Hybridan Small Cap Feast

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Banquet Buffet

Altus Strategies  79p  £63.5m (ALS.L)

Altus has completed the second and final closing of the recently announced agreement to acquire an effective 0.418% net smelter return royalty (NSR) interest on the producing Caserones Copper Mine, located in the Atacama region of northern Chile (see Altus news releases dated 17 and 23 August 2021). Altus is acquiring the NSR interest for US$34.1m through a strategic 50:50 partnership with NYSE American and TSX Venture exchanges listed, EMX Royalty Corporation. Steven Poulton, Chief Executive commented: “”Following this Acquisition, Altus will receive significant quarterly royalty income and will have long-term exposure to copper. We expect the demand for copper to remain strong in the years ahead, as the global economy seeks to decarbonise in parallel with continued infrastructure development, urbanisation and wealth creation in emerging markets. Altus is currently assessing a number of other potential royalty acquisitions globally, alongside our on-going royalty generation programmes in Africa.”

Armadale Capital 5.3p  £28.2m (ACP.L)

Formal confirmation and receipt of the Mining Licence for its 100%-owned Mahenge Graphite Project in south-east Tanzania from the  Tanzanian Ministry of Energy and Minerals. The Mining Licence provides the Company with exclusive development and mining rights over the graphite resources within the 8.54km2 Mining Licence and is a major de-risking milestone for investors. Transformational permitting milestone for Armadale to build a significant high-grade graphite mine with robust economics (DFS showing pre-tax NPV of $430m, IRR of 91% and Payback Period of 1.6 years).

Base Resources  17.75p  £203m (BSE.L)

Base Resources has completed a pre-feasibility study on the potential for mining higher grade subsets of the Bumamani and Kwale North Dune deposits (Bumamani PFS) to extend mine life at its 100% owned and operated mineral sands operations in Kwale County, Kenya (Kwale Operations). The Bumamani PFS concludes that it is economically feasible to mine higher-grade subsets of the Bumamani and Kwale North Dune deposits concurrently with the Kwale South Dune deposit, which would extend the mine life of Kwale Operations by 7.5 months to July 2024.Estimated 11.4m tonnes of material to be mined to produce an estimated 34,000 tonnes of rutile, 113,000 tonnes of ilmenite and 13,000 tonnes of zircon. The Bumamani PFS is a significant further forward step in achieving Base Resources’ goal of extending the mine life at Kwale, providing additional time to develop further opportunities within Kenya whilst maintaining operational continuity. A definitive feasibility study is now underway to improve the accuracy of project estimates.

Circle Property 205p  £58.5m (CRC.L)

Circle Property  has completed the sale of 135 Aztec West in Bristol to Assura Aspire Limited.  The sale price of £3.961m represents a 156% increase (pre-refurbishment cost) and a 62% increase (post refurbishment cost) on the 31 March 2021 valuation of £1.55m. The building was refurbished in the first half of 2021 at a cost of approximately £2.175m less tenant contributions of £0.725m resulting in a net cost to the Company of £1.45m. The cash proceeds from the sale will be utilised to reduce the Company’s gearing from the current level.

Eight Capital Partners 0.055p  £0.89m (AQSE:ECP)

Eight Capital Partners, whose strategy focuses on working with, and investing in, technology, media, telecoms and financial services businesses including listed investing companies, announced the launch of EUR25m 4.8% Fixed Rate Five-Year Bonds  which are to be listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange.  As announced recently in the RNS of 25 August 2021, the Company is seeking to expand its balance sheet by raising new equity capital and the issue of other securities by the Company in stages, in the short-term. The creation of the New Bonds is an important step in the delivery of this strategy. As it moves forward, other developments may include an equity placing via an open offer to all shareholders. Warrants and / or other securities may also be included in the capital raise.

EPE Special Opportunities  425p  £125.4m (ESO.L)

Appointment of Michael Gray as non-executive Director with immediate effect. Mr Gray joined The Royal Bank of Scotland in 1983, retiring in 2015 after being Managing Director (Corporate) of RBS International for 10 years. During his 32 years at the firm Michael covered a broad spectrum of financial services including corporate and commercial banking, funds, trusts and real estate. Mr Gray currently holds a number of non-executive positions across private equity, infrastructure and fund management. Michael’s appointments currently include non-executive directorships of Triton Investment Management (a Swedish private equity group), GCP Infrastructure Investments (a FTSE 250 listed company), J-Star Jersey Company Limited (a Japanese private equity group), Foresight Enterprise VCT plc (a listed venture capital fund), Jersey Finance Limited (a Jersey finance not-for-profit), JTC plc (a FTSE 250 listed trust and corporate services company) and TEAM plc (a listed wealth management company). The Directors are pleased to welcome Michael to the Board and are confident his experience in private equity and wider financial services will be a valuable addition to the Company.

