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Artilium speaks up, Rotala spreads its wings, Sweet sugars for Optibiotix

Published: 08:24 03 Jun 2015 BST

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ACT Placing, ARTA Acquisition, BGO Trading Statement, CBUY Online Marketplace, CCE Portfolio Sales, CLTV Audited Results, COS New Patent, MARL Drilling Update and Audited Final Results*, MXO Trading Update*, OPTI New Patent Filings, Final Results and Contract*, PLI Exercise of Options*, RSTR New Contract, ROL Acquisition, SAR Placing*, STGR Final Results, VENN New Services and Final Results

A full archive of previous weeks’ Small Cap Wraps can now be viewed on www.hybridan.com.

The Hybridan Small Cap Wrap is a weekly review of some of the most interesting small cap stories of the past week. Our review will usually be of those companies whose market capitalisations are less than £50m although we may occasionally cover larger companies.


Actual Experience (LON:ACT)
Actual Experience, the analytics-as-a-service company, announced that it has conditionally raised £16m by way of a placing at a price of 190 pence per share. The new ordinary shares will represent up to 22 percent of the company's issued ordinary share capital immediately following admission. The placing price of 190p represents the 30 day average share price of the company up to and including 15 May 2015. The placing will raise approximately £0.3m for Dave Page and Professor Jonathan Pitts.  Furthermore, employees of the company will be offered the opportunity to sell ordinary shares at the placing price.  These may either be existing ordinary shares held by employees or new shares which result from options exercised by employees prior to admission.  The maximum gross proceeds receivable by the company pursuant to the placing will be £15.7m, however, to the extent employees take up this opportunity, the proceeds of the placing paid to the company and the number of new ordinary shares will be reduced accordingly. The company will issue a further announcement to confirm employee participation levels, the number of new ordinary shares to be issued pursuant to the placing and the resultant enlarged issued share capital prior to admission.

Artilium (LON:ARTA)
Artilium, the provider of innovative telecommunication software and solutions, announced the acquisition, through its subsidiary United Telecom NV, of the entire issued share capital of SpeakUp, a Belgian voice over internet protocol (VoIP) telecom operator. Total consideration for the acquisition is £0.23m and is being satisfied as to £28,600 in cash, funded from the company's existing cash resources, and 3,416,666 ordinary shares of 5 pence each at a price of 6 pence per share. SpeakUp is a VoIP telecom operator with a rapidly growing B2B customer base. VoIP allows you to make free, or very low cost, telephone calls over an IP data network (or internet) and is growing strongly in the business market. The VoIP services offered by SpeakUp allow customers to conduct very low cost phone calls and offer a high level of flexibility to businesses through its integrated cloud telephony (hosted PBX) solutions. SpeakUp is also a Microsoft LYNC (now Skype for Business) certified trunk supplier which is an attractive additional service to Microsoft users. In addition, SpeakUp has a strong offering in fixed-mobile converged PBX services. SpeakUp is known for its high quality services and stable and endurable infrastructure.  The acquisition of SpeakUp will provide the company with a competitive offering in a strong and growing segment of the market. SpeakUp offers an attractive range of products and will give the company access to a market that has the potential to be expanded internationally. In addition, the acquisition will enable the company to add fixed-mobile PBX functionality which is relevant to Mobile Virtual Network Operators and is expected to create new opportunities for its current and future customers. The acquisition will also provide United Telecom with a larger customer base which, in turn, will enable it to upsell its current products.

Bango (LON:BGO)
Bango, the mobile payment company, issued a trading statement which forecasts that end-user spend transacted through its platform would grow by at least 100 percent to over £65m ($101m) annualised run rate by December 2015. Bango also reported that end user spend is growing in line with this expectation, at an accelerating rate of growth.  In addition, Bango also disclosed a healthy pipeline of 30 activations which were already scheduled for launch in 2015 and which were expected to contribute further to end user spend growth. Moreover, 15 of these activations are now live, and expect further activations to convert in the first half of 2015. Among those activations now live, Bango has launched four new carrier billing markets in Latin America during the month of May 2015. These, together with other new activations this year, demonstrate a positive trajectory for growth in end user spends transacted through the Bango platform in 2015 and beyond.

