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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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Cohort PLC - technology firm - Says its subsidiary MASS Consultants Ltd has been awarded a further two-year extension to the joint command & staff training contract for the UK armed forces' strategic command. The contract extension has a value of over GBP11 million and is deliverable evenly over two years, commencing in July 2022.
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IQGeo Group PLC - geospatial productivity and collaboration software developer - Says its software has been selected by a global top 10 electrical utility provider in Japan. The new contract is for more than 4,000 licences with an annual recurring subscription value greater than GBP500,000. This customer will be deploying IQGeo's geospatial software as part of a strategic project to monitor and respond to severe weather events that can have a major impact on electrical service for its commercial and residential customers.
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Blackbird PLC - developer and seller of cloud native video editing platform - Says its platform is now being used by a total of 75 US TV stations for digital news production following TownNews' latest deployment.
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Itaconix PLC - plant-based speciality polymers company - Reports the first shipment to an EU-based customer for its Itaconix TSI 322 sustainable detergent polymer. The Itaconix polymer is a key ingredient in a new non-phosphate dishwashing detergent which the customer is expected to have on European retail shelves by early 2022.
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Ncondezi Energy Ltd - power development company - Says the engineering, procurement & construction power plant contract for the integrated Ncondezi 300 megawatts coal fired power project and coal mine in Tete, Mozambique, has been signed with China Machinery Engineering Corp at a virtual signing ceremony. The contract confirms China Machinery Engineering as the main contractor to provide design, engineering, manufacturing, procurement, construction, erection, installation and commissioning of the Ncondezi 2x150 megawatts coal-fired power station on an engineering, procurement & construction turnkey basis. The contract is valid for three years.
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Aseana Properties Ltd - property developer in Malaysia and Vietnam - Agrees to sell the remaining 58 unsold residences at RuMa Hotel & Residences in Kuala Lumpur. Ownership of RuMa is split with 70% owned by Aseana and 30% by Ireka Corp Berhad. The gross sale price for the total transaction is MYR85.3 million, about USD20.5 million. It is expected that the transaction will complete within eight months.
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RTW Venture Fund Ltd - investment firm - Says portfolio company Lycia Therapeutics Inc completes a USD70 million series B financing round. Lycia intends to use the proceeds from this financing round and a USD35 million upfront payment from a strategic collaboration with Eli Lilly to continue to progress its internal undisclosed discovery pipeline of Lytac degraders.
Separately, RTW says portfolio company InBrace completes a USD102 million series D financing round. InBrace intends to use the proceeds from this financing round to accelerate growth by expanding its sales force, launching new marketing initiatives, and driving further support and integration with new and existing orthodontic providers across the US.
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Rurelec PLC - power producer - Says its Chilean subsidiary Termoelectrica Del Norte SA has agreed to dispose of its frame 6B gas turbine generating set and some associated ancillary equipment for USD1 million. The sale to Independent Power Corp PLC is expected to complete by no later than November 30. A non-refundable deposit of USD100,000 has been received by Rurelec.
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NextEnergy Capital Ltd - investment firm - Reports the acquisition of Agenor, its first solar PV asset in Spain. Construction is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2022 and the plant will benefit from an attractive power purchase agreement with a multinational investment grade corporate off-taker, the company notes.
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GlobalData PLC - data analytics and consulting company - Agrees to acquire the Life Sciences business of IHS Markit Ltd. Completion, which is subject to certain closing conditions, is expected to occur during the final quarter of 2021 and will be funded from the company's existing cash resources and banking facilities. No financial details of the deal were disclosed.
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Seraphim Space Investment Trust PLC - investment firm - Reports the acquisition of holding of Spire Global Inc from the Seraphim Space LP. The trust has acquired for cash 1.1 million shares in Spire valued at USD10.2 million.
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Beeks Financial Cloud Group PLC - cloud computing and connectivity provider for financial markets - Buys new premises for the company headquarters. Beeks headquarters will move from the existing leased office of the Lumina Building to the nearby Riverside Building in Riverside Business Park, King's Inch Road, Braehead, in early 2022, following two years at the company's current address. With three times the square footage, these larger premises will provide the necessary space to fulfil the company's growth potential. Consideration for the property was GBP2.1 million, payable to Braehead Park Estates Ltd, which was funded out of existing company cash balances and available debt facilities.
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BMO Commercial Property Trust Ltd - investment company - Reports the disposal of Cassini House located in St James's, London. The property is a prime multi-let freehold office building and represents the second largest holding in the portfolio. The company has sold the property for GBP145.5 million, reflecting an increase of 11% over the last external valuation of June 30 and 19% over the year-end valuation of 2020.
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Round Hill Music Royalty Fund Ltd - investment company - Acquires the master royalty income of Dennis Elliott, a British musician and artist, who was the original drummer of the rock group Foreigner. The Catalogue comprises 71 original recordings spanning the first seven Foreigner studio albums.
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Augean PLC - hazardous waste treatment and disposal company - Confirms that the court meeting and the general meeting convened to implement the takeover offer from Antwerp Management Ltd were adjourned. The court meeting will now start at 1130 BST on September 30 and the general meeting will start at 1145 BST on the same day.
