GCIHybridan Small Cap Feast: 07/11/2024
* A corporate client of Hybridan LLP
** Potential means Intention to Float (ITF) has been announced, or it is a rumour
***Arranged by type of listing and date of announcement
****Alphabetically arranged
Share prices and market capitalisations taken from the current price on the day of publication
Dish of the day
Admissions:
, the investing company established to acquire an undervalued company or business in the UK, has announced its first day of dealings onto AIM. The Company is primarily focused on the small and mid-cap category, specifically within the consumer, technology and digital media related sectors, including retail, software and digital sub-sectors. Fundraising raised gross proceeds of approximately £7.5m. Based on the issue price of 2.4p, the market capitalisation of the Company will be approximately £10m at Admission.
Delistings:
None
What’s baking in the oven?
ITF announced:***
Potential** Initial Public Offerings:
31 October 2024: Winking Studios: the AAA Art Outsourcing and Game Development business listed on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited, is pleased to announce its intention to seek Admission to trading on the AIM market in November 2024 (the Dual Listing) to support, amongst other efforts, its expansion into Western markets. The Company has Partnerships with three major game publishing platforms: Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo and significant organic growth over the past four years, doubling headcount to 800+, increasing revenue to US$29.3m and growing Adjusted EBITDA to US$5.3m (FY23).
Banquet Buffet****
The upstream oil and gas company focused on acquiring production and development assets in Africa provides an operational and financial update for the period 1 January to 31 October 2024. The Company had cash resources of $37.4m and net debt of $4.6m as of 31 October 2024. Redevelopment works at Block 3/05 facilities, along with well interventions, continue to result in improved production and water injection performance. Gross average production to end October 2024, including the impact of the recent shutdown, for Block 3/05 and 3/05A was 20,575 bopd (Net: B3/05 5,815 bopd; B3/05A 255 bopd).
The developer of novel Optimer binders to enable innovation in the life sciences industry announces that a genetic medicines customer has selected to progress to the final commercial development phase for Optimer delivery vehicles. Over the past ten months, Aptamer has successfully developed Optimer delivery vehicles and shipped Optimer test material to the customer during October 2024. The performance of these delivery vehicles has been validated by the customer, indicating that the Optimer delivery vehicles can specifically target the required cell type, with the potential to be used as part of a precision therapy, which would deliver downstream licensing revenue for Aptamer.
The exploration company forging partnerships to discover and develop Tier 1 copper deposits provides an update on exploration activities at its Joint Venture with a subsidiary of Anglo American in Zambia. Drilling commenced this year at the first new target approximately 1km east of the oxide occurrence at Cheyeza. The first hole targeted a Cu-Ni anomaly generated by the latest soil sampling programme. Anomalous copper mineralisation over a downhole thickness of around 45m was observed in the saprolite zone. Pending results from the laboratory, this hole demonstrates the potential to significantly expand the known oxide mineralisation at Cheyeza.
The mobile-first digital media business, which owns websites Entertainment Daily, The Daily Mash, The Poke, The Tab, TV Guide, and Emmerdale Insider, has agreed to acquire certain online assets, including all associated intellectual property, of the Entertainment Group of GRV Media Ltd (GRV). A three-month transitional services agreement with GRV comes into effect from today to support the integration process. The acquisition includes the purchase of three online assets of GRV, including CelebrityTidbit.com; RealityTidbit.com; and TheFocus.news, and the transfer to Digitalbox of eight employees of GRV that are attached to the websites being acquired. The sites all operate an audience-led, advertising-focused media model in common with Digitalbox. Adding these websites to Digitalbox's growing portfolio of assets will accelerate the Company's "Verticals Strategy".