Camco Clean Energy (LON:CCE)
Camco Clean Energy, the clean energy and energy storage company, announced that it has concluded a structured transaction with a major multinational corporation to assign its rights to the future stream of certain California Carbon Offsets generated between 2015 and 2020 from the majority of agricultural methane projects that it manages on behalf of its dairy partners. The transaction provides price security to Camco's dairy partners for the credits generated by their projects. This significantly de-risks the future cash and returns generated for each diary, including the Jerome and Twin Falls facilities owned by Camco. The transaction supports Camco's portfolio management of emissions reduction projects through demonstrating the value to project owners of Camco's track record of managing and delivering California eligible offsets and its ability to aggregate deliveries from multiple projects to secure long-term offtakes from credit-worthy buyers. As part of the transaction, Camco has received an initial cash payment of $1.74m.  Additionally Camco may receive a deferred and conditional payment of up to $0.5m by 31 December 2015. Camco expects to complete shortly a further structured transaction of its remaining projects which generate offsets between 2015 and 2020. Camco will retain its rights to credits generated after 2020 from all the projects included in this portfolio transaction.

Cellcast (LON:CLTV)
Cellcast, engaged in the production and distribution of participatory television formats across multiple digital platforms in the United Kingdom, announced the Company's audited results for the year ended 31 December 2014. Group operating revenues from core operations was £12.2m (2013: £14.5m) and  gross profit increased to £4.2m (2013 gross loss: £0.13m) primarily from inflow of one off sale of channel management contract (for £3m). Net profit after exceptional revenue from sale of channel management contract amounts to £2.9m (2013: loss of 2.5m), and profit per share of 3.8p (2013: loss per share of 3.3p). During the period, the main operations were successfully relocated to Milton Keynes

cloudBuy (LON:CBUY)
cloudBuy, the global provider of cloud-based e-commerce marketplaces and B2B buyer and supplier solutions,  announced the expansion of its social care marketplace offerings. cloudBuy is working in association with Salvere, the social enterprise CIC, to provide a fully managed, customer-facing care marketplace to help meet the challenges of the Care Act, which recently came into force. The Care Act means local authorities must ensure citizens can access the information and advice they need to make good decisions about care and support. The Salvere-branded care marketplace will enable citizens to directly contact social care experts to guide them in choosing care options.  This means they can directly service their needs, thus assisting local authorities to meet the requirements of the Care Act as efficiently as possible. Salvere has a strong track record in the support, planning and brokerage of care products and services. To date Salvere has focused on servicing the Lancashire region, a market which it estimates to be worth over £300m. It has built up relationships with over 350 care suppliers of all sizes servicing this region. This will provide a solid base for the launch of the marketplace, with plans to expand to other areas. cloudBuy will charge a fee to on-board suppliers to the Salvere marketplace and take a percentage of the value of transactions which will flow through it.

Collagen Solutions (LON:COS)
Collagen Solutions, the developer and manufacturer of medical grade collagen components for use in regenerative medicine, medical devices and in-vitro diagnostics, announced that Southern Lights Biomaterials (SLB), its wholly owned subsidiary has been granted a US patent for the processing of a new bio-material which will provide benefits for heart surgery patients. Patients suffering from aortic stenosis may be candidates for valve replacement surgery. The valves typically use bovine pericardium in their construction as this material is strong, flexible and demonstrably safe in this application. SLB supplies this material to a number of leading bio-prosthetic heart valve manufacturers. A major recent advance in this field is a delivery methodology whereby valves are delivered through a catheter rather than by open-heart surgery. A limitation on wider adoption was the need to fold the valves for trans-catheter delivery where the thickness of the pericardium limits the minimum size of the catheter. The subject of the issued patent is a NZ source of pericardium which is not only much thinner but, when treated, also has unique strength and composition properties. The adoption of the new delivery methodology has catalysed the growth in enhanced valve development as the valve replacement surgery is now available to a much wider range of patients. In addition to transcatheter cardiovascular therapeutic valve applications this thin, robust tissue is likely to be suitable for new or improved medical devices such as staple line reinforcement where a strong thin tissue offers an advantage.

