Hybridan Small Cap Feast

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Banquet Buffet

Destiny Pharma 36.5p  £26.8m (DEST.L)

The clinical stage biotech company focused on the development of novel products to prevent life threatening infections, announces its unaudited interim results for the half-year ended 30 June 2022. Operating loss was £3.81m (June 2021: £2.99m). Cash and short term deposits was £8.4m (30 June 2021: £7.1m). The company is finalising preparations for Phase 3 clinical trial of NTCD-M3 after positive feedback from the European Medicines Agency (EMA). XF-73 Nasal is also progressing towards Phase 3 following positive advice from the EMA and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). New XF research projects initiated in cystic fibrosis and oral mucositis provides a strong pre-clinical pipeline.

Getech Group 19.5p  £13.1m (GTC.L)

The geoenergy and green hydrogen company announces the appointment of Kathrin Schulz as the Group’s European Hydrogen Business Development Director. Ms Schulz will be supporting Getech’s ambition to establish over 500MW of new geoenergy and green hydrogen assets by 2030 and progress the growth in new areas across Europe.

Mpac Group 232.5p  £47.4m (MPAC.L)

The packaging and automation solutions company announces its unaudited results for the six months to 30 June 2022. Group revenue was £50.6m, up 14% (2021: £44.2m). Order intake decreased to £32.8m, down 36% (2021: £51.7m), due to customers placing orders earlier than anticipated. The order book sits at £62.6m going into H2 2022. Mpac made a loss after tax for the period of £0.7m (2021: £2.1m profit). The macro-economic uncertainty and volatility in the global supply chain has impacted both the timing of customers’ order placement and the company’s operations. Mpac expects the supply chain and operational challenges to continue for the remainder of 2022 before easing in 2023.

Open Orphan 10.8p  £72.1m (ORPH.L)

The contract research organisation (CRO) specialized in testing infectious and respiratory disease products with human challenge clinical trials, announces its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2022. Revenue decreased to £18.9m (H1 2021: £23.2m). As of the 1st September the signed contracts has increased further to c. £80m, which is expected to be recognised across 2022, 2023 and 2024. EBITDA grew to £2.3m (H1 2021: £2.1m). The company also announces its intention to change its name to hVIVO plc on 26 October 2022, and the new ticker will be HVO. The board remains confident of achieving its target of c. £50m revenue for FY 2022.

Phoenix Copper 23p  £28.1m (PXC.L)

The USA-focused base and precious metals producer and exploration company, provides an update on operations at its Idaho, USA projects and on the corporate copper bond issue. Drilling at the Empire open pit copper mine commenced in June 2022. Trade-off, optimisation, and engineering studies are progressing. A second drill rig in the North Pit/Red Star area is to commence on 15 September 2022. Navarre Creek drilling plan has been approved by US Forest Service. The initial tranche of the corporate copper bond issue is expected to complete in the next few weeks.

Robinson 80p  £13.4m (RBN.L)

The custom manufacturer of plastic and paperboard packaging based in Chesterfield, announces its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2022. Revenue was up 19.8% to £25.4m (2021: £21.2m) and profit before tax increased to £2.8m (2021: loss of £0.6m). An interim dividend of 2.5p per share has been announced. Sales volumes will be under pressure in H2 due to inflation, de-listing of some products by customers and certain customers prioritising existing business over innovation projects during the pandemic. However, management expect profits in FY22 to be in line with market expectations and ahead of 2021.

Strip Tinning 75p  £11.4m (STG.L)

The supplier of specialist connectors to the automotive sector, announces that it has secured a share of government funding through the Advanced Propulsion Centre Scale-up Readiness Validation competition. The grant is up to £1.4m, received via six quarterly drawdowns covering the period to end of January 2024. It must be drawn down by 31 January 2024 and in turn scale up the company’s production capabilities. The grant will be used for the development and validation of a pilot production system for the manufacturing of the Cell Contacting and Management System (CCMS) product.

Totally 38.3p  £71.7m (TLY.L)

The provider of frontline healthcare services, corporate fitness and wellbeing services across the UK and Ireland, announces several contract extensions for the continued provision of urgent care services across England. This includes: five contract extensions across the North East of England and Yorkshire for the continued delivery of GP out of hours and clinical assessment services, until 31 March 2023 with a total value of c.£7.3m; and a contract extension for the continued delivery of an urgent treatment centre in South East London until 31 March 2023, valued at c.£6.4m.

Warpaint 130p  £99.8m (W7L.L)

The supplier of colour cosmetics and owner of the W7 and Technic brands, provides a trading update. Results for the year ending 31 December 2022 are now expected to be ahead of market expectations. Sales for the year are expected to be at least £61m and adjusted profit before tax to be in excess of £9m, with pre-Christmas sales period still to come.

Zegona Communications 82p  £4.4m (ZEG.L)

The investment businesses into European Telecommunications, Media and Technology sector announces its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2022. The company made a loss for the period of EUR1.9m, compared to a loss of EUR23.8m in the same period of 2021. The reduction in loss was largely due to the disposal of the investment in Euskaltel. Zegona is seeking a business within the European TMT industry where it can apply it’s Buy-Fix-Sell strategy and it currently in discussions with a number of opportunities.

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**

With European markets continuing to struggle, the European Central Bank elected to raise interest rates by a record 75bps. The committee cut growth forecasts and said that they expect inflation to remain above target for an extended period. Online forex platform CMC Markets‘ Chief Market Analyst Michael Hewson said that:

“It had been widely expected that the ECB would raise rates today, with the only uncertainty being around whether they would go by 75bps or 50bps. The decision to raise rates by 75bps appears to have been dictated by the upgrading of the banks inflation forecasts, which were adjusted higher to 8.1% in 2022 and 5.5% in 2023.
This wasn’t a surprise however the GDP forecasts were, even as the ECB cut its 2023 and 2024 forecasts, to 0.9% and 1.9% respectively, it raised its forecast for 2022 to 3.1%. These GDP forecasts seem extraordinarily optimistic given the energy backdrop, and perhaps speaks to a certain amount of cognitive dissonance on the part of ECB officials.”​

*A corporate client of Hybridan LLP

** Content not provided by Hybridan LLP

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