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Aquis Exchange 717.5p £197.3m (AQX.L)
Aquis Exchange has re-appointed serial entrepreneur Glenn Collinson to its Board. Glenn re-joins as an independent non-executive director (INED) as part of the succession planning for the Board. Glenn first joined the Company’s Board in March 2019 before transferring to the Board of Aquis Stock Exchange Limited in March 2020. Glenn has now re-joined the board of Aquis Exchange PLC with immediate effect and has stepped down from AQSE to enable this move. Mr. Collinson started his career at Racal and worked for Motorola, Texas Instruments and Cambridge Consultants Ltd. before co-founding Cambridge Silicon Radio in 1998. There he served as an executive director and helped grow the company from a concept to a $3 bln market capitalisation entity in 2006 (as CSR Plc) and one of the biggest players in the Bluetooth market. Since leaving CSR he has held a number of executive and non-executive directorships in UK and French companies, both public and private, that specialise in technology. He is a member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology and holds an MSc in electronics as well as an MBA from Cranfield University.
CEPS 51p £8.7m (CEPS.L)
Pursuant to the announcement on 16 September 2021 made by the Company regarding a proposed placing, the Company has successfully placed 4,000,000 new ordinary shares at a price of 40 pence per share to raise gross proceeds of £1.6m with a number of investors. These include David Horner, Vivien Langford and David Johnson (Directors of CEPS) and Chelverton Growth Trust plc (a Substantial Shareholder, as defined in the AIM Rules for Companies) all of which are the Related Parties as identified in the Company’s announcement of 16 September 2021. PDMR notification forms for the CEPS directors who participated in the Placing have been included as an appendix to this announcement. The Placing is being conducted at a 16.7% discount to the closing middle market price per ordinary share on 16 September 2021, being 48 pence and which is at a discount of approximately 1.9% to the average mid- market price of a CEPS Ordinary Share for the 30 business days ended 16 September 2021. The net proceeds of the Placing, excluding expenses and the subscription by David Horner which is being used to convert part of the loan made by him to the Company into equity, will be used to: make a loan (which will carry a 5 % interest and will have no fixed repayment date) of £100k to Aford Awards Limited for working capital purposes; fund future acquisitions by Aford Awards Limited; and for general working capital purpose. CEPS is an industrial trading holding company that combines the benefits of the financial structuring of private equity funding with the entrepreneurial drive and flair of incentivised management teams.
Draper Esprit 1048p £1603m (GROW.L)
The venture capital firm investing in and developing high growth digital technology businesses, today provides an update on recent developments in its portfolio. Key highlights are as follows: Continued capital deployment in the increasing number of growth opportunities in the European venture capital market, investing a total of £130m during the year to date including 8 new, and 6 follow-on, investments. Additional investments of £25m and £15m in existing portfolio companies Form3 and CoachHub, respectively. Existing portfolio company Cazoo lists on the New York Stock Exchange, receiving proceeds of over $1bln before expenses.
Faron Pharma 440p £222m (FARN.L)
Faron Announces Presentation of Updated MATINS Data at ESMO Showing Bexmarilimab Delivers Compelling Antitumour Activity Across Five Different Advanced Solid Tumors. Strongest disease control rate (DCR) observed in five different tumor types; cutaneous melanoma (30%), gastric cancer (30%), cholangiocarcinoma (30%), hepatocellular carcinoma (40%) and breast cancer (40%) patients. Landmark analysis estimates overall survival at six months for DCR (partial response + stable disease rate) patients at 83% compared to 29% for non-DCR patients. Treatment with macrophage-targeting bexmarilimab was well tolerated with only 7% of treatment related adverse events reported as grade three or four and 0% reported as grade five. Company to host webinar to discuss updated MATINS data on September 21, 2021 at 13.30 pm BST .
