Petrofac PLC (LON:PFC) has continued to slide today after yesterday’s news that the oil services group had suspended its chief operating officer amid a Serious Fraud Office investigation.
The firm also had its price target slashed by RBC Capital Markets today as well, with analysts at the bank expecting the fraud inquiry to weigh on the business and hamper its effort to secure new contracts.
“In a challenging oil price environment, with fewer available contracts, we think this investigation by the Serious Fraud Office further impedes Petrofac's ability to win contracts,” wrote analyst Victoria McCullogh in a note to clients.
Reflecting that uncertainty, McCullogh slashed her price target for the stock by 60% to 400p (from 1000p) and moved Petrofac to ‘underperform’ from ‘sector perform’.
Shares fell past even that figure though, shedding 10% to trade at 389p. To put the swift decline into context, Petrofac shares were worth more than twice that only three weeks ago.
Elsewhere, UK Oil & Gas Investments PLC (LON:UKOG) shares were on the move upwards today after it announced that drilling is to start shortly at the Broadford Bridge-1 well.
All regulatory permissions are now in place and spudding is expected shortly, UKOG said in a statement on Thursday evening.
Broadford Bridge-1 (BB-1) will test a geological look-alike to Horse Hill and is 14 miles away located on the southern flank of the Weald Basin.
The well is designed to test both the southerly extension of the Kimmeridge Limestone oil play across the Weald Basin and its development within the licence.
Excited investors sent the share price soaring by 17% to 1.08p come Friday afternoon.
Shares in PCG Entertainment Plc (LON:PCGE) fell in afternoon trading on Friday after the Asia-Pacific online gaming and media company raised £400,000 through a discounted placing.
PCG issued 400mln shares at 0.1p a pop; a 40% discount on yesterday’s closing price of 0.14p.
The firm said the “further institutional support…has enabled PCGE to further strengthen its healthy cash position”.
Shares dipped 20% to 0.11p as they headed down towards the placing price.
1.40pm...Deltex barking up the right tree with latest product
Deltex Medical Group plc (LON:DEMG) is enjoying a good run-up to the bank holiday after it confirmed the first sale of its surgical blood monitoring systems for veterinary use.
The £15,000 sale is to a leading European veterinary university and comprises an adaption of Deltex’s Oesophageal Doppler Monitoring (ODM) platform CardioQ-ODM+ using specially designed probes.
The K9 probes (and ODMV+ monitors) are designed for smaller animals such as dogs and cats and allow multiple uses for up 30 days, which can be used as a per case billing model for veterinary practices.
Investors obviously like the branching out as Deltex shares jumped more than 13% to 4.1p.
Scientific Digital Imaging PLC (LON:SDI) was moving the other way, despite telling investors that it had enjoyed a solid year of trading.
The group, which makes various scientific and technology products, said it expected its headline profit before tax to be in line with its expectations with its latest acquisition, Astles Control Systems, making a decent contribution.
Clearly investors had hoped for something a little more bullish as shares dived 9.5% to 25.2p.
Ncondezi Energy Ltd (LON:NCCL) was also nursing some heavy losses today, with shares down almost 10% to 1.9p.
The Mozambique-focused coal miner seems to have been led down the garden path by Shanghai Electric Power (SEP) which was supposed to be providing the funding for Ncondezi’s 300 MW power plant.
But the AIM-quoted group said it had called off the joint development agreement – which would have seen SEP inject US$25.5mln in return for a 60% stake in the project – because delays in putting pen to paper were “unsustainable”.
The deal was originally outlined at the end of 2014 and was due to be signed in February 2016. This deadline was then pushed back to May, then to September and then December.
The agreement was then due to be signed in March this year but this also failed to happen, meaning that Ncondezi is back on the lookout for a new strategic partner.
The company needs to find additional funding if it wants to get the power plant off the ground although investors seemed sceptical given the saga with SEP. Shares shed 20% to 1.7p.
