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Access Intelligence  106.5p  £135.9m (ACC.L)

The technology innovator delivering Software-as-a-Service solutions for the global marketing and communications industries, announced an update on trading for the six months ended 31 May 2022. The Group has made good progress in the period with a robust performance in the core business and continued progress being made on the integration of Isentia. The Board anticipates total revenue for the period to be not less than £32.7m, a year-on-year increase of over 195%. Excluding the acquisition of Isentia, revenue grew by 16%; The Group’s Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) was £59.6m at the period end, delivering ARR growth of £0.7m in the six months; Adjusted EBITDA is anticipated to be not less than £0.2m for the period, in line with the Board’s expectations; and Cash at 31 May 2022 was at least £9.2m, ahead of Board expectations due to better than anticipated working capital management.

Bidstack 2.4p  £22.4m (BIDS.L)

The in-game brand activation platform announced the appointment of David Reeves to its Board as Chairman Designate. To ensure an orderly handover he will succeed Donald Stewart as Chairman on the 1st September 2022.  In the meantime David will sit on the board as a Non-Executive Director.  On David’s becoming Chairman Donald will move to a Non-Executive Director role and will serve on the Audit and Remuneration Committees. David has over 30 years’ global experience in senior management roles within multinational companies across the video games industry. He launched Sony PlayStation in Germany, Switzerland & Austria in 1995 and in 1999, he was appointed Executive Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment (Europe) and President and CEO EMEA in 2003. In 2010, David was appointed as COO of Capcom (Europe).  David has his own consulting Company DRC Consulting Ltd, is Co-Founder of E Fundamentals, a SaaS company providing e-commerce analytics services and is Chairman of Comcarde Ltd, an Edinburgh based fintech company. David served as Senior Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Remuneration Committee for AIM-listed Keywords Studios.

Christie Group 125p  £33.2m (CTG.L)

The provider of Professional & Financial Services and Stock & Inventory Systems & Services to the hospitality, leisure, healthcare, medical, childcare & education and retail sectors, announced that specialist leisure and retail property advisor, Christie & Co, has been instructed to sell The Trentham Estate, one of the UK’s most iconic visitor attractions and leisure-based outlet retail and garden centre property investments, on behalf of St. Modwen. The decision to bring the hybrid investment opportunity to the market after over 25 years of ownership and significant investment follows a strategic review of St. Modwen’s core business. Trentham attracts around 3.25m people – including over 760k paid for visitors – each year, placing the estate in the top 5 paid-for garden attractions in the UK. Trentham’s business is underpinned by the significant property investment business which incorporates 85 third-party leasehold occupiers predominantly located in the Outlook Shopping Village, as well as restaurants and a Blue Diamond Garden Centre. Trentham also features a Monkey Forest attraction, a Treetop Adventure high ropes course and water sports centre which itself is home to Trentham Canoe and Trentham Boat Clubs. 

Directa Plus 106p  £70.0m (DCTA.L)

The producer and supplier of graphene-based products for use in consumer and industrial markets, provides an update on the current financial year to 31 December 2022 ahead of its AGM to be held later today. As announced in the Final Results on 5 May 2022, Directa Plus was trading in line with FY2021 during the first quarter of the year. Pleasingly, the Company has seen an acceleration in trading in the last 2 months and revenue to the end of May 2022 was 4.60m, approximately 44% ahead of the same period last year, driven by growth across all of its commercial verticals, with the Company’s sales in line with expectations.  The Company continues to work to mitigate inflationary pressure on costs while maintaining increased investment in operations. Directa Plus remains optimistic on its ability to secure a very material contract for which it has tendered via the Company’s subsidiary, Setcar, for Environmental Remediation services. The Company now expects a decision on the tender in early H2 2022. The contract is significantly larger than anything secured to date and, if awarded, it is expected to commence by year end.

FireAngel  11.2p  £20.2m (FA..L)

The developer and supplier of home safety products, has successfully delivered the second development milestone of its agreement with Techem Energy Services GmbH in connection with the  new generation smoke alarm (NGSA) being developed primarily for the German market. The second contractual NGSA development milestone, which was delivered ahead of schedule and within budget, sees the delivery of a development board (known as an Analogue Front End Board) specifically related to the control of the analogue sensing circuits, such as smoke sensing. This forms a critical element of the design of the NGSA and allows for significant technical de-risking. As a result, development phase two (DP2) of the Company’s development agreement with Techem is already over 20% complete (up from 10% as at 28 March 2022) on a planned man-days basis.

Future  1,631.5p  £1,971.5m (FUTR.L)

The global platform for specialist media, confirmed that it has completed the acquisition of Who What Wear, a leading digital-only women’s lifestyle publisher based in the US. The acquisition further strengthens Future’s position in the Women’s Lifestyle vertical and gives the Group greater scale and reach in North America to further monetise its audience. Who What Wear will benefit from Future’s proprietary technology stack and operating model to drive the platform effect. In addition, Future is today providing an update on recent trading. The encouraging start to the second half has continued, supported by the anticipated return to audience growth as Covid comparators were fully lapped and the resilience in our diversified business model. In addition, the Group continues to benefit from the effect of its diversified audiences and revenue streams, its operating leverage, excellent cash conversion and strong balance sheet. As a result, Future reconfirms it is on track to achieve full-year 2022 guidance.