Hawkwing SUSPENDED (HNG.L)
Further to the announcement of 16 September 2021, Hawkwing has provided Internet Fusion Group Limited with a secured loan of £13.7m to fund two acquisitions and the associated transaction costs of these acquisitions. Northcore is an outdoor surf accessories and lifestyle clothing brand which generated revenue of £2.2m (unaudited) and EBITDA of £0.4m (unaudited) for the year ended 30 April 2021. Northcore offers a comprehensive range of surfing, water sports, adventure and outdoor lifestyle products which aligns closely with IFG’s Surfdome brand. IFG has paid an initial consideration of £2.25m, on a debt and cash free basis. Shade Station is one of the UK’s largest independent online retailers of sunglasses (also selling prescription glasses and watches), and generated revenue of £14.5m (unaudited) and EBITDA of £2.3m (unaudited) for the year ended 30 April 2021. IFG has paid an initial consideration of £10m, on a debt and cash free basis.
Infrastrata 19.13p £23.27m (INFA.L)
Harland & Wolff Group News Update. A trio of firsts across Belfast and Appledore. The Belfast team has recently provided its first major in-service support to a Virgin cruise vessel. This is a significant step towards providing high value-add services to clients whilst vessels are in operation without the need to dry dock and incur additional costs by taking vessels out of service. The Dorset Spirit is currently sailing from Canada to the Building Dock in Belfast for repair works. This is the first time since the acquisition of the assets of Harland & Wolff (Belfast) that a vessel of this size will grace the Building Dock and remain there until the works have been completed. At the same time, the Company is currently hosting the P&O Azura at the quayside of the Repair Dock of the Belfast facility. The Azura is the largest cruise vessel to have entered and docked at Harland & Wolff (Belfast). At Appledore, the Company awaits the arrival of the MT Entsha towards the third week of October. Fabrication work has already commenced on a major crane upgrade that will be required on the vessel once she is in the dock. This project effectively reactivates the fabrication halls of Appledore and demonstrates its readiness to take on larger and more complex works programmes.
Love Hemp 2.95p £24.5m (AQSE:LIFE)
One of the UK’s leading CBD and hemp product suppliers received its initial order from Amazon. Love Hemp was invited by Amazon to join its limited range of CBD products listed on amazon.co.uk. Following a rigorous compliance process, a number of Love Hemp SKUs have been ordered by Amazon and will be available to purchase on amazon.co.uk shortly. The Company expects this available product range to increase as the authorisation process continues. As an Amazon Vendor, Love Hemp will also have its own dedicated virtual store through which Amazon and the Company will conduct marketing activities to drive awareness and visibility of Love Hemp products. Operating on the Amazon Vendor platform, Amazon will place orders with Love Hemp in order to fulfil consumer orders from Amazon’s central depot. These orders will be shipped across the UK and into Europe.
RUA Life Sciences 134.5p £6m (RUA.L)
The holding company of a group of medical device businesses focused on the exploitation of the world’s leading long-term implantable biostable polymer (Elast-EonTM) updated on testing of the Elast-EonTM sealed vascular graft range. As previously announced, the presence of cellulose, a non-toxic, natural plant-based material, had been identified during chemical characterisation testing on samples of large bore vascular grafts. After undertaking a full analysis of the possible source, a secondary study was commissioned to test grafts manufactured under revised cleanroom protocols, which has now confirmed that no cellulose was present in leachable extracts from the new graft samples tested. Once the full chemical characterisation report has been received from the third-party test house, the Group will proceed to submit the 510k notification. RUA can also confirm that a manuscript will be submitted to the European Association of Cardiothoracic Surgeons (EACTS) to support a presentation on the results of ‘in vivo’ testing of the RUA grafts at the EACTS’ annual meeting in October 2021, and will be submitted for publication in a respected Journal. RUA is very excited by the observations from the ‘in vivo’ testing and believes this could become a potentially seminal paper on the future direction of surgical graft implantation. RUA looks forward to attending the meeting to gauge both clinical and industry reaction.
