Member Info for LesBoy

Greatland Gold’s Australian listing has been priced at the top of its range, taking the initial public offering value to about $490m.

Prospective investors were told the IPO is oversubscribed at the top of its price range at $6.60 per share just ahead of the close for the book build on Monday.

The price range set for the IPO was between $6.40 per share and $6.60 per share, which is equal to between 15.3p and 15.78p or $477m and $490m.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/dataroom/greatland-gold-asx-ipo-priced-at-top-of-range-at-490m-as-investors-pile-in/news-story/03034b56cd02de698114a7082fce2b07

Looking better.

A new £25m howitzer factory in Sheffield will become the home of Britain’s defence manufacturing push as the country prepares for a weapons spending blitz.

On Thursday, the Government said the state-of-the-art site, run by BAE Systems, will become the hub of Britain’s defence manufacturing push after it opened this week to initially increase production of M777 towed howitzers.

BAE’s revamped facility, which has created 200 new jobs, has been hailed as a crucial part of UK efforts to support Ukrainian forces in their battle against Russia.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/06/12/sheffield-howitzer-factory-to-home-uk-artillery-production/?WT.mc_id=e_DM606702&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_Cit_New_v2&utmsource=email&utm_medium=Edi_Cit_New_v220250613&utm_campaign=DM606702

The companies will look to work together to combine BAE Systems’ ultra-wide band Radio Frequency (RF) sensors and Hanwha Systems’ space domain expertise in next generation Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to create an advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capability.

The ambition is to explore the creation of a system that will use a range of sensors to collect RF and SAR data, which will be analysed by machine learning using on-board edge processors to deliver derived insights and intelligence securely.

Rachael Hoyle, Space Director, BAE Systems Digital Intelligence, said: “Bringing together our pedigree in space with Hanwha Systems’ expertise in SAR satellites represents an exciting opportunity to progress ISR capabilities from space for international markets. We’re looking forwards to building this relationship and advancing space technologies together.”

Sung-Chan Song, Head of the Space Division, Hanwha Systems, said: "Small SAR satellites are becoming increasingly recognised as invaluable resources for surveillance and reconnaissance. Hanwha Systems is proud to collaborate with BAE Systems as we look to further expand our presence in the global satellite market."

Sarah Jones MP, Industry Minister, UK Government, added: “The UK and South Korea are already world leaders in the space industry, and this new partnership is exactly what we both need to create jobs, advance cutting-edge technologies and expand into new international markets.

“Our modern Industrial Strategy will set out how we’ll boost the space sector further to reach new heights and unlock more investment and jobs in the industries of tomorrow, as part of this government’s Plan for Change.”

BAE Systems expects to launch its first low Earth orbit cluster of satellites in 2025. Known as Azalea™ the mission will boost domestic and international markets’ ability to understand the threats and hazards in, from and through space. To deliver this, it works collaboratively with a range of partners around the globe.

https://www.baesystems.com/en/article/bae-systems-and-hanwha-systems-sign-mou-to-develop-advanced-multisensor-satellite-system

(Sharecast News) - Analysts at Canaccord Genuity slightly raised their target price on gold and copper producer Greatland Gold from 25.0p to 29.0p on Tuesday following its Telfer-Havieron site visit.

Canaccord Genuity said it had returned from Telfer-Havieron with "a more positive view" on the near and medium-term outlook for the company.

In the near term, Canaccord noted that Greatland was performing well in the current quarter, while it also said there were "a range of likely life extension options" for Telfer in the medium term via the Central and Southern extensions, the Main Dome Underground, and West Dome Deeps. Long-term, Canaccord said Havieron was likely to be "significantly bigger, at a modest additional cost".

In its time at the site, Canaccord also attempted to identify key risks to the development plan and the critical path focus. In its view, water management at Havieron will be the key focus, in addition to managing the tailings facilities.

