Hybridan Small Cap Feast

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Ariana Resources 2.9p £33.2m (AAU.L)

The mineral exploration and development company with gold mining interests in Europe, announces that its Turkish operating subsidiary, Galata Mineral Madencilik San. ve Tic. A.S. has been granted the exclusive exploration rights for three new licenses in Eastern Turkey as part of Project Leopard. The three licenses are 100% owned by Arianna, valid for 7 years and cover 6,000 hectares. Over recent months, Ariana have identified multiple prospective locations across eastern Turkey using proprietary exploration datasets coupled with the use of the Newmont 2D Database under licence. The Company is now poised to make further applications for ground across the region in the future, with a view to initiating a major greenfields exploration effort targeting the discovery of significant new copper-gold deposits.

Eagle Eye Solutions Group 590p £172.3m (EYE.L)

The SaaS technology company that creates digital connections enabling personalised, real-time marketing announces its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2022. Revenue grew 32% to £20.0m (H1 FY22: £15.1m), and adjusted EBITDA increased 50% to £4.7m (H1 FY22: £3.1m). The Company reported low customer churn and high levels of annual recurring revenue. Profit before tax was £0.9m. Revenue and adjusted EBITDA for the year is now expected to be ahead of current market expectations; Revenue of £37.8m, and Adjusted EBITDA of £7.5m.

EQTEC 0.295p £27.8m (EQT.L)

The global technology innovator powering distributed, decarbonised, new energy infrastructure through its waste-to-value solutions for hydrogen, biofuels, and energy generation, confirms that its Italy Market Development Centre (MDC) is operational. EQTEC’s technical commissioning team has commenced handover protocols for transferring plant operations to EQTEC Italia MDC srl, the MDC’s operating company. The Plant is the first of EQTEC’s MDCs to become operational. The 1.1 MWe plant, located in Gallina, near Castiglione d’Orcia, Tuscany, Italy had already commissioned gasification and biochar production capabilities in January 2023. On 8 March 2023, following commissioning of the Jenbacher 612 engine, the Plant exported its first electricity to the national power grid. Additionally, Italia MDC is pursuing refinance of the plant asset by an Italian bank.

Focusrite 665p £393.8m (TUNE.L)

The global music and audio products group supplying hardware and software provides a trading for the six months ended 28 February 2023 (H1 2023). H1 2023 profits for the Group are in line with Board expectations. Revenues for the Group’s products across its Content Creation and Audio Reproduction businesses for H1 2023 are expected to be not less than £85m (H1 2022: £93m). The Board continues to anticipate a weighting towards the second half of the year. Net debt as at 28 February 2023 was £14m (31 August 2022: net debt £0.4m). This change reflects increased inventory to support the new product launches in the second half, the payment of the final earnout relating to the acquisition of Sequential (£1.2 m), and the £7m consideration paid for Sonnox in December 2022.

ITM Power 86.14p £530.8m (ITM.L)

ITM Power has signed an agreement with Power On Connections Ltd, a leading expert in utilities connections, to increase ITM’s power supply at Bessemer Park by 300% from 7.5 to 30 megavolt amperes by the end of 2024. This additional power supply will enable ITM Power to significantly increase product testing aligned with our growth ambitions. As a first step towards a larger testing capacity, ITM Power has increased the Company’s power supply by 50% from 5 to 7.5MVA. This power upgrade is available with immediate effect and allows testing of two 2 MW modules simultaneously.

Microlise Group 157.5p £182.6m (SAAS.L)

The provider of SaaS based transport technology solutions to fleet operators, announces the acquisition of Vita Software, a leading provider of transportation management system solutions, for a total consideration of £2.06m. The acquisition will expand Microlise’s suite of transport technology solutions and is expected to immediately enhance earnings. The Company will pay an initial consideration of £1.86m cash payment for Vita Software, on a cash free, debt free basis, funded from the Company’s existing cash reserves. The Company will also pay a deferred consideration of £0.2m after 12 months subject to any claims.

PCI-PAL 46p £30.1m (PCIP.L)

The global cloud provider of secure payment solutions for business communications, announces its unaudited interim results for the six months to 31 December 2022. Revenue increased 33% to £7.3m (2021: £5.5m). PCI Pal’s early adoption of true cloud solutions continues to benefit the financial health of the business, with gross margins growing further to 87% (2021: 81%). Adjusted EBITDA for the period was in line with the prior year loss of c.£0.6m. During the period 77 new logo customers signed, as well as 39 upsell contracts. Trading in the first two months of H2 is in line with management’s expectations.

