AIM WINNERS & LOSERS: Serica, Kistos trade offers; tinyBuild upbeat

Tue, 12th Jul 2022 11:29

(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers on AIM in London on Tuesday.

----------

AIM - WINNERS

----------

Great Western Mining Corp PLC, up 16% at 0.15 pence, 12-month range 0.10p-0.24p. The gold, silver and copper project developer signs memorandum of understanding with an unnamed Nevada-based mining contractor to create a new joint venture for processing waste material from Great Western's mines. The new joint venture will be for processing gold and silver initially from the waste material of Great Western's Mineral Jackpot and Olympic Gold projects in Nevada, using both gravity separation and a contained flotation system. The joint venture also will process material owned by Great Western's unnamed partner, and both companies will source additional material from third parties for processing on a commercial basis.

----------

Knights Group Holdings PLC, up 16% at 110.84p, 12-month range 83.80p-455.00p. The legal and professional services firm says it achieved a "robust" financial year with a double-digit revenue rise. For the year that ended April 30, the Newcastle, England-based firm posted a pretax profit of GBP1.1 million, down 80% from GBP5.5 million the year before. Staff costs increased by 23% to GBP76.9 million from GBP62.7 million. Revenue climbed by 22% to GBP125.6 million from GBP103.2 million. However, almost all of that came from acquisitions, rather than organic growth. Knights declared a total dividend of 3.50 pence per share, versus none the year before. Looking ahead, Knights says the business is highly "resilient" and it is confident in its medium-term outlook.

----------

Serica Energy PLC, up 13% at 345.88p, 12-month range 143.00p-423.50p. Kistos PLC, up 5.8% at 490.00p, 12-month range 198.15p-490.00p. Kistos and Serica reject each other's takeover offers. London-based energy industry investor Kistos's combination terms value Serica at 382.00p per share. This represents a 25% premium to Serica's closing share price of 305p on Monday. Kistos is offering 0.2932 of a new Kistos share and 246.00p in cash for each Serica share. Under this, Serica's shareholders would own roughly 50% of the combined new firm. However, Serica rejected the offer - and instead made its own takeover offer for Kistos, valuing it at 483.00p per share in another cash-and-shares approach. Serica's bid - of 90p in cash and 1.29 new Serica shares for each Kistos one held - represents a premium of 4% to Kistos's closing share price on June 30 of 463p per share.

----------

tinyBuild Inc, up 7.6% at 130.76p, 12-month range 115.00p-280.00p. The video game publisher says it performed better than expected in the first half of 2022, though it left its annual outlook unchanged for now. The company says its decent first half fortunes contrast with industry commentary of weaker sales due to a crowded release slate and tough comparatives. Following the emergence of Covid-19, demand for video games skyrocketed due to stay-at-home measures. As lockdowns eased, video game sales have normalised. Its release schedule is weighted to the second half of the year and tinyBuild notes it has a "record number" of titles penned for future release.

----------

By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com