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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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Hilton Food Group PLC - Cambridgeshire-based food packaging company - Completes deal to buy remaining 50% stake in Dutch vegan and vegetarian products manufacturer Dalco Food BV for an undisclosed sum. Previously says acquisition enhances its position in the "high growth" plant-based and vegetarian market. Agreed to acquire its initial 50% stake in Dalco in October 2018. At that time, Hilton entered a joint venture agreement with Dalco's shareholders, which included an option to acquire the remaining 50% of Dalco's shares in 2024. However, Hilton has now agreed to acquire the remaining 50% stake in Dalco ahead of this initial date.
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AssetCo PLC - Monmouthshire-based asset manager - Completes 30% stake buy in discretionary investment manager and advisory platform Parmenion for up to GBP27.8 million, with GBP20.6 million paid up front and up to GBP3.6 million in March 2022 and March 2023 based on performance. Chief Executive Campbell Fleming says: "Parmenion is at the forefront of the digital transformation taking place within the asset and wealth management industry. Its award-winning IT infrastructure and client focused philosophy have established it as a market leading platform. Parmenion has the client support, people and skill sets to grow and to continue to deliver for advisers and customers."
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Helios Underwriting PLC - London-based investment vehicle, which acquires and consolidates underwriting capacity at Lloyd's - Completes acquisition of four Limited Liability Vehicles for GBP2.5 million cash and hold syndicate capacity of GBP2.6 million. The LLV are Kemah Lime Street Capital, Nameco 1130, Nomina 070, and New Filcom.
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Dukemount Capital PLC - investor in the sustainable and flexible energy markets - Says 50%-owned subsidiary HSKB Ltd buys 2 special purpose companies, which each contains an 11 kilovolts gas peaking facility, which are ready to build, with full planning permission and grid access. HSKB also changes name to DKE Flexible Energy Ltd. "DKE Energy will initially build two gas peaking facilities. Dukemount will manage the construction of the two sites and provide its knowledge of long-dated income funding and finance to optimize the capital structure," company explains. Issues 15.1 million shares at 0.3077 pence each to settle subordinated funding package agreed to on September 15.
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Amati AIM VCT PLC - investor in AIM-listed companies - Net asset value per share ends July at 215.4 pence versus 206.1p six months earlier. Declares interim dividend of 4.5p, down from 10.5p year before. NAV total return in first half was 7.9%, while benchmark, Numis Alternative Markets Total Return Index rises 8.2%. "Having seen a strongly rising NAV in the second half of last year, it is pleasing to be able to report a further increase in NAV total return growth of 7.9% in the first half of this financial year. The fact that this positive performance is coming both from the older, more mature holdings and from our newer investments is also notable and bodes well for the ongoing development of the portfolio," Chair Peter Lawrence says.
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AIQ Ltd - Cayman Islands-based firm focused on acquiring and developing e-commerce sector businesses - Says its Hong Kong-based IT consultancy unit wins USD552,000 contract to supply a decentralised finance exchange to a customer based in Australia. "Under the terms of the contract, the Group will receive payment in tranches upon completion of milestones, with the project expected to be fully delivered in approximately six months," company explains. Adds: "A DeFi DEX is a cryptocurrency exchange that enables peer-to-peer trading without the need for an intermediary. Rather than liquidity and orders being aggregated by a centralised entity such as brokerages and banks, a DeFi DEX uses online blockchain technology with smart contracts that provide automatic and self-executing digital agreements."
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discoverIE Group PLC - Guildford-based electronics applications components maker - Sells its 100%-owned South African distribution business, Vertec Scientific SA Proprietary Ltd, for up front cash of ZAR25.0 million, about GBP1.3 million, and deferred payment of ZAR20.0 million over the next 3 years.
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Brandshield Systems PLC - London-based cybersecurity software producer interested in brand protection and online threat hunting - Enters agreement with Leumi Bank for revolving credit line facility of up to ILS8 million, about USD2.5 million. "The two-year new debt facility, which can be extended upon request, includes a competitive interest rate and no associated requisite equity instruments or warrants. Drawdown of the new debt facility will be used to support the group's ongoing growth," company explains.
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TechFinancials Inc - invests in early-stage technology companies - Enters into share purchase agreement to sell 99.8%-owned subsidiary Cedex Holdings Ltd to Lem Management Ltd. Does not receive upfront payment for sale, but could be entitled to 50% of any potential sale of Cedex over USD2 million. If the deal is between USD5 million and USD50 million, TechFinancials entitled to USD1.6 million of the first USD5 million and then 4% of the remainder. Executive Director Asaf Lahav says: "I am glad that we have managed to sell Cedex, something the company tried to do in the past 18 months. This sale is part of our strategy to save costs and try to maximise shareholders value. We will continue looking for investment opportunities for the benefit of our shareholders."
