(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Friday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Omega Diagnostics Group PLC - Alva, Scotland-based medical diagnostics company - Disagrees with request from the Department of Health & Social Care to repay pre-production payment of GBP2.5 million. The amount was originally paid as part of a contract inked in February this year, to provide the DHSC with manufacturing capacity for Covid-19 lateral flow antigen tests. However the DHSC was unable to move into phase 2 of the contract, which would have seen Omega progress to manufacturing tests using government-furnished equipment. Omega says it will continue to take further legal advice on the matter and hopes to reach a resolution swiftly.
Colin King, chief executive of Omega says: "It is clearly disappointing to receive this request for repayment given the efforts we have gone to ensure manufacturing capacity for Covid-19 lateral flow test was available for the DHSC and that we did not progress to Phase 2 of the contract due to the lack of confirmation from the DHSC regarding which test they require us to manufacture."
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Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust PLC - property investor - Completes purchase of two properties for GBP22.8 million total. The first is a property in St Helens, where Standard will fund the development of an industrial unit with a total commitment of GBP15.1 million. The second is an existing industrial unit in Washington let to Griffith Textile Machines until September 2035. The purchase price of GBP7.7 million reflects a net initial yield of 5.75%, company says. Both acquisitions are financed out of existing cash reserves.
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BWA Group PLC - London-based minerals exploration investment company focussed on Cameroon and Canada - Applies for two rutile sands exploration licences at Song-Loulou in Cameroon. The two areas, comprising a total of 992 square kilometres, are next to the firm's existing licence area at Nkoteng and are part of the same prospective river system. The application has been acknowledged by the Cameroon Ministry of Mines, Investment and Technological Development. BWA now has two exploration licences in Cameroon on which it is already working and is awaiting the issue of a total of five more rutile sands licences.
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Kenmare Resources PLC - lithium and zircon producer in Mozambique - Launches tender offer to raise GBP61.8 million. A total of 18.2 million shares are tendered by shareholders under the offer, with 14.8 million shares purchased at a price of GBP4.17 each.
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Starcrest Education Ltd - Cayman Islands-based developer and operator of education services - Cancels planned purchase of educational training and apprenticeships specialist National Training Company. Starcrest blamed market conditions for the deal falling through. In August, Starcrest outlined plans to buy the group through a reverse takeover, meaning its shares have remained suspended since then. Following the company's decision, trading in Starcrest's shares will begin again from Friday.
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DeepVerge PLC - York, England-based environmental & life science AI company - Completes development of the Microtox PD Covid detection system. Deepverge claims the product is able to detects SARS-CoV-2 and a range of pathogens at local, regional and national levels. The pandemic surveillance units will be launched in the first quarter of 2022.
Chief Executive Gerry Brandon comments: "Size, cost, reach and route to market have been heavily thought through with our new third generation designs. The units are now smaller - allowing them to be installed for smaller populations; mobile - allowing them to be taken to where populations gather; mass producible - allowing more affordability for customers; and just as importantly, available for new partner opportunities."
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LSL Property Services PLC - Newcastle-based estate agency - On Thursday, joint venture company Pivotal Growth completes purchase of Glasgow-based mortgage broker Lifetime Finance, marking its first acquisition. Pivotal Growth was established in April 2021 as a joint venture with Pollen Street Capital, with the aim to "buy and build" a leading national mortgage broker. It is planned that at least GBP200 million will be made available through equity and debt to fund acquisitions for Pivotal Growth.
"The Pivotal Growth management team is in active discussion with a number of other brokers that it believes would benefit considerably by being part of Pivotal Growth and we expect to confirm further deals in the early part of 2022," says LSL Chief Executive David Stewart.
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Cordel Group PLC - London-based artificial intelligence platform for transport corridor analytics, formerly called Maestrano - On Thursday notes expansion of contract with railroad customer in the US. Original contract saw Cordel's specialist rail analytics subsidiary, Cordel Technology, engineer the data capture process and artificial intelligence analysis of digital point clouds. Customer has now expanded the scope for data capture and analysis to up to 4,500 miles of track.
"We are excited to be moving forward with this expanded Pilot. The USA represents our largest growth opportunity and will provide a meaningful contribution to the group's performance in 2022," comments Chief Executive Nick Smith.
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Cambridge Cognition Holdings PLC - Cambridge, England-based digital neuroscience company - On Thursday wins GBP1.0 million schizophrenia clinical trial contract. Revenue from the contract is expected over the next three years. Cambridge Cognition will provide proprietary cognitive assessments and specialist, study management services as part of the agreement. The contract is a repeat purchase from an existing client that has contracted for several other clinical trials for schizophrenia. Chief Executive Matthew Stork states: "We are delighted to have formed an enduring partnership with this pharmaceutical company that recognises the potential for our sensitive cognitive assessments to be used in pivotal clinical trials. This continues to be an exciting area for potential further growth for the company in the future."
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Miton Global Opportunities PLC - investor in closed-end investment funds on London Stock Exchange - Changes name to MIGO Opportunities Trust in order to make it easier for potential investors to find and identify the company and to "promote its success in the interests of all shareholders".
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Tectonic Gold PLC - Sydney-based exploration company - Announces recent drilling campaign completed 75% of planned program but was cut short due to weather. Able to extract enough data with confirmed gold intersections to advance geological modelling. Now in discussions with potential partners and preparing drilling plans for 2022 and 2023. States the company is fully funded to return to the field and complete final drilling.
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By Will Paige; willpaige@alliancenews.com
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