AQUIS STOCK EXCHANGE

Oberon Investments (OBE) reported a decline from £6.7m to £5m because of lower share dealing and capital markets income. The loss increased from £581,000 to £3.9m, which was predominantly down to one-off reorganisation and transaction costs. Management is confident that acquisitions and new teams will enable revenues to grow to more than £8m this year.

VSA Capital (VSA) says it had a better than expected first quarter to June 2023, but it still expects an interim loss. VSA Capital owns 0.85% of Silverwood Brands (SLWD), which is being sued by cosmetics company Lush concerning the acquisition of shares by Silverwood Brands and whether the transfer of ownership is valid.

TruSpine Technologies (TSP) has made th4e FDA 510k submission for the Cervi-Lok spinal stabilisation device. The FDA will take up to 90 days to make a decision. If clearance is received, then marketing can commence. The medical devices company has limited working capital.

Gunsynd (GUN) is providing funding of £1m in Metals One in return for a 25% stake in Finnaust Mining Northern. This investment is dependent on Metals One joining AIM and the simultaneous acquisition of Finnaust and will be provided in four tranches over 18 months. Gunsynd has sold 440,000 shares in Charger Metals, raising £100,000. It retains 2.54 million shares. Gunsynd will also receive 1.5 million warrants in Metals One.

Healthcare IT provider DXS International (DXSP) increased full year revenues by 3% to £3.4m. There was a pre-tax loss, but that was more than covered by R&D tax credits. There was £372,000 in the bank at the end of April 2023 and £500,000, before expenses, has been raised since then. Full year revenues expectations have been reduced to £3.8m and another loss is forecast.

Wheelsure Holdings (WHLP) has finally reported it figures for the year to August 2022. Revenues improved from £144,000 to £197,000, while the loss reduced from £224,000 to £202,000. Trading in the hares remains suspended until the latest interims are published. Wheelsure needs to raise additional working capital. The Tracksure digital fastener and Tracksure dual thread technology products have been developed.

Marula Mining (MARU) has appointed Angeline Greenwood and Richard Lloyd ahead of the proposed move to AIM. The latter will be an executive director. Quinton van der Burgh will be joining as chairman. Hannah Wang’Ombe and Munyaradzi Murape will be appointed as directors after regulatory clearance. Assay results from the Kinusi copper mine have been delayed until early August.

Invinity Energy Systems (IES) is selling a 0.2MWh Invinity VS3 flow battery system to VSUN Energy, a subsidiary of Australian Vanadium Ltd. The system will be used by power provider Horizon Power in Western Australia. There will be a trial to assess how the system works within the regional energy system.

Ananda Developments (ANA) has launched its first two cannabinoid medicines to the unlicensed market. Three private pain and medical cannabis clinics will offer the products. MRX1 will be used in two double blind randomised control trials run by the University of Edinburgh.

Apollon Formularies (APOL) has signed an exclusive licence agreement with South Africa-based medical cannabis company PureCann, which will produce and distribute the Apollon product range. There is a one-off licence fee of £100,000 and an ongoing royalty of 6% of profit on sales during the licence term. The roll out should be in the fourth quarter. There could be sub-licensing revenues.

KR1 (KR1) revealed an investment of $300,000 in Side Protocol as part of a pre-seed funding round. According to KR1, “Side Protocol is a distributed mesh liquidity system that utilises innovative inter-blockchain asset exchange application protocols. Unlike liquidity hubs, Side Protocol aims to decentralise liquidity between diverse blockchain networks in a bridgeless manner while maintaining interconnectivity”.

Decentralised finance technology investor AQRU (AQRU) generated interim revenues of £106,000 and lost £1.26m. Net cash was £7.4m at the end of April 2023, including £5.8m of customer deposits. The business has been streamlined and customers have to deposit at least $250,000. NAV is £5.43m. Digital asset prices are recovering. There are investments worth £3.59m, including a stake in fully listed Streaks Gaming worth £2.21m.

Eight Capital Partners (ECP) intends to give holders of the Euro 10m of outstanding 4.8% loan notes into shares at the weighted volume average price in the ten trading days prior to the implementation day. This could represent 10.4% of the nelarg4ed share capital. A general meeting will be held on 10 August.

Black Sea Property (BSP) had a NAV of 1.59 cents/share, while net debt was Euro19.7m. This is before the agreement to acquire 98.3% of Grand Hotel Varna.

ChallengerX (CXS) continues to lose money and had £48,000 in cash at the end of June 2023. Additional funds will be required to develop its marketing platform. NAV is £170,000.

ProBiotix Health (PBX) is appointing Niels Peter Bak as technical project manager. He has nearly three decades experience in the probiotics sector.

AIM

Safestyle UK (SFE) says interim trading is in line with forecasts, but the loss is much higher. Demand has been hit by increasing interest rates and that means that the second half will be poor. The windows supplier has been hit by a lower number of installations and a decline in the average number of frames for each installation. Costs savings have helped to offset the decline, but Zeus has downgraded its 2023 forecast from a pre-tax profit of £2m to a loss of £5.5m.