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Mirriad Advertising PLC - London-based in-content advertising technology - Begins working with Los Angeles-based online advertising technology firm Magnite Inc's SpringServe for over-the-top and connected TV. Company says partnership will "bring scale and automation to the in-content advertising format via programmatic ad campaigns". Mirriad Chief Executive Stephan Beringer says: "Working with SpringServe is a decisive step in being able to buy in-content inventory programmatically. This will unleash new opportunities for publishers and content owners with an ad format that is created in the content itself, thus not interrupting peoples' viewing experiences. Research continues to prove that the Mirriad proposition is a transformative advertising solution and we look forward to the results we can achieve with SpringServe."
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Insig AI PLC - London-based machine learning and data science firm which serves the asset management industry, formerly known as Catena Group PLC - Releases second version of software, Insig Portfolio 2.0. "Insig Portfolio is a user-friendly web application which provides portfolio managers of all sizes and strategies with additional data driven insights to aid their investment decisions. Insig Portfolio was developed to alleviate the frustration of asset managers currently working with error-prone spreadsheets, and to remove the time-consuming effort of building data science applications in-house," company explains. Chief Executive Steve Cracknell adds: "We already have 4 potential clients currently trialling Insig Portfolio who have each agreed to upgrade to this new v2.0 and we are optimistic that further potential clients will wish to have meetings with us to understand the capabilities of Insig Portfolio 2.0 and benefits to their business."
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Taylor Maritime Investments Ltd - London-based investor in dry bulk shipping - Receives delivery of geared bulk carriers that were committed for purchase following its July equity raise. "These two ships are of well-known designs from respected Japanese yards and rate above average for their peer group in terms of carbon intensity. This increases TMI's total delivered fleet to 21 vessels," company says. Chief Executive Edward Buttery adds: "These two vessels have delivered promptly into a strong market after being acquired in August. They are fixed on longer term charters and we have been able to lock in attractive yields adding to earnings visibility. We expect to take delivery of two more ships in October in what continues to be a firm market."
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Sealand Capital Galaxy Ltd - financial and strategic support provider to entrepreneurs - Pretax loss loss in six months to June 30 narrows to GBP144,677 from GBP400,380 loss year before. Revenue drops to GBP39,184 from GBP276,648. Administrative expenses drops to GBP160,515 from GBP492,489. Executive Chair Nelson Law says: "The Covid-19 outbreak has negatively impacted various economies that the Group operates in, and travel restrictions have been imposed. We are now leveraging our partner relationships with Tencent, Tenet and Alibaba to help overseas merchants access the huge Chinese market and sell their products and services; however, we are also proactively pursuing acquisition and joint venture opportunities to help develop our business, and we remain in discussions with a European business-to-business marketing technology company, initially with a view to obtaining an exclusive licence to use their technology in the Chinese market."
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Equiniti Group PLC - London-based financial administration outsourcer - Earth Private Holdings Ltd agrees USD1.08 billion financing, Siris Capital Group LLC says, to pay for Equiniti takeover. Financing is made of USD900 million term loan facility and USD175 million revolving credit facility. Earth Private Holdings is a newly formed company owned by funds managed by technology-focused private equity firm Siris Capital. Equiniti agreed end-May to a takeover offer by New York-based Siris Capital in a deal worth GBP673 million. Siris offered 180 pence per Equiniti share for the acquisition, which is a 56% premium to the closing price of 116 pence per Equiniti share on February 8, the day before initial press reports of a potential bid for Equiniti.
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Integrated Diagnostics Holdings PLC - consumer healthcare firm with operations in Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, and Nigeria - Launches Al-Borg Scan's third branch. New branch in the strategic Heliopolis neighbourhood of east Cairo. First Al-Borg Scan branch to launch in east Cairo. Chief Executive Hend El Sherbini says: "The launch comes as part of a wider ramp up strategy which in the last three years has seen us effectively expand our radiology venture in step with the growing demand for high-quality radiology services in our home market of Egypt. This has enabled us to capitalise on the important growth opportunities offered by Egypt's fragmented radiology market while delivering on our vision of providing patients with a one-stop-shop service offering featuring both pathology and radiology."
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African Pioneer PLC - Isle of Man-based natural resources company - Enters two-year option agreement with ASX-listed Sandfire Resources Ltd over exploring 4 of its 8 Botswana prospecting licences for a cash of USD500,000 and 107,272 Sandfire shares on top of USD1.0 million exploration expenditure over the next 24 months. "Funds received will also allow the company to accelerate exploration activities on the company's 4 other prospecting licences in Botswana and its projects in Namibia and Zambia," company adds. Chair & Chief Executive Colin Bird says deal will allows an acceleration of exploration activities on the 4 prospecting licences.
