Hybridan Small Cap Feast

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Banquet Buffet

Avation 78.5p  £54.5m (AVAP.L)

The commercial passenger aircraft leasing company announced the completion of the sale of the third and final of a series of three ex-Virgin Australia Airlines ATR 72-600s to Aegean Airlines. The deal with Aegean Airlines was announced in November 2021. According to Avation’s trading update in January 2022, the sale of three ATR aircraft to Aegean Airlines and the sale of an Airbus A321 and an Airbus A220 announced earlier in 2021 will increase liquidity and release approximately $42m.

Empire Metals 1.3p  £5.3m  (EEE.L)

The AIM-quoted exploration and resource development company announces its final results for the year ended 31 December 2021. The company was still in the development stage without revenue in FY21. Its net loss was £0.59m (FY20: -0.57m) and diluted loss per share from continuing operations £0.706 (FY20: -0.456). The cash position was £2.2m (FY20: 2.3m). The company conducted drilling and technical review on its discovery the Eclipse Gold Project in Western Australia in 2021 and acquired the Gindalbie Gold Project adjacent to Eclipse post period.

Essentra 273p  £825m (ESNT.L)

Dirven by its intention to become a pure play in the components business, the company announced that it will sell its packaging businesses ESNT Packaging & Securing Solutions Limited and Essentra Packaging US Inc and their respective subsidiary companies to Austria-based Mayr-Melnhof Group for £312m in cash and debt free consideration. Essentra currently has three segments: Components, Packaging and Filters. The Components business manufactures a wide range of plastic injection moulded, vinyl dip moulded and metal items.

Greencoat Renewables Euro 115Cent  Euro1,312.4m (GRP.L)

The renewable infrastructure company invested in euro-denominated assets announces an agreement to acquire the 134.4MW Ersträsk North wind farm in Norrbotten County, Sweden from Enercon on a forward sale basis. The wind farm is currently under construction and is expected to be fully commissioned in Q4 2023. Once Ersträsk North will initially operate as a merchant asset but has the flexibility in the future to contract the electricity produced via a corporate PPA. This is the Company’s second acquisition in this location, having acquired Ersträsk South wind farm in October 2021, and will bring Greencoat Renewable’s overall capacity on this site to 235MW.

Lamprell  4.6p £18.8m (LAM.L)

The construction service provider based in the United Arab Emirates and servicing both renewables and oil & gas industries provided a statement regarding a potential offer from Blofeld Investment Management, a 25.06% shareholder in Lamprell, to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Lamprell. This potential offer is under consideration in light of Lamprell’s liquidity position and funding requirements of $75m over the next two months. Blofeld’s proposal is at a very significant discount to the prevailing share price and any acceptable offer would need to include an interim funding solution or bridge financing. The parties have been in discussions for more than two months but have not reached agreement on the price or conditions.

Oracle Power 0.25p  £7.2m  (ORCP.L)

The international natural resources project developer announced its results for FY21 ended 31 December 2021. The company was still in the pre-revenue stage in FY21. Its operating loss was £0.88m (FY20: -1.0m) and diluted loss per share was £0.04 (FY20: -0.05). Its net cash was £0.87m (FY20: 0.75m), excluding financial assets The company received £632,500 from the exercise of warrants during the period and raised an additional £800k before expenses through an equity placing in April 2022 to finance the development of the green hydrogen project. Currently, the company is continuing with the wo gold prospects in Western Australia (Jundee East and the Northern Zone projects) it invested in 2019 and Thar Block VI green hydrogen project in Pakistan (co-developed with Power China).

Premier African Minerals 0.35p  £78.5m (PREM.L)

The multi-commodity mining and natural resource development company announced its prepayment agreement  with Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean Technology for a large-scale pilot plant at the company’s Zulu Lithium and Tantalum Project to produce SC6 (6% lithium oxide content) from Q1 2023. Suzhou TA&A agreed to provide US$34,644,385 to enable the construction and commissioning of the pilot plant. Suzhou TA&A is the company’s largest shareholder, with 13.38% stakes.

Prospex Energy 4.5p  £11.3m (PXEN.L) 

The AIM-quoted investment company focused on European gas and power projects, announced the commencement of the installation of its first rooftop solar projects at the El Romeral power plant in southern Spain. These are rooftop projects are intended to diversify the company’s generation profile and the electricity generated will be sold to the spot market in Spain. The Company holds a 49.9% working interest in El Romeral through its interest in Tarba Energía S.L.  The remaining 50.1% working interest is owned by Warrego Energy Limited (ASX: WGO). 

RiverFort Global Opportunities 1p  £7.6m (RGO.L)

The AIM-listed investment company announced its audited final results for the year ended 31 December 2021. The company reported an operating income of £2.5m (FY20: 2.4m) and a net profit of £1m (FY20: 1.5m). As at the end of the year, the company held around £5.8m in over 20 different listed junior companies through debt and equity linked products. Meanwhile, the company is planning to investment in pre-IPO opportunities in technology, including the cyber security sector.

Trackwise Designs 49.5p  £18.6m (TWD.L)

The AIM-listed provider of specialist products using flexible printed circuit technology provides an update on current trading for the year ended 31 December 2022. Due to reduced near term demand from UK electric vehicle OEM customers, the company’s FY22 sales are now expected to be below previous market expectations. For the five months to 31 May 2022, the company has achieved total revenue of £3.3m (1H21: 4.1m). The company’s order book for delivery in FY22 is currently £4.6m, of which the IHT order book is £2.5m, and the APCB order book is £2.1m. IHT stands for Improved Harness Technology™, the company’s  proprietary roll-to-roll manufacturing process enabling the production of unlimited length, multilayer flexible printed circuits (FPCs).

What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?

Immediate acquisitions (IME.L) is to re-join AIM via a Reverse Takeover of Fiinu Holdings Limited. Once complete the Company is proposing to change its name to Fiinu Group plc. Fiinu intends to be a provider of a consumer banking product, the Plugin Overdraft ®, which is designed to provide customers with an overdraft facility without having to change their current account or request an overdraft from their existing bank. Fiinu’s technology arm manages and develops the platform, using open banking, and once the platform is fully operational will also look to develop secondary revenue streams by licensing Fiinu’s intellectual property rights. Capital to be raised £8.01m. Target Mkt Cap c.£53m. Due 8 July

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.

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.

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