Thor Mining 0.98p £17m (THR.L)
Drilling has commenced at the Kapunda Copper ISR Project in South Australia. EnviroCopper Ltd (in which Thor holds a 30% equity interest), in collaboration with MinEx CRC, is undertaking an innovative Coiled Tube (CT) drilling program at Kapunda. MinEx CRC is the world’s largest mineral exploration collaboration, bringing together mining industry (including drilling companies), government and research organisations. The drilling is designed to trial technological advancements using a safer, environmentally friendly mining technology with a low footprint. Drilling is targeting copper-gold mineralisation approximately 30m from the planned in-situ recovery (ISR) push/pull test site to the south of Kapunda township. A geophysics IP anomaly was also identified in this area by Copper Range Ltd in 2008. The drilling program is anticipated to take approximately 4 weeks.
TMT Investments* US$11.15p US$325.58 (TMT.L)
The venture capital company investing in high-growth technology companies, is pleased to announce the following developments in the Company’s portfolio since the publication of the Company’s 2021 interim results on 18 August 2021. Exits and Revaluations. TMT sold 11% of its interest in PandaDoc, a proposal automation and contract management software provider (www.pandadoc.com), to a large venture capital fund for a cash consideration of US$2m. The transaction represents a revaluation uplift of US$4.2m (or 30%) in the fair value of TMT’s investment in PandaDoc, compared to the previous announced amount as of 30 June 2021. TMT signed a definitive conditional agreement to dispose of its entire holding in Depositphotos, a leading stock photo and video marketplace (www.depositphotos.com), for a total cash consideration of approximately US$14.3m (including the hold-back amount of approximately US$1.4m payable within approximately 12 months of the completion of the transaction. Subject to final adjustments, and assuming TMT receives the entire hold-back amount in full, the Disposal represents a revaluation uplift of approximately US$3.5m (or 32.2%) in the fair value of TMT’s investment. The revaluations are expected to result in a combined increase in the Company’s NAV equivalent to approximately US$0.26 per share. New Investments: EUR1.5m in EstateGuru, a leading pan-European marketplace for short-term, property-backed loans (www.estateguru.co); Additional US$250k in Ad Intelligence Inc., trading as RetargetApp, an online solution aimed at monitoring ad campaigns and automatically managing daily budgets, audience and bids to improve the quality of retargeting (https://retargetapp.com); Additional US$200k in Agendapro, Inc., a SaaS-based scheduling, payment and marketing solution for the beauty and wellness industry in Latin America (www.agendapro.com); US$1.8m in Prodly, an Applications Operations (AppOps) software platform that simplifies change management for Salesforce and helps businesses to automate deployments, regression testing, governance, and version control for enterprise applications (https://prodly.co); and £500k in SonicJobs App Ltd., an award-winning mobile app helping blue collar workers find and apply for jobs ( www.sonicjobs.co.uk ).
What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?
Responsible Housing REIT to join the Main Market (Premium) raising up to £250m. The Company’s investment objective is to generate a consistent and sustainable income-based return from the provision of Supported Housing accommodation assets and aligned sectors. The Company is dedicated to the expansion of Supported Housing accommodation and aligned sectors in the UK and will acquire and create quality, fit-for-purpose accommodation assets to cater for supported residents across a number of care sectors including adults and young people with learning disabilities, mental health issues, physical disabilities, addiction, those with support needs, those in need of temporary accommodation, the elderly and otherwise vulnerable individuals.
Made Tech, a provider of digital, data and technology services to the UK public sector to join AIM. Founded in 2008 and now with a headcount of over 240 across four UK locations (London, Manchester, Bristol and Swansea), Made Tech provides services that enable central government, healthcare and local government organisations to digitally transform. Offer TBA. Due 30 Sep.
Arrow Exploration, currently on the TSX Venture exchange to dual list on AIM. Arrow has a portfolio of operated and non-operated interests in producing Colombian oil assets, together with a producing Western Canadian natural gas asset. The Company also has interests in development assets in Colombia. The Company has interests in six onshore blocks in Colombia, held through Arrow’s wholly-owned subsidiary in Colombia, Carrao Energy S.A., and in oil and gas leases in seven areas in Alberta, Canada, held through Arrow’s wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary Arrow Holdings Ltd. Offer TBA. Due end Sep.
