Takeovers are being pushed back into next year because of Brexit, business consultant Christie Group plc (LON:CTG) said.
Even so, the leave vote has meant second half trading was significantly stronger than the first six months though it would have been even better had those M&A transactions not been delayed.
Shares rose 5% to 85p.
United Cacao Ltd, famed for its excellent share ticker (LON:CHOC), tanked by 37% to 74p as it warned it was having to negotiate for new funds at a discount to the current share price.
Talks are underway with potential funders but the Peru-based plantation owner said there was no guarantee it can get more money.
Plans are in place to scale back operations and sell and lease back its heavy equipment to raise short-term funds, which will keep it going to February.
11.15am ....reach4entertainment slumps as it breaches covenants
reach4entertainment Enterprises PLC (LON:R4E) slumped by almost 10% on Thursday morning after revealing that it had breached one of the covenants in its debt facility with PNC Business Credit.
The media group confirmed that it had breached the fixed charge cover covenant in August, September and October – something it warned about in its half-year report in September.
reach4entertainment said the reason for the breach was due to “seasonal fluctuations”, with the company’s results predominantly weighted towards the first half.
There was some good news though which perhaps stopped the share price from falling further, in that PNC acknowledged the seasonal effects and said it wouldn’t take action this time around.
As you can imagine, reach4entertainment was very grateful for the let-off, with executive chairman David Stoller commenting: “We very much appreciate the continuing support of PNC and their reasonable commercial position regarding the banking covenants.”
The company added that the covenant was met in November and is expected to be met at year end, while it suggested that the test period could be moved to avoid this year’s problems.
Metals explorer SolGold plc (LON:SOLG) was back on the up again after a mini slump at the start of December.
Shares were up more than 12% shortly after 11am after it reported some decent drill test results from its Cascabel copper-gold porphyry project in Ecuador.
9am...EVR Holdings in a world of its own after Warner Music deal
Shares in virtual reality music content creator EVR Holdings PLC (LON:EVRH) boomed after it announcing it had inked a VR content creation and distribution agreement with Warner Music – one of the largest record companies in the world.
As part of the tie-up, EVR’s wholly-owned subsidiary, MelodyVR, will create and distribute both live and pre-recorded virtual reality content featuring Warner artists for an exclusive period of time.
This will be followed by a “period of joint exploitation by both parties”, EVR said.
Under the terms of the deal, Warner Music will also receive an entitlement to subscribe for 43.2mln EVR shares – around 5% of the company – within the next five years.
Warner will have to pay 4.25p for each of those shares – almost a penny more than yesterday’s close.
“Entering into a framework agreement with one of the world's leading rights holders in music is a significant milestone for MelodyVR,” said EVR’s chief executive Anthony Matchett.
“The agreement aims to streamline the creation and distribution of VR content featuring Warner artists and also unlocks a substantial portion of our existing content library for commercial exploitation.”
Warner Music Inc – which owns and operates labels such as Atlantic Records – is home to some of the biggest names in the industry, including Madonna, Ed Sheeran and Coldplay, and posted digital record sales of over US$1.2bn in 2015.
Elsewhere, Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited (LON:COPL) had a mini-resurgence following the collapse of its share price earlier in the week.
The oil explorer said on Monday it would have to re-evaluate its plans after drill tests at its Mesurado-1 well offshore Liberia failed to find any hydrocarbons.
The share price was a bit more grim for deep cleaning and decontamination specialist REACT Group PLC (LON:REAT), which shed almost a third of its value on Thursday morning.
The company said it has decided to close its EPUK subsidiary – which it only acquired in April – after recent poor performance has shown no sign of improvements.
The wider group will take a hit from the failing division to the tune of around £180,000, and REACT now expects to post a loss for the year of between £250,000 and £300,000.