Mariana Resources (LON:MARL)*
Mariana Resources, the exploration and development company with projects in South America and Turkey, reported that JV partner Lidya Madencilik Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. has now completed the first 4 holes of the Phase II drill program at the Hot Maden Prospect in eastern Turkey.  Drilling has included step-out holes HTD-08 and HTD-11 testing strike extensions to the two discovery holes, infill HTD-10 between HTD-04 and 05, and step-back HTD-09 beneath HTD-04, with assays received only for HTD-08 and HTD-09. A significant Au-Cu mineralised system was confirmed with continuity between the scissored discovery holes. Hole HTD-10 (Assays pending) intersected 66.1m from 81.8m of brecciated andesites/stockworks + jasperoid and strong chalcopyrite-pyrite mineralisation and 80.2 m from 147.9m of sulfide-bearing andesites, with up to 10m of massive chalcopyrite + pyrite. Hole HTD-11 (Assays pending) intersected 125 m from 255.3m of brecciated andesite/stockworks with strong chalcopyrite-pyrite mineralisation + jasperoid, extending the Au-Cu zone a further 60 m south of HTD-05 Hole HTD-08 (testing northern extension) intersected 90.9m at 0.8 percent Zn from 9.5m and 7.2m at 2.1 g/t Au, 1.6 percent Cu from 129.5m and is interpreted to be at the northern up-plunge limit of the Hot Maden mineralized zone. HTD-09 intersected 22m at 3.1 g/t Au, 0.3 percent Cu and 1.0 percent Zn from 40m, interpreted to be marginal to and beneath the plunge of the main Au-Cu zone.

MX Oil (LON:MXO)*
MX Oil, the oil and gas investment company, announced that besides its focus on Mexico, it is considering a number of near term, cash generative investments in geographies outside of the Americas that could assist in funding the work programmes of its target Mexican assets. In particular, due diligence is currently being undertaken in relation to an opportunity to   acquire an indirect, non-operating, minority interest in a substantial development stage project with proven, flow tested discoveries.  A CPR has previously been completed by the project partners and it is anticipated that the asset may provide net cash flow from Q1 or Q2 2016.  If successful, the directors anticipate completing this investment by the end of June 2015 at which point further details will be released to the market. MX Oil has registered as a bidder for the current onshore bid round (Phase 3 of Bid Round 1) and is preparing to access the data room on 1 June to begin the due diligence process. In tandem with this, the company is preparing to submit the pre-qualification filing. It is the opinion of the directors that MX Oil is well placed to pre-qualify. The company is also discussing with its partner in its joint venture company, leading local operator Geo Estratos the alternatives to participate in Phase 3 of Bid Round 1 and in determining what would be the preferred legal structure.  In this regard, the company has received confirmation that Geo currently has more than US$15m of equity, therefore, subject to an independent audit of the financial statements of Geo, its current equity would satisfy the required financial criteria outlined above to bid for up to five type 1 blocks through a consortium or in a joint venture in which the company would participate.

