(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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Ocado Group PLC - FTSE 100-listed online supermarket - Appoints Mastercard Inc Chair Richard Haythornthwaite as independent non-executive chair. Haythornthwaite will be appointed following company's annual general meeting in May, but will join the board on January 1. He is replacing Stuart Rose, who is retiring after serving 8 years as chair. Ocado notes Haythornthwaite will retire from Mastercard, where he has served since its IPO in 2006, before joining the firm. Haythornthwaite is also the chair and co-founder of QiO Technologies Ltd, an advanced analytics and AI software company. He has previously served as CEO of listed companies Invensys PLC and Blue Circle Industries PLC. His other senior board appointments have included Cookson Group PLC, Lafarge SA, Imperial Chemical Industries PLC, Land Securities PLC, Network Rail Ltd, Better Regulation Commission and Centrica PLC.
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Volution Group PLC - supplier of ventilation products in the UK, Continental Europe and Australasia - Buys 75% of the issued share capital of ClimaRad BV, decentralised ventilation systems provider in the Netherlands. The deal will be for a cash consideration of EUR42 million on a debt free cash free basis, to be funded from the group's existing cash and its recently announced GBP150 million sustainability linked revolving credit facility. Volution will then acquire the balance 25% of ClimaRad held by the co-founder, Peter Schabos, and four of the current directors and management team of ClimaRad before February 2025.
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Redcentric PLC - IT service management company - Broker finnCap says Coltrane Asset Management sells 35.0 million shares at 110 pence per share, raising GBP38.5 million. finnCap notes the placing represents about 23% of Redcentric's issued share capital. Redcentric will not receive any proceeds from the sale shares being sold to institutional investors. Coltrane still holds a 3.2% stake in Redcentric following the placing.
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STV Group PLC - media company based in Glasgow - Agrees long-term deal with Sky to bring new drama, entertainment and documentary boxsets from STV to more Sky Q customers across the UK. "Since the two companies signed an agreement last year, Sky Q customers in Scotland have been enjoying content from STV. The partnership has now been extended, and Sky Q customers across the rest of the UK will now have access to hundreds of hours of STV boxsets, with even more to come later. Sky Q customers will find the new content in the Box Sets area of On Demand," STV adds.
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EJF Investments Ltd - closed-ended investment firm focused on assets benefitting from regulatory and structural change in the financial services sector - Completes process of liquidating EJF Investments Funding Ltd, a Jersey incorporated holding company that is an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of EJFI. "The directors of EJFI have previously assessed the purpose of EJFIF and the structure of EJFI's group. As a result of that assessment, the company concluded that EJFIF is no longer required as a holding company and thus could be liquidated, so as to reduce the ongoing administration and costs of operating the group structure. In the course of the liquidation of EJFIF, all of its investment assets were distributed to EJF Investments Holdings Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of EJFI," company adds.
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Gemfields Group Ltd - gemstone miner focused on Zambia and Mozambique - Ends December 11 with cash balances of about USD44.3 million, a gross debt position of USD58.9 million, a resulting net debt position of about USD14.6 million and, in addition, USD12.0 million of auction receivables due from auction customers. As a result of the cost saving measures implemented across the firm, monthly cash operating expenditure has dropped from about USD12.1 million per month to an average of below USD5.0 million per month in the 3 months ending November 30.
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Quadrise Fuels International PLC - supplier of MSAR emulsion technology and fuels - Notes announcement by TomCo EnergyPLC Friday in relation to Greenfield Energy LLC and a delay in the start-up of Petroteq Energy Inc's existing oil sands plant in Utah, such that the POSP restart is now expected to occur in January 2021. Quadrise looks forward to receiving samples from POSP following its restart. Once received, the POSP samples will enable the company to complete the necessary lab and pilot testing at the Quadrise research facility. Separately, concludes initial testing of bioMSAR and signs a collaboration agreement with Aquafuel Research Ltd, a company specialising in renewable power innovation using conventional biofuels and glycerine. In accordance with the agreement, Quadrise and Aquafuel will work together to jointly promote commercial glycerine supply, Aquafuel power solutions and bioMSAR projects across various applications and regions.
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Wentworth Resources PLC - Tanzania-focused natural gas production company - Continues discussions over share buybacks with shareholders following delisting from Oslo Stock Exchange. Enters into a settlement agreement with one dissenting shareholder to purchase 702,874 ordinary shares at NOK2.91, about USD0.34, per ordinary share. The total cost to the company ifor the buyback so far is USD220,634.
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Deltic Energy PLC - oil and gas exploration business investing in the UK's proven hydrocarbon provinces - Says recent press release issued by Rystad Energy, the independent energy research and business intelligence company providing data, tools, analytics and consultancy services to the energy industry is incorrect. The release stated that Deltic had "picked up substantial acreage in Sierra Leone" in 2020 as a result of licencing awards in that country. Deltic's focus remains entirely on its portfolio in the Southern and Central North Sea, it adds.