"We have adjusted our numbers for the production assumptions detailed above. This has resulted in minimal changes over the near-term, but we see a 29p net asset value/shr as a result of the Telfer life extension and the Havieron expansion being brought into our base case," said the Canadian bank, which reiterated its 'buy' rating on the stock.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Foreign secretary David Lammy has invited staff from Shell and BAE Systems into Whitehall diplomatic roles to help “champion their interests overseas”.

It is understood that FTSE 100 defence company BAE has already signed up to the exchange programme, with the details yet to be worked out.

https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/companies/article/david-lammy-shell-bae-systems-exchange-programme-rsxxzk090

Shares in BAE Systems PLC (LSE:BA.) have already had a strong run, but Deutsche Bank believes there’s still fuel in the tank.

Its analysts, who rate the stock 'buy', lifted their target price from 1,900p to 2,170p, reflecting growing confidence in BAE’s long-term outlook following the UK’s latest Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR).

What’s changed? Quite a bit. The 2025 SDSR outlines a pivot in UK defence strategy, especially in land and naval forces.

The headline takeaway: Britain plans to expand its fleet of nuclear-powered submarines to 12, which is a big win for BAE, the lead contractor on submarine projects.

This brings welcome visibility to a revenue stream that stretches years into the future.

On land, the new doctrine, shaped by lessons from Ukraine, may lean on BAE’s existing technologies, including its growing interest in unmanned ground and aerial systems.

The company is also well-positioned to benefit from increased government focus on cyber defence and counterintelligence.

But not everything is plain sailing. In the air domain, the UK’s decision to buy more F-35 jets could divert resources away from the Eurofighter Typhoon and slow momentum behind the next-generation GCAP fighter programme, both of which involve BAE.

That said, Deutsche points to stronger sales forecasts between 2028 and 2030, alongside a general re-rating of European defence stocks, as justification for the higher valuation.

In short, BAE has built up a credible growth story, and even at current prices, analysts think the market hasn’t fully priced that in.

https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/1072567/light-science-technologies-signs-deal-for-lettuce-glasshouse-icymi-1072567.html

... which presents a fortuitous buying opportunity:

The UK electronics company Filtronic has been caught in the crossfire in the row between Elon Musk and President Trump.

Shares in the Aim-listed company, which has contracts with Musk’s space technology company SpaceX to supply modules for his Starlink satellites, fell as much as 15 per cent at one stage after Trump threatened to cut billions of dollars in federal contracts with Musk’s companies.

Filtronic’s share price recovered after its initial fall on Friday to close down 10½p, or 7.2 per cent, at 135½p, after Bloomberg reported that Musk had signalled a willingness to cool tensions.

The shares have risen more than 90 per cent over the past year.

The approval positions Starlink alongside OneWeb and Reliance Jio as India’s authorised satellite internet providers, with commercial rollout expected after spectrum allocation.

Elon Musk’s satellite internet venture, Starlink, has received a key regulatory clearance from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Government of India, bringing it closer to launching its services in the country. With the approval of the Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite (GMPCS) licence, Starlink becomes the third company authorised to offer satellite-based internet in India, following Bharti Airtel-Eutelsat’s OneWeb and Reliance Jio.

The development was confirmed by Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who said that the next step would be spectrum allocation, after which services could begin at scale. “Subsequently, satellite telecom services will be fully operational in the country at a rapid pace. I am sure the customer base in India will grow substantially,” Scindia said during a media interaction.

Starlink, operated by SpaceX, has been eyeing the Indian market since 2021 but had to halt its early efforts and refund pre-order payments due to regulatory hurdles. The latest clearance marks a renewed push into one of the world’s most promising satellite internet markets, where rival initiatives such as Amazon’s Project Kuiper are still awaiting approval.

The development was confirmed by Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who said that the next step would be spectrum allocation, after which services could begin at scale. “Subsequently, satellite telecom services will be fully operational in the country at a rapid pace. I am sure the customer base in India will grow substantially,” Scindia said during a media interaction.

