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(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Thursday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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McColl's Retail Group PLC - Brentwood, England-based convenience store operator - Responding to "recent press speculation", company says it is in discussions regarding potential financing solutions for the business to resolve short term funding issues. Company says that unless an alternative solution can be agreed, it is "increasingly likely" that the business will be placed into administration.
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Supermarket Income REIT PLC - London-based real estate investment trust dedicated to investing in supermarket property - Chair & Non-Executive Director Nick Hewson buys 47,107 shares at 121.0 pence each, worth GBP56,999, on Friday last week. Chief investment officer of the company's investment adviser Atrato Capital Ltd buys 47,425 shares at 121.0 pence each, worth GBP57,384, also on Friday last week. Non-Executive Director Jonathan Austen buys 49,586 shares at 121.0 pence each, worth GBP59,999, on Friday last week.
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BBGI Global Infrastructure SA - Senningerberg, Luxembourg-based infrastructure investment company - Non-Executive Director Andrew Sykes buys 40,000 shares at GBP1.68 each, worth GBP67,000, on Wednesday.
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Chamberlin PLC - West Midlands, England-based castings and engineering firm - Exchanges contracts on sale and leaseback of its freehold property held by Russell Ductile Castings Ltd. Proceeds total GBP1.3 million in cash. This will be used to reduce the company's pension fund deficit, company explains. Chamberlin has a 10-year lease for the property at an initial rent of GBP125,000 per year for five year. This will increase to GBP150,000 for years 6 to 10. Property has a net book value of GBP700,000 at May 31. Completion expected on Friday.
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Franchise Brands PLC - Manchester-based owner of ChipsAway, Willow Pumps and Metro Rod brands - Receives valid acceptances of the offer originally announced in February regarding Filta Group Holdings PLC. Company receives acceptances in respect of 29.1 million Filta shares, representing 99.5% of the company. The offer will close for acceptance on Friday.
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Bidstack Group PLC - London-based in-game advertising platform - Wins exclusive partnership with Highbrow Interactive Pvt Ltd which will see four of the company's simulations games added to its portfolio. Games being added are Euro Train Simulator and its successor Euro Train Simulator 2 which boast over 10 million and five million downloads respectively, Bidstack says. Indian Train Simulator and Indonesian Train Simulator are also added.
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FireAngel Safety Technology Group PLC - Coventry, England-based home safety products maker- Launches new range of optical sensor smoke and Thermistor sensor heat alarms. The products are being sold in DIY stores and online and have already seen "excellent" uptake with orders-to-date exceeding 315,000 units since their March launch, company explains.
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Geiger Counter Ltd - Jersey-based investor in uranium exploration and production stocks - Receives applications from shareholders to subscribe for 17.4 million shares at a price of 37.84 pence per share. Company explains there is a cap of EUR8 million on the value of shares that can be issued at the subscription price. Each successful applicant has had the number of shares they have applied for scaled back to approximately 77% of the number applied for as a result, Geiger continues. A total of 13.3 million shares will therefore be issued to the successful applicants on the basis of one new share for every five existing shares.
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Caerus Mineral Resources PLC - Cyprus-based exploration & resource development company focussed on Europe - Says first batch of grab samples from recent exploration at its Kalavasos project in Cyprus returned peak gold assays of 7.7 grams per tonne of gold, 2.8 grams per tonne of gold, and 2.7 grams per tonne of gold. Corresponding copper grades peak at 0.5% copper. Company says results are "sufficiently encouraging" to warrant detailed follow-up.
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Insig AI PLC - London-based data science and machine learning company - Signs data share partnership with Snowflake Inc, a Nasdaq-listed cloud-based data warehousing company. Insig AI's products on now available on Snowflake's data marketplace. Chief Commercial Officer Colm McVeigh says: "With this partnership, investors interested in European and global corporate filings data will be able to access our data products to test their hypotheses and identify alpha generating investment opportunities."
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Tekcapital PLC - London-based intellectual property investor - Says its portfolio company Guident Ltd has been selected as a vendor by the Jacksonville Transportation Authority's procurement review committee. Guident will provide remote monitoring and control services for phase one of the ultimate urban circulator project in Jacksonville, Florida. Guident commercializes new technology to enhance the safety, efficiency and utility of autonomous vehicles and ground-based drones, Tekcapital explains.
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Downing Renewables & Infrastructure Trust PLC - investor in solar parks, wind farms and hydroelectric plants - Acquires 100% interest in a portfolio of operational run-of-river hydropower plants in Sweden for EUR20 million. Portfolio acquired via Downing Hydro AB from Batten AB and Daturum AB. Acquisition will initially be funded drawing down its GBP25 million revolving credit facility. Plants will be fully integrated into the company's existing hydropower arrangements. Says the acquisition will increase annual production by 60% to 174 gigawatt hours.
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Argo Blockchain PLC - London-based cryptocurrency miner - Energizes its flagship mining facility, Helios. The delivery and installation of the 20,000 Bitmain S19J Pro mining machines has commenced and the remaining units are expected to be delivered and installed in batches between May and October. Phase one of Helios' development will utilise 200 megawatts of power capacity and more than triples Argo's hashrate to an anticipated 5.5 exahash per seconds by the end of 2022, company explains.
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African Pioneer PLC - Isle of Man-based natural resources company - Says the second half of 2021 and the start of 2022 have been "very positive". Has entered into option agreements with First Quantum Minerals Ltd and Sandfire Resources Ltd since June 30. Also increased its interest to 85% from 70% in its Ongombo Project and Ongeama Project in Namibia. Continues to explore and develop projects in Namibia, Botswana and Zambia.
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Sabien Technology Group PLC - London-based boiler efficiency products company - Says b.grn, a special purpose vehicle in which Sabien holds a 33% stake, has identified two sites in the UK in its pursuit to buy and develop waste plastic recycling sites. The vehicle is in negotiations to secure either or both of these sites. The Northampton, England site, announced back in December, is still under consideration.
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Personal Group Holdings PLC - Milton Keynes, England-based employee benefits and services provider - Chair Martin Bennet says at the company's annual general meeting that 2022 has begun well. Notes strong trading in the first quarter, including good momentum in insurance policy sales. Says the company is on track to achieve year-on-year growth.
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Target Healthcare REIT PLC - care homes property investor - EPRA net tangible assets at March 31 stands at 111.8 pence with total return for three months to March 31 positive 2.5%. At the same time, the company's portfolio is valued at GBP886.8 million and comprised of 99 properties. This consisted of 95 operational care homes and four pre-let sites. Portfolio increases by 1.9% over the quarter and contractual rent increased by 1.2%. Its weighted average unexpired lease term was 27.3 years, down from 27.5 years at December 31. Declares a third interim dividend of 1.69p per share.
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Castillo Copper Ltd - base metal explorer focused on Australia and Zambia - Receives diamond core assay results for drill holes BH1 and BH2 at the Sisters Prospect at Broken Hill. Results confirm significant cobalt mineralisation. Best intercepts include 24 metres at 424 parts per million cobalt from 103 metres including two metres at 1,120 ppm cobalt from 107 metres and 1 metre at 873 ppm cobalt from 120 metres.
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By Heather Rydings; heatherrydings@alliancenews.com
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