Shares in property group Safeland PLC (LON:SAF) dropped 6.07% to 51.76p after scrapping its final dividend and reporting a fall in annual turnover and profits.
In the year to 31 March 2017, revenue fell to £12.9mln from £21.1mln last year. Gross profit dropped to £2.46mln from £7.1mln and operating profit fell to £1.9mln from £5.8mln.
The company blamed its decision to be more selective on transactions until the outlook on the economy and property sector showed signs of strengthening.
“I repeat the statement in the most recent interims and 2016's full-year results, that the market appears to us to be constrained by an economic outlook which in turn is affected by political conditions in the UK, in the EU, and worldwide, which I believe have combined to create a more cautious environment,” said managing director Larry Lipman.
Tharisa PLC (LON:THS) shares shot up 17.78% to 91p after the platinum group metals and chrome producer said it has signed a strategic co-operation agreement with China’s Shanxi Taigang Wanbang Furnace Charge Co.
The company will supply Shanxi, a joint venture company of Chinese giant Taiyuan Iron & Steel Co (TISCO), with a minimum of 240,000 tonnes of metallurgical-grade chrome concentrate, about a quarter of its production.
The five-year deal begins next month.
"Tharisa is pleased to have formalised its relationship with TISCO, a long-time client,” said chief executive Phoevos Pouroulis in a statement.
2.15pm: Genel Energy gains, Utilitywise falls
Genel Energy PLC (LON:GENL) shares gained after saying it expects cash flow to be “materially enhanced” over the course of a five-year agreement signed with the Kurdistan Regional Government related to oil sales from the Taq Taq and Tawke fields.
The company has agreed to cancel and waive its rights to outstanding receivables for past oil sales and in return it gets an additional share of revenue on current and future production (over a five year period until July 2022).
It will receive a further 4.5% of gross revenues from the Tawke field, in addition to the proceeds it receives for current oil sales.
Shares jumped 15.87% to 150.62p.
Utilitywise plc (LON:UTW) shares were lower after saying it expects to report a 40% fall in adjusted profit before tax for the year due to an underconsumption of contracts and the deferral of some significant contract renewals.
Revenue is forecast to rise 3% despite the issue with contracts with its enterprise division delivering a "strong underlying operating performance”.
Net debt at the end of July was about £19.0mln compared to £5.5mln last year, due to it no longer accepting advance cash receipts from some energy suppliers for new business not yet written.
Shares fell dipped 2.39% to 71.50p.
12.30pm: 4D Pharam gains newly acquired business reaches milestone
4D Pharma PLC (LON:DDDD) rallied after the pharmaceuticals company said its 4D Pharma Cork Limited business has reached its first milestone since it was purchased in February last year.
The group, which develops live biotherapeutic, said 4D Pharma Cork - formerly called Tuscana Health - achieved the technical validation of the MicroDx platform for diagnosing irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients in its first clinical trial.
MicroDx is designed to diagnose, stratify and monitor the treatment of patients based on their gut microbiome, the bacteria which colonises the human gastrointestinal tract.
"The work carried out by the 4D team in Cork has also built further evidence supporting the use of a live biotherapeutic across all subtypes of the disease, and the trial itself provides a well understood cohort to potentially kick start our phase II Blautix trial," said chief executive Duncan Peyton.
"Further, having validated the platform in IBS, we will look to develop MicroDx across other disease areas, in conjunction with the upcoming trials of our live biotherapeutics in cancer and asthma."
4D Pharma has issued 635,692 new ordinary shares, representing deferred consideration for the acqusition of the business.
Shares shot up 21.08% to 378.36p.
CPPGroup PLC (LON:CPP) shares slipped 5.77% to 12.25p as the product marketing company reported a 42% drop in half-year underlying operating profit to £2.1mln.
The group said growth in its international customer base failed to offset a decline in its UK renewal book.
Revenue, however, still rose 18% to £41.8mln, its first period of growth in more than five years.
11.05am: PV Crysalox Solar under the cosh on first half loss
PV Crystalox Solar PLC (LON:PVCS) shares fell 10.64% to 21.0p after it swing to a first half loss on lower revenue amid a dispute with a customer about its contractual obligations.