Falcon Oil & Gas 9.2p  £81.2m (FOG.L)

Results of the production log test at the Amungee NW-1H well. The results suggest a normalised gas flow rate equivalent of between 5.2-5.8 MMscf/d per 1,000m of horizontal section. Amungee is located in the Beetaloo Sub-basin, Northern Territory, Australia and the testing conducted is part of the 2021 work programme which is operated by Falcon’s joint venture partner, Origin Energy B2 Pty Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Origin Energy Limited. Philip O’Quigley (CEO of Falcon) commented: “With our unique and extensive position in the Beetaloo Sub-basin, this is really exciting news for Falcon shareholders and this significant development provides line of sight to the commercialisation of the Beetaloo, for which we remain carried for further activity. A recent report by an industry analyst suggests that gas flows greater than 3MMscf/d from a 1,000m horizontal well are required to demonstrate the commerciality of the Beetaloo. Not only does this test result significantly exceed these parameters and significantly increase our assessment of the Velkerri dry gas play, but it also puts the Beetaloo on a par with other shale gas basins in North America. While we wait for further news from our operations at Kyalla 117 N2-1H ST2 and Velkerri 76 S2-1, we look forward to working with our JV partner, Origin, in establishing the next phase of work on the Middle Velkerri B Shale. With other drilling activity in neighbouring Santos-operated blocks targeting the Velkerri dry gas play, this is an important moment for the nationally significant Beetaloo Sub-basin.”

Mercia Investment Management 38.8p  £175.2m (MERC.L)

The proactive, regionally focused specialist asset manager with c.£940m of assets under management, announced a significant syndicated investment into existing direct investment portfolio company Locate Bio Limited, a Nottingham-based business developing a range of orthobiologics. This investment into Locate Bio consists of a syndicated £10m Series A round in which Mercia has made a direct investment of £1.6m, alongside £4m from Mercia’s third party managed funds, which included EIS and VCT capital, together with £3m from BGF and £1.4m from other syndicate partners. This funding round has increased Mercia’s fully diluted direct investment stake to 18.1%, with Mercia’s combined managed funds’ fully diluted stakes now totalling 24.6%. Locate Bio was initially backed in April 2018 by Mercia’s EIS funds. Locate Bio’s products will be used by orthopaedic surgeons to accelerate the natural repair of bone and cartilage. Addressing a multi-billion pound global market, Locate Bio currently has four products going through trials, the first targeting formal market approval by 2022. This £10m round will support the next stages of these trials including its lead bone graft solution (“LDGraft”) as part of the FDA approval process, as well as the development of additional products acquired last year.

President Energy 1.95p  £39.8m (PPC.L)

Update in relation to the farm-out agreement in relation to the Pirity Concession, Paraguay. On 8 June 2021, it was announced that a conditional farm-out agreement had been executed and that completion of the agreement was conditional on the approval by the relevant regulatory authorities in Paraguay to the transfer of interests contemplated under the said agreements and also the prolongation of the concession terms for a defined period of time. President confirms that this latter condition has now been satisfied and the term of the exploration concession will now expire on 12 September 2023. If a discovery is made in the meantime, application can be made to convert the relevant area into an exploitation licence. Steps to satisfy the remaining condition continue with the objective of full satisfaction of the conditions by the end of September 2021. At the same time, the expiration time for Hernandarias exploration Concession has been extended to 22 November 2023. 

Symphony Environmental Technologies* 27.75p  £49m (SYM.L)

Following the recent approval, from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for its d2p antimicrobial food contact technology, Symphony has now received approval from Health Canada for its use in bread packaging. Approval for Symphony’s d2p antimicrobial food contact technology, applies to polyolefin and polyester multi-layer films for wrapping bread, so as to inhibit the growth of bacteria on the surface of the packaging film, which is vital in a very hygiene-conscious industry. Symphony’s CEO Michael Laurier said “We have been working for some time with customers in Canada, and approval from Health Canada now enables this project to proceed more quickly to commercialisation.”

What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?

GreenRoc Mining to join AIM. Established in March 2021 as a UK public limited company for the purpose of acquiring all of the Greenlandic mining assets of Alba Mineral Resources plc and progressing the exploration and development of those assets. The assets in question are the Thule Black Sands Ilmenite Project, the Amitsoq Graphite Project, the Melville Bay Iron Project and the Inglefield Multi-Element Project. Greenland will be the main country of operation. Gross funds raised on admission: £5.12m. Anticipated Mkt Cap on Admission: £11.120m. Due mid-September

Reuters reports that Oxford Nanopore, a provider of rapid COVID-19 tests to the UK’s national health service, is working with banks to launch an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in the coming weeks. The company aims to build on the 2.48 bln pounds ($3.42 bln) valuation achieved in a funding round in May, two sources familiar with the matter said. The Oxford-based life sciences firm, which counts IP Group and Singapore’s Temasek among its shareholders, provides DNA/RNA sequencing technology for sectors such as biomedical, pathogen, plant and animal scientific research, infectious diseases and food and agriculture.

VSA Capital has applied for admission to the AQSE Growth Market. VSA Capital is an international investment banking and broking firm, with offices in London and Shanghai, providing corporate finance, advisory and capital markets services to private and public companies  Offer TBA. Due 9 Sep

Responsible Housing REIT to join the Main Market (Premium) in late September raising up to £250m. The Company’s investment objective is to generate a consistent and sustainable income-based return from the provision of Supported Housing accommodation assets and aligned sectors. 

Blackfinch Renewable European Income Trust plc, a closed-end investment trust established to invest in a diversified portfolio of mixed renewable energy infrastructure assets, is considering proceeding with an initial public offering and has published a registration document. Raising up to £300m. Due on the Main Market (Premium) in October.

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. Offer TBA. Due Late September.

Euro Sun Mining Inc (TSX:ESM) seeking to join the Main Market in Q3 2021. The Company’s main asset, the Rovina Valley Project, which contains the Rovina, Colnic and Ciresata deposits, is one of the largest undeveloped copper-gold projects in Europe, holding approximately 400Mt of confirmed resources containing 7.0m ounces of gold and 1.4 bn lbs of copper.  

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. Timing and offer TBA.

*A corporate client of Hybridan LLP

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