The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
From The Times this morning:
Record NHS waiting lists are driving patients towards private healthcare, creating “fundamental” changes in the healthcare system and delivering bumper profits for companies.
Spire Healthcare, one of Britain’s biggest private healthcare providers, today said revenue from private patients had risen by more than a fifth in the first half of this year, against the same period in 2021, and was up by almost a third compared to before the pandemic.
The results coincided with figures from NHS England showing the number of people waiting for care has reached another new high of 6.8 million.
There were 377,689 people who had been waiting for more than a year at the end of July, up by almost 22,000 on the month before.
Justin Ash, chief executive of Spire, said the NHS delays were “not good news for anybody” but it has contributed to a “fundamental shift in consumer thinking”.
Research from the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, which represents private healthcare companies, including Spire, has found that 50 per cent of respondents were thinking of going private.
Demand for private healthcare has been increasing since before the pandemic.
Ash, 57, said private patients were from a “much broader socio-economic group than it used to be”.
“The preponderance have family incomes over £50,000, but there’s been quite an increase in those with family incomes of £40,000 and younger people.”
The core market remains people aged over 55, as those needing care tend to be older, but there has been a strong increase in younger people, those under 35, accessing private care and those in lower socio-economic groups.
He said it showed there is a “real shift” and not just for hospital care, such as for hip replacements, but for outpatient care, such as diagnoses, blood tests and MRI scans, as well as for GP access.
The number of people accessing Spire’s private GP service grew by 69 per cent compared to the first half of last year and is up by 169 per cent compared to the same period in 2019.
Overall revenue at Spire, including those self-paying, private medical insurance customers and NHS referrals, rose by 7.1 per cent to £597.9 million and adjusted operating profits by 12.6 per cent to £54.6 million.
The company recently signed a new four-year agreement with Bupa to provide services to its UK health insurance customers for the next four years.
Spire, which has been advertising on television, said that although its customers were “not immune” to higher inflation, its research showed “the typical private patient is able to access the funds for private care and healthcare is a key spending priority”.
A majority of its private patients remain insured via company schemes, a sector which has also returned to growth.
Amid a crippling energy crisis which is sending bills soaring for millions of Britons, experts and ministers alike have stressed the importance of ramping up homegrown supplies. And Rolls-Royce's small nuclear reactors (SMRs) have been tipped to do just that by revolutionising nuclear power, the most effective form of clean energy.
SMRs are much smaller and easier to build than traditional nuclear stations. The size of just two football pitches, once built they are expected to power around 500,000 homes, or a city the size of Leeds with clean, homegrown energy. Backed by the Government with a £210million investment, they are still yet to be deployed and remain in the design stage.
But while soaring energy costs threaten to push millions of UK households into fuel poverty, Rolls-Royce has struck a deal with ULC-Energy to have SMR power stations built in the Netherlands.
This marks a huge boost for the firm, which has previously been tipped to become a “major energy exporter” thanks to these innovations.
Previously speaking to Express.co.uk, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: “Coupled with massive amounts of offshore wind and solar, we are absolutely ready to turn the UK into a major clean energy exporter in the coming decades, which would be a huge reversal of fortunes.
“By supporting the early development of the Rolls Royce SMR technology, not only could we maximise British-made materials, create new intellectual property and reinvigorate local supply chains, but also position our country as a major exporter of nuclear technology with a UK stamp.
“We are determined to harness British engineering know-how to deploy more home-grown, affordable clean energy in this country, and help our European friends end their dependency on Russian oil and gas – small modular reactors could do just that.”
While Rolls-Royce is not the only firm looking to develop SMR technology, ULC Energy has chosen the British firm to provide the reactors.
10:00 Sat 23 Jul 2022:
https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/988175/small-cap-movers-poolbeg-pharma-surges-as-flu-trial-begins-988175.html
London-listed mining firm, Vast Resources is holding on to its Marange diamond concession and optimistic that it will be re-admitted into the vast diamond fields through a long overdue partnership with the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC), investigations reveal.
The development follows an initial investigation supported by the Information for Development Trust (IDT) — a non-profit making organisation examining bad governance — where it emerged that government had shelved the deal.
The British investor partnered with Chiadzwa Community Company (CCC) formerly known as Chiadzwa Mineral Resources (CMR) to form Katanga Mining which was expected to have sealed the deal with ZCDC not later than October 18 2019, according to archived pronouncements by Mines Minister Winston Chitando.
However, government had been dragging its feet to put ink on paper as it emerged from CCC that the former had subsequently put the deal on hold.
Russia’s Alrosa and Chinese’s Anjin Investment — whose investments were announced more or less the same period as Vast —were long given the green light.
This has raised questions about the new dispensation’s sincerity in engaging British investors.
Vast Resources chief executive officer Andrew Prelea opened up that they are not backing down from the deal.
Though Prelea said he could not say much about the deal, he revealed that engagements with ZCDC and the Mines ministry were on-going.
“As we are a publicly listed company, I’m not at liberty to make comment that is not in the public domain.
“We can say that we have maintained dialogue with both the ZCDC and the ministry of Mines and still wish to work in Zimbabwe,” he said during an interview.
Prelea’s sentiments are backed by the company’s latest statement released on April 13.