Wandisco (WAND) shares slumped 93.1% to 90p after the data software company returned from suspension. Wandisco recently raised £23.8m at 50p/share. The share suspension came about because of fraudulent irregularities in its accounts. There were $115.5m of false orders in 2022 and $14.9m of this was recognised as revenues. The additional cash raised will help to boost sales and marketing. The interim chief executive is in place and two non-execs have been appointed.

Battery technology developer AMTE Power (AMTE) announced it has secured a £1m loan facility from Arena Investors, which has relinquished conversion rights on the £3.75m convertible bond in return for warrants over 2% of the enlarged share capital. This latest loan will provide time to complete a £2.5m subscription by an unnamed investor at an indicative price of 1.7p/share, subject to due diligence. The new investor would own 80% of AMTE Power and there will be enough cash until September.

David Craven and Jean-Paul Rohan are joining the board of Itsarm (ITS) and the winding-up petition has been withdrawn. James Sharp and Richard Monaghan are stepping down without compensation and are not being paid fees for July. A new proposal reduces liabilities to around £140,000 and current cash is £223,000. The company is a shell and trading in the shares will be suspended if it does not find a takeover candidate by 27 September.

WH Ireland (WHI) has raised £5m at 3p/share because of a lack of regulatory capital. The broker is loss making and it does not believe that trading is going to improve this year. Cash outflows meant that WH Ireland did not have the required regulatory capital and the FCA may have required a solvent wind down of the business if cash were not raised. This is why the placing discount to the market price was high. There are plans to reduce annual overheads by up to £4m.

SRT Marine Systems (SRT) reported lower than expected 2022-23 loss of £200,000 and it is set to return to profit this year. Large contracts for systems and steady growth of tranceiver shares mean that revenues should jump from £30.5m to £70.9m and a pre-tax profit of £7.4m is forecast with further growth to come next year.

Franchise Brands (FRAN) combined organic growth and a ten-week contribution from Pirtek, which was acquired during the first half, to grow interim revenues 57% to £69.8m. In the six months to June 2023, underlying pre-tax profit rose 45% to £8.6m, although a higher tax charge and the additional shares in issue to fund the Pirtek acquisition meant that earnings were 4% ahead at 4.24p/share. The interim dividend is 11% ahead at 1p/share. Net debt was £79.1m at the end of June 2023. The consumer franchise business is no longer being marketed for sale.

Piling contractor Van Elle (VANL) reported full year figures in line with expectations with revenues increasing from £124.9m to £148.7m, while pre-tax profit jumped from £3.6m to £5.4m. Margins improved in general piling and ground engineering services. The total dividend is 1.2p /share. However, as previously flagged this year’s profit could be slightly lower and the tax charge higher. Some markets remain strong and there is a new Canadian rail business, but residential is weak.

Software training company Northcoders Group (CODE) has reassured investors about trading in the first half. Revenues grew by more than 50%. A further £4.5m of DfE funding has been secured, which helps to boost the order book. Northcoders is on course to achieve 2023 revenues of £9.5m and doubled pre-tax profit of £1.2m. The revenues are 70% covered by the order book.

BlueRock Diamonds (BRD) is being wound up administrators and any cash in the business will be distributed for preferential creditors. A party connected to the company is set to buy the assets.

RBG Holdings (RBGP) is writing off the value of £13.3m of its remaining litigation cases, including an unsuccessful case valued at £9.3m. Any return from the cases will be treated as revenues. The core business is taking longer to complete transactions. This has led to a reduction in the underlying 2023 pre-tax profit forecast to £5.9m and RBG has decided to reduce debt rather than paying dividends.

Sports consultancy and data services 4Global (4GBL) more than doubled its underlying pre-tax profit from £573,000 to £1.23m. There was strong trading at the end of the year and that meant that there was a sharp increase in work done that has not been invoiced. That led to a cash outflow in the period. Strategic partnerships with gym software company Jonas Fitness Inc and digital health provider Technogym will help to diversify revenues. First quarter trading has been strong.

MAIN MARKET

Data integrity and banking integration software provider Gresham Technologies (GHT) generated organic growth of 5% in the first half thanks to Clareti software wins. Clareti annualised recurring revenues are 10% higher at £28.6m and the rate of growth could accelerate in the second half. This will more than offset the loss of legacy product revenues.

Polymer and biopolymer solutions provider Graft Polymer (GPL) has secured a distribution agreement with US veterinary products supplier Inter-Technologies Inc, relating to the GraftBio self-nano emulsifying drug delivery system products. This is the first move into the US.

Vanquis Banking (VANQ) reported an underlying loss of £5.5m in the first half, compared with a profit of £54.3m, according to Shore Capital. The net interest margin fell from 21% to 18%, while the impairment charge increased from £38.5m to £85.6m. The interim dividend has been maintained at 5p/share.

Andrew Hore