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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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Netcall PLC - omnichannel messaging solutions provider - Signs a global framework agreement with an undisclosed financial services firm with operations spanning 120 countries. The customer is using the Liberty platform to build and deploy business applications across its global operations, with the first application live in one country and additional applications currently being rolled out across other countries of operation.
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Sareum Holdings PLC - drug discovery firm - Raises GBP1 million before expenses through a subscription by an undisclosed individual for 12.1 million new shares at a price of 8.25 pence each. The subscription price represents a discount of 6.8% to the closing middle market price for Sareum shares on Friday last week. The new subscriber will also be issued one and a quarter five-year warrants, exercisable at the subscription price, for every subscription share issued, which can only be exercised following Sareum's closing middle market share price being above 10.25p per share for five consecutive days. The net proceeds from the subscription will be used to progress the company's SDC-1801 and SDC-1802 TYK2/JAK1 inhibitor drug development programmes as well as for working capital purposes.
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MaxCyte Inc - Maryland, US-based biotechnology company - Signs a clinical & commercial license with Sana Biotechnology Inc a company focused on creating and delivering engineered cells as medicines. Under the terms of the agreement, Sana obtains non-exclusive clinical and commercial rights to use MaxCyte's Flow Electroporation technology and ExPERT platform. In return, MaxCyte is entitled to receive platform licensing fees and program-related milestone payments.
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Open Orphan PLC - pharmaceutical services company - Says its subsidiary, hVIVO, has developed a controlled human Malaria infection challenge model, both strengthening and further diversifying the company's portfolio of viral challenge study models. The Malaria challenge model will assist in the advancement of antimalarial drug and vaccine candidates from November. Results from controlled human Malaria infection modelling of drug and vaccine efficacy have previously shown good translation into the field.
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Angle PLC - Guildford, England-based liquid biopsy company - Says the Institute of Oncology, Slovenia, has published favourable results from a preliminary study in metastatic breast cancer patients. The study compared Angle's Parsortix system to an alternative antibody-based approach for the isolation of circulating tumour cells to determine whether these systems could be integrated into routine laboratory use. Results from this study showed that the Parsortix system was able to harvest circulating tumour cells in a greater proportion of metastatic breast cancer patients, compared to the antibody-based system, and 99% of the cancer cells recovered by the Parsortix system had preserved morphology, allowing morphological analysis, whereas less than 1% of the cells recovered by the antibody-based system had preserved morphology.
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Shield Therapeutics PLC - pharmaceutical company - Notes the recent on-line publication in the American Journal of Kidney Disease showing positive 16 week and long-term results from a study comparing the effectiveness of ferric maltol 30 milligrams bid with placebo over 16 weeks, and long-term up to 52 weeks. The primary endpoint was change from baseline in haemoglobin at week 16. "With the data from this study we now have very good evidence that oral ferric maltol is well tolerated and results in a statistically significant and sustained increase in haemoglobin for the 52 weeks studied. This is very exciting news as we now have an iron preparation that can be administered orally with patient tolerability comparable to placebo," said Nelson Kopyt, lead author.
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Intosol Holdings PLC - luxury travel company - Expects, in the medium to longer term, its revenue and the building up of its assets to address the low share trading distribution. Notes it will continue to review and make changes to its relationships and advisors.
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Lok'n Store Group PLC - self-storage company - Says trading throughout the year has been "excellent" with self-storage revenue up 21% on the previous year. Occupancy as a percentage of lettable area was up to 86% on July 31 from 70% last year. Average month-end occupied space was up 26% on the prior year, with average month end prices up 0.4%. During the year, Lok'n Store says it opened two new stores in Leicester and Salford and early trading at both stores has been stronger than expected.
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Watchstone Group PLC - insurance company - Notes announcement by Polygon Global Partners LLP of the level of acceptances for the mandatory cash offer of 34p per Watchstone share. It notes the low level of acceptances in respect of 474,309 shares, representing 1.0% of the issued share capital of Watchstone, and that the offer has been extended until Friday next week. Watchstone says it continues to recommend shareholders as a whole not to accept the offer.
