LONDON TRADING UPDATES: Motif Bio Says Orange Avenue Buys Subsidiary

Fri, 26th Feb 2021 20:20

(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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Motif Bio PLC - AIM-listed cash shell - Enters into a stock purchase agreement with Orange Avenue Technologies LLC, to which Orange has acquired 100% of the outstanding shares of Motif Inc from Motif with immediate effect. Orange is wholly owned by John Palmer, president of Tamarack Associates Inc - the company which was engaged by Motif to facilitate the sale of iclaprim and other assets of Motif Inc in January 2020. Motif remains suspended from trading while the proposed transaction is being negotiated and advanced. "The transaction is an important step to prepare Motif to complete the reverse takeover. It also creates incentives for Orange to focus on the potential generation of value from iclaprim for Motif's shareholders, while allowing Motif to focus on completing the reverse takeover with a UK-based ADC discovery and development company," says President Jonathan Gold.

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Applegreen PLC - operator of petrol stations and motorway stops in Ireland - Says European Commission grants approval for takeover by the Causeway Consortium Ltd. Cancellation of the Euronext Growth Market listing of Applegreen shares by the Irish Stock Exchange and cancellation of the AIM listing of Applegreen shares by the London Stock Exchange is expected to occur at 0700 GMT on March 11.

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Seplat Petroleum Development Co PLC - Nigerian oil & gas company - Moves to to clarify position on the contents of "inaccurate media coverage". Says is current on its royalties to the Federal Government of Nigeria, with a record of increased royalties over a decade of successful production. Reference in the media coverage was made to the assets that are held by Seplat in joint venture partnership with the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Ltd. These assets are OMLs 4, 38 and 41. Notes that in 2018, Nigeria President and Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources approved the 20-year renewal of OMLs 4, 38 and 41 and Seplat satisfied all conditions for the license renewal, including full payment of USD25.9 million renewal bonus. Says OMLs 4, 38 and 41 are amongst various assets that continue to yield significant revenue for the Federal Government of Nigeria.

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GLI Finance Ltd - AIM-listed alternative finance company - Appoints Liberum Capital Ltd to manage a share buyback programme, to purchase up to GBP1 million ZDP shares. Completion of tender offer is expected to take place in mid-April.

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Cambria Africa PLC - Zimbabwe-focused investment company - Says it continues to expect financial 2020 net asset value as at August 31, to remain at or near the USD7.2 million level reported at the time of its interim results for February 29. Cambria's operating subsidiaries and divisions Tradanet, Millchem and Autopay continue to operate at near or above cash flow break-even levels. Company has been granted extension to publish annual report by no later than May 31.

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DP Aircraft I Ltd - Guernsey-based aircraft leasing company - Updates regarding the loan arrangements for two Boeing 787-8 aircraft, LN-LNA and LN-LNB, leased to Torskefjorden Leasing. Notes announcement that banks providing loan finance in respect of assets declared an Event of Default under the relevant loan agreements with the company's two borrower subsidiaries. Torskefjorden Leasing is involved in leasing aircraft to Norwegian Air Shuttle's long-haul business. NAS lenders will take control of the process of disposing of the assets, with the proceeds of sale being applied in the first instance to pay off any outstanding amounts owed to the NAS lenders, and any balance remaining thereafter being remitted to the relevant subsidiaries of the company. "As previously noted, these developments impact solely upon the assets; they have no effect upon the company's arrangements in respect of the aircraft which it leases to Thai Airways; and there is no recourse by the NAS lenders to the company itself," DP Aircraft says.

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Sopheon PLC- enterprise software provider - Says directors Barry Mence, Andy Michuda, Arif Karimjee, and Stuart Silcock sell a total of 1.1 million shares at 900 pence each in a placing for the purpose of estate planning and to improve the liquidity in the company's shares. Following the placing, Mence holds an 18% stake, Michuda has a 0.6% stake, Karimjee has 0.7% and Silcock has 3.4%.

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Scotgold Resources Ltd - developer of gold project in Scotland - Lowers production guidance as a result of reduced operating hours and primary crusher remediation work. Now expects between 28,500 tonnes to 25,700 tonnes of ore processed, down from its previous guidance of between 31,500 tonnes to 28,400 tonnes. Adds gold production guidance is now between 7,900 ounces and 7,000 ounces from previous guidance of between 8,700 ounces to 7,800 ounces. Separately, says Richard Grey will step down from role of chief executive but will remain on as non-executive director. Grey will be succeeded by Phillip Day who most recently was Head of Technical and Operations at Pala Investments, an investment company focused on the mining sector. Chris Sangster, who was formerly the founding CEO also resigns.

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Kropz PLC- South Africa-focused plant nutrient feed minerals developer - Inks new conditional convertible equity facility of up to USD5 million with major shareholder ARC Fund in addition to the USD40 million facility which ARC and the company entered into in May. Repayment of the facility will be in the form of conversion into shares at a conversion price of 4.202 pence each quarter. Kropz says it will use the facility to fund the ongoing work at its Hinda phosphate project in the Republic of the Congo, adding it expects to draw down USD2 million on March 10.

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Dunedin Enterprise Investment Trust PLC - UK lower mid-market management buyout investor - Secures regulatory approval for the injection of growth capital from a new majority investor into Hawksford, a provider of corporate, private client and fund services. Dunedin Enterprise will retain a 5% interest in Hawksford. At December-end Dunedin's in Hawksford was valued at GBP6.9 million. The company notes proceeds now received by Dunedin Enterprise from the transaction amount to GBP6.9 million, comprising capital of GBP6.3 million and income of GBP600,000.

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Jadestone Energy Inc - Asia Pacific-focused oil & gas company - Forecasts average crude oil production for 2021 at between 11,500 barrels per day to 13,500 barrels per day assuming the successful drilling of H6 at Montara, two Skua well workovers and completion of its acquisition of a 69% operated interest in the Maari asset, offshore New Zealand at the end of the first half of the year. Commits to paying a dividend for the year.

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Corero Network Security PLC- Uxbridge-based cybersecurity firm - Agrees new partnerships with Datacipher and CDM in the Asia Pacific region as well as CLA Direct in Latin America and the Caribbean as part of its strategy for its Distributed Denial of Service defense solutions. "With the continued rise in DDoS attacks during 2020 and 2021, these resale partners and distributors recognise that many of their customers within the service and hosting provider space, along with Gaming, Financial Services and SaaS-based customers were in need of updating their network security requirements. Corero, with its leading-edge DDoS solution, will enable them to detect and mitigate a DDoS attack within seconds, not minutes, as some of their current solutions provide," the company says.

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Warburg Pincus International LLC - New York-based private equity firm - Says GBP219 million takeover of roadside assistance firm AA PLC progresses, with court hearing scheduled for March 8.

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AA PLC- roadside assistance provider - Says subsidiary to redeem outstanding GBP569.8 million 5.500% B2 notes ahead of takeover.

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Marble Point Loan Financing Ltd - Guernsey-domiciled closed-ended investment company - Says net asset value per share in January was USD0.7342, up from USD0.5813 in October. Adds dividend yield on Jan 31 was 12.9%.

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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com and Ife Taiwo; ifetaiwo@alliancenews.com