8.55am...Strategic Minerals jumps as it posts maiden profit
Shares in Strategic Minerals Plc (LON:SML) jumped 8% this morning as record revenues from its iron ore tailings operation in New Mexico and a one-off rail dispute payment saw it post a maiden annual profit last year.
Cobre, the business in New Mexico, saw revenues rise to US$1.55mln (2015: US$1.25mln), but since the year end a new contract has been signed that is expected to double revenues in the current year.
Importantly for investors, Strategic’s managing director John Peter Cobre’s record breaking performance had continued in the first quarter of 2017.
Turnaround investment group Volvere PLC (LON:VLE) enjoyed a similar start to Friday trading, up 7% to 717p, after it too posted a strong set of finals.
Revenues and profits crept up to £30mln and £1.98mln respectively, while the firm also achieved record net assets per share of £6.17 (2015: £5.69).
With £20mln in the bank, there’s plenty of cash to go and snap up some more distressed and undervalued assets.
There was also a bullish line on Brexit in the report, which Volvere thinks could “yield more opportunities for the year ahead”.
One of the biggest risers this morning though is FTSE 250-listed Frankie & Benny’s owner Restaurant Group PLC (LON:RTN) which is up 10.5% to 350.4p.
The firm – which also owns Garfunkel’s and Joe’s Kitchen - saw its sales decline moderate in the first quarter, with a significant improvement from the end of last year, and it continues to expect full-year profits to be in line with current market forecasts.
In a trading update for the 20 weeks to May 21, Restaurant said its like-for-like sales fell 1.8%, with its total sales down 1.5%. But that compared to a 3.9% like-for-like fall last year and a 5.9% drop in the fourth quarter, and beat market expectations for a 6-7% decline this time out.
Proactive news headlines...
Victoria Oil & Gas plc (LON:VOG) hailed a 24% increase in output, but said it is nowhere near meeting demand in Cameroon’s second city and industrial hub, Douala. “Even at record production levels, we meet less than 10% of local demand as the city's industrial economy grows,” said chief executive Ahmet Dik.
Kazakhstan oil group Caspian Sunrise PLC (LON:CASP) expects all conditions for the merger and the associated capitalisation of the US$10.1mln Vertom loan to be concluded by 1 June. Accordingly Caspian has applied for 732,240,744 new Caspian Sunrise shares, 43.86% of the then enlarged shares in issue, will start trading on AIM around that time.
Mosman Oil And Gas Limited (LON:MSMN) has closed the deal to acquire an initial 10% interest in the Arkoma Stacked Pay project in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma for US$500mln.
John W Barr, chairman, said: "This acquisition delivers production and resources with upside potential at an economically acceptable cost, meeting our investment criteria.
Plastics Capital Plc (LON:PLA) has raised £3.74mln via an oversubscribed share placing – with part of the proceeds being used to increase its stake in the US creasing matrix specialist CCM Group to 49% from 10%. The injection of new cash will also be used to increase capacity and accelerate growth.
Kibo Mining PLC (LON:KIBO), which earlier this week completed the separate listing of its Imweru and Lubando gold mining assets in Tanzania, saw its shares tick higher today as the resources explorer unveiled its 2016 results. In lunchtime trading, Kibo Mining shares were up 2.4%, or 0.12p at 5.38p. The AIM-listed firm saw its headline loss per share hold steady at 0.01p for the year to December 31, although its diluted figure was a turnaround from earnings per share of 0.001p a year earlier.
Galantas Gold Corp (LON:GAL) said 'good' progress was made in its latest quarter in its bid to bring the Omagh gold mine back into life in Northern Ireland, and where underground development is expected to begin soon. However, production at the site is currently suspended, and the planning consent given in 2015 is subject to a judicial review, which has been heard, but the result is not yet known.
Argentina-focused Andes Energia PLC (LON:AEN) lifted its production rates and revenues last year, though the net loss widened.It also told investors it had made a good operational start to 2017.