(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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Tirupati Graphite PLC - specialist graphite and graphene producer with operations in Madagascar and India - Raises GBP6 million through placing, subscription and intermediaries offer as part of initial public offering. Raises GBP4 million from placing of 8.9 million shares at 45 pence per share from institutional and professional investors. Raises further GBP2 million through subscription of 4.4 million shares by an investor. Expects market cap on admission, which is scheduled for December 11, of GBP33.6 million. Intends to use the net proceeds from the IPO to build second-stage production across its established portfolio, support future growth, working capital and other general corporate purposes. "Today marks another momentous step towards achieving our mission of being a global graphite and graphene leader, and listing on the London Stock Exchange. We are delighted with the support our fundraise has received so far, which is testament to the strength of our business and its unique position as a provider of sustainable products that support green applications," Chief Executive Shishir Poddar adds.
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Arrow Global Group PLC - buyer of debt from banks, credit card companies and telecommunications businesses - Wins total of 16 material third-party credit servicing mandates, equating to GBP4.8 billion of gross book value. "The servicing contracts have been predominantly awarded to Arrow's businesses in the UK, Italy and Portugal where we have seen the swiftest loan owner response to recent economic conditions and a more proactive outsourcing and asset sale approach by banks, non-banks and sponsor sellers," company adds.
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Asimilar Group PLC - investment firm focused on big data, machine learning, telematics and the Internet of Things - Notes EUR3 million loan advanced to Sentiance NV has been assigned to Mesh Holdings PLC. As a result, all rights and interests under the terms of the loan have been assigned to Mesh. Previously, Asimilar has assigned its interest and rights to invest in Sentiance to Mesh. All Active Asset Management Ltd agrees to provide EUR3 million secured convertible loan to Mesh. The loan can be converted into new ordinary shares in Mesh at a price of 40p per Mesh share.
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ValiRx PLC - clinical stage drug development company - Notes full dataset confirms VAL201 is a "safe and well-tolerated drug candidate". Chief Executive Suzy Dilly says: "This data demonstrates the potential of VAL201 for further development towards a treatment for patients with prostate cancer. Providing the data breakdown to support and explain the headline numbers is a crucial step and allows us to delve further into analysis of the results. The highly encouraging 54.5% response rate remains unchanged and being able to interrogate the data in more detail allows us to explore the possibilities for optimising the treatment through future trial with partners."
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Bushveld Minerals Ltd - South Africa-focused vanadium producer and energy storage provider - Satisfies the conditions required to drawdown USD30 million under the production financing agreement with Orion Mine Finance. Also notes conditions met for unsecured convertible loan notes of USD35 million, to be subscribed by Orion. The funds from the production agreement will provide funding to continue to grow production at Vametco, Bushveld says, to more than 4,200 million tonnes vanadium per annual production level and debt repayment. The proceeds raised from the issue of the notes will be applied towards capital investment purposes for the first phase of Vanchem project's critical refurbishment programme, and debt repayment purposes.
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Oracle Power PLC - power and natural resource project developer - Begins field-based exploration work at the Northern Zone gold project located in the Kalgoorlie region of Western Australia. Chief Executive Naheed Memon says beginning exploration activities only two weeks after acquiring this asset is an "excellent effort". He continues: "Historical work has highlighted both the gold and nickel potential of this exciting project, and this field-based exploration programme aims to provide the requisite data inputs required to plan a detailed drilling campaign in the first half of 2021. We look forward to providing further updates to the market with respect to the evaluation of Northern Zone and Jundee East as significant findings become available."
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K3 Capital Group PLC - professional services firm with headquarters in Bolton - Enters into joint venture arrangement with recruiter and head-hunter Stephen Crossley to set up a new company Market Mapping Ltd, to provide this service for UK, overseas and private equity companies looking to make off-market acquisitions in the UK SME market. Under the terms of the agreement K3 will own 40% of Market Mapping's issued share capital with an option to acquire the remaining 60% in May 2024. Consideration for 40% of Market Mapping's issued share capital will be determined by certain financial performance hurdles as at May 2024 and the balance of 20% payable by way of an earn out, also based on achieving certain financial performance over the three years ending May 31, 2025, 2026 and 2027.
