Hybridan Small Cap Feast: 22/05/2025

* A corporate client of Hybridan LLP

** Potential means Intention to Float (ITF)  or similar announcement has been made

***Arranged by type of listing and date of announcement

****Alphabetically arranged

Dish of the day

Admissions:  

None

Delistings:  

None

What’s baking in the oven?

Potential**  Initial Public Offerings:

12th May: Cobalt Holdings, a Company created primarily to purchase and hold physical cobalt, offering public equity investors pure-play direct exposure to the price of cobalt, confirmed its intention to raise approximately US$230m through its Global Offer and the Admission on to the Main Market in June 2025.  Glencore International AG and certain entities and affiliates managed by Anchorage Structured Commodities Advisor, have agreed to participate as cornerstone investors, agreeing to invest, in aggregate, an amount representing approximately 20.5% of the Shares to be offered pursuant to the Global Offer.

9th May: iFOREX Financial Trading, the fintech business with a proprietary online and mobile trading platform for multi-asset contracts for difference, announces that it has confirmed its intention to IPO onto the Main Market.  The Company developed and operates a proprietary online and mobile CFD trading platform, allowing primarily retail clients to trade CFDs across 870+ financial instruments, including currencies, commodities, indices, stocks, cryptocurrencies and exchange traded funds.  For the year ended 31 December 2024, trading income was $50.1m, adjusted EBITDA of $9.7m and adjusted profit before tax of $7.6m.  The current intention is to maintain a progressive dividend policy, and the dividend for FY2025 is expected to be set at approximately 50 per cent. of adjusted profits.  Deal size TBC but timing is expected late June 2025.  

8th May: Riverfort Global Opportunities (RGO.L) has entered into a sale and purchase agreement to acquire certain subsidiaries of Aquis listed S-Ventures.  The Proposed Acquisition constitutes a reverse takeover under the AIM Rules for Companies.  On completion of the Proposed Transaction, the Company will be renamed Tooru Plc on Admission and become a health and wellness operating company traded on AIM.  The Company expects to raise between £0.5m to £1m at 0.75 pence giving an anticipated market capitalisation on Admission between £12.5m to £13m.
Expected Admission date is 28th May 2025.

Market Movers:

12th May: Sundae Bar Plc, formerly Kondor AI Plc, a technology Company mainly operating in the UK, announced its intention to move to AIM from the Access Segment of the Aquis Stock Exchange Growth Market.  The Company's objective is to create a unified marketplace for businesses and AI agents that will address the growing demand for scalable, accessible AI solutions while simplifying the end-to-end process of bringing AI agents to market. The Company's securities are currently suspended on AQSE and concurrently with the Admission to AIM, the Aquis listing will be cancelled. £2m is expected to be raised with an anticipated market capitalisation on Admission of circa £33m at the Placing Price of 8p. 

Banquet Buffet****

The Africa-focused lithium exploration and development Company targeting the delivery of Ghana's first lithium mine has announced the discovery of spodumene pegmatite in outcrop and float in the Agboville and Rubino exploration licences in Côte d'Ivoire. These licences are 100%-owned by the Company's wholly-owned subsidiary Khaleesi Resources SARL. The Company also announces the delineation of significant lithium-in-soil anomalies from soil sampling completed within the Rubino licence.  The lithium assays were up to 1.25% Li2O returned from rock-chip sampling completed at the Company's Agboville and Rubino licences.


The production and development Company focused on Georgia announced its audited results for the year ended 31st December 2024. The company continues to focus on strong Health, Safety, Environment and Social (HSES) practices, with further updates to its HSES plans, training matrixes, and leadership development. The Company delivered 283,205 operational man-hours with one Lost Time Incident compared to 2023 with 299,824 hours and one Lost Time Incident. The Company remained cashflow positive, with the cash position again increasing to $1,136,000 from $713,000 in 2023. Revenue was $7.5m from £8.36m in 2023 reflecting a decline in production and marginally lower commodity pricing. The Company recorded a positive EBITDA of US$1.06m, which was in line with expectation.


The helium exploration and development Company with near-term production assets within the 'Montana Helium Fairway', announced the results of flow testing at Linda #1 well in Rudyard Project, Montana. 218ft of Linda #1 perforated simultaneously, testing Souris and Red River reservoir horizons. Flow rates were sustained at 3,850 thousand cubic feet per day of raw gas at 40/64" choke which is 40% above the flow rates reported at Darwin. High grade helium assayed at 1.2% helium with the balance being primarily nitrogen. Linda #1 has the capacity to generate pre-tax cashflow of c.USD$4m a year in line with projections.