Marley Group, a UK leader in the manufacture and supply of pitched roof systems to the construction market , today announces that it is considering an initial public offering the Main Market (Premium). In HY Jun 2021 revenues grew from £52.1m to £76m with underlying EBITDA more than doubling to £21.8m Timing and offer TBA.
Peel Hunt (to be renamed PH Capital), a UK mid and small-cap specialist investment bank, announces its intention to seek admission of its ordinary shares to trading on AIM. Admission is expected to take place on or around 29 September. In conjunction with a placing of Ordinary Shares the Company will be conducting an intermediaries offer.
Oxford Nanopore Tech—to float on the LSE (Standard). The company behind a new generation of nanopore-based sensing technology, whose first products enable the real-time, high-performance, scalable analysis of DNA and RNA. The Company has recently entered into a memorandum of understanding with Oracle Corporation (“Oracle”), whereby the two companies will explore collaboratively a number of potential new solutions to address opportunities in the applied and clinical markets, and related go-to-market strategies. Separately, the Company and a vehicle controlled by Oracle have entered into a cornerstone investment agreement, pursuant to which such entity has irrevocably agreed, subject to certain customary conditions, to subscribe for £150m of a total raise of circa £300m. Due early Oct.
Fruugo.com which owns and operates a high growth and profitable global cross-border marketplace employing its own proprietary technology and data science, announces its intention to seek admission of its shares to trading on AIM. Due early Oct. Timing and offer TBA.
Optima Health is the UK’s leading provider by size of technology enabled corporate health and wellbeing solutions. To join AIM late Sep. Offer TBA.
Petershill Partners, Expected Intention to Float on the London Stock Exchange. Petershill Partners, a leading investment group providing bespoke capital and strategic solutions to some of the world’s best performing alternative asset management firms. Petershill Partners today comprises minority investments in 19 high-quality Partner-firms, previously held in private funds managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM). The Partner-firms have US$187 bln of aggregated assets under management. The Ordinary Shares would be admitted to the Premium Segment of the Official List of the FCA and to trading on the Main Market of the LSE. The Offer would comprise (i) the issue of new Ordinary Shares, raising Gross Primary Offer Proceeds of approximately US$750m to fund ongoing expenses and acquire further Alternative Asset Manager Stakes and (ii) the sale of existing Ordinary Shares in order to achieve a free float of 25%.Timing TBA
GreenRoc Mining to join AIM. Established in March 2021 as a UK public limited company for the purpose of acquiring all of the Greenlandic mining assets of Alba Mineral Resources plc and progressing the exploration and development of those assets. The assets in question are the Thule Black Sands Ilmenite Project, the Amitsoq Graphite Project, the Melville Bay Iron Project and the Inglefield Multi-Element Project. Greenland will be the main country of operation. Gross funds raised on admission: £5.12m. Anticipated Mkt Cap on Admission: £11.120m. Due mid-September
Responsible Housing REIT to join the Main Market (Premium) in late September raising up to £250m. The Company’s investment objective is to generate a consistent and sustainable income-based return from the provision of Supported Housing accommodation assets and aligned sectors.
Blackfinch Renewable European Income Trust plc, a closed-end investment trust established to invest in a diversified portfolio of mixed renewable energy infrastructure assets, is considering proceeding with an initial public offering and has published a registration document. Raising up to £300m. Due on the Main Market (Premium) in October.
Central Copper Resources, a company focused on delivering a high grade copper project into production and exploration of assets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and in the Republic of Zambia to join AIM. By 2022, CCR intends to be ready to commence the project financing of its Mbamba Kilenda copper project. Offer TBA. Due Late September.
Euro Sun Mining Inc (TSX:ESM) seeking to join the Main Market in Q3 2021. The Company’s main asset, the Rovina Valley Project, which contains the Rovina, Colnic and Ciresata deposits, is one of the largest undeveloped copper-gold projects in Europe, holding approximately 400Mt of confirmed resources containing 7.0m ounces of gold and 1.4 bn lbs of copper.