The mid-market, challenger professional services licence network and owner of the Dow Schofield Watts and DR Solicitors brands announce a trading update ahead of the Group's Half Year Results for the period ended 30 September 2024. H1 25 results in line with management expectations, as M&A activity gradually improved across the period and gained momentum in September 2024. Strong trading performance in October 2024, post half year end was driven by high levels of M&A fee income ahead of the Autumn Budget. The acquisition of DR Solicitors is expected to contribute c.£1.5m to FY25 Network Revenue and statutory revenue and c£0.3m to Adjusted Pre-Tax Profit. Guidance for FY25 has been increased to consolidated network revenue of c.£23.0m (FY24: £16.0m), leading to total income of c.£4.7m (£2.4m) and Adjusted Pre-Tax Profit of c.£1.45m (FY24: £0.5m).
The sustainable biopesticide and biocontrol technology, provides the following trading update. Revenue for FY2024 is expected to increase by 34% to c. £4.3m (FY2023: £3.2m) with product sales expected to increase by 42% to c. £3.7m (FY2023: £2.6m). Operating loss for FY2024 is expected to increase by 11% to c. £2.1m (FY2023: £1.9m loss) with cash position at 31 December 2024 forecast to be c. £3.6m (31 December 2023: £7.4m). Revenue for FY2025 is expected to increase by 16% to c. £5m when compared with 2024 expected revenue, with some potentially significant approvals and other events that could, subject to timing, increase this figure. The Company does not currently expect to need to raise additional funds for its existing working capital requirements for the foreseeable future.
A diversified metals producer with operations in South Africa and Zambia today publishes its unaudited operational and project update for the quarter ended 30 September 2024. Excellent safety performance achieved of 580 lost time injury free (LTI-free) days (Q4 FY2024: 488 LTI-free days). South Africa reported a LTIFR rate of 2.09 (Q4 FY2024: 1.62). Guidance remains on track for copper with the successful ramp-up at Roan and Munkoyo as the Company expects to deliver significantly increased copper production for the remainder of the financial year, to reach production guidance of between 5,850 and 7,500 tonnes. Chrome and platinum group metals (PGM) are on-track to achieve chrome concentrate production guidance of 1.65 million tonnes, and PGM production guidance of 36,000 oz. Chrome guidance will be reviewed at half year.
The specialist property services Group that delivers compliance and sustainability solutions provides a trading update for the six months ending 30 September 2024. The Group expects to report revenue of £29.6m, a decrease of 3% compared to the previous period (H1 FY24: £30.3m), with gross profit increasing 8% to £9.1m (H1 FY24: £8.4m) and gross margins increasing to 30.7%, an increase of 3% from the 27.7% in H1 FY24. EBITDA is expected to grow by 10% to £3.2m (H1 FY24: £2.9m), with EBITDA margins increasing to 10.8% (H1 FY24: 9.6%). During the Period, the Group delivered improved margins, despite continued initiation and mobilisation delays from contracts including the recently announced contract wins in Hackney.
The property finance and the parent company of LendInvest BTL Ltd and LendInvest Loans Limited today announces the successful completion of its sixth securitisation in prime UK property loans originated by its Mortgages division. The £285m oversubscribed transaction, Mortimer 2024-Mix Plc received Aaa(sf) and AAA(sf) ratings from S&P Global Ratings and Moody's, respectively, for 86.5% of the loan pool. This transaction marks LendInvest's sixth consecutive annual securitisation since launching the programme in 2019, and includes its first securitisation of owner-occupied loans since launching into this growing market in 2023. The issuance brings LendInvest's total Funds under Management (FuM) to £4.67bn.
The cybersecurity, advisory, and managed security services group announces that its subsidiary, Brookcourt Solutions, has secured a significant three-year contract with a major British media and telecommunications company. It also announces that it has achieved 'approved supplier' status with the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), G-Cloud 14 framework, which all public sector organisations can use to buy cloud-based computing services such as hosting, software and cloud support. Brookcourt has secured a significant three-year contract, valued at c.£3.7m. The contract will be recognised in the current financial year and contributes towards the FY25 revenue target. It includes a comprehensive renewal of endpoint security platforms, along with advanced Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Identity Protection solutions, reinforcing the client's security posture for years to come.
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