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Good Energy Group PLC - Chippenham, England-based energy company - Says Ecotricity Group Ltd had received valid acceptances of the takeover offer in respect of 324,213 Good Energy shares, representing 1.9% of the issued share capital of Good Energy. Accordingly, Ecotricity either holds, or has received valid acceptances of the offer in respect of, a total of 4.5 million Good Energy Shares, representing 27% of the issued share capital of Good Energy. On July 22, Ecotricity made a cash offer for Good Energy at 340 pence per share.
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John Laing Group PLC - investor, developer and operator of privately financed, public sector infrastructure projects - Says the Court Hearing has been scheduled to be held on September 21, with the effective date of takeover of the company by Aqueduct Bidco Ltd is expected to be September 22. On May 19, John Laing Group and Aqueduct Bidco had reached an agreement on the terms of a recommended cash acquisition by Aqueduct Bidco of John Laing Group.
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Feedback PLC - clinical communication company - Launches a new Bleepa product - CareLocker, a new proprietary and patient-centric cloud architecture that supports Bleepa's functionality whilst simultaneously creating patient specific records of care episodes. CareLocker will enable Bleepa to deliver care across provider settings in a secure and scalable way.
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Sensyne Health PLC - artificial intelligence company - Launches Sensighto, an AI enabled data analytics platform for the healthcare and life sciences sectors. Sensight is built on a rapidly growing deep and broad set of anonymised and de-identified patient data derived from the research partnerships Sensyne has entered into with NHS Trusts and US health systems that currently covers 22.5 million patients across a range of disease areas.
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Arecor Therapeutics PLC - biopharmaceutical company - Reports US Food & Drug Administration clearance of its investigational new drug application for AT247, the company's proprietary wholly owned ultra-rapid insulin for the treatment of diabetes. The decision is supported by a phase I clinical trial in the US in 24 participants with type I diabetes, to further explore the clinical benefits of AT247.
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Oscillate PLC - investment firm - Says Excalibur Medicines Ltd, in which Oscillate's 25% investee Igraine PLC maintains a 2% interest, receives the final data from the Arcadia phase ll clinical trial which was conducted to assess a therapy that could treat diabetic patients suffering from Covid-19. Excalibur will immediately start to undertake commercial discussions with potential licensees and/or fundraise for further clinical trials to investigate AZD1656 in a larger study. Further analysis to determine the precise nature of the biological effects of AZD1656 that explain the observed clinical outcomes will also be conducted.
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Greatland Gold PLC - natural resources company - Makes progress on the drilling campaign at the Havieron gold-copper deposit in the Paterson region of Western Australia. Drilling activities now include new results from the Growth drilling programme, which continue to support the potential for resource expansion of the Havieron gold-copper system. The latest results comprise assays for twelve new drill holes. A total of 194,456m of drilling from 230 drill holes has been completed since commencement of exploration activity.
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Block Energy PLC - development and production company focused on Georgia - Says drilling operations on well WR-B1a have been completed. The company will now progress to test the well. Preparations for rigging down the ZJ40 drilling rig are now underway, to enable the installation of the Christmas tree over the wellhead. Once this operation has been completed, a production test will commence. The WR-B1a well is potentially transformative for Block Energy, targeting an estimated 2.1 million barrels of oil equivalent of recoverable oil and gas.
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i3 Energy PLC - oil & gas company - Says Marten Hills Clearwater wells 01-12-075-26W4 and 02-12-075-26W4 - which were drilled, completed and tied into production infrastructure in late July - have now cleaned-up and flowed back drilling fluid lost during drilling operations. The wells are now flowing sales volumes and aggregate average production, post clean-up from both wells for the period August 23 to August 31 was 238 barrels of oil per day. i3 owns a 50% working interest in these wells. Elsewhere, i3 says it has completed the Wapiti production acquisition on July 20, with a April 1 effective date. These assets were producing 230 barrels of oil equivalent a day at the time of i3's acquisition. The second well in Wapiti drilling programme, 08-17-71-10W6, was spud on August 9.
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Alien Metals Ltd - minerals exploration and development company - Makes progress on its inaugural drilling program at the high-grade Elizabeth Hill silver project in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia. Alien Metals says multiple occurrences of visible silver have been identified in drill core recovered from shallow drilling completed to date. Additionally, visible copper mineralisation has also been identified. Also, significant sulphides were identified in core associated with copper and nickel mineralisation. Alien Metals says the drilling has so far confirmed its geological interpretation that the original Elizabeth Hill silver deposit appears to be associated with a much larger polymetallic mineralised system.
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Landore Resources Ltd - Guernsey-based exploration & development company - Reports progress of the drilling programme for 2020-21 on the BAM gold deposit, Junior Lake Property, Ontario, Canada. The company says srilling results from below the BAM East defined pit between 2550E and 2750E have continued to report wide zones of ore grade gold mineralisation within the gabbro "hanging wall" unit. There have been multiple sightings of visible gold in the drill core, Landore Resources notes.