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AEX Gold Inc - Greenland-focussed gold mining company - Nets an increase to mineral exploration licence 2020-36 Anoritooq by the Mineral Licence & Safety Authority. The amended licence covers 1,889 square kilometres in South Greenland and is considered prospective for gold. "The newly granted area is underexplored but with similar geology to AEX's neighbouring Vagar licence. Several historic stream sediment and heavy mineral concentrate gold anomalies indicate the potential for further discoveries," company adds.
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Canadian Overseas Petroleum Ltd - Calgary-headquartered oil and gas company focused in Sub-Saharan Africa - Says shares will not be suspended as a result of its previously announced USD54 million acquisition of Atomic Oil & Gas LLC, which operates in the Powder River Basin area in Wyoming, US. The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has confirmed to COPL that, although the completion of the acquisition of Atomic will be regarded as a reverse takeover for the purposes of the listing rules, no suspension of trading in its shares will be required until such time as the acquisition becomes unconditional. Further, no suspension will be necessary at all if COPL can file an approved prospectus with the FCA by such time reflecting the acquisition. Also confirms it is not considering any financing structure commonly referred to as an "equity sharing" arrangement in order to complete financing of the transaction.
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Spinnaker Opportunities PLC - cash shell - Agrees to acquire the entire issued share capital of medicinal cannabis company Kanabo Research Ltd in reverse takeover. As part of the deal, Spinnaker has agreed to advance a further GBP100,000 to Kanabo to support business development and working capital prior to admission. This will bring total loan funding advanced to Kanabo to GBP400,000. "Spinnaker is also pleased to confirm that preparations for the publication of a prospectus and admission of the enlarged group to trading on the London Stock Exchange are now well advanced," company adds.
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Braveheart Investment Group PLC - AIM-listed investment company with six strategic investments - Says investee Paraytec Ltd's work to develop a Covid-19 test is proceeding at pace. Paraytec has acquired purified SARS-CoV2 virus which it will use to optimise both the lower limit and speed of detection, with the aim of detecting virus in asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic patients. Ethical approval has been obtained from the Sheffield Hospitals Trust to test up to 500 clinical samples.
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DP Poland PLC - Polish Domino's Pizza franchisor - Raises GBP3.5 million from placing of 20.0 million shares and subscription for 23.8 million shares at 8 pence each. Fundraising follows deal to buy entire issued share capital of Dominium SA, a Polish pizza restaurant group. The deal will be satisfied by issue of 283.8 million shares at 8 pence each and a unsecured loan note of EUR1.3 million to Malaccan Holdings Ltd. In addition, outstanding debt of about EUR6.2 million, currently due from Dominium to Malaccan Holdings under certain existing shareholder loans, will be converted into a further unsecured loan note of EUR6.2 million that will be issued to Malaccan Holdings on the same terms and in substitution for that outstanding debt. In total EUR7.5 million loan notes will be issued by the company and remain to Malaccan Holdings upon completion of the deal.
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Lekoil Ltd - Lagos-headquartered oil exploration and production company with interests in Nigeria and offshore Namibia - Says average production at Otakikpo marginal field for the five months starting July 1, was 4,519 bopd gross with 1,807 bopd net to Lekoil compared 5,676 bopd gross with 2,271 bopd net to the company in the first half. For 2020, average production levels are expected to be 5,150 bopd gross with 2,060 bopd net to Lekoil. Extends loan agreement with Olalekan Akinyanmi, a director of the company, to December 9, 2021.
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Vela Technologies PLC - AIM-listed company with investments in early stage technology businesses - Notes 9.1% investee St George Street Capital Ltd's ARCADIA clinical trial to test SGS002, a drug that could be beneficial to diabetic patients suffering from Covid-19, is "progressing very well". Says 47 patients had been enrolled in the trial across 9 of its 11 UK hospital sites currently contracted. There are 4 further hospital sites being initiated week commencing December 14 to bolster recruitment.
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Falanx Group Ltd - AIM-listed provider of cyber security and strategic intelligence services - Says, at this time, not aware of an impact to our SolarWinds MSP products including RMM and N-central following supply chain attack on the SolarWinds Orion Platform software. Notes, based upon SolarWinds' current investigation, they have found no evidence that the SolarWinds MSP products were vulnerable to the attack. The MSP community Falanx works with mainly uses SolarWinds MSP products, namely RMM and N-central. Falanx Cyber does not use the Orion® Platform product as part of its technology stack, Triarii.
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Great Western Mining Corporation PLC - mineral exploration and development company with gold, silver and copper assets in the US - Says bulk material from Mineral Jackpot Properties in Mineral County, Nevada is being processed through a gravity separation circuit and the pouring of first precious metal is on track to be achieved before year end. Adds pilot magnetometer survey completed over the northern part of the MJ area has highlighted existing known structures together with potential new linking structures and extensions to the south-east.
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Chamberlin PLC - specialist castings and engineering group - Says annual result for year to March 31 will be delayed following cancellation of contracts from BorgWarner Turbo Systems Worldwide Headquarters GmbH. As a result, the company's auditors will not be able to conclude the audit of the accounts for the financial year.
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By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com
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