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(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Monday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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SSE PLC - FTSE 100-listed Perth, Scotland-based energy utility - Welcomes publication by National Grid Electricity System Operator of this year's Networks Options Assessment, which recommends the investment of over GBP5 billion in electricity transmission infrastructure in the north of Scotland that will be "critical for maintaining a pathway to deliver the UK and Scotland's net zero commitments and renewable targets." SSE plans to invest GBP12.5 billion in the five years to 2026 as part of its Net Zero Acceleration Programme.
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Aquila Energy Efficiency Trust PLC - Hamburg, Germany-based energy-saving focused trust - Board members Laura Sandys and Lisa Arnold step down from board over "difference of opinion regarding the speed of deployment". Company adds: "Given slower investment deployment than originally anticipated, the board is undertaking a comprehensive review of the company's investment strategy with a view to ascertaining how best to accelerate deployment, whilst maintaining the company's prudent credit criteria and return objectives. An update will be provided to shareholders on the outcome of this review in due course. As part of this review the board will be consulting with shareholders on their views." Notes net asset value per share at December 31 at 96.92 pence each.
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HIRO Metaverse Acquisitions I SA - special purpose acquisition company focused on video games and metaverse technologies - Intends to float on the London Stock Exchange and raise up to GBP115 million through the listing. Company created by Hiro Sponsor I LLP, an affiliate of Hiro Capital. "Founded by Luke Alvarez, Ian Livingstone and Cherry Freeman, three senior leaders with an established track record of entrepreneurship and investment in the video gaming, digital sports and technology sectors, Hiro Capital invests in high-growth video games, e-sports, interactive streaming, gamified fitness and metaverse technology innovators," company says. Will look to target companies in video games, esports, interactive streaming, GenZ social networks, connected fitness & wellness and metaverse technologies. Company will place 11.5 million units, which will comprise one public share with the right to receive one-half of one public warrant, at a price per unit of GBP10.00. Chair Livingstone says: "We are launching Hiro Metaverse Acquisitions I SA in London because there is a tremendous video games industry here in the UK and Europe."
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Primorus Investments PLC - investment firm focused on small and mid cap firms in financial services, technology and natural resources - Signs deed of amendment allowing investee Alteration Earth PLC an extension to complete its prospectus and obtain its listing on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange. Date extended to March 4 from February 4. "The company has been informed that the prospectus has been submitted for its third reading and Alteration expects to receive the FCA comments in mid-February. Following this, and assuming no material issues are raised, Alteration is expecting to obtain its listing without any further amendments to the timeframe," company says.
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Irish Residential Properties REIT PLC - Dublin-based real estate investment company - Enters binding legal agreements to purchase IRES Fund Management Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Capreit LP and internalise its management. Chair Declan Moylan says: "The board believes that internalisation is an important strategic and financial objective at this point in the company's evolution and is in the best interests of shareholders. In addition to the potential financial benefits, internalisation will result in a simplified organisational structure with more transparent corporate governance and overall alignment of interest whilst positioning IRES REIT optimally for its next phase of growth. As demonstrated by the acquisition of the residential assets in Ashbrook earlier this month, the company remains focused on the execution of its growth strategy, and we believe Internalisation will further support that strategy in the long term."
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Knights Group Holdings PLC - legal and professional services - Acquires Langleys Solicitors LLP, an independent law firm in York and Lincoln, for total of GBP11.5 million from its four existing equity partners on a debt free, cash free basis. Deal made up of initial GBP8 million, made up of GBP5.3 million in cash and GBP2.8 million in 704,515 new shares in company, along with deferred cash consideration of GBP3.5 million to be paid in equal instalments over the three years. The cash consideration will be satisfied from Knights' existing facilities. Completion is expected to take place on March 25. Chief Executive David Beech says: "The acquisition sees us become the leading law firm in York and provides a strong base for organic growth in the East of England through Lincoln, as we continue to strengthen our position as the leading legal and professional service business outside of London."
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Poolbeg Pharma PLC - London-based clinical stage infectious disease pharmaceutical company - Signs licence to AnaBio Technologies' microencapsulation and nanoencapsulation technologies to develop an oral vaccine delivery platform, which follows the binding term sheet announced on December 16. This licence provides Poolbeg with exclusive access to AnaBio's microencapsulation and nanoencapsulation technologies for use in the development and commercialisation of vaccines. "Combined with the company's expertise in infectious diseases and vaccine development, Poolbeg will use this technology as a platform to complement its existing and growing pipeline of assets by developing oral vaccines for multiple disease indications," company says.
