The next focusIR Investor Webinar takes places on 14th May with guest speakers from Blue Whale Growth Fund, Taseko Mines, Kavango Resources and CQS Natural Resources fund. Please register here.
We are short Piedmont Lithium $PLL because we found evidence that mining licenses in Ghana were obtained through what appears to be textbook corruption. We think this kills the Ghana lithium project and $PLL’s fantasy of near-term production.
Report at: http://blueorcacapital.com
I'm a holder since 2017, I think an outright sale is likely this year mainly because
of GR's age , he must be 70+. A guy called Charles Archer , a writer for a share magazine,
on twitter also thinks a sale is likely this year at a price of 3p per share.
Or zero
A small Manchester-based technology company is in line for a nine-figure windfall after the South Korean electronics giant Samsung agreed to settle a long-running court case.
A trial between Samsung and Nanoco had been due to start in a Texas court this afternoon but confirmation came hours before that the pair had agreed a “no fault” settlement. Legal teams for Samsung and Nanoco will spend the next 30 days thrashing out the terms of a formal deal.
Had the trial gone ahead and Nanoco prevailed, some in the City speculated that it might have been awarded upwards of $500 million. With Samsung’s settlement having reduced the risk of an even more protracted legal battle, however, and the possibility that a jury might not have found in its favour, Nanoco’s eventual payout is expected to be much less than those earlier estimates.
Still, the settlement was seen as a victory for Nanoco in the eyes of the stock market and its stock rose by as much as 70 per cent in morning trading in London. At midday the shares were up 46 per cent at 62p, valuing the business at £200 million.
Nanoco sued Samsung on Valentine’s Day in 2020, having spent five years building its case, which alleged that Samsung’s QLED televisions used its technology without permission.
The technology in question comprises quantum dots, tiny particles, a fraction the width of a human hair, that if hit with energy emit light. Essentially, they make images appear crisper on screens.
Historically, the only way to make the dots on a large scale was by using cadmium, a toxic heavy metal. Nanoco’s founder, Nigel Pickett, had done some work into cadmium-free quantum dots and in 2007 the company partnered with Samsung, which was looking at ways to avoid using the metal in its products. The companies worked together for six years before Samsung broke off the partnership in 2013.
Nanoco has said that it was taken aback when Samsung brought out its range of SUHD, now called QLED, televisions 18 months or so later, since when it has sold millions of them. Nanoco convinced a litigation funder to back its claim and its lawyers at Mintz are, chief executive Brian Tenner has claimed, “working for a discounted fee”.
As well as the court case in Texas, Nanoco had filed lawsuits against Samsung in China and Germany. It is unclear what the status of these cases is now, although intellectual property settlements are typically global.
A stock market announcement from Nanoco said that further details of the settlement would be included in the “final binding agreement” expected within the next month.
Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The new markets business of Rolls-Royce, focusing on electrical power for small aircraft and taxpayer-backed small modular nuclear reactors, could be lossmaking into the 2030s, a broker has warned, pushing the engineering group’s share price lower.
Rolls-Royce announced changes to its reporting structure at its full-year results in February, including the creation of its new markets unit, which is pursuing opportunities from the transition to net zero.
In an equity research note to clients today, JP Morgan Cazenove said the venture “offers good long-term sales potential but there is no guarantee of good profits”.
The broker said Rolls-Royce’s diversification raised the risk for investors and to the company’s earnings potential, prompting it to downgrade the stock to “underweight” from “neutral” and to cut its price target to 75p from 140p.
Shares in Rolls-Royce dropped 5¼p, or 5.5 per cent, to 89¾p, making it the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 today. This extends declines this year to more than a quarter, valuing the company at £7.5 billion.
The shares had rallied last month on a speculative report on Betaville, a deals website, which suggested Rolls-Royce could be involved in a “significant corporate transaction”, perhaps a merger or a takeover.
Rolls-Royce did not comment at the time and JP Morgan, a long-term bear on the stock, said in its note today that “we struggle to think of any realistic buyer for Rolls-Royce in its current perimeter”, but added: “We cannot rule out the divestment of a division.”
Rolls-Royce’s new markets unit was outlined alongside the announcement of the planned departure of Warren East as chief executive after a seven-year tenure punctuated by several crises and profit warnings.
Rolls-Royce is one of Britain’s great industrial companies, with its engines powering Boeing and Airbus long-haul passenger aircraft, RAF Typhoon combat aircraft and the Royal Navy’s warships and submarines.
East, 60, said in February that when he left the company by the end of the year, Rolls would be “fit for the future, with a clear strategy and contemplating growth and significant commercial opportunities”.
Rolls-Royce also said then that its new markets were “more challenging to forecast due to the pace of customer demand growth and regulation”, but the potential was “significant” and said they could generate more than £5 billion in combined annual revenue by the early 2030s.
Rolls-Royce secured £490 million of funding last year, including about £50 million provided by the company and £210 million from the government, to help to support investment in the design of the small modular reactors (SMRs).
JP Morgan said demand could “grow strongly as countries seek to cut emissions and increase ‘energy security’. But SMRs need to compete with other energy sources and we see a high risk of the first SMRs being well over budget'
Due to new investments and lower expectations for its core civil aerospace division, JP Morgan cuts i
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/10/uk-covid-cases-rising-among-those-aged-55-and-over
British companies and the fund managers investing in them have been facing questions over links to the Kremlin and Russian oligarchs including Russia’s richest man, Alexey Mordashov.
European travel giant Tui, whose shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange, was this weekend under pressure because Mordashov and his family have a 34 per cent stake worth about £1.4 billion, according to Refinitiv data.
Mordashov, who sits on the tour operator’s supervisory board, is also the steel magnate behind London-listed Severstal, which until recently made military-grade steel used to make Russian light tanks.
He attended a conference with other oligarchs in the Kremlin held by Vladimir Putin on Thursday to discuss the economic impact of his action in Ukraine.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/more-coronavirus-variants-likely-for-several-years-sage-warns-kn6mn6bd7
The impact the coronavirus will have over the coming years is highly uncertain but further waves of infections “should be expected”, scientific advisers have told ministers.
The assessment came as the Office for National Statistics confirmed that its latest infection survey, seen as the best measure of the state of the epidemic, had found that cases remain high.
The ONS estimates that more than 2.6 million people in England — or about 1 in 20 — had Covid-19 in the week ending January 29. In Wales it was 139,000, also equivalent to 1 in 20.
In Northern Ireland it was 136,300 people, or 1 in 15 and in Scotland it was 185,100 people, or about 1 in 30.
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) gave a view on the impact Covid-19 will have over the coming years last Friday — at the 104th meeting it has held to discuss the pandemic.
“The long-term pattern of the epidemic in the UK is highly uncertain, but future waves of infection should be expected,” a memo of the session says.
The characteristics of future variants will be key, the documents add, with no guarantee that they will be as mild as Omicron, the strain now dominant.
The change in the number and age distribution of individuals who are susceptible — which will depend on vaccination policy, the waning of immunity, and births and deaths — will also play a part.
The Sage memo adds: “It is not clear how long it will take for a stable global pattern to emerge, but the situation is likely to fluctuate for several years (medium confidence). Sage has previously advised that increased international vaccination coverage is important for overall control of the pandemic and would also reduce the risk to the UK.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/oil-conference-pioneer-natural-resources-idUSKBN2IM1NP
The prevalence of Covid-19 infections in England was about 1 in 80 people in the week ending 14 August, the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said, slightly lower than the previous week’s estimate of 1 in 75. One in 80 is the equivalent of about 698,100 people.