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Condor Gold PLC - exploration company - Reports the key findings of a technical report on its La India gold project prepared by SRK Consulting (UK) Ltd. This technical report presents the results of a strategic mining study to preliminary economic assessment standards completed on the project in 2021. "The highlight of the technical study is a post-tax, post upfront capital expenditure NPV of USD418 million, with an IRR of 54% and 12 month pay-back period, assuming a USD1,700 per ounce gold price, with average annual production of 150,000 ounces gold per annum for the initial nine years of gold production," says Chair & Chief Executive Mark Child.
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Empire Metals Ltd - exploration and resource development company - Reports the commencement of the reverse circulation drilling campaign at the Central Menzies gold project. The programme targetes two prospects, both of which are along strike from the Yunndaga deposit, historically the largest gold mine in the Menzies field with over 270,000 ounces produced. A detailed review of the historical dataset identified several prospects within the project area. Two of these, known as Teglio and Nugget Patch, have been prioritised in this initial drilling campaign based on their elevated gold concentrations, and the potential to generate significant strike and lateral extension. Further drilling targets are expected to be generated within the project area once the geochemical soil sampling results are received. The soil sampling targeted areas of the greatest prospectivity based on the location of historical workings as well as areas of limited previous drilling.
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Tectonic Gold PLC - gold exploration company - Says drilling at the Specimen Hill project has recommenced. Following preparations to mobilise the drilling team in August, the company delayed the rig to host on site due diligence and a joint testing program with a major international metals company. Portable XRF analysis was conducted over several target areas to test copper mineralisation and high-grade samples were sent for laboratory verification to confirm in-field testing grades. With initial third-party testing completed, the drill rig has now been brought to site. All access tracks and drill pads have been prepared. Further due diligence will continue while the Southern copper discovery undergoes maiden drill testing. The rig will then be taken to Goldsmith's Reef to test extensions below the pre World War 1 underground workings. The campaign will conclude at Main Lodes with further testing of the porphyry mineralisation intersecting by Tectonic's previous drilling.
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BP Marsh & Partners PLC - management consulting company - Says it has continued to prove resilient to the ongoing challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic over the six months to the end of July. The company says it has continued to focus on its existing portfolio, working closely with its respective management teams to ensure the on-going stability of its investments. BP Marsh & Partners says the six-month period closed with a total of 31 new investment opportunities having been presented to the firm, compared to 22 over the same period last year.
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Mothercare PLC - clothing retailer for expectant mothers and children up to 8 years old - Says it has continued to be impacted by Covid-19 during this financial year, but still expects annual operating profit of over GBP15 million. For the first 21 weeks of our current financial year to March 2022, Mothercare's total retail sales were GBP136 million, generating an adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of GBP4.0 million representing an improvement over the adjusted Ebitda of GBP2.2 million reported for the year ended March 27.
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Dekel Agri-Vision PLC - West African agriculture company - Reports positive August like-for-like production and pricing results. The company says 1,852 tonnes of crude palm oil was sold in August, 25% higher than last year as stock on hand post the high season was sold into a buoyant local crude palm oil market. Meanwhile, prices continue to remain very strong with average prices achieved in August of EUR947, a 76% increase in average realised crude palm oil prices compared to August 2020.
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FIH Group PLC - passenger ferry company - Says a resilient trading performance in the Falkland's allowed it to record a small pretax profit for the full year to March 31 despite coronavirus pandemic. Cash flow remained positive and the company retains significant cash balances at financial year end of GBP14.6 million and GBP9.6 million at June 30 following the repayment of the GBP5 million government CBILS loan. Current trading for the company is in line with the Board's expectations, FIH notes.
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Kropz PLC - African phosphate developer - Says appeal from the West Coast Environmental Protection Association against its water use licence has been dismissed by the Water Tribunal. The South African Department of Water & Sanitation granted the water use licence to Kropz Elandsfontein Pty Ltd in April 2017. The water use activities were approved by the director general, who was satisfied that no environmental damage would result from those activities, and that any impact on the environment could be prevented or would be adequately mitigated. An appeal was lodged by the West Coast Environmental Protection Association, in June 2017. The appeal was heard, over four sittings, from October 2019 to February 2021. This appeal has been dismissed by the Water Tribunal.
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Target Healthcare REIT PLC - purpose-built care homes operator - Increases the size of the fundraise to a maximum of GBP125 million amid strong demand. On August 26, the company said it plans to raise GBP100 million via share issue under existing placing programme at price of 115 pence per share."The investment manager currently has its strongest pipeline of acquisition opportunities to date, including a major portfolio of 18 care homes which the company has entered into an exclusivity agreement to acquire," it said at the time.
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Speedy Hire PLC - tools, plant and specialist hire equipment provider - Says over 21% of its shareholders at the annual general meeting on Thursday vote against approval of the directors' remuneration report for the financial year ended March 31. Following the AGM, Speedy Hire says its remuneration committee will continue to engage with its major shareholders to fully understand shareholders' concerns.
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By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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