(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Tuesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Moneysupermarket.com Group PLC - Wales-based price comparison company - Announces that Senior Independent Director Sally James will step down from the board at the conclusion of the company's annual general meeting on May 5. Independent Non-Executive Director Caroline Britton will take James's place as senior independent director from May 5.
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Tern PLC - London-based investment company focused on technology companies - Says that Device Authority Ltd, a company it backs, has entered an agreement with Phoenix, Arizona-based electronic component distributor Avnet Inc to help customers worldwide manage and protect their connected device infrastructure. Tern does not disclose the financial details of the agreement.
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Ovoca Bio PLC - Dublin-based biopharmaceutical company focused on women's health - Receives marketing approval for Orenetide, a treatment for hypoactive sexual desire disorder in pre-menopausal women, from the Russian Ministry of Health. The treatment is approved based on data from two phase 1 studies, a phase 2a study, and a phase 3 study completed in 2019, Ovoca explains. Commercial production of Orenetide is expected in spring.
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Ediston Property Investment Company PLC - Edinburgh-based real estate investment company - Sells its final office asset in Birmingham, in line with its strategy to sell its offices and reinvest the proceeds in retail warehouses. Completion is scheduled for March 25. The headline price is 3.9% below the December 31 property valuation but above the cost for the asset, Ediston explains.
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Open Orphan PLC - London-based pharmaceutical services company - Notes that the US Food & Drug Administration has granted breakthrough therapy designation for Bavarian Nordic AS's respiratory syncytial virus vaccine candidate. HVIVO, a subsidiary of Open Orphan, had successfully conducted a phase two trial into the candidate. RSV is a contagious, common respiratory virus that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms and affects the respiratory tract of children and at-risk older adults.
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Yu Group PLC- Nottingham, England-based energy supplier - Announces it has been appointed by UK Ofgem as supplier of last resort for Whoop Energy and XCEL Power Ltd. As a result, Yu agrees to take on their electricity and gas customer books with immediate effect. Whoop Energy supplied gas and electricity to 262 customer accounts and Xcel supplied gas to 274 non-domestic customers. The total contribution to revenue is expected to be approximately GBP150,000 per month.
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Kin & Carta PLC - London-based consultancy company - Announces three acquisitions totalling GBP30.4 million. The company says the acquisitions have been or will be funded through cash on hand and drawdowns on the company's revolving credit facility. Kin & Carta acquires software development company Melon AD and its subsidiaries, the remaining 50% in e-commerce consultant Loop, and AI data platform Octain.
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Versarien PLC - Cheltenham, England-based engineering materials company - Says, following a collaboration with US-based footweear company Flux Footwear LLC, it will be supplying graphene enhanced elastomers to Flux to bring an improved model of Flux's 'Adapt' shoe to market. Versarien does not disclose the financial details of the agreement.
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Bidstack Group PLC - London-based in-game ad platform - Partners with Pakistan-based mobile game developer Game Tap Studios. The partnership will see Bidstack serve in-game and in-menu ads into Game Tap Studios gameplay. Three new games will also be added to Bidstack's portfolio as part of the partnership.
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PetroTal Corp - Calgary, Canada-based oil and gas company focused on Peru - Announces a USD120 million 2022 capital programme. PetroTal says the programme is fully funded and is expected to generate material free cash flow, allowing for a resumption of dividends to shareholders by the fourth quarter of 2022. The company invests USD75 million in drilling and completing four horizontal wells in 2022. It adds it is targeting a 2022 average production range between 17,500 barrels of oil per day to 19,500bopd.
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Goodbody Health Inc - Somerset, England-based wellness products and diagnostic services company - Announces that it has moved up a tier from the over the counter market pink market to the OTCQB market. The OTCQB, also called the venture market, is the middle tier of the over-the-counter market for US stocks.
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Windward Ltd - Liverpool-based predictive intelligence company focused on the maritime industry - Launches its Ocean Freight Visibility solution. The Ocean Freight Visibility product will alert freight forwarders and cargo owners to any potential delays to the shipping of their cargo in real time. Windward says the first new customers for the product have already been secured, including Danish transport company DSV AS and Birmingham, England-based freight company Metro Shipping.
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Blencowe Resources PLC - London-based mineral exploration and development company - Acquires right to earn-into the highly prospective Akelikongo Nickel Sulphide and Copper Project located near to the existing Orom-Cross Project in Northern Uganda. The project was previously jointly owned by Rio Tinto PLC and Sipa Resources Ltd until May 2020.
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Thor Mining PLC - London-based mining company focused on Australia - Reports significant intercept of 32.9 metres at 0.4% copper and 0.31 grams per tonne gold from 81.5 metres at its Alford East Copper-Gold project. Managing Director Nicole Galloway Warland says: "The success of our first phase of drilling, with significant uplift in copper and gold grade, adjacent to the Netherleigh Fault, is very exciting and suggests the potential for extended zones of higher-grade copper and gold along strike and at depth."
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Galileo Resources PLC - London-based mining company focused in the US and Africa - Completes the second payment to the vendors to secure an initial 75% interest in the Luansobe Copper Project in Zambia. Reports "considerable" progress has been made by consultants Addison Mining Services in compilation of drill data for 154 holes and initial modelling of the deposit at the project. Says two concurrent development options are being considered.
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Helical PLC - London-based property investment and development company - Notes person closely associated with Chair Richard Grant, Lucinda Mary Grant, has bought 15,000 shares at a price of GBP4.019817 each. Transaction totals GBP60,297.
