logo-loader

Superdry investors in danger of losing their shirt after Dunkerton prevails in power struggle

Last updated: 15:15 02 Apr 2019 BST, First published: 08:53 02 Apr 2019 BST

Superdry clothes shop

The Brexit vote may have got the political junkies tumescent with excitement but in the stock market, the big vote has been Superdry PLC (LON:SDRY).

The bid by Julian Dunkerton, the founder and former chief executive of the fashion chain, to get back on the board has succeeded, albeit by a razor-thin margin.

In a nail-biting finish, shareholders approved Dunkerton's return in a vote of 50.75% in favour and 49.25% against, while his sidekick, Peter Williams, the chairman of online fashion retailer Boohoo, was also elected to the board with 50.74% of the votes in favour and 49.26% against.

 

For what it is worth, most commentary on Twitter seems to be in favour of Dunkerton's return, or at least neutral, whereas the market, fearing boardroom clashes and upheaval, has sent the shares 6.5% lower at 512.5p.

1.45pm: Clear Leisure hits the market with good news ... and sees its shares slide

Clear Leisure PLC (LON:CLP) said the website www.pbvmonitor.com is now up and running, signalling the launch of commercial operations for PBV Monitor, a company in which it has a small stake.

PBV is an Italian company specialising in the acquisition and dissemination of data for the legal services industry; Clear Leisure acquired a 10% stake in the company in December.

PBV’s services can now be purchased online, Clear Leisure announced, to the apparent apathy of the market, which marked the shares down 5.4%.

12.40pm: Cautious outlook statement depresses Proeteome share price

Shares in drugs and biomarker developer Proteome Sciences PLC (LON:PRM) hit the skids after the company reported lower revenues for 2018.

Total revenues dropped to £3.05mln from £3.38mln the year before, although the loss before tax narrowed to £1.66mln from £2.05mln in 2017.

The shares were down almost 10% as the company conceded that political instability and weakness in the bioscience sector has carried over from 2018 and will continue to undermine investment.

11.45am: Intercede jumps to it as it bags contract from the US government

Cybersecurity company Intercede Group PLC (LON:IGP) was lifted by the award of a US$4.3mln order from the US government.

The order includes software licences – or licenses, as the stock market announcement misspells the noun - and annual support & maintenance contracts.

Intercede said US$2.05mln (£1.57mln) of the contract win will be recognised in the financial year ended 31 March 2019.

Shares in Intercede were up 42% at 23.5p as the company said revenues for the year just ended are expected to exceed £10mln, which is ahead of current market expectations of £8.5mln.

The company has been talking about a return to profitability for some time and it looks like it achieved it in the year just ended, at least at the operating profit level and also after interest and tax have been deducted.

11.00am: M.P. Evans slips into the red

Palm oil producer M.P. Evans Group PLC (LON:MPE) slipped into the red after the publication of its full-year results.

Profit before tax virtually halved to US$18.35mln in 2018 from US$$35.07mln in 2017, which the company attributed to lower palm oil prices.

Revenue eased to US$108.6mln from US$116.5mln the previous year.

On the plus side, crops during the first two months of 2019 have been ahead of last year in all regions and, in good news for the environment, the recent growth in world palm-oil production is expected to slow in 2019, according to the group's chairman, Peter Hadsley-Chaplin.

The shares were off 4.3% at 656.44p, having fallen as low as 601p earlier in the day.

10.15am: Zenith hits a nadir after share issue

Shares in Zenith Energy Ltd (LON:ZEN) hit a nadir of 2.60p in mid-morning trading after the company announced plans to issue equity.

Zenith is a Canadian company, also listed in London and Oslo, that has assets in Azerbaijan.

It has raised £1.02mln or, if you prefer, C$1.79mln or 11.52mln Norwegian kroner, through the issue of shares at 2.55p – 0.35p below last night's closing price.

“The capital raised will be invested directly into our drilling operations in order ensure the best execution possible,” said Andrea Cattaneo, the chief executive officer of Zenith.

Zenith is about to start drilling activities in the Jafarli field.

9.30am: Infrastructure India soars after it finally gets financing deal off the ground

Infrastructure India PLC (LON:IIP) must be a candidate for the least sexy company name but the stock was attracting covetous glances on Tuesday morning.

The stock was the top riser, up 131%, after it agreed on a conditional proposed £80.2mln financing.

The loan is expected to provide sufficient capital to enable Distribution Logistics Infrastructure (DLI), the company's wholly owned subsidiary, to complete, commission and ramp up all of its existing terminal facilities through to completion, to meet other DLI lender requirements and provide additional working capital for both DLI and the group.

Exciting stuff!

The gain even put the 75% advance by Sabien Technology Group Plc (LON:SNT) in the shade.

Good news has been in short supply of late for the manufacturer and supplier of M2G, a boiler energy efficiency technology, but it cheered its shareholders today with news of a contract win worth £846,375.

The customer is “a major government department” - the identity of which is presumably on a need to know basis – that will deploy Sabien's M2G Boiler Optimisation Technology across parts of its estate.

Despite today's share price surge, Sabien's shares are at half the level they were a year ago.

Proactive news headlines:

Tekcapital PLC (LON:TEK) has unveiled a new strategic partnership with a technology incubator and accelerator programme in Peru. The AIM-quoted firm is teaming up with Emprende UP which is part of Universidad del Pacífico (UP), Peru’s leading business school.

Mirada PLC (LON:MIRA) has announced the commercial launch of Iris, a multiscreen solution for its contracted service with Bolivian partner Digital TV Cable Edmund. Iris allows Digital TV Cable's subscribers to watch live and on-demand content across all devices, with the seamless user experience and advanced functionalities.