“In Zimbabwe, the company (Vast Resources) is focused on the commencement of the joint venture mining agreement on the Community Diamond Concession, Chiadzwa, in the Marange diamond fields,” reads the statement in part.
Vast indicated that all its stakeholders continue to express their support and the company remained confident that an agreement will be finalised in due course.
Additional documents gathered, indicate that the Group is using its subsidiary — Botswana Diamonds to financially support and offset Katanga’s operational expenses.
Botswana Diamonds indicated that to date, the Group incurred expenditure of £58 815 (US$77 961) on exploring for new licenses in Zimbabwe (which is yet to be granted) and £11 203 miscellaneous costs.
https://thestandard.newsday.co.zw/2022/05/01/news-in-depth-british-investor-digs-in-over-marange-diamond-concession-saga/?fbclid=IwAR1B4ULwyWEqIYB_BrPMl9S5qZGFl6JiFgohEP0Lq0ax8gozXoQYECj5acQ
From Simon Thompson:
hariot (CHAR:17.6p), an African-focused energy group, has announced yet more positive drilling news for its low-cost flagship Anchois Gas development, offshore of Morocco.
Firstly, the gas samples taken from the Anchois-2 well contained gas with greater than 96 per cent methane in all seven discovered reservoirs. Importantly, the gas doesn’t contain any hydrogen sulfide or carbon dioxide (which in the presence of air and moisture can form acids that are capable of corroding equipment and pipelines). This means that the gas is 'pipeline spec', so should be able to be transported and processed through a single gas processing facility. The implication being that initial capital expenditure of $300mn (£228mn) and ongoing operating costs could be lower than originally planned.
Secondly, the Anchois-2 well encountered multiple high-quality gas reservoirs with a calculated net gas pay far higher than originally envisaged. Net gas pay is a key parameter in reservoir evaluation as it identifies penetrated geological sections that have sufficient reservoir quality and interstitial hydrocarbon volume to produce commercial quantities of hydrocarbon. The new net pay estimates for Anchois-2 well have been raised from 100m to 150m. It should have a positive impact on the size of the resource and the project economics.
Investors reacted positively, marking the share price up 25 per cent to 17.6p, well up on the 10.1p level when I last reiterated my buy call (‘Bargain Shares: Hitting pay dirt’, 10 January 2022). The price could go materially higher still given that analyst James McCormack at house broker Cenkos Securities has a conservative looking 51p a share target. This is based on first gas from Anchois coming onstream in 2024 and only takes account of the 40mn standard cubic feet (scf) per day 20-year off-take provisional agreement (under a Memorandum of Understanding) with a leading international energy group.
From the EGM yesterday:
Share Consolidation
Following the approval of Resolution 2, every 50 ordinary shares of 0.00025 pence each (the "Existing Shares") that are in issue as at 6.00 p.m. today will be consolidated into one new ordinary share of 0.0125 pence each (the "New Ordinary Shares"). Other than the change in nominal value, the New Ordinary Shares arising on implementation of the share consolidation will have the same rights as the Existing Ordinary Shares, including voting and other rights.
It is expected that the New Ordinary Shares arising from the share consolidation will be admitted to trading AIM from 8.00 a.m. on 1 March 2022 ("Admission") with ISIN number GB00BMC3RJ87.
Immediately following Admission, the Company will have 68,069,416 ordinary shares of 0.0125 pence each in issue; therefore the total voting rights in the Company will be 68,069,416. This figure may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they may determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.
...revealed record NHS waiting lists, high caseloads and severe staffing shortages. It warned that a major expansion of the labor force was needed in health care but that the government was not doing enough to recruit and train.
An enormous and growing backlog of patients in Britain’s free health service has led to delays or diversions in planned care, in part because of the pandemic — a largely unseen crisis within a crisis. The problems are likely to have profound consequences that will be felt for years.
In England, nearly six million procedures are currently delayed, up from 4.6 million before the pandemic, according to the N.H.S. — and most likely representing almost one-tenth of the population. Hundreds of thousands more people haven’t yet been referred for treatment, and many ailments have simply gone undiagnosed.
Experts say that severe staffing shortages this winter and the wildfire spread of the Omicron variant have almost certainly made the situation worse. Public health experts now worry that even if the pandemic eases and relieves some of the immediate burden, the pandemic and delayed care could do lasting harm to the health system, as well as to patients.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/26/world/europe/coronavirus-uk-nhs-backlog.html?campaign_id=51&emc=edit_mbe_20220127&instance_id=51419&nl=morning-briefing%3A-europe-edition®i_id=82323587&segment_id=80874&te=1&user_id=aa651dd6ef3f19859156d9557dc3264c
Rainbow Rare Earths CEO, George Bennett, commented:
"This amendment serves to underscore our belief in the significant potential of the Phalaborwa rare earths Project and removes any uncertainty surrounding the benefit derived by Rainbow by fixing our majority shareholding at 70%."
Analysts at UBS expect that the government will not want to penalise builders too harshly and hinder their ability to deliver new housing supply, which means that “a likely outcome is some sort of burden sharing”.
From The Telegraph today:
Sir John Bell, who is part of the Oxford University vaccine team, says UK manufacturers should try harder at making working lateral flow tests.