Greencoat Renewables 114.3 Euro cents  EUR 1,303.9m (GRP.L)

The Company has renewed the Investment Management Agreement (the IMA) with Greencoat Capital LLP. Greencoat Capital LLP has been the Investment Manager since the Company’s IPO in 2017. During this period, Greencoat Renewables has delivered a strong total return to shareholder of 46.23% (8.07% annualised) including 28.70 cent per share in dividends. The principal changes to the IMA are as follows: an additional tier added to the cash fee structure, which will see a reduction in the fee charged in respect of NAV over EUR1,750m to an amount equal to 0.75 per cent., paid in quarterly instalments; and a further five-year term, commencing on 25 July 2022. All other material terms remain in line with the previous IMA including the IMA being terminable by either party on the conclusion of the new five-year period, with not less than 12 months’ prior written notice of a party’s intention to terminate the agreement at the conclusion of that five-year period, and thereafter terminable on 12 months’ written notice.

S-Ventures 36.5p  £43.7m (AQSE:SVEN)

Further to the announcement of 26 July 2021 with respect to the acquisition of Pulsin Limited ), S-Ventures and the vendors of Pulsin have agreed certain adjustments to the purchase consideration to be delivered in respect of the acquisition.  The combined effect of these adjustments is to cap future potential cash consideration to £400k and to lower the effective acquisition cost from the original £6.7m to £5.5m, based on the closing mid-market share price at the time of the agreement. The original projected consideration of £6.7m was to be delivered via the combination of £1.95m in cash, £2.06m in loan notes,  the issue of 12,176,810 new ordinary shares in the Company and the issuance of 3m deferred shares based on Pulsin’s sales performance. S-Ventures seeks to identify investment opportunities in the health & wellness, organic food and wellbeing sectors within the UK and Europe, adding value by providing capital and expertise to the target companies.

Thor Mining 0.58p  £11.6m (THR.L)

The recently completed electromagnetic geophysics survey over the nickel gossan at the Krona Prospect identified a conductive anomaly at the Company’s 100% owned Ragged Range Project, located in the Eastern Pilbara, Western Australia. Project highlights: A high-powered Fixed Loop Electromagnetics ground geophysics survey has identified a shallow conductor beneath the nickel gossan at the Krona Prospect. The conductor is consistent with sulphides and warrants drill testing to validate. The nickel gossan is located at the basal contact of the Dalton Suite ultramafic unit (altered Archean Komatiite) in the classic location for nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation. The shallow conductor will be drill tested including downhole EM, as part of the upcoming reverse circulation drilling program scheduled to commence next week at the Sterling Gold Prospect.

Wishbone Gold 11.8p  £20.4m (WSBN.L)

Drilling is underway at the Company’s Red Setter Gold-Copper Project in the Patersons Range area in Western Australia. The Red Setter Project is situated on the 57.4km2 wholly owned Exploration Licence EL45/5297 and is located 13 km south-west of Newcrest Mining’s Telfer Gold-Copper Mine and 60km west of Newcrest and Greatland Gold’s Havieron gold-copper discovery. The first phase of the drilling contract is for 3,000m of drilling at Red Setter, with the second phase of the contract for a further 7,000m of drilling split between WSBN’s Red Setter Project and the Company’s Cottesloe Project to the south. The track mounted drilling rig is a multi-purpose rig, capable of 150m Reverse Circulation and diamond core to 1,200m.

What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?

Visum Technologies seeking admission to The AQSE Growth Market. The Company’s business is to own and operate an “on-ride” video and photographic camera system that it sells and/or licenses to customers (being theme parks, ride manufacturers, souvenir imaging providers, and other leisure operators).  Due 30 June.

LifeSafe Holdings, a fire safety technology business with innovative fire safety products, intends to join AIM. LifeSafe has developed what the Directors believe to be market disrupting, eco-friendly fire safety protection products to both protect (via fire extinguishers) and detect (via carbon monoxide, smoke and heat alarms) fires. At the centre of the Group’s product range is the FER1000 extinguishing fluid, which has been developed by LifeSafe to extinguish five different types of fire: electrical, paper, textiles, cooking oil, and petrol and diesel. The Group’s best-selling product using this patent pending extinguishing fluid is the StaySafe 5-in-1 fire extinguisher. It was launched on Amazon Prime in the UK in August 2021 and subsequently became Amazon Prime’s top selling fire extinguisher in the UK in the same month. In n the year ended 31 December 2021, the Group generated revenues of £670k and a loss post taxation of £1.5m. £3m to be raised. Due early July 2022.

Disko Exploration. Bluejay Mining (JAY.L) is undertaking a review into a demerger and potential separate stock market listing, on a London based stock exchange of its wholly owned subsidiary Disko Exploration Limited. Disko currently holds the following interests: 1. Disko-Nuussuaq nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE project in Greenland which entered into a definitive joint venture agreement with KoBold Metals Company to execute an extensive exploration program in 2022 for battery metals (49% owned by Disko).  2. Kangerluarsuk, a 100% owned lead-zinc-silver project in Greenland. 3. Thunderstone, a 100% owned gold-base metals & REE project in Greenland. Timing TBC.

Altona Rare Earths, the AQSE listed mining exploration Company focused on the evaluation, acquisition and development of Rare Earth Elements mining projects in Africa, intends to join the Main Market. Admission to trading of the Company’s Ordinary Shares on the AQSE Growth Market will be cancelled simultaneously with Admission. It is also proposed that on Admission, the Company will change its EPIC from AQSE:ANR to REE.  The Company also seeks to raise funds to finance its current and future rare earths mining projects in Southern and Eastern Africa. Due June 2022.

*A corporate client of Hybridan LLP

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