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N4 Pharma PLC - Derby, England-based pharmaceutical company - Granted patent application for Nuvec in the US and in China. Has exclusive worldwide rights to Nuvec for therapeutic uses in humans and animals. "The granted patent in the US will specifically cover the matter of composition of the nanoparticle made using a broad description of the manufacturing process used by the company. The University of Queensland has also informed the company it will file a continuation patent application in the US for a matter of composition patent independent of the manufacturing process to match the patents granted in Europe, Japan, Australia and China," company explains.
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Active Energy Group PLC - London-based biomass products producer - Reports "important milestone" results of the first phase independent combustion testing program conducted on CoalSwitch fuel in Utah, US. Says CoalSwitch combustion testing results demonstrate the "superior quality of the fuel over existing biomass fuels". "CoalSwitch fuel delivered to Utah had an increased heating value of 9,313 British Thermal Units per pound, which represents a 13% premium to traditional white pellets currently being produced for the biomass market," company says.
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Plant Health Care PLC - agriculture products firm based in North Carolina - Submits new application to US Environmental Protection Agency for registration of its novel peptide product, PHC949, for the control of damaging soil nematodes. Notes PHC949 is the second new product from company's PREtec technology platform; which it plans one major new launch every year. Expects global sales of PHC949 to reach into the tens of millions of dollars over the long-term and to become a "significant value driver".
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Journeo PLC - Leicestershire-based transport information systems and technical services - Signs 3-year framework services agreement valued initially at GBP700,000 with GB Railfreight for the supply and support of high-definition forward facing video systems connected over 4G to Journeo's cloud-based software and services. Work already starts and GBP300,000 completed in 2021 for the design and installation of new FFV and remote management systems for 21 locomotives recently added to the GBRf Class 66 fleet, and replacement of existing FFV and associated on-board IT sub-systems for a further 78 locomotives.
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WANdisco PLC - Sheffield-based data-management software company - Deepens its strategic partnership with Oracle Corp to provide WANdisco LiveData Migrator to both Oracle and its customers. "With this agreement, Oracle will provide customers and partners fully funded access to WANdisco LiveData Migrator to accelerate their data lake migrations to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure without incurring any additional cost," company explains. Adds: "Oracle will purchase licenses from WANdisco to be used in migration projects and there is already a large and defined pipeline, which Oracle intends to pursue over the coming year using WANdisco LiveData Migrator."
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MetalNRG PLC - London-based investor in natural resources and energy - Files and serves civil legal proceedings in the English High Court against BritENERGY Holdings LLP, Pierpoalo Rocco and BritNRG Ltd for a declaration and the recovery of monies paid to the LLP in 2021. Demanding repayment of investment made into BritENERGY after discovering former board member Rocco held substantial stake in joint venture, which was not disclosed. "Both MNRG and its shareholders have been impacted by information circulated by Rocco, the joint venture company and the LLP on social media, which is considered by the company to be misleading and factually incorrect. In particular, it has now been acknowledged by the joint venture company that the company is one of its shareholders despite recent social media claims to contrary," company says.
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Yellow Cake PLC - Jersey-based investor in uranium - Net asset value per share ends December at GBP3.31, or USD818.6 million, comprising 15.83 million pounds of uranium valued at a spot price of USD42.00 per pound and cash and other current assets and liabilities of USD153.6 million. Value of uranium held by company increased 12% over final three months of 2021 to USD665.0 million from USD595.8 million at September 30. During the quarter, took delivery of a further 4.0 million pounds of uranium.
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Cloudbreak Discovery PLC - Vancouver, Canada-based natural resource project generator - Enters agreement with OIG Overseas Investment Group Ltd for corporate development services which will include, financing and financial consulting, market intelligence, marketing of assets and projects, strategic partnerships and project generation, as well as investor awareness. Company will issue OIG 58.0 million shares as part of deal.
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Sunrise Resources PLC - miner focused on operations in US state of Nevada and Western Australia - Just under 25% of shareholders vote against authorisation for directors to allot shares at annual general meeting. Over 27% of shareholders vote against approval for dis-application of preemption rights.