Starlink, operated by SpaceX, has been eyeing the Indian market since 2021 but had to halt its early efforts and refund pre-order payments due to regulatory hurdles. The latest clearance marks a renewed push into one of the world’s most promising satellite internet markets, where rival initiatives such as Amazon’s Project Kuiper are still awaiting approval.

Shares in Helix Exploration PLC (AIM:HEX, OTCQB:HHEXF) rose 9% on Thursday after the company raised £4.5 million from institutional investors to speed up helium production at its Rudyard project in northern Montana.

The AIM-listed firm said the funding round was backed by a large private family office managing over $1 billion in assets, along with other institutions. Shares were placed at 16 pence, a small discount to the previous close.

Proceeds will fund the drilling of two additional wells and the construction of surface processing facilities, with first production targeted for later this summer.

Chief executive Bo Sears said the latest flow test at Weil #1 delivered “exceptional results” and “firmly establishes the Rudyard field as a robust, near-term helium-producing field”. The well flowed 2,300 thousand cubic feet per day of gas, including 1% helium.

With three wells now tested, Helix expects to generate around $12 million in annual pre-tax cash flow, potentially rising to $20 million as two more wells come online. Drilling at the next site, Inez #1, is set to begin next week.

The stock rose 2.04p to 20.79p and has jumped 43% in the last six months as the group has made progress towards production and cash generation.

https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/1072487/dr-martens-surges-23-as-investors-lace-up-for-recovery-story-1072487.html

British defence giant BAE Systems is to build satellites for a new American missile-tracking system that is poised to form part of Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome”.

On Thursday, the FTSE 100 company said it had secured a $1.2bn (£880m) contract from the US Space Force to provide 10 satellites for the Pentagon’s missile warning and missile tracking programme.

Lt Col Brandon Castillo, of the US Space Force, said the system being provided by BAE would “provide accurate real-time information to decision-makers”.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/06/05/british-defence-giant-to-make-satellites-for-trumps-missile/

Just received:

GREATLAND GOLD ORD GBP0.001

THIS DOCUMENT IS IMPORTANT AND REQUIRES YOUR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION

We are writing to advise that the Company GREATLAND GOLD ORD GBP0.001 has recently announced a Corporate Action.

The result will be that your existing holding will be removed and replaced by 1 share in GREATLAND RESOURCES LTD for every 20 shares of GREATLAND GOLD ORD GBP0.001, this is expected to happen on 23 Jun 2025.

Please note that the ISIN for GREATLAND RESOURCES LTD has not yet been announced.

Please note that this will be mandatory and does not require you to take any action.

Further information on this will be available on the Company website.

When a retailer’s entire digital storefront vanishes in the middle of a critical transformation, alarm bells usually follow. But Marks and Spencer Group PLC (LSE:MKS), which delivered full-year results on Wednesday, has shown that its revival is built on more than just a functioning website.

Shares held steady after the group reported pre-tax profit of £716 million for the year to 30 March, 5% ahead of Bloomberg consensus and supported by robust Kantar market data.

UK operating profit rose 16% year on year, with clothing and home and food both delivering solid performances. Divisional margins are now tracking ahead of medium-term targets.

JP Morgan retained its overweight rating, pointing to “impressive exit rates” in both divisions. Food delivered continued volume gains and benefited from a sharper value proposition.

Clothing and home, long seen as the weaker link, saw improved full-price sell-through and a tighter promotional stance.

UBS also maintained its buy rating and described the results as “strong across the board”, noting particularly high conviction in management’s ability to deliver further self-help gains.

The broker flagged M&S’s leading market share momentum in food and improving fashion relevance as key drivers of the rerating.

Deutsche Bank, meanwhile, described the update as “reassuring” in the context of recent operational disruption. While DB expects the cyber attack to weigh on near-term earnings, it argued that the long-term investment case remains compelling.