European Metals Holdings Ltd.(LON:EMH) has successfully developed a flow sheet for the production of battery-grade lithium hydroxide from ore from the Cinovec project in the Czech Republic.

Sareum Holdings Plc (LON:SAR) shot higher on Tuesday after data presented at a massive industry conference showed that its flagship Checkpoint 1 inhibitor was able to remove any evidence of lung cancer in mice.

Eden Research PLC (LON:EDEN) has reported a jump in full-year revenues as its product sales increased by 112% helping the biopesticides group swing to an operating profit.

Belvoir Lettings PLC (LON:BLV), which runs a network of more than 300 lettings and estate agencies, has made an encouraging start to 2019.

Live Company Group Plc (LON:LVCG) shares were lifted in early deals on Tuesday after it said it is to take responsibility of promoting, managing, and operating its flagship BRICKLIVE show in the UK for the first time.

UK medicinal cannabis investor Sativa Investments PLC (AQSE: SATI) has teamed up with King's College London to research the impact of cannabinoids on inflammation and respiratory diseases. Under the research agreement, Sativa will supply the university with specific strains of cannabis plants that contain various combinations of the spectrum of at least 113 known cannabinoids, subject to regulatory approval.

Location Sciences Group PLC (LON:LSAI) expects its ad fraud detection technology to make “significant waves” in the digital advertising industry this year.

Arix Bioscience PLC (LON:ARIX) said it had increased its stake in investee company Aura Biosciences after backing the latter’s £31mln (US$40mln) Series D financing round. Arix committed £3.4mln, taking its holding in the ocular oncology specialist to 7.7%.

Next Fifteen Communications Group PLC’s (LON:NFC) chief executive Tim Dyson has said the digital marketing group has “lots of scope” for acquisitions in the coming year after the company reported a 23% jump in pre-tax profits for 2018.

Taptica International Ltd (LON:TAP) has issued a profit warning about RhythmOne just a day after completing its acquisition. RhythmOne's trading in the year to March was below market expectations Taptica said today, though it still believes the acquisition was in its best interests.

Corero Network Security PLC’s (LON:CNS) partnership agreement with network giant Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) has yielded its first revenue-generating order.

Clinigen Group PLC (LON:CLIN) now owns the global rights to cancer drug Proleukin after its acquisition of the US rights was cleared by competition regulators across the pond.

Thor Mining PLC (LON:THR) (ASX:THR) has announced the successful recovery of gold from samples taken from the Kapunda copper in-situ recovery project in South Australia. The results are from research activities on Kapunda undertaken by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

Woodbois Limited (LON:WBI) kicked off 2019 with a record quarter. The Africa-focused forestry and timber trading company shipped an all-time quarterly high of 114 containers of timber and veneer during the three months ended 31 March.

Johannesburg-listed hotel and leisure group Brainworks Limited (JSE:BRA) saw growth across its portfolio in 2018 in spite of the political unrest in Zimbabwe. Occupancy at its hotels rose by 7 percentage points to 59% FY17:5%), with room rates rising 17% to US$109 on average. Group debt fell by 55%.

BlueRock Diamonds PLC (LON:BRD) produced 42,409 tonnes of ore from its Kareevlei diamond mine in the Kimberley region of South Africa during the first quarter of 2019. During the period the company sold 1,847 carats sold, a year-on-year increase of 18%.

Bluejay Mining PLC (LON:JAY) expects to deliver updated resource calculations for the Iterlak East, Iterlak West and the Offshore Shallow Marine mineral sands targets in Greenland within the next two months.

Charaat Gold Holdings Ltd (LON:CGH) yesterday announced a proposed a US$11mln capital raising to meet its near-term funding plans. The company plans to raise the funds through the issue of convertible bonds and the placement of ordinary shares.

Geencoat UK Wind PLC (LON:WIND) has announced the appointment of Lucinda Riches as a non-executive director of the company with effect from 1 May 2019. The group said Riches has extensive experience in investment banking, specialising in the capital markets sector having worked for Chase Manhattan Bank, followed by 21 years with UBS Investment Bank, where her ultimate role was Global Head of Equity Capital Markets.

Caledonia Mining Corporation PLC (LON:CMCL) today declared a quarterly dividend of US$0.06875 on each of the company's common shares.

IronRidge Resources Limited (LON:IRR), the African focused minerals exploration company, said it is holding a shareholder update meeting and presentation followed by a Q&A session today at 6:00 pm (UK local time), at 1 America Square, 17 Crosswall Street, London EC3N 2LB. It added that Vincent Mascolo, CEO and Managing Director, and Len Kolff, Chief Operating Officer, will host the evening.

BigDish Plc (LON: DISH), the food technology company that operates a yield management platform for restaurants, announced that its new website will go live this week. Sanj Naha, BigDish’s CEO commented: “We are getting closer to the point where the rapid expansion across the UK that we have planned will take place."

WideCells Group PLC (LON:WDC) announced that it has agreed to issue a further 5,000,000 new ordinary shares in the company to Align Research in relation to the settlement of outstanding fees.

Asiamet Resources Limited (LON:ARS) said it will be attending the Mines and Money Asia Conference in Hong Kong from 2-4 April, one of the largest resource investment forums in Asia and attended by leading investors from Asia and around the world.

Caledonia Mining tackles 2023 challenges with optimism for 2024 as it...

Caledonia Mining Corporation PLC (AIM:CMCL, NYSE-A:CMCL) chief executive Mark Learmonth tells Proactive's Stephen Gunnion the company faced a challenging 2023, primarily due to poor production in the first half of the year at its core asset, the Blanket Mine in Zimbabwe, and an underperformance...

11 minutes ago