TRADING UPDATES: Resolute books hefty impairments; tinyBuild buys

(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Thursday and not separately reported by Alliance News:

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Resolute Mining Ltd - gold miner with assets in Africa - Warns of non-cash impairment charge between USD165 million and USD175 million in 2021 half-year results. Impairment due to gold prices, which are 5% to 10% lower than they were when assessment of company's assets was carried out in December. Resolute also puts impairment down to revision to production and cost guidance impacting the Syama mine in Mali. In July, Resolute lowered annual guidance, expecting total production in range of 315,000 ounces to 340,000 ounces of gold. This was previously 350,000 ounces to 375,000 ounces. Accounting standards on life of mine, current costs and recovery assumptions also attributed to impairments. Also notes it completes sale of Bibiani gold mine in Ghana to Asante Gold Corp for USD90 million. "Resolute has received the initial USD30 million cash payment from Asante with the balance of consideration payable in two equal instalments of USD30 million on or before six and twelve months following completion," company adds.

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tinyBuild Inc - video games publisher and developer - Announces "acquihire" of video game development studio Animal. tinyBuild and Animal have been developing Rawmen, a light-hearted, multiplayer arena shooter game, which sees players use food as a weapon. tinyBuild will pay a maximum of USD10.2 million for deal, split roughly 30% to 70% between cash and new tinyBuild shares. "It is core to tinyBuild's strategy to elevate core franchises from third-party, to first and second party. By bringing Animal in-house, the company expects to create value for shareholders, while high visibility on platform revenues helps reduce execution risk," it says.

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Dispersion Holdings PLC - investor in decentralised finance, which uses blockchain and cryptocurrencies to remove financial intermediaries from transactions - Invests USD200,000 into Blimp Technologies Inc, a decentralised real estate search platform. "Blockchain technology represents an opportunity to restructure inefficiencies in the real estate market with regards to intermediary involvement and a lack of data transparency surrounding leads and transactions," Dispersion says. Blimp Chief Executive Officer Matt Shaw says the platform empowers "customers, real estate agents, and other professionals to engage in direct, peer-to-peer collaboration". Shaw says it can lessen delays and stress from home buying process, adding: "The worst kept secret in the real estate industry is that the traditional real estate model is broken."

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Boku Inc - San Francisco, California-based mobile payments - Launches M1ST, which stands for mobile first, payments network. M1ST includes over 330 mobile payment methods, "mobile wallets, direct carrier billing, and real-time payments schemes, reaching 5.7 billion mobile payment accounts in 90 countries", Boku says. "M1ST is designed to eliminate the difficulty of mobile payment acceptance so that merchants can accept mobile payments more quickly, at lower cost, and focus on building world-class user experiences that drive long-term, valuable relationships with their customers."

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Calnex Solutions PLC - West Lothian, Scotland-based provider of test and measurement solutions for the telecommunications sector - Achieves "strong trading and good order levels" in first quarter ended June, in line with board expectations. "The strength of trading and positive evolutionary trends affecting the telecoms sector described above provide the board with continued confidence in Calnex's ability to deliver on its growth strategy and a positive outcome to the year in line with current market expectations," it says.

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Castings PLC - Brownhills, England-based iron casting and machining company - Says output in the quarter that ended June 30 was in line with pre-Covid times, but supply chain issues among automotive firms hurt sales in final two weeks of June. This hit has continued in the second quarter. "Clearly there remains uncertainty over whether the supply chain restrictions will allow the strong forward schedules to be realised in the near term. The group has maintained high production levels to increase stocks and ensure we are able to supply the higher anticipated demand," Castings says, also noting an increase in raw material prices.

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Avation PLC - Singapore-based passenger aircraft leasing company - Will receive funds from administrators of collapsed Virgin Australia. Notes airline's creditors trust has been adjudicated to set aside a combined sum of AUD101.4 million, about GBP53.1 million. "The company anticipates that it will receive a proportional distribution from the proceeds of the creditors trust in due course," Avation adds. The aircraft leasing firm does not know the timing or amount of the proceeds it will receive.

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Aberdeen Standard European Logistics Income PLC - European-focused logistics real estate investor - Posts net asset value per share of 123.6 euro cents at June 30, the end of its second quarter, up 1.6% quarter-on-quarter from 121.6 cents. Portfolio value rises 1.9% on a like-for-like basis to EUR473.9 million. Says all of rent due for quarter collected.

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Custodian REIT PLC - Leicester, England-based real estate investment trust - Buys 29,676 square feet industrial unit in Dundee, Scotland for GBP1.9 million. Asset has passing rent of GBP117,500 per year, reflecting net initial yield of 5.89%.

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Gresham House PLC - London-based asset management and investment company - Says Gresham House Forest Growth & Sustainability Fund held first close with GBP127 million in subscriptions, topping GBP100 million initial target. "The fundraise includes commitments from two major institutional investors," company says. The fund eyes generating growth through woodland creation, "providing exposure to existing income-generating forestry in the UK".

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Sensyne Health PLC - Oxford-based healthcare software - Signs research pact with Sentara Healthcare, a healthcare systems firm which serves patients in Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. "The addition of Sentara's 3.6 million patients brings Sensyne's combined total of de-identified patient data for medical research to 21.7 million patients," Sensyne Health says. Agreement will explore "ethical applications" of artificial intelligence technology from Sensyne to Sentara's patient database.