It sees continued scope for margin expansion through estate optimisation and supply chain efficiencies, and reiterated its buy rating.

The cyber attack, which began earlier this spring, is expected to result in a £300 million hit to full-year profit, though some of this will be offset by insurance. JP Morgan models a larger impact, lowering its FY26 pre-tax profit forecast by 26% to £681 million, factoring in ongoing disruptions and the cost of recovery.

Chief executive Stuart Machin acknowledged that operations are still “running on limited systems”, and while the website is back online, a full recovery is expected to take several months.

Despite this, the company remains operationally resilient, with physical stores still accounting for the majority of sales, continuing to perform strongly.

The store renewal programme, now several years in, is paying off. Larger, better-located stores are delivering higher productivity and margins, while closures of underperforming sites continue to reduce drag on group profitability.

Meanwhile, a leaner cost base and improvements in logistics and product sourcing are supporting margin growth.

JP Morgan has held its price target at 440p, based on earnings to March 2027. UBS also remains positive, highlighting the strength of the management team and consistent delivery on strategic goals.

https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/1071703/marks-spencer-resi

Simon Case, the former cabinet secretary says the UK has to protect itself against today’s ‘dictators and autocrats’.

The nation’s top civil servant until four months ago is urging the government to develop a second method of launching our deterrent — land-based or jet-fired missiles — and announce it in the long-awaited Strategic Defence Review.

“I think resilience matters,” said Sir Simon Case, who stepped down as cabinet secretary in December after five tumultuous years in the job. “Deterrence depends on your adversary being certain that you can do real harm to them in the ultimate case. In my view you wouldn’t rely on a single system for anything. That’s true in many walks of life, let alone nuclear deterrence.”

Case raised his head above the parapet to call for a major re-arming of all our defences this week, not just the nuclear element.

After “underinvestment for the last couple of decades” and “a dangerous sense of complacency”, the UK and every other Nato member must now urgently protect themselves against a new generation of “dictators and autocrats” who threaten to dominate our ever more order-less world, he argues.

The return of state-on-state war — threatened by China and Iran, and actually being practised by Russia — dominated much of Case’s time as cabinet secretary and has sharpened his views.

“I’m sorry to say I’m a something of a pessimist on these questions,” Case reveals. “As I look out on my children’s lives, the next ten and probably 20 years is going to be dominated by this inter-state conflict. It feels to me that we across the western alliance need to get our skates on and be ready.”

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/simon-case-the-next-20-years-will-be-dominated-by-major-conflict-mppbf0bf2

Retailer will create hundreds of jobs and offer a bakery service to rival Gail’s.

Marks & Spencer is fighting back from a crippling cyber hack with an expansion plan that will see it buy 12 former Homebase stores to create some of its biggest food shops yet.

The embattled retailer, chaired by Archie Norman and led by chief executive Stuart Machin, is recovering from a month-long cyberattack that has left customers facing empty shelves and a suspension of online orders. M&S will create more than 550 jobs in the former Homebase stores.

“Investing in new and renewed sThe 12 Homebase sites that M&S is buying will be converted into some of the company’s biggest standalone food stores. Eight are scheduled to be opened by July 2026, subject to planning permission.

The first of this new wave of store openings will be in Abingdon in Oxfordshire and Cannock, Staffordshire this year. Other new sites include Farnham and Godalming, in Surrey, and Northampton. M&S is planning bigger car parks for the sites, and, in a move to rival the likes of Gail’s, will introduce a coffee bakery concept where customers can collect items such as sourdough loaves.tores is one of our key transformation priorities. Securing these highly desirable sites in priority locations will accelerate this strategy, drive further growth in our M&S food business and, most importantly, give our customers the best possible M&S shopping experience,” Machin said.

The 12 Homebase sites that M&S is buying will be converted into some of the company’s biggest standalone food stores. Eight are scheduled to be opened by July 2026, subject to planning permission.

