Hybridan Small Cap Feast

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Banquet Buffet

accesso Technology 570p  £235.6m (ACSO.L)

The premier technology solutions provider for attractions and venues worldwide, announces an extension to its agreement with Village Roadshow Theme Parks through 2027, with the option to extend further through 2029, for the use of accesso’s virtual queuing, ticketing, guest experience and distribution solutions at five of VRTP’s properties – Warner Bros. Movie World, Wet’n’Wild Gold Coast, Sea World (Australia), Australian Outback Spectacular and Paradise Country. 

Arrow Exploration 18.5p  £40.4m (AXL.L)

The oil and gas company announces its results of the East Pepper well testing on the Pepper Block in the Alberta, Canada. The 100% working interest East Pepper well (100/14-21-052-22W5/3) was tested before tie-in activities began on August 30, 2022. Natural Gas production was tested at a peak rate of 21,206 mcf/d (3,534 boe/d), a stabilised rate of 9,220 mcf/d (1,537 boe/d) and an average rate of 10,921 mcf/d (1,820 boe/d). Arrow expects that the well will be put on production by the end of October 2022, with typical production declining in the first few months and then accordingly sizing tie-in equipment for 7,000 mcf/d (1,167 boe/d).

Coral Products 14.9  £12.4m (CRU.L)

The specialist in the design, manufacture and supply of injection moulded plastic products based in Wythenshawe, Manchester, announces its audited final results for the year ended 30 April 2022 (FY22). Revenue increased 34% from FY21 and underlying operating profits up by 81% to £1.6m from FY21. Profit before tax was £1.3m (£0.3m in loss for FY21). The company has enjoyed a strong start in the current financial year and anticipates a satisfactory outturn for the year.

Destiny Pharma 38p  £27.9m (DEST.L)

The clinical stage biotech company focused on the development of novel products to prevent life-threatening infections, announces that it has received positive feedback from the European Medicine Agency (EMA) on the proposed NTCD-M3 Phase 3 development programme. NTCD-M3 is the lead clinical candidate for the prevention of the recurrence of infections caused by toxic strains of the gut bacteria Clostridioides difficile. Destiny Pharma is finalising the manufacturing and formulation of NTCD-M3 clinical trial material and the Phase 3 study with the aim of enrolling the first patient in the USA and potentially in Europe/rest of the world, towards the end of 2023. The company is currently seeking partners to co-fund the Phase 3 clinical programme and take responsibility for the approval and commercialisation of NTCD-M3.

Equals Group 93p  £168.1m (EQLS.L)

The fintech payments group focused on the SME marketplace, announces its results for the six months ended 30 June 2022 (1H22) and a trading update for 3Q22.  Revenue increased 86% year-on-year to £31.4m, a record high level.  Adjusted EBITDA went up by 203% from 1H21 to £4.9m. The positive distributable reserves allows the Board to consider a future dividend policy. The company indicates that trading in 3Q22 continued to be robust, with year-to-date revenue of £44.7m, and expects to remain in line with expectations for the full year.  

LoopUp Group 8.2p  £8.7m (LOOP.L)

The cloud platform for premium hybrid communications provides an update on its 3-year revenue sharing and customer transfer agreement with PGi Connect, which gives LoopUp the rights to transfer materially all of PGi Connect’s conferencing services customers (but not its webcasting customers) over to LoopUp. After the transfer of the first and the largest batch of contract assignment notices of c.8,100 of PGi Connect’s enterprise customers for services starting on 1 October 2022, LoopUp expects this agreement to generate approximately £10m in revenue and contribute net cash of £5m or so for the period from October 2022 to September 2023.

Solid State £11.5  £130.1m (SOLI.L)

The specialist value added component supplier and design-in manufacturer of computing, power, and communications products, announces an AGM statement ahead of the AGM today. With an open order book of £106.8m (including £16.8m from Customer Power acquired in August 2022), Solid State expects constant currency organic revenue growth for 1H of the financial year ending 31 March 2023 to be in excess of 25%. Management is optimistic for the outturn and expects it to be at least in-line with analyst expectations.

