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(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on xxxday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Hydrogen Utopia International PLC - London-based company specialising in turning non-recyclable mixed waste plastic into hydrogen and other carbon-free fuels, new materials or distributed renewable heat - Appoints WS Atkins Ireland Ltd as planning and environmental consultants for its planned waste plastic to hydrogen facility site in County Longford, Ireland. Expects plans for site to cost around EUR100,000. Also expects to benefit from EU Just Transition Fund in the next few years, envisaging around EUR169 million in funding to be rolled out across the Irish Midlands. This is due to its location and Longford being "heavily affected by the winding down of the labour-intensive peat industry and transition to a green and circular economy".
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Eagle Eye Solutions Group PLC - London-based marketing solutions provider - Signs new five-year deal with John Lewis Partnership for its new pan-partnership loyalty project launching in 2024 alongside data science and analytics firm dunnhumby to "deliver greater customer personalisation and improved loyalty experiences". Says new deal brings together existing relationships with John Lewis, as first announced in 2017 to improve John Lewis's digital marketing capabilities, along with subsequently John Lewis supermarket Waitrose in 2019. Eagle Eye Chief Executive Officer Tim Mason says: "We are delighted to have won another multi-year contract with The John Lewis Partnership and look forward to continuing to support them in delivering their loyalty and personalisation strategy. We are excited to be able to collaborate again with dunnhumby on this new engagement, ensuring that their leading data science can be executed at scale by our AIR platform."
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Card Factory PLC - Wakefield, England-based greeting cards, gifts, wrap and bags retailer - Buys South African greeting cards and gift packaging wholesaler SA Greetings Corp (Pty) Ltd for GBP2.5 million in cash. Says South Africa is one of the target territories for Card Factory's partnership expansion. Chief Executive Officer Darcy Willson-Rymer says: "SA Greetings brings with it significant experience operating a wholesale business, which can inform and support development of our retail partnership business, and is entirely aligned with Card Factory's strategic plan for international expansion. As well as giving us a foothold into our target South African market, we will also be using their mature printing, merchandising and warehousing facilities to understand how we can deliver similar local capability in other target markets."
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SuperSeed Capital Ltd - Guernsey-based venture capital fund focused on early-stage technology investments - Makes an unspecified financial investment in Kluster, a London-based revenue strategy artificial intelligence platform that helps companies beat their revenue targets. Says Kluster's platform provides a leading indicator for sales performance by using AI to analyse data and trends, giving revenue leaders the play book to plan, engineer, and execute their revenue strategy. Kluster also crafts the sales plan and monitors performance, revises the forecast, and course-corrects the plan in real-time. The funding will be used to accelerate product development and revenue expansion. Says Kluster aims to "move deeper" into the American market and secure executive hires across 2023 and 2024.
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PureTech Health PLC - Boston-based clinical-stage biotherapeutics company - Says its founded entity Vedanta Biosciences announces USD106.5 million in financing to support pivotal-stage development of its lead candidate, VE303, for the prevention of recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection, alongside a phase 2 study of VE202 for ulcerative colitis, among other development activities. Says the E303 study would be the "first pivotal phase 3 study of a therapeutic candidate based on a defined bacterial consortium, which Vedanta is pioneering as a next-generation approach to microbiome therapy".
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Neometals Ltd - London-based sustainable battery materials producer - Says engineering cost Ssudy for Portuguese lithium chemical operation confirms potential industry-leading costs using proprietary ELi process. ECS co-funded under cooperation agreement with Portugal's largest chemical producer Bondalti to jointly develop a 25,000 tonnes per annum lithium hydroxide operation in a 50:50 joint venture. Says ECS estimates indicate a lithium-brine conversion cost of EUR1,768 per tonne of battery-grade lithium hydroxide. Says capital cost estimate of €405 million, including 15% contingency, indicates a capital intensity of €16,200 per production tonne. Managing Director Chris Reed says: "We are excited about the prospect of marketing a technology that can deliver a potential step-change in operating cost to developers of lithium brine sources. Lithium is the soft underbelly of the energy transition story, it is unsubstitutable in [electric vehicle] batteries and the looming supply deficits appear permanent without innovation and government intervention. The US IRA and EU CRM Acts are evidence of the need to address this existential threat to car making in the West."
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By Greg Rosenvinge, Alliance News reporter
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