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Amala Foods PLC - Jersey-headquartered company which provides a yield management platform for use in the restaurant industry - Receives GBP540,000 loan balance to achieve commercial traction and fund operations into the first quarter of 2022. In addition, says the joint venture company, Amala Foods Inc, completes the research and development phase and the focus has now shifted towards preparing for commercial distribution of its plant-based alternative meat products. Amala Foods says it will initially supply restaurants and B2B customers, and plans to launch to retail customers in the fourth quarter of 2021.
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SimiGon Ltd - training and simulation technologies developer - Says SimiGon Inc has been awarded a one-year support contract for SIMbox software, used in T-6A Level 5 FAA compliant flight training devices, a key component of the US Air Force undergraduate remotely piloted aircraft training programme.
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KKV Secured Loan Fund Ltd - investment company - Secures a package of loans against shipping vessels to a single borrower, which were underwritten by the company and have been refinanced with another provider. The loans have been refinanced for USD35.0 million. As at the end of 2020, the loans had a total carrying value of GBP19.1 million. The higher consideration received compared to the carrying value reflects the improved underlying value of the shipping vessels during the intervening period.
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Ocean Outdoor Ltd - London-based advertising services company - Says it is rolling out a 3D technique across its large format full motion portfolio. DeepScreen uses a technique called "anamorphosis" or "forced perspective" which mathematically warps imagery so that when viewed from a specific vantage point, the illusion of 3D depth is created on flat surfaces. Following a successful trial period, DeepScreen is being rolled out across premium retail and city centre outdoor digital out-of-home environments in the UK, Nordics and the Netherlands.
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Supply @ME Capital PLC - fintech platform - Agrees with Apex Group to launch a comprehensive inventory monetisation fund, comprising four components: two funds focussed on "inventory in-transit" monetisation, and two new funds, focussed on "warehoused goods monetisation". It is expected that the Global Inventory Monetisation Fund will establish new components following the company's business expansion
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Guild Esports PLC - London-based esports company - Reports the achievement of a major milestone by reaching an aggregate "owned-audience" of more than one million across all social channels, two months ahead of schedule. The owned audience figure covers the total number of Guild's fans who actively subscribe to or consume content produced directly by the company.
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Mode Global Holdings PLC - financial technology company - Receives approval from the OTC Markets Group to commence trading on the OTCQB Venture Market. The OTCQB Venture Market is a US trading platform that is operated by the OTC Markets Group with its headquarters located in New York.
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Herald Investment Trust PLC - investment firm - Reports 1.8% growth in net asset value per share excluding accrued income to 2,658.4p on July 30 when compared to the end of June. Says in the year-to-date, NAV per share rose by 16% year-on-year. Share price at the end of July stood at 2,320.0p, representing a 13% discount to NAV.
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JKX Oil & Gas PLC - hydrocarbon exploration and production company - Reports average daily production of 9,255 barrels of oil equivalent per day for the six months to June 30, down from 10,445 boepd posted a year ago. Revenue, however, rises to USD39.5 million in the half-year from USD35.1 million a year prior. Pretax profit jumped to USD13.1 million from USD2.0 million year-on-year. JKX says its strong financial performance in the first half has been boosted by the continuing positive impact of management action taken last year to reduce costs across all locations and the recovery in oil and gas prices.
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BlueRock Diamonds PLC - diamond mining company - Reports the discovery of a 21.56 carat stone, the value of which is likely to significantly exceed our previous record of USD236,000 obtained for a 20.7 carat stone that was sold in October 2019. Turning to operations, the company says the focus is now on the preparedness for the increase in production and the wet season. Meanwhile, the expansion project at Kareevlei mine in South Africa is nearing completion with the first of the two new lines to be fully commissioned by end August and fully operational in September. This line, once fully operational, will allow management to switch off the old plant wet line with immediate cost savings associated with double handling ore and power costs. The second line will be fully commissioned during September and both new wet lines should be fully operational by the end of September.
