A showdown is a brewing between manufacturing specialist Volex PLC (AIM:VLX) and smaller competitor TT Electronics after the latter twice snubbed the former’s advances.
Volex on Friday disclosed that it has tabled two cash-and-share offers, the first valuing TT at 129p per share and the second at 139.6p per share.
TT’s board has declined to engage with the proposals, according to Volex, despite the enticing 77% premium offered to shareholders.
Volex chair Nathaniel Rothschild was forthcoming in his criticisms of TT’s management.
“Despite the resilience of TT Electronics' underlying business, it has faced persistent challenges in recent years, which Volex believes have been exacerbated by execution missteps by the board, including former and current executive leadership,” he remarked.
Rothschild also blamed TT’s 10-year-low share price on these missteps, not least an acquisition strategy that has “resulted in very disappointing outcomes” for the group.
TT’s share price immediately spiked 35% to 107.5p after the offers came to light. That is still a ways off Volex’s offer, implying a large degree of doubt in a deal going forward.
Junior market keep a cool head
There was less drama for the AIM All-Share Index, which dipped around half a percentage point throughout the week.
Most of these losses were felt following Tuesday’s opening bell, when UK unemployment data supplied by the ONS showed “some cracks appearing in the labour market”, per Deutsche Bank’s analysis.
Blue-chip stocks fared better than the juniors this week, with the FTSE 100 entering Friday flat at 8,067.
More risers and fallers
MP Evans Group PLC (AIM:MPE) spiked around 8% as the dividend aristocrat announced that full-year profits will be higher than expected thanks to surging crude palm oil prices.
Shortages of vegetable oil supplies are behind the rise, said MP Evans.
Ondo InsurTech PLC (LSE:ONDO)’s share price bounced 15% higher after the company announced that Nationwide Mutual, one of America’s largest insurers, will roll out Ondo’s LeakBot water leak detection device across 16 US states.
Chairman Mark Wood said he was “delighted” the relationship has morphed into something potentially significant for the business: "And of course, it builds on several other important contracts that we have in the US.”
In weekly delisting news, challenger exchange Aquis agreed to be bought out by Switzerland's SIX Exchange for 727p per share in cash, valuing the whole business at £225 million on a fully diluted basis.
As part of SIX, Aquis will be able to accelerate the development of the business and "compete more effectively on the European stage, while retaining our entrepreneurial spirit", said chief executive Alasdair Haynes.
The bid was at a substantial premium and Aquis shot to the top of the AIM movers list with a 114% gain.
Audioboom shares amped up over 10% this week thanks mainly to a full-year guidance upgrade posted on Friday. It was the second upgrade in as many months.
Audioboom now anticipates adjusted pre-tax earnings of $2.8 million (£2.2 million), up from October's $2.5 million forecast, which itself had been raised from an earlier estimate of $1.3 million.
In the energy sector, Star Energy Group plc surged 34% after announcing the sale of land at Alton, Hampshire to Pickerings Hire for £6.3 million.
Pantheon Resources PLC (AIM:PANR, OTCQX:PTHRF) rallied more than 20% in response to an update on its Alaska operations.
Pantheon has kicked off drilling operations for the Megrez-1 well, located in the Ahpun field in Alaska’s North Slope, when testing targets are estimated to host up to 609 million barrels of ANS crude and 3.30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
AIM-listed electronics group Solid State PLC (AIM:SOLI) shares collapsed by 40% on Friday after announcing that payments linked to a UK government defence contract have been paused pending the completion of a strategic defence review next summer.
Although Solid State expects the orders to be received in due course, they will fall outside the current financial period.
Zoo Digital fell off by a quarter after publishing its interim results. Although revenues increased by 29% year on year and gross profit increased nearly five-fold, the cloud-based software group warned that orders in the following quarter will be “limited”.
AIM-listed investment firm Tekcapital PLC (LSE:TEK) fell nearly 20% in a technical markdown following a £1 million equity round.
Lastly, flooring products manufacturer Victoria plc’s share price was slashed by a third throughout the week. A Friday trading update suggested that “demand will be returning to the flooring market - albeit off a very low base of 20-25% below 2019 levels due to broad macroeconomic factors”.