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Rockhopper Exploration PLC - Falkland Islands-focused oil and gas exploration and production company - Farm-in partner for Sea Lion project confirms it remains committed to proposed farm-in, following proposed merger of Premier Oil PLC and Chrysaor Holdings Ltd. Rockhopper, Premier and Navitas have agreed to complete the farm-in agreement by September 30, or earlier if Premier and Chrysaor complete merger. Notes Discussions are also continuing with the Falkland Islands government around a possible extension to licences PL004 and PL032 which currently expire in May 2021.
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Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd - Korean focused gold development firm - Notes appointed independent expert determines value of partner Southern Gold's 50% interest in the Gubong and Kochang gold mines is USD11.1 million. Under the terms of the joint venture between Southern Gold and Bluebird, company will now settle by January 26. The settlement figure will be 90% of the value Souther Gold's stake, totalling USD9.9 million. Bluebird will now enter into dialogue with Southern Gold with a view to complete a sale & purchase agreement that may include an equity and royalty component. The company hopes to conclude this process swiftly in order that the projects may progress.
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Baillie Gifford European Growth Trust PLC - investment trust focussed on capital growth over the long term from a diversified portfolio of European securities - Agrees to issue EUR30 million of long-term, fixed-rate, senior, unsecured privately placed notes providing the company with long-term financing at a "very attractive rate". The new privately placed notes are being issued in one tranche: EUR30 million with a fixed coupon of 1.57% to be repaid in December 2040. The coupon will be payable semi-annually.
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Vietnam Holding Ltd - investment firm focussed on high-growth companies in Vietnam - Enters into a supplemental agreement with portfolio company ABA Business Solutions Corp, a cold chain logistics company, to extend the repayment date on convertible bonds in ABA held by the company from 27 November, 2020 to 29 March, 2021. The supplemental agreement also provides for an increase in the coupon rate on the convertible bonds owned by Vietnam Holding. The company's investment in ABA accounts for about 5% of its estimated net asset value.
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Lansdowne Oil & Gas PLC - Dublin-headquartered oil and gas exploration company - Agrees, along with Providence Resources PLC, to farm-out a 50% working interest in the Barryroe oil and gas field to SpotOn Energy Ltd. SpotOn will fund 100% of the early development programme and the full field development. The Barryroe field lies about 50 kilometres off the south coast of Ireland in shallow water. Lansdowne holds a 20% interest in SEL1/11 through its 100% owned subsidiary, Lansdowne Celtic Sea, with Exola, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Providence Resources, holding the remaining 80% and being operator of the licence.
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Wishbone Gold PLC - precious metals trading and exploration company - Notes "excellent" initial gold and copper grades at surface from its White Mountains project in Queensland, Australia. At the NE Workings, notes sample 3017531 returned 11.9 grammes per tonne gold from ferruginous material taken from a small pit. Sampling in the same area returned 3.02 grammes per tonne gold. These veins need to be traced to the north with trenching and drilling, Wishbone adds. Chair Richard Poulden says: "These are excellent initial results from the Terra Search programme at White Mountains and these are only the first results back from the assay laboratory. I look forward to reporting further significant results over the coming weeks as we prepare for a drilling programme at White Mountains."
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Premier African Minerals Ltd - Africa-focused metals and agri mineral projects investor - "Pleased" with assay results from recent sampling of recently acquired Mozambique tenement. Best grade of 23.7 grammes per tonne gold in sample BE003711, a quartz vein sample from an artisanal mining pit. Chief Executive George Roach adds: "This remains an early stage exploration and no resource conclusions may be drawn at this time. The tenement area remains small, but applications are in process to expand the area on anticipated strike. The detection of gold in many samples taken and the specific location of the higher-grade samples is encouraging and supports our plans to expand exploration in this jurisdiction. Worth noting are the elevated grades of silver in all samples and the potential commercial significance of this in any future mine development."
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By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com
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