Symphony Environmental Technologies* 9.5p £17.6m (SYM.L)

The global specialists in technologies that make plastic and rubber products “smarter, safer and sustainable”, yesterday provided a trading update. Symphony announces a £1m convertible loan from Sea Pearl Ventures Limited to strengthen the Group’s cash position for ongoing working capital purposes and to continue to support the Group to deliver on commercial opportunities during the year. Revenue for the financial year ended 31 December 2022 is now expected to be £6.2m (£6.5m previously indicated). Revenues are expected to be lower as a result of timing differences, primarily of deliveries from the new plant in the Middle East, falling into January 2023. The Group also advised that a hearing date at the General Court of the EU in Luxembourg has been set for 20 March 2023.

Virgin Wines UK 44.7p £25m (VINO.L)

The UK direct to consumer online wine retailers, announces its interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2022 (H1 23). Revenue decreased to £33.6m (H1 22: £40.6m). The Company delivered an underlying EBITDA of £1.4m (H1 22: £3.9m) and profit before tax of £0.1m (H1 22: £0.5m). The Company continue to see adverse trading conditions and challenges impacting the sector, with inflationary pressures and cost of living issues affecting consumer spend and frequency of order. Despite this, the business acquired over 60k new customers over H1 23. Cost per recruit was controlled, and ahead of expectations, at £11.82 (H1 22: £13.62). Current trading is broadly in line with expectations. The Board expects revenue for FY23 to be around £63m, full year EBITDA margin to be between 4% and 5%, and EBITDA margin excluding exceptional factors to be 2% higher, in the range of 6-7% .

Yü Group 580p £96.6m (YU..L)

The independent supplier of gas, electricity and water to the UK corporate sector, announces its final audited results for the year to 31 December 2022. Revenue grew 79%, to £278.6m (FY21: £155.4m). Adjusted EBITDA increased 359% to £7.9m (2021: £1.7m) with adjusted operating margin improved to 2.8% (FY21: 1.1%). Profit before tax up 72% to £5.8m (FY21: £3.4m), after non-cash charge of £0.9m relating to derivative accounting (2021: £3.3m gain) reflected. During the period Yü Smart launched, benefiting customers and improving debtor control and profitability. Yü Smart is expected to generate a positive EBITDA contribution in FY23. The Company has had a strong start to 2023 with average monthly bookings ahead of the record £24.5m in FY22 and contracted revenue of £247m as at 31 December 2022 for FY23.

What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?

M7 Box+ REIT plc, a newly established, externally managed closed-ended investment company announces that it intends to join the Wholesale segment of IPSX. Upon Admission, the Company proposes to acquire a portfolio of seven let and operational e-warehouses from M7 Box+ II LP. As at 31 December 2022, the Property Portfolio was valued at £228.9m. Expected Admission April 2023.

Altona Rare Earths, a mining company focused on the development of a significant Rare Earth Elements (REE) mining project in Africa, announced its intention of withdrawing from the AQSE Growth Market to the Standard Segment of the Main Market. The Company has just raised £2m and plans to use the proceeds to complete its maiden JORC compliant Mineral Resource Estimate and a Scoping Study for its Monte Muambe Rare Earths mining project in northwest Mozambique. Expected Admission 20th March 2023.

Fadel Partners, a developer of cloud based brand compliance and rights and royalty management software, working with some of the world’s leading licensors and licensees across media, entertainment, publishing, consumer brands and hi-tech/ gaming companies intends to join the AIM market. FADEL has two solutions, being IPM Suite and Brand Vision. Expected Admission late March 2023.

Onward Opportunities Limited intends to join the AIM market. The Company’s investment objective is to generate returns for Shareholders through investments in equity and equity-related instruments of UK smaller companies that are predominantly listed or admitted to trading on markets operated by the London Stock Exchange. Expected Admission mid-March 2023.

Essentially Group plc, its strategy is the acquisition, holding and development of companies active in the health food and beverages market, intends to join the AQSE Growth Market. On 1 September 2022, Essentially Group UK acquired Essentially Holdings Ltd (and its wholly owned subsidiary, Essentially Juices Manufacturing LLC (EJM)), EJM is active in the UAE and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia fruit and vegetable juice market. Expected Admission 17th March 2023.

*A corporate client of Hybridan LLP

** Content not provided by Hybridan LLP

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