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Yourgene Health PLC - Manchester, England-based molecular diagnostics company - Wins deal to supply laboratory capacity for UK's NHS Test & Trace Programme for Covid-19. Value of contract will depend on services purchased by UK Department of Health & Social Care.

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SkinBioTherapeutics PLC - Manchester-based life science company focused on the microbiome - Says its AxisBiotix-Ps live bacterial supplements product is now regulatory compliant in the US, the UK and the EU. A commercial launch for the project is on track for the fourth quarter of 2021. "Further analysis of the AxisBiotix data set shows some encouraging potential for other skin conditions including eczema, acne and rosacea," SkinBioTherapeutics says. AxisBiotix-Ps is focused on the relationship between gut health and skin. At the moment, the product is particularly focused on psoriasis. "Even though the study was originally designed for participants who self-identified with psoriasis, people with other skin conditions eg acne, eczema and rosacea also joined the study. The number of non-psoriatic participants was relatively small, but analysis of the data set from those who completed the study at day 56 was very promising," company says. A manufacturing scale-up alongside Croda International PLC is progressing. Under an agreement, SkinBioTherapeutics will use Croda's Sederma as the base for an active skincare ingredient.

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Zenith Energy Ltd - Calgary, Canada-based oil & gas company - Tunisia team decides to workover ROB-1 well in Robbana concession, following "extensive technical review". The well has an existing output rate of 20 barrels of oil per day. Following workover, this could rise to between 50 bopd and 80 bopd. Zenith has contracted a "leading local Tunisian drilling contractor" for the workover. "Mobilisation of the rig to the ROB-1 well location is expected to take place within the next 10-14 days, and the commencement of operations is expected on or before September 10, 2021. Workover operations are expected to take between 20-30 days from start to finish," Zenith says. Workover will cost USD550,000.

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Helium One Global Ltd - exploration and development company with assets in Tanzania - Begins drilling Tai-2 exploration well at Rukwa project, Tanzania. It is second exploration well at Tai prospect. Helium One notes there is 3,500 square kilometres of "untested licences in the Rukwa area". "Helium One is excited to continue exploration in this highly prospective helium basin," it says. Scirocco Energy PLC, an investor focused on sustainable energy and roughly 1% shareholder in Helium One, notes the announcement.

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Oriole Resources PLC - mineral explorer in Senegal and Cameroon - Receives assay results for sampling at Central Licence package in Cameroon. "Assay results for gold in 376 stream sediment samples have been received for the Niambaram and Tenekou licences," Oriole says. Results suggest a number of areas at project with "elevated gold in distinct drainage basins". Oriole says 87 sample sites returned gold values of over 2 parts per billion of gold, above the detection limit. Oriole said 51 sites returned values of over 5 parts per billion. "The highest-grade sample returned 95 ppb of gold," company says.

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Adriatic Metals PLC - precious and base metals explorer and developer - Reports new definitive feasibility study at Vares silver asset in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Results include post-tax net present value of USD1.06 billion at 8% discount rate, upped from USD1.04 billion. "The completion of the 2021 DFS is a major milestone for the company, and clearly demonstrates the exceptional potential of the Vares silver project," CEO Paul Cronin says.

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BlueRock Diamonds PLC - diamond mining company - Discovers 14.3 carat stone, its third "high quality" find so far in August. The diamond producer, which operates the Kareevlei mine in South Africa, says the stone will be sold in its August tender. To compare, BlueRock sold a 14.8 carat stone in January for USD163,000. On Monday, the company reported the discovery of a 58.6 carat stone at the Kareevlei diamond mine, its largest recovery of 2021.

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Empire Metals Ltd - gold and copper miner with assets in Australia and Austria - Begins reverse circulation drilling at Central Menzies gold project in Australia. The 2,100 metres programme is expected to be completed in September, "keeping the fast-track development of the project on schedule and within budget".

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Bradda Head Holdings Ltd - lithium explorer with assets in Nevada and Arizona - Turns to contractor Terravision Exploration Ltd to conduct geophysical programmes at Burro Creek, Wikieup and San Domingo lithium projects in Arizona. Terravision's GPRplus technology can "provide accurate high-resolution imagery of the resource area", Bradda Head notes, adding: "As stated in the IPO budget, a geophysical programme was planned at our pegmatite district, San Domingo. This has now been extended to the larger Wikieup-Burro Creek land package." Bradda Head floated on AIM in July, raising GBP6.2 million at a price of 5.5 pence per share. The stock was trading at 9.64p on Thursday afternoon in London, up three-quarters from IPO price.

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Power Metal Resources PLC - metal exploration and development in Africa - Completes phase one of work programme at gold-nickel assets in Tati greenstone belt in Botswana. Says 1,107 soil samples at 49 rock samples collected under programme. CEO Paul Johnson says: "Results from the XRF analysis of the geochemical samples collected as part of the pPhase I work programme have delivered multiple large-scale anomalies with notably strong nickel and arsenic-in-soil anomalies. It is now confirmed that we have substantial nickel and gold exploration targets emerging and we are following the pathway needed to make major discoveries."

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Panthera Resources PLC - exploration and development company - Says associated firm Moydow Holdings Ltd completes expanded IP survey at Kalaka gold project in Mali. Panthera says survey spots "several additional targets".

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By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com

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