The supplier of photovoltaic (PV) silicon wafers said the loss before tax was €5.4mln, compared to a profit of €4.7mln the same period a year earlier. Revenue fell to €12.6mln from €34.7mln.
The company is currently in a dispute with a major PV customer who has failed to purchase wafers in line with its contract since 2013.
A hearing at an arbitral tribunal in Frankfurt took place in March and the judgement is expected before the end of September.
Integumen PLC (LON:SKIN) shares rose 9.52% to 2.87p after the personal healthcare company said it made progress in receiving patent and trademark approval for three of its products.
The firm has been granted a patent in the US for the manufacture and sale of its tongue vacuum cleaner product TS1 for use in the dental surgery. It has also received notice of allowance for the trademark 'Clarogel' for its blemish control product in the US and will apply for trademark registration.
In Canada, it received a notice of allowance for its base Visible Youth patent for the treatment of ageing skin.
9.41am: Snoozebox shares jump on contract win
Snoozebox Holdings PLC shares jumped after securing a contract to provide an 80-room pop-up accommodation for workers in a remote area of the UK.
The company expects to start deploying the rooms in September and the contract to be revenue earning in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Snoozebox will supply the accommodation for an initial 12 months under the contract, which is expected to make a 25% contribution towards central overheads in 2017.
Deployment and subsequent removal costs will be covered by the customer who identity was not disclosed by Snoozebox.
"The hotel will be deployed within a short two-week period demonstrating just how rapidly we can respond to demands for such accommodation,” said chairman Chris Errington.
Shares were up 29.31% to 0.375p.
BlueRock Diamonds PLC (LON:BRD) shares sparkled after saying it sold a parcel of 400.06 carats of diamonds from its Kareevlei diamond mine in the Kimberley region of South Africa at an average price of US$330 per carat in August.
The company added that production has continued to improve with July’s output up 40% on the previous month at 20,200 tonnes.
“Having recently raised capital to further improve our production levels and provide working capital, we are on track to reaching our target production of 25,000 tonnes per month,” said chief executive Adam Waugh.
Greencore Group PLC (LON:GNC) tried to reassure the market following its recent falling share price, saying it was not aware of any developments that would cause the decline.
Shares fell 3.03% to 201.7p in morning trading.
The company also insisted that its recent acquisition of a US food company is working as planned.
It said there had been “some level of churn” in the retail legacy part of the US business and the company has decided refocus its Florida plant on fresh products rather than the frozen goods currently produced in the country. But Greencore said “this change is being managed seamlessly with the relevant customers and the board anticipates that the impact on profitability will be minimal”.
Tlou Energy shares dipped 5.48% to 8.625p after saying it the evaluation of bids will be put back following a rescheduling of the proposal deadline for a coal bed methane pilot plant.
The new deadline for the request for proposal (RFP) has moved to September 20 from August 23.
Tlou received a detailed request for proposal from the Ministry for the development of up to 100MW of CBM fuelled pilot power plants in Botswana – with the competing bids expected to be assessed against eligibility, technical and funding criteria.
Proactive news headlines:
Platinum group metals and chrome producer Tharisa PLC said it has inked a strategic co-operation agreement with the Shanxi Taigang Wanbang Furnace Charge Co, a joint venture company of the Chinese giant Taiyuan Iron & Steel Co (TISCO). The five-year deal, which starts next month, will see Tharisa supply a minimum of 240,000 tonnes of metallurgical-grade chrome concentrate, which is around a quarter of its production.
TyraTech Inc. (LON:TYR) (LON: TYRU) said today that its overall trading remains satisfactory and the life sciences technology company expects to report results in-line with current market expectations. The one-line trading update came as the AIM-listed firm revealed it will announce its results for the six months ended 30 June 2017 on September 12.
OptiBiotix Health plc (LON:OPTI) is set to launch its LPLDL cholesterol and blood pressure lowering strain in the United States next month. The life sciences group will exhibit at the Supply Side West trade show in Las Vegas at the end of September where it will present various products that contain the LPLDL strain, including CholBiome and CardioBiome.