The first of this new wave of store openings will be in Abingdon in Oxfordshire and Cannock, Staffordshire this year. Other new sites include Farnham and Godalming, in Surrey, and Northampton. M&S is planning bigger car parks for the sites, and, in a move to rival the likes of Gail’s, will introduce a coffee bakery concept where customers can collect items such as sourdough loaves.

News of its expansion plan comes as one of M&S’s biggest shareholders threw down the gauntlet to any opportunistic investors that may launch a takeover bid for the retailer.

Redwheel, M&S’s fourth-biggest shareholder with a stake worth more than a £250 million, praised Norman and Machin’s handling of the crisis despite the company’s share price stalling.

Ian Lance, fund manager at Redwheel, said that the duo had been doing an “absolutely fantastic job”, even though the company said last week that disruption could last until July.

“They haven’t sought to panickily reopen. They basically said, ‘Right, we’re just going to take this thing down for as long as it takes’ and we will bring it back up when they are 100 per cent sure that the new system is safe. I respect that,” Lance said.

https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/companies/article/marks-and-spencer-cyberattack-homebase-blb2w7zxm

Trading at 74.1% below our estimate of its fair value

Earnings are forecast to grow 25.8% per year

Became profitable this year

Just came across this,,, just for interest:

The Pilbara region of Western Australia has rock formations that have been dated to 3.6 billion years.

"The days settled into a delicious rhythm of migrating from beach, to bar, to sea and back again" ... hang in there, Shaun!

https://www.cityam.com/why-going-all-inclusive-in-the-maldives-gets-the-best-of-paradise/?utm_source=CityAM&utm_campaign=ba499f11a2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_02_12_02_41_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-1947fa4961-602203843

MF abounds in clickbait, although it occasionally publishes a nugget of sense.

Gold prices could surge to $5,000 an ounce if tensions between the United States and China continue to escalate, according to some forecasts reaching The Armchair Trader this week. The precious metal continues to rally aggressively, breaching fresh all-time highs breaking $3,500 on Tuesday this week.

The momentum is intensifying as the global investment community braces for what could become a prolonged, entrenched economic war between the two largest economies in the world. This has led some of the world’s top wealth managers to forecast further significant gains in gold and to advise clients to diversify out of US assets.

Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group, who forecast gold to $5000, says:

“The world is watching a strategic decoupling of the world’s two largest economies in real time. What began as a tariff spat is evolving into a geopolitical and economic confrontation—with implications that stretch far beyond trade. In this environment, gold is becoming the ultimate financial insurance.”

Investors are rapidly repositioning as the US-China standoff deepens. Tariffs are rising. Technology restrictions are expanding. Capital markets are fragmenting. The notion that either side will back down is fading fast. And as the risks of a full decoupling grow, so does the demand for gold.

USD’s safe haven status under threat

The US dollar, traditionally seen as the global safe haven, is losing its footing as these tensions rise. Ironically, the more strained the relationship between Washington and Beijing becomes, the less confidence investors have in the dollar, and the more appealing dollar-denominated assets like gold become.

It’s not just about diversifying away from the greenback, it’s about preparing for the consequences of a world where global trade flows, supply chains, and financial systems are being pulled in opposing directions. Meanwhile, political uncertainty within the US is amplifying the gold rush.

“Gold tends to do well when other assets do badly, but it does best when people lose faith in central banks, and Trump is doing everything he can to destroy trust and confidence in the Federal Reserve,” said Adrian Ash, Director of Research at BullionVault.

This week’s jump to $3,500 followed gold’s third $100 gain in EIGHT sessions. Gold is also running to fresh record highs in all other currencies, breaking through £2,600 for the first time ever. That shows how the chaos of Trump’s second term is a genuinely global issue.

https://www.thearmchairtrader.com/commodities/gold-price-forecast-2025-wealth