NEX EXCHANGE
Chapel Down Group (CDGP) reported a one-quarter increase in group revenues to £10.2m in 2016, however, £3.44m of these revenues came from associate brewing company Curious Drinks, which is no longer consolidated following last year‘s fundraising. Chapel Down owns 49.79% of Curious Drinks voting shares but has a 90.2% economic share of the business. The continuing wine operations increased revenues from £5.56m to £6.79m, while the underlying pre-tax profit improved from £155,000 to £265,000. A further £1.6m of capital expenditure was mainly spent on additional vineyard acreage, which left cash of £1.2m. Wine exports to the US are growing.
African Potash Ltd (AFPO) is planning to acquire investment company Onshore Energy Ltd but it will still require more cash even if the deal goes ahead. Christopher Cleverly is a director of both companies. At the end of April 2016, Onshore Energy had shareholders funds of £1.16m and it has raised further cash since then. The most recent was on 6 April 2017 and the company has more than 100 shareholders. Trading in African Potash shares has been suspended.
NQ Minerals (NQMI) plans to buy the Hellyer gold mine in Tasmania for A$20m in cash and shares equivalent to 29.9% of NQ on a fully diluted basis. The deal will be financed by two loan notes totalling A$13m and a A$8.5m, three year secured loan facility with an interest rate of 12%. The facility provider gets options over 64.3 million shares at 8p each and can appoint a director the NQ board. There is still scope to raise secured loans of up to A$27.5m to repay the A$13m of loan notes and develop the mine. NQ director Roger Jackson is also a shareholder in the current owner of the Hellyer mine and he has a commission arrangement to help finance the project. The assets acquired include three tailings dams and a processing plant.
Goldcrest Resources (GCRP) is changing its name to Bloc Energy when it finalises the acquisition of Georgian oil and gas assets. The general meeting to gain shareholder agreement is being held on 5 May. There are plans to move to AIM in order to raise additional cash for the business and the development of the newly acquired assets. Goldcrest intends to sell its existing gold exploration assets.
Kryptonite 1 (KR1) has invested £100,000 for 1,279,840 Atom tokens. The total initial coin offering by the Cosmos project raised $16.8m within 30 minutes. Cosmos is a proposed network of interconnected blockchains and shouldbe the first bonded point-of-stake block chain in production. Atom is the cryptocurrency for Cosmos.
Ecovista (EVTP) chief executive Louise Stokely has bought 50 million shares – 1.39% of the property investment company.
First Sentinel (FSEN) director Tom Dignall has acquired a 3.85% stake at 11p a share – a total cost of £300,000.
AIM
Verona Pharma (VRP) has launched its public offering of ADSs and ordinary shares ahead of a listing on the Nasdaq Global Market. This followed news that the FDA had given authorisation to proceed with a clinical trial in the US for RPL554 in order to assess its safety and tolerance.
Veltyco (VLTY) is acquiring 51% stakes in two related businesses – Bet90 and www.tippen4you.com – for €2.5m. The same amount of cash has been raised at 39p a share. The acquisitions add further online betting brands to the group.
Motif Bio (MTFB) has announced positive phase III clinical trial data for Iclaprim when used for patients with acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI). The REVIVE-1 data shows that the drug is reliable and safe. The drug was well tolerated with most adverse effects classed as mild.
FIH Group (FIH) has confirmed that second half trading was better than expected but the profit is still going to be at least one-fifth lower than the previous year. The underlying pre-tax profit will be between £2.3m and £2.5m. Trading in the Falkland Islands was below the record levels achieved the year before. Lower passenger numbers for the Gosport ferry were offset by price increases. Momart improved its profit. There was £15.1m in the bank at the end of March 2017 and this is likely to be used to help fund acquisitions in the UK – although a special dividend is still a possibility.
Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings (IDH) has beaten expectations for 2016-17, helped by the movement in the sterling exchange rate. Revenues were approximately £40m, up 4%, but they would have been lower under constant currency rates. The full year figures will be published on 21 June.
ASX-listed Pharmanet Group has raised A$620,000 in order to provide cash to progress with the acquisition of the gold exploration assets that Keras Resources (KRS) intends to reverse into the company. The reversal is expected to happen by the summer and Pharmanet will change its name to Calidus Resources.
Power electronic systems supplier Turbo Power Systems (TPS) is holding a general meeting on 5 June to gain shareholder approval to cancel the AIM quotation. The management team controls 89.4% of the share capital so this is a foregone conclusion.
MAIN MARKET
Former AIM-quoted Camden Town property developer Market Tech Holdings (MKT) is being taken private by its majority shareholder after less than two and a half years as a quoted vehicle at a discount to its original placing price of 200p. That fundraising was done at a significant premium to NAV and made it easier to add further properties in Camden Town. In July 2015, a further £200m was raised at 223p a share. Management hoped that the combination of property in a fashionable area and an online division would continue to provide a premium to NAV. That has not been true following MarketTech’s move to the standard list. The offer is 188p a share, which values MarketTech at £892.5m. Two years ago, the stated NAV was 140.76p a share but the directors said that the adjusted NAV was 300p a share, although that assumed that all the proposed development of the properties was completed at expected capital investment levels. LabTech already owns 71% of Market Tech so the cash cost of the bid will be less than £300m.
Andrew Hore