Thor Mining 0.55p  £11.1m (THR.L)

Thor Mining provides an exploration update on its 100% owned Wedding Bell and Radium Mountain uranium and vanadium projects in the Uravan Mineral Belt, USA, Ragged Range gold-nickel project in the Pilbara, WA and Molyhil tungsten-molybdenum project, NT. Maiden 2000m drilling program is scheduled to start in mid-September 2022 at Rim Rock and Groundhog Prospects, to test extensions to high-grade uranium and vanadium mineralisation sampled within and around historic workings of up to 1.25% uranium (U3O8) and 3.47% vanadium (V2O5). Discussions have commenced with potential joint venture partners for development of the Molyhil tungsten-molybdenum project, NT.

Tissue Regenix 0.56p  £39.4m (TRX.L)

The regenerative medical devices company announces its unaudited interim results for the six months to 30 June 2022. Revenue increased by 25% to $11.8m (H1 2021: $9.4m). Adjusted EBITDA loss was reduced 67% to $0.5m from $1.5m in H1 2021 due to sales growth and tight expense management. Increased efficiencies in donor processing provide for a c. $10m or c. 33% additional sales revenue potential from the existing footprint, allowing Phase 2 expansion and associated capital expenditure to be pushed further out. Management believes that the commercial growth seen in BioRinse ® division and especially the growth in the reorganised dCELL® business are fundamental in delivering the financial performance for 2022. 

Verici Dx plc 17.5p  £29.8m (VRCI.L)

The developer of advanced clinical diagnostics for organ transplant, announces its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2022. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $4.91m (2021: loss of $2.52m), excluding share-based payments and costs of new share issue. The cash balance was $15.7m as at 30 June 2022 (31 December 2021: $10.3m), augmented by the net proceeds of $12.5m from the issue of 28.6m new ordinary shares in March 2022. In September 2022, the company confirmed positive initial results for Clarava™ (a pre-transplant prognosis test for the risk of early acute rejection) from an international clinical validation study.

What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?

Critical Metals plc, a company established to acquire mining opportunities in the critical and strategic metals sector, is to be re-admitted onto the Main Market under the ticker “CRTM”, following the proposed acquisition of a 57% interest in Madini Occidental Limited, which holds an indirect 70% interest in the Molulu copper/cobalt project located in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Conditionally raised £1.8m. Expected 12th September.

Aurrigo Group plc, a international provider of transport technology solutions, intends to join AIM. The Group designs, engineers, manufactures and supplies OEM products and autonomous vehicles to the automotive, aviation and transport industries. Capital to be raised  and Mkt Cap TBC. Expected Mid-September.

Scythian Mining, a clean gold explorer and developer with operations in Kazakhstan, intends to IPO on the London Stock Exchange in mid-2023, due to successful drilling at Kokkus. Scythian is negotiating an additional funding agreement with a US investor for a further 15,000m of drilling to increase the Kokkus resource with a target of 2-3m oz Au plus a PFS before the IPO.

Welkin China Private Equity, newly established closed-ended investment company dedicated to investing in unquoted Chinese companies, intends to join the Premium Segment of the Main Market. The Company is targeting a raise of up to US$300m.

Georgina Energy, focusing on the exploration, development and monetisation of helium, hydrogen and hydrocarbon interests located in Australia intends to join AIM. Georgina Energy has two principal onshore interests: (1) Mount Winter Prospect in the Amadeus Basin in Northern Australia, which the Company has a right to earn an initial 75% interest; (2) Hussar Prospect, 100% owned by the Company, located in the Officer Basin in Western Australia. Expected late September.

Altona Rare Earths, the AQSE-listed mining exploration company focused on rare earth elements projects in Africa, intends to join the Main Market. The trading of its ordinary shares on the AQSE Growth Market will be cancelled simultaneously and its EPIC will be changed from AQSE:ANR to REE. Conditionally raised £1.1m. Expected late September.

Mise en Place**

Markets saw some movement today after Chinese trade data fell below expectations. With millions still in lockdowns in major cities across the country, experts believe that performance will remain muted for the rest of the year. Online trading UK broker CMC Market’s Chief Market Analyst Michael Hewson commented that::

“This morning’s latest trade numbers for August merely serve to underscore how weak domestic demand still is, and how far away that end of year GDP target of 5.5% is. The target may well have been downgraded to an aspiration only last month, but its further away than ever after today’s data and we could be lucky to see half that number at this rate. Imports data has been weak for several months already, rising 2.3% in July, up from 1% in June. Today’s August numbers suggest a continued lack of confidence in the part of the Chinese consumer as well as a lack of demand, slowing to a weaker 0.3%, well below expectations of 1.1%.“

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