OptiBiotix Health (LON:OPTI)*
OptiBiotix Health, a life sciences business developing compounds tackles obesity, high cholesterol and diabetes, announced that it has filed three new patents. This increases the number of patents from five at listing to nine. The new patents reflect the progress made in developing OptiBiotix's proprietary OptiBiotic® platform technology which generates novel oligosaccharides. Recent studies have identified an oligosaccharide which has the potential to selectively increase the growth rate of Propionibacterium species. This bacterium produces propionate which has been shown to regulate appetite. This discovery adds to the 'toolbox' of approaches OptiBiotix is developing to manage weight gain. The studies have also identified an oligosaccharide which enhances the growth rate of Lactobacillus plantarum.  This is the species used in OptiBiotix's cholesterol product and provides the potential to accentuate growth of this strain and enhance product performance. Lastly, the studies have shown to improve the ability of the OptiBiotic® discovery platform to predict the likelihood of microbial strains to produce new oligosaccharide and identify novel structures. This creates the ability to screen a greater range of species and strains with the same resources. Patents for all these improvements have now been filed.  The company believes these advances reduce technical risk and broadens the range of application, product, and partnering opportunities. The company also announced its audited results for the year ended 30 November 2014. Operational highlights saw the successful completion of preclinical studies for the group's cholesterol lowering product, a contract signed with Reading University for clinical studies of its first product: a capsular food supplement to reduce cholesterol and the strengthening of its science base internally with the appointment of Dr Sofia Kolida as director of Research and Development and the leasing of laboratories at the Science and Technology Centre at Reading University. The company also announced that it has entered into an option agreement with a multinational consumer goods company in relation to its cholesterol reducing product.  The terms of the agreement provide the multinational (for a nominal payment) with an option to enter into a definitive agreement following the results of a trial.

ProMetic Life Sciences (TSX:PLI)*
ProMetic Life Sciences, presented new pre-clinical data at the American Thoracic Society 2015 International Conference held in Denver, USA, on PBI-4050, its orally active anti-fibrotic drug candidate in phase II clinical trials for the treatment of IPF. In the gold standard animal model used to emulate pulmonary fibrosis in humans, PBI-4050 performed favourably compared to Nintedanib, one of the two FDA-approved products for such medical use. PBI-4050 significantly reduced the amount of tissue scarring observed in the lungs of non-treated animals. In this model, the combination of PBI-4050 and Nintedanib did not provide a synergistic superior outcome, in contrast to the previously reported synergistic and positive effect on reduction of fibrotic markers seen with the combination of PBI-4050 and Pirfenidone. The study results presented at the ATS annual conference demonstrated that the oral administration of PBI-4050 significantly reduced: histological lesions and scars in the lungs, inflammatory/profibrotic cytokines (TGF-β1, CTGF, MCP-1, IL-23p19 & IL-6), fibrotic markers (collagen 1, iNOS & fibronectin), remodeling markers (LOX, MMP13, PAI-1, TIMP3 & ILK) and growth factors expression (VEGFA, EGF, PDGFα, TGF-β2, EDN1). ProMetic also announced that it has received a notice of exercise of the over-allotment option to acquire an additional 2,887,500 common shares at a price of $2.60 per Over-Allotment Share, for gross proceeds of $7.5m. The underwriters were granted the Over-Allotment Option in connection with the previously announced bought deal offering of common shares of the Corporation, which closed on May 6, 2015.

Rightster Group (LON:RSTR)
Rightster Group, the cloud-based global video distribution and monetisation network, announced that it has partnered with Spotify. As part of the deal, Rightster will provide Spotify with short-form video content to further engage its millions of users on mobile. The company will focus on providing Spotify with content from several verticals including celebrity and entertainment, news, fashion, sport and social, leveraging its scale and depth with content owners and expertise in working across multiple video platforms.

