Hybridan Small Cap Feast

A round up of the day’s news brought to you by the team at small-cap broker and advisor Hybridan.

Joiners: Sivota (SIV.L), an investment vehicle focused on later-stage, reputable Israeli technology-related sectors has joined the Main Market (Standard). Raising £1m at £1. Mkt Cap £1.1m.

GENinCode (GENI.L) has joined AIM a UK-incorporated company engaged in the risk assessment, prediction and prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading cause of death worldwide accounting for approximately 18m deaths annually. Raised £17m. Mkt Cap £42m. 

Zenova (ZED.L) has joined AIM. The Company, is the holder of intellectual property to underpin a suite of fire safety and temperature management products and technology applicable to industrial, commercial and residential markets. Capital to be raised on Admission £4.5m. Anticipated Mkt Cap £17.74m.

Microlise  (SAAS.L) has joined AIM. Microlise is a leading provider of transport management technology solutions, delivering a globally enabled SaaS platform that digitises the business processes of enterprise organisations running highly complex logistics operations. As at 31 December 2020, the Group had over 400 enterprise customers and over 500,000 vehicle subscriptions. Total capital to be raised on Admission: £61.2m. Primary funds raised for the Company: £18.6m. Secondary funds raised for existing shareholders: £42.6m. Anticipated Mkt Cap on Admission: £156.5m.

Leavers: No Leavers Today.

Banquet Buffet

Actual Experience 104p  £59.5m (ACT.L)

The analytics-as-a-service company, has received a new Business Impact Assessment (BIA) order from a global FMCG organisation. This success has been achieved by Actual Experience’s new direct sales function. This new BIA order has been placed by a global FMCG organisation. The value of this initial order is £30k for a one month period. This is the first large, global enterprise win achieved by the new direct sales function. The contract seeks to establish the business and economic rationale to convert the BIA into an ongoing Continuous Improvement (CI) contract, a key component of our ‘land and expand’ strategy.

Alba  Minerals 0.27p  £16.9m (ALBA.L)

Alba reported that it has identified a new high-grade regional gold target within its exploration licence area. Stream sediment sampling and studies are also ongoing. A new regional gold target has been identified within the Company’s exploration licence area, close to Gwynfynydd, with grab samples grading up to 24 g/ t. Stream sediment samples taken as part of an ongoing study in collaboration with Camborne School of Mines.

AssetCo 1650p  £108m (ASTO.L)

The company primarily involved in acquiring, managing and operating asset and wealth management activities and interests, together with other related services, announces today its intention to conduct a non-premptive placing at a price of 1,450 pence per share. Raising £25m. The net proceeds of the Placing will be used to fund the acquisition of a majority equity interest in Rize ETF Limited and capitalise on further acquisition opportunities as part of the Company’s defined strategy. The Company separately announced earlier today that it has reached agreement to acquire an effective 63% equity interest in Rize ETF Limited. The consideration for the Acquisition is £16.5m, which will be paid in cash.  AssetCo is also committing a further investment to Rize ETF of £5.25m to help fund the growth of the business. The equity interest will be acquired from J&E Davy Holdings.  Rize ETF is believed to be Europe’s first specialist thematic ETF issuer and one of the fastest growing providers of ETFs in the rapidly growing thematic ETF segment of the asset management industry. Rize ETF currently has over $450m of assets under management having launched its first ETF in February 2020.

dotDigital Group 248p  £739m (DOTD.L)

The ‘SaaS’ provider of an omnichannel marketing automation and customer engagement platform, provided a trading update for the year ended 30 June 2021 (FY21). Revenue from operations grew by c.23% to £58.1m (2020: £47.4m).  Recurring revenue as a percentage of total revenue remained consistent YoY at 93%; Average Revenue Per Customer continued its upward trend, growing by 16% from approximately 1,083 per month to 1,251 per month;  Functionality recurring revenue (from license fees and enhanced bolt-on functionality) grew 31% to £18.9m (2020: £14.4m); Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted operating profit from operations are both expected to be comfortably ahead of market expectations; Strong cash balance of £32.0m at 30 June 2021, ahead of market expectations;· Intention to pay a final dividend in line with policy, with the expected pay-out linked to EBITDA growth;· dotdigital has become the first customer engagement platform to be awarded ISO27701 on privacy information management, ISO27001 information security management and ISO14001 environment management certifications; Year-end revenue run rate is above expectations, due to the strong financial performance highlighted above, meaning the Group has strong momentum as it starts the new financial year.

Greatland Gold 18.65p  £736m (GGP.L)

Havieron Development and Exploration Update from the gold-copper project in the Paterson region of Western Australia. Excellent Growth Drilling results continue to support potential for resource expansion with additional mineralisation identified in Northern and Eastern Breccias. Several exciting results from the South East Crescent, extending the high grade mineralisation beneath the initial Inferred Resource estimate. Early works progressing with the Karlajartu decline officially opened and advanced to 69m from Portal.