PowerHouse Energy Group PLC (LON:PHE), a specialist in turning waste into synthesis gas, said it had recruited a new chairman as well as successfully completing an oversubscribed £1.6mln City fundraiser. The appointment first: Powerhouse has brought on board Dr Cameron Davies, founder of gas-to-power firm Alkane Energy, which he brought to AIM and then subsequently helped sell to Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Partners for £60mln.
88 Energy Ltd (LON:88E) has told investors that flow testing operations on the Icewine-2 appraisal well are due to start in Alaska next week. The company noted that this schedule represents a one week delay, caused by fine tuning of the testing procedure.
Tlou Energy Ltd (LON:TLOU) has flagged a rescheduling of the proposal deadline for a coal bed methane pilot plant. The AIM-quoted company, in a stock market statement, told investors that the new deadline for the request for proposal (RFP) has moved to September 20 from August 23.
Cadence (LON:KDNC) said Auroch Minerals - in which Cadence currently owns a 7.7% stake – has revealed encouraging sampling results from the second round of multi-elemental analysis on waste dumps at the Tisová - Co Cu Au project. In a statement, Cadence said results from second round testing of historic waste dumps confirm cobalt presence at Tisová, as well as significant grades of copper, gold and silver.
In a separate statement today, Cadence also noted the announcement today from Bacanora Minerals PLC (LON:BCN) - in which Cadence currently owns a 16.1% shareholding - providing an update on the Sonora Lithium Project in Mexico, including progress on the work processes for the feasibility study and debt funding discussions.
Bacanora Minerals Ltd (LON:BCN) told investors that it expects the feasibility study at its Sonora lithium project in Mexico to be completed towards the end of this year. The explorer is currently targeting first production for 2019/2020 following an 18-month build programme.
Bushveld Minerals Limited (LON:BMN) has told investors that a working capital funding facility with Wogen Resources has been expanded to US$11mln, form US$9mln. It comes after other changes to the Wogen funding arrangements earlier this week – which saw the retiring of a US$3mln prepayment financing and an increase in the working capital facility to US$9mln from US$6mln.
Metal Tiger PLC (LON:MTR) revealed today that the mineral resource estimate for its T3 exploration project in the Kalahari copper belt in Botswana has been upgraded. The revised, JORC compliant estimate comprises 36mln tonnes of ore a 1.14% copper and 12.8 grams per tonne of silver, with T3 containing approximately 409,000 tonnes of copper and 14.8mln ounces of silver.
Galantas Gold Corp (LON:GAL) (CVE:GAL) said underground development of its gold mine in Omagh, Northern Ireland, continued as it posted its quarterly results. As you’d expect for a company investing in growth, Galantas was lossmaking - the net loss was C$511,876 for the three months ended June 30. More importantly, the company had C$1.68mln in the bank, which will help fund development. "I am very pleased with the progress made this quarter on developing the underground mine and I congratulate the Galantas team in Omagh on their excellent achievements,” said chief executive Roland Phelps.
Redx Pharma Plc (LON:REDX) announced that Jason Baker and Miles Needham of FRP Advisory LLP, joint administrators of the company and its subsidiary, Redx Oncology Limited, have been granted permission by the High Court to make a distribution to the groups’ unsecured creditors. The drug discovery firm said the joint administrators will shortly be sending unsecured creditors notices of intended dividend, following which claims will be adjudicated and distributions made, with all unsecured creditors to be paid in full. Redx added that this is a significant step towards the anticipated rescue of the companies as a going concerns and the termination of the administrations.
FairFX Group Plc (LON: FFX) said that, further to its announcement on 8 August regarding its conditional acquisition of CardOne, the Financial Conduct Authority has now consented to the acquisition. The group said the acquisition remains conditional on approval at the General Meeting to be held today, after which it will provide a further update on the deal and fundraising.
VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF) said today it has entered into an agreement with VinaCapital Fund Management JSC (VCFM) – like VOF, an affiliate of Cayman Islands-based VinaCapital Investment Management Limited (VCIM) to delegate certain investment management and advisory activities. VCFM - a fully licensed fund management company domiciled in Vietnam - is regulated by the State Securities Commission of Vietnam which belongs to the International Organization of Securities Commissions of which the UK and US security commissions are also participating members.