Plexus Holdings PLC (LON:POS), the wellhead equipment rental firm, saw its share price rise steadily ahead of the annual general meeting (AGM) at 2.30pm.
The chairman’s speech was released ahead of the AGM, and for a company that has been battered by the downturn in the oil and gas sector, it was a measured but upbeat assessment of the company’s current predicament.
Other than commentary on the recent Opec agreement, there was nothing particularly new in the statement, and precious little that pertained to Plexus specifically, but as a means of raising the spirits and rallying the troops, it has been a resounding success, with the shares up 11.3% at 72.06p.
"During the year, we raised capital near the prevailing share price, boosting our net cash position to £9.9mln and adding new institutional investors, as well as our Russian licensing partner Gusar, to our shareholder register, while our R&D [research & development] led IP [intellectual property] development and inventory build-up programme, which saw circa £22mln invested over the last five years, is for now largely complete,” said chairman Jerome Thrall.
“Today, Plexus owns circa 62 rental wellhead sets, which have a long working life and, if fully utilised, are estimated to be capable of supporting sales revenues of up to £40mln per annum,” he added.
Another slow-burner today was Active Energy Group PLC (LON:AEG), the renewable energy group, which at midday put out an announcement about a change of tack by the authorities in Alberta, Canada, regarding the coal switch (coal reduction) initiative between the company and the Métis Settlements of Peavine, Paddle Prairie and East Prairie.
The board of Active Energy believes the government's engagement with the Métis Settlements represents progress following a period of significant and positive political changes in Alberta since the election of the New Democrat Party government in May 2015, and that the CoalSwitch initiative will now progress as initially planned.
Shares in Active Energy climbed to 3.19p before receding to 2.91p, up 2.3% on the day.
12.37 ... Sula's golden moment
Samples from historic drill holes at Sula Iron & Gold PLC’s (LON:SULA) Ferensola have indicated more potential high grades of gold at the site in Sierra Leone.
Roger Murphy, Sula's chief executive, said that what was planned largely as a confirmatory exercise had yielded some exceptionally positive results pointing towards good gold grades within the project's weathered oxide zone.
The shares surged 6.8% to 0.235p on the news, and are up 83% over the last three months.
Watch Sula boss Roger Murphy hails 'very encouraging' Ferensola samples
redT energy PLC, the energy storage technology company, saw its shares marked down 2.8p to 8.57p as it conditionally raised gross proceeds of £12 million from institutional and other investors through a proposed issue of 150mln shares at 8p a pop.
Shareholders might be a bit miffed at the share price plunge, but at least they will get the chance to buy shares at the 8p knock-down price themselves through an open offer.
9.17: ServicePower goes private
The agreed 6p a share bid for workforce software specialist ServicePower Technologies PLC (LON:SVR) should have come as no surprise, but the shares still soared.
The company revealed on November 23 it was in talks with US private equity firm Diversis Capital about a possible offer pitched around the 6p a share level, and sure enough, this morning the company confirmed Diversis would pay £13.6mln to take the company, prompting the shares to rise by a third in value.
The terms represent a 129% premium to the stock price directly before bid interest emerged.
So, how come the shares rose by such a large amount, given that the company had clearly flagged that a deal at 6p a pop was in the offing.
The answer probably lies in the wide bid-offer spread – the difference in the price at which market makers will buy and sell the shares – on the shares, which are currently quoted at 5p – 6p (bid/offer). Throw in a bit of uncertainty over whether the bid would ultimately materialise, and there’s your 33.3% rise.
In the last few minutes, the stock has been usurped as the morning’s best performer by Nostra Terra Oil and Gas Company PLC (LON:NTOG), which is up 36% after it picked up an extra US$600,000 cash from the sale of its interest in the Chisholm Trail Prospect.
Initially, Nostra aged to sell its 20% stake in the Oklahoma-based prospect for US$2.1mln, but this now risen to US$2.7mln due to inclusion of a further well and associated mineral rights.
Among the big names, outsourcing giant Capita PLC (LON:CPI) was under the cosh, shedding 7.9% after a profit warning.