take up an executive position for an interim period and he purchased 250,000 shares at 40.6p each. The potential acquisition of ilottery provider Lot.to Systems was also announced with a strategic alliance initially put in place.
Avation (AVAP) has announced a 2 cents a share interim dividend. The aviation leasing business estimates that in the six months to December 2018 leasing revenues will increase from $41.7m to $57.8m and, along with a disposal gain, this means that interim profit will be better than expected and much higher than the $7.3m achieved in the first half of the previous year.
IQ-AI (IQAI) has made its first commercial sale of StoneChecker Software to a South Korean hospital.
BigDish (DISH) is building up resources to grow its business in the UK next year. The restaurants platform is considering selling its Asian business.
Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd (BMV) has completed a $380,000 placing at 2.5p a share. Each of the new shares has a warrant exercisable at 2.5p, which has to be done if the share price trades at 3p a share or above for ten consecutive days.
Andrew Hore
Quoted Micro 29 March 2016
ISDX
Brewer Adnams (ADB) improved its 2015 profit on flat turnover of £65.7m. Costs were reduced and pre-tax profit improved from £3.89m to £4.07m, after a steady contribution of £625,000 from property disposals. A £7m investment will help to improve the brewery. The Suffolk-based company has reduced its pension liability from £11.5m to £3.2m and that has helped NAV jump from £21.2m to £30.1m. The B share dividend has been increased from 136p a share to 144p a share. There were a number of trades last week at prices ranging from 9,800p to 10,200p a share. In total, 189 shares were traded.
Employee-owned business finance provider Capital for Colleagues (CFCP) has raised £1.15m from a share subscription at59p each. This will provide cash for further investments. The directors’ bought 338,983 shares. Offshoots of Alliance Trust have taken stakes that total 10.5% of the company. The most recent share transaction was done at 63p a share. At 60.5p a share, Capital for Colleagues is valued at £5.8m.
Imperial Minerals (IMPP) is still looking for a suitable acquisition in the resources sector. There are plans to widen the investment policy. The main investment is nearly 69 million shares in AIM-quoted North River Resources and there is also an option to invest in a South American gold project and a loan of $150,000 was made to Symerton Holdings which currently owns the rights. A lack of progress means that this investment has been written down. Cash and financial assets have fallen from £327,000 to £58,000 over six months but Imperial has raised £50,000 at 0.5p a share since then.
AIM
Transport optimisation services and software provider Tracsis (TRCS) made good progress in the first half of its financial year but it will do much better in the second half. Higher contributions from acquisitions Ontrac and SEP, which is second half weighted, underpin the full year expectations. In the six months to January 2016, revenues increased 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. Sales of remote condition monitoring equipment remain flat because of a lack of demand from framework agreements. There is potential in the US but this will not contribute significantly 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. Full year profit is expected to rise from £5.6m to £6.8m.
Medical technology and treatments developer Hutchison China Meditech Ltd (HCM) as raised $101m from an offering of ADSs ahead of its listing on Nasdaq. An ADS is the equivalent of one-half of one ordinary share and they were issued at $13.50 each. Trading commenced on 17 March. The Hutchison Healthcare Holdings stake has been diluted to 60.8%.
Bilby (BILB) has made two add-on acquisitions for its gas and building services business 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.
Despite the problems of its foreign exchange activities, Earthport (EPO) managed to make progress with its core payments business, where transaction volumes were more than 70% higher. Higher admin expenses meant that the underlying interim operating loss rose from £2.26m to £6.68m as revenues rose from £9m to £10.6m. Non-core operations have been curtailed and the core growth is faster. However, since then a loss of up to £5m has been identified at forex firm Baydonhill. Earthport intends to focus on lower risk business in this area. There was £24.2m in the bank at the end of 2015.
Keywords Studios (KWS) has acquired the support division of French games producer Ankama SAS. This is effectively a four year outsourcing deal with Keywords taking over the Philippines operations, which will be expanded by adding additional clients. The 2015 figures will be published on 5 April.
Human biome related treatments developer OptioBiotix (OPTI) has signed a second contract for its SweetBiotix healthy sugars with the Spanish National Research Council in Madrid. The first programme started last September is designed to create low calorie sugars using bacterial strains and the second will incorporate natural sweeteners to create functional food products. Obesity is a major problem and the proposed sugar tax will help to boost demand for healthier sweeteners. Figures for the year to November 2015 will be published on 14 April.
MAIN MARKET
Avation (AVAP) has announced the delivery of the fourth FLYBE ATR72 aircraft. The passenger aircraft leasing company has leased the plane for six years with an option to extend. Last month, a new Airbus A321-200 was delivered to Thomas Cook on a 12 year lease. Earlier in March, Avation bought 1.1 million units of Avation Capital 7.5% guaranteed notes 2020 at 91p each, while executive director Roderick Mahoney acquired 200,000 units at 91p each.
ANDREW HORE