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Plexus Holdings PLC - oil & gas engineering services business - Enters into cooperation agreements with Cameron, which will enable Plexus to return to the jack-up exploration wellhead rental business. Under the terms of the deal, Cameron will license Plexus to be the sole providers of Exact-15 wellhead system, Fontus Explorer wellhead system, and Centric-15 wellhead system and all related systems for jack-up exploration drilling.
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Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust PLC - UK-based closed-ended investor in renewable energy assets - Invests EUR7.5 million, or around GBP6.4 million, into Simply Blue Holdings Ltd, a developer of sustainable marine projects focused on floating offshore wind. The move marks Octopus' first investment into a renewable energy developer, as well as its first investment in the offshore floating wind sector. The investment, which is a co-investment alongside another fund managed by Octopus, entitles it to around a 12% stake in Simply Blue. "This investment will further diversify ORIT's potential to create capital growth and may in time bring opportunities to invest in construction-ready assets arising from Simply Blue's development pipeline," says Chair Phil Austin.
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Red Rock Resources PLC - gold explorer in Kenya and Australia, copper-cobalt in DRC - Says phase 1 of its drill programme at the Luanshimba copper-cobalt project in the Democratic Republic of Congo is down to a depth of 2,000 metres. Notes cobalt-copper oxides encountered in 10 holes and pyrite encountered at bottom of some holes, indicating possibility of sulphide mineralisation at depth. The first 850km of samples are being prepared for laboratory assay in South Africa. Red Rock owns 80% of the Luanshimba project and is considering using a more powerful rig on site to extend some holes to a 120 to 200 metre depth to test for copper sulphide mineralisation."
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Power Metal Resources PLC - metals exploration and development company - and Red Rock Resources report progress on Australian gold joint venture, Red Rock Australasia Pty Ltd. Power Metal owns 49.9%, with the other 50.1% being owned by Red Rock Resources. The companies report that ongoing historical data compilation has led to the discovery of multiple overlooked historic mines, located within various granted tenements within the package, which are now designated for follow up ground-based reconnaissance and prospecting programmes. After consulting with various parties, and a review of the optimal outcome, it has been decided that the best commercial path forward for Red Rock Australasia is to obtain a London-based listing.
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Spectral MD Holdings Ltd - London and Texas-based predictive analytics company - Launches a multicentre clinical study that aims to support the further development of its DeepView Wound Imaging System. The study will bolster the company's existing clinical database to train the AI algorithm and improve the DeepView technology in early burn wound healing assessment, Spectral says. The training study will collect data from 100 adult and paediatric subjects and is expected to conclude in February.
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Cadence Minerals PLC - mineral resources company - Says Macarthur Minerals has agreed terms with Aurizon, for the transport of direct shipment ore at a rate of up to 500,000 tonnes per annum between West Kalgoorlie and Kwinana. Increasing Macarthur's aggregated rail access is critical to accelerating the company's early revenue objectives, notes Cadence. The agreement with Aurizon increases Macarthur's potential contracted rail capacity in Western Australia to just under 1 million tonnes over the next 12 months
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Thor Explorations Ltd - Vancouver, Canada-based gold exploration and development company - Reports further drilling results from the southern Makosa Tail and Makosa Bridge prospects at its Douta project, Senegal. Wide-spaced exploratory drill sections were completed over a 1,600 metres previously untested gap between Makosa to the north and Makosa Tail to the south. This zone is referred to as Makosa Bridge. Results received to date indicate that gold mineralisation is developed within sheared sedimentary and gabbroic host rocks over the strike length of Makosa Bridge thus connecting Makosa Tail and Makosa.
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By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
and Will Paige; willpaige@alliancenews.com
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