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Tungsten Corp PLC- London-based electronic invoicing company - Says Kofax Inc's deadline for its offer for has been extended to March 8. Tungsten received an unsolicited proposal from Kofax relating to a possible cash offer for the company for a price of 40 pence per share on December 14. On February 18, Tungsten received a revised proposal of 42p per share. The new deadline relates to this revised offer.
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Igas Energy PLC - London-based oil and gas company - Signs heads of terms with Cornwall, England-based mineral exploration and development company Cornish Lithium Ltd. Cornish Lithium will work with IGas to develop projects in Cornwall that can supply renewable heat to end users and will also evaluate the potential to extract lithium from the geothermal waters. A technical and commercial evaluation of a number of potential project locations is underway. IGas and Cornish Lithium will then jointly develop the initial project location as a pilot scheme.
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Technology Minerals PLC - London-based battery metals company - Says a total of 27 rock samples were collected during October from across Stratabound Manganese - Rare Earth Oxides project in South Dakota, US, and sent to ALS Global Ltd for analysis. Two samples reported total rare earth oxide values of 0.22% and 0.34%. Seven reported manganese oxide grades greater than 20%, with the highest grading at 29%. Company intends to continue exploration campaign.
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Arrow Exploration Corp - Calgary, Canada-based oil and gas company - Says it continues to advance quickly towards drilling the RCE-2 well at the Rio Cravo Este Field in Colombia. Says its partner, PetrolCo Ltd, have executed the contract for the drilling of the RCE-2 well with Top Drilling Co, a rig contractor based in Bogota, Colombia. Expects the RCE-2 well to spud around March 15.
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4D Pharma PLC - Leeds, England-based pharmaceutical company - Receives US Food & Drug Administration investigational new drug application clearance for two Live Biotherapeutics, MRx0005 and MRx0029, for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. The company expects to initiate a first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trial in people with Parkinson's disease in mid-2022. MRx0005 and MRx0029 are two single strain Live Biotheraputic candidates which have been shown pre-clinically to have positive impacts on multiple key aspects of Parkinson's disease pathology, 4D Pharma explains.
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Harmony Energy Income Trust PLC - London-based investment company focused on energy projects - Reports its net asset value at January 31 was 100.05 pence per share. This represents a 1.71p per share increase from the IPO in November after which its NAV stood at 98.34p per share. Says increase is primarily driven by revaluation of its Pillwoods and Broadditch projects. Notes progress on all projects continues to be in line with expected timings.
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Angling Direct PLC - Norwich, England-based fishing equipment company - Reports revenue of GBP72.5 million in the year ended January 31, up 7.2% from GBP67.6 million the previous year. Notes "strong performance" despite only being able to operate on a "call & collect" basis during Covid restrictions. Says total online sales declined by 4.3% against an "exceptional" prior year but on a two-year basis grew 34%. Total store sales increased 20% year-on-year or 38% on a two-year basis, Angling Direct adds. The company expects to report earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of GBP5 million in financial 2022, in line with expectations.
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Caledonia Mining Corp PLC - Jersey, UK-based gold producer - Reports a fatal accident at its Blanket Mine in Zimbabwe. The accident involved a LHD loader in one of the mine's underground haulages. The company says it cannot release further details until the outcome of an ongoing enquiry into the incident is released. Caledonia expresses its condolences to the family and colleagues of the deceased, Andrew Clydon Phiri.
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Agronomics Ltd - Isle of Man, UK-based cellular agriculture company - Invests EUR6.9 million in Onego Bio Ltd, a company developing animal-free egg protein. The investment is part of a EUR10 million seed fundraising round. The company will hold an equity stake of 20%. The investment will be funded using cash from its own resources, the company Agronomics adds.
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Tirupati Graphite PLC - London-based graphite and graphene producer with operations in Madagascar and India - Says it has successfully developed a mineral processing technology solution for UK-based mining company Optiva Resources Ltd. Having previously received an upfront fee, the company will now receive a success fee of 5% equity in Optiva Resources, being 4.6 million equity shares and an equal number of transferable warrants with three-year life.
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Union Jack Oil PLC - Bath, England-based oil and gas company - Announces USD3.0 million in revenue from the Wressle hydrocarbon development located in North Lincolnshire, England since the recommencement of production on August 19. Union Jack holds a 40% economic interest in the development. Union Jack says current daily production figures range from 600 to 700 barrels of oil per day from the Ashover Grit reservoir at the development.
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Ceiba Investments Ltd - Essex, England-based investment company focused exclusively on Cuba's commercial and tourism real estate sectors - Expects that a drop in tourism income from the hotels of Miramar and the expected lower valuations of both the hotel assets and the Miramar Trade Centre will have a negative impact on its year-end results that will be published at the end of April. Says Omicron disrupted Cuba tourism and that the path to recovery will be "longer than expected". Adds that outlook is also dependent on US policy toward Cuba.
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PYX Resources Ltd - Sydney-based producer of zicron - Says it has performed strongly in the fourth quarter of the year due to a boost in premium zircon production, sales volume growth, and ongoing price increases. In the fourth quarter, PYX produced 2,192 tonnes and sold 2,105 tonnes of premium zircon, resulting in a year-on-year production increase of 33% and 13% sales rise, respectively. Zircon sales for the year increased by 2% to 6,855 tonnes and production volumes increased 10% to 7,233 tonnes.
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By Heather Rydings; heatherrydings@alliancenews.com
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