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Curzon Energy PLC - investor and developer in US based natural gas projects - Poseidon Enhanced Technologies has further extended the existing exclusivity period to March 1, 2022. The companies are in a period in which both parties are conducting due diligence on each other, and are still working towards the execution and delivery of a reverse takeover of Curzon Energy. Back in February 2021, Curzon entered an initial period of exclusivity with Poseidon - which aims to convert waste virgin polyethylene terephthalate produced from crude oil and plastic into recycled feedstock for the packaging and fibre industries - in which both companies will conduct due diligence on each other.
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Resolute Mining Ltd - Perth, Australia-based gold miner with projects in Mali, Senegal and Guinea - Agrees to sell its 39.1 million shares in Orca Gold Inc to Perseus Mining Ltd for total consideration of about USD13.7 million. "The sale of Resolute's holding in Orca was undertaken as part of Resolute's strategic focus on its core operating assets and to strengthen the balance sheet," company says.
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Bradda Head Lithium Ltd - North America-focused lithium development - Is halfway through its sonic drilling programme at its Wikieup asset in Central Arizona. Drilling contractor Boart Longyear has so far drilled 14 holes, to 1,520 metres, out of a planned total of 28 holes for 2,560 metres. Chief Executive Charles FitzRoy says: "We are delighted with the progress of the larger Wikieup drilling programme, which so far has shown to be more time-efficient than the Basin East programme, despite unavoidable staff shortages caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. This also reinforces our confidence in the work of Boart Longyear and the Bradda Head operations team on the ground in Arizona." Also says 2022 starts "very strongly" for company.
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Blencowe Resources PLC - miner focused on developing the Orom-Cross graphite project in Uganda - Finds "exceptional" high-grade drilling results at the Camp Lode deposit which forms part of the Orom-Cross project. Results include, from OREA-L1302, 11 metres at 9.73% graphite from 3 metres including 6 metres at 10.97% graphite. Hole OREA-L1501 shows 14 metres at 11.81% graphite from 4 metres. Executive Chairman Cameron Pearce says: "We have always believed that Camp Lode offered us a very valuable source of graphite to mine in the initial phase of development. The latest drill results at Camp Lode will allows us to add new high grade resources to the wider project. We are finalising resource estimation work at the Northern Syncline and look forward to releasing the updated JORC Resource for the Orom-Cross project."
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Galantas Gold Corp - Northern Ireland-focused gold producer based in Toronto - Advances underground mine development at its Omagh project in Northern Ireland towards production. As part of ongoing 4,000-metre drilling program, says Hole FR-DD-21-175 was drilled from surface and targeted the Joshua Vein. It intersected 17.4 grammes per tonne gold, 74.6 grammes per tonne silver and 1.9% lead over 13.1 metres. "This hole successfully targeted a potential 'dilation zone' within the Joshua Vein and includes a higher-grade section with 25.3 grammes per tonne gold, 108.4 grammes per tonne silver and 2.9% lead over 8.7 metres," company adds.
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Quadrise Fuels International PLC - London-based residual oil technology licensor - Notes latest bioMSAR testing at Aquafuel Research Ltd's UK test facility. Notes results relate to "further engine optimisation testing" of bioMSAR. "These latest tests have therefore shown that much higher diesel engine efficiency can be achieved with bioMSAR, without increasing NOx emissions. Further tests are being planned with Aquafuel during the year to focus on fully defining efficiency and emissions optimisation settings," company says.
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Borders & Southern Petroleum PLC - oil and gas exploration company focused on Falkland Islands - Confirms PL018, PL019 and PL020 and Darwin discovery area licence in Falklands Islands extended until December 31.
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Phoenix Copper Ltd - British Virgin Islands-based base and precious metals production and exploration company - Extends expiry date on 121,111 warrants, with an exercise price of 28 pence each, to February 11 from January 31. Notes exercise price will remain unchanged and 118,170 of the warrants are held by company directors.
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GCM Resources PLC - Phulbari coal and power project in north-west Bangladesh - Says in discussions on "securing the necessary funding to support its ongoing working capital needs". Notes it retains final drawdown of GBP300,000 from Polo Resources Ltd loan facility, which is available through end of January 2022. Says final drawdown would provide sufficient funds until at least April 2022.
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Bens Creek Group PLC - London-based coal mine operator and owner with projects in North America - Receives inaugural payment as part payment for its first delivery of metallurgical coal to Integrity Coal Sales Inc. Integrity is company's offtake partner. Generation of initial revenue is in line with the expected timescale. Will deliver 8,840 clean tonnes of Hi Vol B metallurgical coal to Integrity.
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By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com
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