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Tirupati Graphite PLC - graphite and graphene producer in Madagascar and India - Enters research collaboration agreement with the Department of Material Sciences & Engineering at Monash University, Victoria, Australia to develop commercial applications for a range of graphene products in raw and recycled polymer nano-composites and dispersions.
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Scotgold Resources Ltd - gold and silver explorer and producer in Scotland - Produces 62 tonnes of gold concentrate in September, up from 50 tonnes in August. Notes it was the second consecutive month where production revenues exceeded operational costs. Chief Executive Phil Day says: "The operational turnaround at Cononish continues to gain pace and we are really encouraged by the performance of the mine and the overall improvement in our production profile. Importantly, September marked our second month where production revenues exceeded operational costs and we are confident that we are now on the correct growth trajectory to realise the full potential of Cononish."
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Amte Power PLC - developer and manufacturer of lithium-ion and sodium-ion battery cells - Signs joint venture deal with InfraNomics Technologies Pty Ltd and begins plans to build a 200,000 cell micro production line in Australia's Lithium Valley. The 50-50 joint venture will operate through Bardan Cells Ltd and be based in Kwinana, Western Australia. InfraNomics is responsible for capital fundraising, establishing local supply chains and supporting the development of Bardan. AMTE will provide Bardan with the licenced technology and manufacturing expertise to build cells for use in energy storage systems.
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Bacanora Lithium PLC - developer of Sonora lithium project in Mexico - Says new changes made by Mexican congress to strengthen the state electricity company will not affect lithium licenses already granted to private companies, assuming exploration work had already started. As part of the new reforms future lithium concessions would be held by the state. "It is the view of Bacanora that it has met these requirements including the commencement of early construction activities at the Sonora lithium project. The company will keep shareholders advised on any further developments," company says.
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Botswana Diamonds PLC - Dublin-based diamond exploration company with licenses in Botswana and South Africa - Wholly-owned subsidiary, Sunland Minerals Pty Ltd, gets prospecting licenses PL232 and 235 of 2015, close to the Ghaghoo diamond mine in the Kalahari of Botswana, get renewed. The renewals are for a two-year period commencing October 1, 2021. Managing Director James Campbell says: "We have quietly built exploration acreage, while partnering with Diamexstrat and Burgundy Diamond Mining to finance exploration. Until recently, many thought that logistics and water challenges on this acreage could not be overcome. However, operational progress at nearby Ghaghoo and KX36 has transformed the situation: much of the set-up costs have already been incurred and incremental discoveries may therefore be potentially developed at lower cost and risk."
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Bradda Head Lithium Ltd - lithium explorer with assets in Nevada and Arizona - Engages drilling contractor Boart Longyear to carry out a sonic drilling programme at Wikieup clay project in western Arizona, which is adjacent to Hawkstone's Big Sandy resource of 32.5 million tonnes at 1,850 parts per million lithium. Chief Executive Charles FitzRoy says: "We are delighted to have engaged Boart Longyear to begin our fast-track sedimentary drilling programme at Wikieup. They have real pedigree when it comes to drilling in sedimentary deposits, and their sonic drilling technology is industry-leading, so we are very optimistic of efficient recoveries from this programme."
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Oriole Resources PLC - mineral explorer in Senegal and Cameroon - Sees "excellent" diamond drilling diamond drilling results from Assaleyta and Hesdaba at Thani Stratex Djibouti including best intersections of 17.4 metres grading 3.59 grammes per tonne gold and 10.8 metres grading 26.3 grammes per tonne, respectively. Chief Executive Tim Livesey says: "We are very encouraged to see continued success from the exploration programmes in Djibouti. These recently reported results confirm the opportunity for grading intersections of significant width, further de-risking this 'new frontier' project. With the next tranche of investment about to be deployed, we are looking forward to reviewing the proposed exploration plan for the next phase of drilling, which we believe will move Djibouti a step closer to the development of a resource."
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Castillo Copper Ltd - Australia and Zambia-focused base metal copper exploration company - Says preliminary due diligence on the Picasso lithium project, near Norseman in Western Australia, has verified multiple lithium surface occurrences across the tenure that align with pegmatite outcropping. Managing Director Simon Paull says: "Straight out of the gates, the preliminary due diligence has hit a high note at the Picasso project, with multiple historical surface occurrences being confirmed and photographic evidence there is significant pegmatite outcropping with the potential to host lithium mineralisation. The board is delighted with these initial findings and looks forward to receiving the assays results back from the laboratory."
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By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com
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