Rotala (LON:ROL)
Rotala, engaged in the provision of bus services to public and private bodies and tailored transport solutions to a range of private customers, announced the acquisition from Wings Luxury Travel Limited of its whole business, the Wings brand and complete vehicle fleet for a cash consideration of £1.5m. The vehicle fleet has a fair value of £1.1m. Rotala will not assume any other assets or liabilities of any materiality. On this basis the acquisition is expected to generate about £0.4m of positive goodwill on consolidation. In the year ended 30 November 2014, the Wings business had revenues of approximately £1.9m and a profit before tax and exceptional items of £90,000. Wings is a well-established operator of luxury coach services in the London area with an excellent business reputation. It uses a 17 strong fleet of highly-specified vehicles. These, with key operating management and about 20 staff will transfer to Rotala's existing depot at Heathrow Airport. Following the recent end of the Company's long-standing contract with British Airways, there is ample capacity at this depot to absorb the Wings fleet and personnel. The acquisition will not have a material impact on earnings in the current financial year. The integration of operations and overheads is expected to have been fully implemented by the end of the year. Following these steps, the acquisition is expected to have a beneficial effect on earnings in future years.

Sareum Holdings (LON:SAR)
The Company announced that it has raised £0.14m, before expenses, by way of a placing at 0.25p per share. The net proceeds of the placing will be used to progress the Company's drug development programmes as well as for working capital purposes. This includes the anticipation of a payment of £0.79m to co-fund the Chk1 Programme Phase I clinical trials. This payment will be triggered by the decision to file for clinical trials approval, which is expected in Q4 2015.

StratMin Global Resources (LON:STGR)
StratMin, the graphite exploration and production company with assets in Madagascar, announced its final results for the year ending 31 December 2014.  The company commenced commercial production of graphite in April 2014 with continuing production throughout the year. StratMin signed an Offtake Agreement, for its natural flake graphite product, with one of the world's largest independent processors and merchants of graphite in October 2014.  Substantial surficial regolith-hosted graphite mineralisation was identified at the company's Mahefadok prospect in October 2014. The group achieved sales this year of £0.15m (£46,000 in 2014), the operating loss increased from £0.22 in 2013 to £0.23 resulting in a loss per share of 2.47p (2013: 4.15p), reflecting a move to a cost base required for a producing mine.

Venn Life Sciences Holdings (LON:VENN)
Venn Life Sciences, a Clinical Research Organisation providing clinical trial management and resourcing solutions to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device clients, announced that InnoVenn, the skin science division of Venn, has expanded its service offering with the addition of Microbiology and Histology services. InnoVenn offers clients in the cosmetic, personal care, medical device and pharmaceutical sectors tailor-made research programmes to develop skincare ingredients and products. The new services include the antimicrobial profiling of ingredients, investigation of pro and prebiotic effects on natural microflora and the quantitative microbiology of the skin. InnoVenn's renowned team of experts carry out research using their leading human skin equivalent, Labskin, which allows for the direct testing of topical materials and formulations on a living skin surface. The Company's Skin Histology laboratory provides services dedicated to cutaneous biology, including sample processing, imaging and evaluation.  It is tightly integrated with the LabSkin in vitro skin model production and testing facility, enabling customers to conduct animal-free assessments of their ingredients and products for multiple parameters including irritation, penetration, UV damage, and antimicrobial activity. InnoVenn has also recently expanded its workforce to deal with increasing international demand for their research and development services and the production of Labskin. Venn Life Sciences also announced its audited final results for the year ended 31 December 2014. The company achieved revenue of €4.9m increase of 140 percent over 2013 (€2.04m), group EBITDA Loss (before exceptional items) of €1.53m (2013 €1.65m) and group loss for the year €1.8m (2013 €1.8m). The company's EBITDA losses attributable to the CRO business was down by 36 percent to €0.95m (2013 €1.56m) and EBITDA losses attributable to investment in InnoVenn €0.58m (2013 €0.09m). The operational highlights included: the acquisition of Cardinal Systems France bringing IRT, Data Management and additional clinical capabilities to Venn. Post period end showed a strong rate of business wins and new proposals with a €4.1m contract secured in March, revenues of €2.0m booked for Q1 2015 and first InnoVenn revenues with sales of Labskin to a global pharmaceutical company.

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