Jade Road Investments*22p  £25.4m (JADE.L)

Jade Road Investments Limited, the London-quoted, pan-Asian diversified investment vehicle focused on providing shareholders with attractive uncorrelated, risk-adjusted long-term returns, announced that the Company’s investment focus will expand to look to invest in Asian High Growth Companies via equity (in listed companies and/or pre-IPO investments) as part of its existing investment policy.  While Jade Road will consider opportunities in all sectors as they arise, potential opportunities in Technology, including Health-Tech, Med-Tech and Fin-Tech will be prioritised. The Total Allocation under this expanded investment focus will be no more than 10% of Jade Road’s present NAV (as of 31 December 2020: USD106.4m) and no more than 20% once the NAV exceeds USD150m. Investments in each company will not exceed 5% of the Total Allocation, in order to mitigate risk through diversification. Acquiring equity in high growth companies presents Jade Road with the opportunity to accelerate the growth of its NAV through capital gains in successful investments. The Company believes that investing in the equity of pre-IPO companies also increases the feasibility of an exit strategy from an eventual listing on the public markets. John Croft, chairman of Jade Road Investments Ltd commented: “With many high growth start-ups staying private longer, access to these companies has been out of reach for the average investor. Jade Road is uniquely poised to eliminate the barriers to investing in these start-ups and provide investors with access to these opportunities of potential high returns.”

KRM22  36p  £9.6m (KRM.L)

The technology and software investment company that focuses on risk management for capital markets, today issued a trading update for the 6 months to 30 June 2021. The Company has made progress in the Period, further strengthening the quality of its Annual Recurring Revenue, including the signing of £0.3m of new business.  In addition to this the Company’s pipeline of opportunities remains strong with £0.6m of ARR with agreed contracts awaiting signature by customers plus a further £0.2m in final discussion ahead of contract negotiation and is seeing strong engagement with new high quality prospects. The Company did see two customer losses worth an aggregate of £0.5m ARR, one as it transitioned legacy business to its current business model of delivering Software as a Service and a second due to the impact of a customer non-payment of invoices and therefore non-renewal. The Company expects to report results for the Period on 1 September 2021, and these are estimated to be: ARR: £3.7m (H1 2020: £4.0m). Total revenue: £2.2m (H1 2020: £2.3m). Adjusted EBITDA loss: £0.3m (H1 2020: £0.3m). Cash balance as at 30 June 2021: £1.3m (FY 2020: £2.0m).

Safestyle UK  56.2p  £77.7m (SFE.L)

The retailer and manufacturer of PVCu replacement windows and doors to the UK homeowner market, today issues a trading and operations update for the six months ended 4 July 2021. Mike Gallacher, CEO of Safestyle, commented: “The Group has traded strongly through H1 and continued to make good progress on its strategic agenda, including levelling up the performance of our national sales and installations network, transforming our customer experience and driving our sustainability agenda. This strategic progress has been made despite the continued operational challenges created by the Pandemic and the associated market volatility experienced in the first half of 2021. Despite these current uncertainties, in light of our positive H1 revenue growth, margin improvement and current order book, the Board expects 2021’s full year financial performance to be ahead of current market expectations.” 

Semper Fortis Esports* 2.35p  £9.76m (AQSE:SEMP)

Semper Fortis have announced they are to co-host their first esports and gaming conference. This is their first step in B2B events which have the potential to generate revenue both from the events themselves and from broadening their product offering to potential sponsors.  The event is The World Esports & Gaming Summit which will be a 2-day, Asia-focused, virtual event to be held on 23-24 September 2021 and is organised in partnership with Trescon Global. 

Tekcapital 19p  £24.8m (TEK.L)

The UK intellectual property investment group focused on transforming university technologies into valuable products that can improve quality of life, announced that portfolio company Lucyd’s Innovative Eyewear subsidiary has launched a new Regulation Crowdfund. They are seeking to raise $500k at a $20m pre-money valuation. The proceeds are earmarked for building inventory to meet increasing customer demand from its e-commerce and retail sales channels.

What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?

BiVictriX Therapeutics  to join AIM, a UK based drug development company which was incorporated in February 2016 and has developed its proprietary Bi-Cygni® technology. This technology utilises Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADC”s), an existing class of potent biological drugs, for the treatment of various cancers including Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, the first condition which BVX intends to treat.

Central Copper Resources, a company focused on delivering a high grade copper project into production and exploration of assets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and in the Republic of Zambia to join AIM. By 2022, CCR intends to be ready to commence the project financing of its Mbamba Kilenda copper project. Timing and offer TBA

Spinnaker Acquisitions to join the Main Market (Standard).  A company formed for the purpose of undertaking an acquisition or acquisitions of a majority interest in a company, business or asset. Due 28 July.

South West Brands the multi-brand cannabidiol consumer goods company  intends to float on the Main Market (Standard). Raising funds to continue to develop its existing portfolio of brand IP and pursue its strategy of adding brand IP assets to the portfolio over the course of the first 24 months following Admission. The Company expects Admission to occur in July 2021. Timing and offer TBA.

Big Technologies to join AIM. Big Technologies plc provides products and services to the remote and personal monitoring industry under a number of brand and trading names, with ‘Buddi’ being the most well known and used in respect of activities within the core criminal justice market. The Company’s criminal justice solution involves proprietary monitoring software combined with modular monitoring hardware being used to accurately track the location of tag wearers. Alongside this, the Company also offers monitoring services solutions for its customers. Offer TBA. Due late July. 

HydrogenOne Capital Growth to IPO on the Premium Segment of the Main Market. HGEN is targeting a raise of £250m. First London listed investment fund dedicated to clean hydrogen. Due by the end of July.

*A corporate client of Hybridan LLP

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