The AIM-traded mining development Company and owner of a High Purity Iron, Vanadium, and Titanium project, located on the Northern Limb of the Bushveld Complex in Limpopo Province, South Africa, has provided an update on key operational developments across its DMS plant, mining operations, and smelting initiatives. The Dense Media Separation Plant has entered the first phase of construction which is now complete and the plant has been commissioned. Trial production runs have been successfully completed and the Company is now commencing commercial production of DMS grade magnetite for the existing offtake agreement with Sable Platinum Pty Ltd.  The drilling plan has been developed and finalised, and drilling for the first blast is scheduled to be completed imminently by a third-party contractor.


Further to the 1 May 2025 announcement of the execution of a Share Purchase Agreement in respect of the acquisition of uranium and vanadium exploration projects in the USA, the minerals exploration and development Company today confirmed the initiation of its Phase 1 uranium exploration programmes in Colorado and Wyoming, USA. The Company has agreed to begin exploration work in anticipation of completion of the Acquisition, including an award of the 10-year exploration leases, within the next week or so and will make a further announcement at that point. Completion of the Acquisition remains subject to various conditions as outlined in the 24 April 2025 announcement.


The custom manufacturer of plastic and paperboard packaging reports its AGM Trading Update. Sales volumes in the first four months of the year are 1% higher, but including the effect of sales price and foreign exchange movements, revenue is 3% above the same period in 2024. This is driven by new UK projects implemented in the previous 12 months, particularly in PET bottles (PolyEthylene Terephthalate). This growth has been largely offset by a reduction in volume in the Denmark operation, where overall conditions remain challenging.  The net debt at the end of April 2025 increased to £7.3m from December’s £5.9m which included £1.5m of capital expenditure. Sales of surplus properties in Chesterfield are, subject to the necessary approvals, expected to be achieved in 2025.  The underlying operating profit is in line with the same period in 2024.


The Company investing in European growth cities and regions has agreed to a 12-year lease regear with DIY specialist Hornbach, at its Berlin investment. At 11%, Hornbach, which is publicly listed with a market capitalisation of Euro 1.67bn, is the second largest tenant in the Company's portfolio by income. The property comprises 16,800m2 of lettable area set on a four-acre site and is situated 10km south of Berlin's city centre in the densely populated area of Mariendorf. The triple net lease is subject to indexation and has been agreed ahead of the 31 December 2024 estimated rental value.


The multi-channel specialist retailers with categories such as books, stationery, arts and crafts reports a FY25 trading update with FY25 underlying performance ahead of the wider non-food retail market and total like for like (LFL) sales growth of 0.8%. Stores, which comprise over 90% of sales, continued to drive this growth, with LFL sales up 2.3%. Total revenue was lower by 2.0% to £277m (FY24: £283m) due the prior year benefitting from an additional trading week  and optimisation of the store estate, with 7 new openings, 15 closures and 4 relocations. The Company ended the year with a smaller, higher quality and more profitable portfolio of 503 stores (FY24: 511 stores). Pre-IFRS 16 Adjusted EBITDA is now expected to be approximately £9.5m for FY25 (FY24: £6m), which is ahead of market expectations. 


The international provider of walk-through security technology today announces its first sale into a UK Prison, with the installation of a Thruvision 81 Series system. The deployment will be used to screen inmates for contraband and weapons, to disrupt their movement within the prison and make it a safer place for both inmates and staff. The technology detects metallic and non-metallic items concealed in clothing including drugs, weapons, and cell phones. The Company has been deployed in prisons in mainland Europe since 2022 and has been successful there in effecting contraband seizures.


The supplier of advanced composite material kits to the aerospace market makes an H1 2025 Trading update for the six months to April. Velocity expects revenue to be lower than originally expected  at £10.4m, compared to £10.7m, with an improved gross margin, recovering from prior inflationary pressures and ongoing operational efficiency improvements.  Customer production rates were less than originally anticipated, although demand particularly in the civil airline industry, remains strong and is expected to support significant increased production rates at Airbus and Boeing. The Company is working with its customers to maintain readiness for these rate increases. The cash in the bank at the end of April was £1.2m and an invoice discount facility of £3m is in place. The Board is assuming a similar level of sales revenue in FY25 to that achieved in FY24, but with a better level of profitability. 
 

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