TRADING UPDATES: Beeks seeks GBP15 million; Sanderson renews licence

(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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Greencoat Renewables PLC - Dublin-based investor in euro-denominated renewable energy infrastructure assets - Agrees to buy 50% of the Borkum Riffgrund 1 offshore wind farm in Germany from Kirkbi AS - who held a 31.5% stake - and William Demant Invest AS - who held a 18.5% stake - for a total cash consideration of about EUR350 million. The wind farm was developed and constructed by Orsted, which remains a 50% shareholder. Borkumm Riffgrund 1 is located in Germany's exclusive economic zone in the North Sea and consists of 78 SGRE 4.0 megawatt turbines that have been operational since 2015. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter.

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Standard Life Private Equity Trust PLC - investor in private equity funds focused on Europe - Changes names to abrdn Private Equity Opportunities Trust PLC.

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JPEL Private Equity Ltd - investment company - Plans to return total of USD18 million to USD equity shareholders, from existing cash on balance sheet. The redemption price for the 9.7 million USD equity shares will be USD1.85. Still has 40.0 million USD equity shares still in issue.

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Asimilar Group PLC - London-based investment firm - Starts trading on AQSE Growth Market. Retains AIM listing. "The board believes in the opportunities offered by the AQSE Growth Market to improve liquidity in nascent companies and in the investment companies that invest in them," company says. Adds: "It also provides greater optionality to the board going forward, should the company decide to cancel the admission of its shares to trading on AIM, in terms of reducing operating costs and taking advantage of a market regime which may be more fitting to an investment company - reducing the risk that investment opportunities are missed and shareholders' interests thereby affected."

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H&T Group PLC - Surrey, England-based pawnbroker - Following an internal review at the request of UK Financial Conduct Authority, says about 9,800 loans issued by company's unsecured high-cost short term loans business to about 8,000 customers should not have been granted between April 2014 and October 2019. Notes this represents 12% of HCST loans and 13% of HCST customers during the period. Redress will be paid in respect of these loans - which will be GBP2.1 million, covering GBP1.6 million paid directly to customers and GBP500,000 to cover the balance of current outstanding loans. On average, eligible customers will receive redress amounting to GBP264. Notes a provision of GBP2.1m was raised in the company's financial statements for 2021, to cover the cost of this redress.

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Beeks Financial Cloud Group PLC - Glasgow-based provider of connectivity for financial markets - Intends to raise about GBP15 million through placing to new and existing institutional investors. The price of the placing shares and the number of new shares to be issued will be determined at the close of the bookbuild. Canaccord Genuity Ltd is acting as nominated adviser and sole bookrunner for the placing. Notes, in event of oversubscription, Chief Executive Gordon McArthur intends to sell up to GBP2.8 million of existing stake. He owns about 47% of current issues share capital of company.

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Sanderson Design Group PLC - Buckinghamshire, England-based interior furnishings company - Bedlinen and homewares company Bedec, a core licencee, renews licensing agreement with company for a further three years, as expected. Notes about GBP1.4 million of accelerated income will be recognised in the current financial year in connection with the renewal. Will also receive sales-based royalty payments. Bedeck currently has exclusive rights to sell a wide range of bedlinen and towelling for the Morris & Co, Sanderson, Harlequin and Scion brands throughout the UK, Europe and Middle East.

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Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd - Bermuda-based oil and gas exploration company operating in Iraq - Receives gross payment of USD40.9 million from Kurdistan Regional Government for Shaikan crude oil sales during December 2021 and gross USD6.6 million in relation to the arrears from the outstanding January 2020 to February 2020 invoices.

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Arrow Exploration Corp - Calgary, Canada-based oil and gas company - Spuds Rio Cravo Este-2 well on the Tapir block in the Llanos Basin of Colombia. Well is targeting a large, three-way fault-bounded structure with multiple high-quality reservoir objectives. The well is expected to be drilled to a total depth of 8,146 feet. Drilling and casing of the RCE-2 well is expected to take about three weeks, followed by completion, and then testing. Company has a 50% stake in the Tapir block. On track to hit 3,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day within 18 months of its AIM listing, which was October 2021.

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Mineral & Financial Investments Ltd - Cayman Islands-based investment company - Completes 3,520 metres of 18,000 metres infill and exploration drilling programme as part of the ongoing programme to deliver a feasibility study at the Venda Nova deposit at its Lagoa Salgada project in Portugal. The study is expected to be completed by the end of 2022. Chief Executive Jacques Vaillancourt says: "We remain confident these programs will deliver a robust development plan for an initial mine at the Venda Nova property. Over time, we expect ongoing exploration efforts to continue to expand the overall resources at Lagoa Salgada to expand the operations well beyond this initial development plan."

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By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com

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