The sales process at home entertainment and gardening products distributor MBL Group PLC (LON:MUBL) has been hampered by a former director set on competing with MBL.
The chairman and chief executive at home entertainment and gardening products distributor MBL Group PLC (LON:MUBL) are fed-up and are to leave the company.
Chairman Tim Jackson-Smith and chief executive officer Peter Palfreman have been trying to sell off large chunks of the business to extract value for shareholders but said today the sale process has been frustrated by a combination of a former director and shareholder being involved in the setting up of a business that competes directly with The Garden and Home Trading Company (GHTC), which MBL is looking to offload, and that individual plus certain other shareholders refusing to commit to unconditional non-compete covenants in favour of the preferred buyer of the group's other Trading Business, Windsong International.
Long story short, the preferred cash buyer for Windsong has withdrawn from the sale process, while the trade cash buyers for GHTC either withdrew from the sale process or significantly reduced the price they are willing to pay as soon as they learned of the possibility of a competing business being set up.
The trading businesses remain profitable and cash generative and the board believes a new dedicated chief executive officer will “inherit an excellent opportunity to create future value for all shareholders”.
The shares shed 1.5p at 15p on the news.
Zoo Digital Group PLC (LON:ZOO) lifted shareholders’ spirits with an upbeat statement at the annual general meeting.
"Sales of subtitling services delivered using ZOOsubs, the company's proprietary cloud based subtitling solution, have more than doubled year-on-year during the financial year to date,” revealed Roger Jeynes, the company’s chairman.
The shares rose 11.6% on the update.
RedT Energy PLC (LON:RED) hardened a penny to 10.5p after the energy storage technology company said it had sold 14 units into sub-Saharan Africa.
Former director causes trouble at Altona
An unnamed former director of Altona Energy PLC (LON:ANR) has put in a claim for a termination payment of £238,680, sending the shares tumbling.
It’s only a couple of months since the company placed 100mln shares to raise £150,000, so the director’s claim is a sizeable sum for Altona.
The shares shed 18% at 0.225p on the news.
Better pricing and increased sales of transformer oil helped Hydrodec Group PLC (LON:HYR) post a maiden underlying profit in its latest half year.
Hydrodec re-refines contaminated oil at plants in Australia and Ohio to make transformer oil used for electricity generation.
The market did not seem especially impressed with the company’s move into the black as the shares fell 12% on the results, but shareholders might be heartened that August was the best month for the company’s US arm since a plant refurbishment back in 2015.
Meanwhile, a new ‘take or pay’ initiative should see a 'much improved' contribution from Australia.
Another head-scratcher was the 2.3% decline to 10.5p in the price of Lombard Risk Management plc (LON:LRM), the banking software specialist.
N+1 Singer thinks the shares are worth 16p.
The risk management and collateral solutions provider is halfway through a two-year plan which analyst N+1 Singer Adam Lawson notes has already delivered a “step change” in revenue performance.
Initiating coverage on the stock, Lawson said he expects “comfortable” double-digit revenue growth and a return to cash profitability “over the next few years”.
10.35: A tale of two fuel cell developers
Shares in Intelligent Energy Holdings PLC (LON:IEH) plummeted on Friday as fears grew about its future and the pain continued this morning.
The small-cap fuel cell group released new financial forecasts on Friday that were substantially lower than last year’s performance and told investors it may sell up.
The shares closed at 2.45p on Friday, down from 7.875p the day before, and having had the weekend to think about it market makers slashed another 0.64p, or 26%, from the share price this morning.
In contrast, rival fuel cell technology firm Ceres Power Holdings PLC (LON:CWR) was sitting pretty, up 5.7%, after it released the results of a year-long trial of its SteelCell technology.
The trials showed the company’s SteelCell technology offers a reliable, deliverable potential answer to what Ceres calls the looming gap between energy and supply.
The technology’s green credentials are impeccable, as the power and heating units produce next to no nitrogen or sulphur oxide but the clincher is probably the cost: Ceres says the units can save a family up to £400 a year and still have enough electricity left over to power up the electric vehicle.
9.35am: Another one bites the dust ... first Wolfson, then ARM, now Imagination
Roll-up, roll-up! Buy British computing pioneers while you can.
Ah, sorry, guvnor, the last one’s gone.
Imagination Technologies Group PLC (LON:IMG) has succumbed to a 182p a share bid from China-backed buy-out fund Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, sending the shares up by a third to 169.95p.
The fund is getting its hands on Imagination’s patents and intellectual property for a smidgen over half a billion quid.
Intriguingly, although the board of Imagination has backed the Canyon bid, it did reveal that there is one company that expressed an interest in buying Imagination that has yet to indicate whether it has lost interest.
Also putting on a spurt this morning was Independent Oil & Gas PLC (LON:IOG) after it agreed a deal with Schlumberger relating to the development of its two southern North Sea gas hubs.
After Schlumming it, the shares were up 11% at 17.125p.
A letter of intent and master service agreement has been signed covering the Blythe and Vulcan projects, providing a framework for the oil services major to assist IOG in taking the assets to final investment decision.
Proactive news headlines:
Hurricane Energy PLC (LON:HUR) has ticked off another important box as it continues to advance the Lancaster oil field towards ‘first oil’. The West of Shetland oil firm, in a statement, on Monday told investors that its field development plan for Lancaster’s early production system has now been approved.
Fuel cell developer Ceres Power Holdings PLC (LON:CWR) has hailed the success of a year-long trial of its technology in five family homes, which showed the SteelCell technology could not only reliably provide power and heat for home owners but save them around four hundred quid a year to boot.
Trinity Exploration and Production PLC (LON:TRIN) on Monday release half yearly results which were refreshingly concerned with the group’s ongoing performance rather than the now resolved debt limbo.
Plexus Holdings PLC (LON:POS) told investors it has landed a contract with Centrica to deliver the company’s POS-GRIP adjustable production wellhead for a gas production well in the UK Southern North Sea.
Esports group Gfinity Plc (LON:GFIN) is set to raise £7mln through an oversubscribed placing to help support the next stage of its development and accelerate its international expansion.
Stem cell storage and insurance specialist WideCells Group PLC (LON:WDC) is to develop a software platform that both educates and keeps medical professionals and parents up to date on new treatments and developments.
Amphion Innovations Plc (LON:AMP) has sold 4.39mln shares in partner company Motif Bio Plc (LON:MTFB) to partially pay off a loan facility. Following the sale, Amphion’s stake in Motif Bio stands at 14.1%.
Computing services provider Nasstar Plc (LON:NASA) saw revenues jump by almost 50% in the first half as it starts to see the benefits of its recently-introduced strategic plan. Big Pic in January.
IXICO Plc (LON:IXI) has picked a new contract for its analysis technology from a US biopharma for a phase II trial of a new treatment for Huntington’s disease. The contract value is £1.2mln over a three year term.
Recruitment background checks specialist ClearStar Inc (LON:CLSU) said its suite of background and medical screening services is now available through the SAP App Center. Big Pic in September.
Bushveld Minerals Ltd (LON:BMN) is raising £8 mln in new money through the issuance of two tranches of convertible bonds. The first £4.5 mln is already in, with the timing of the second tranche at the company's discretion. The money will be used to support further work on Bushveld's vanadium and tin projects.
Amur Minerals Corporation (LON:AMC) is increasingly confident of joining up two separate nickel deposits on its Kun-Manie project of Russia. Drilling is ongoing, but already grades and thicknesses are looking good. The company expects a "material" increase to the resource once all the work is completed.
Oracle Power PLC (LON:ORCP) has set up a £1mln short-term loan to provide working capital while negotiations continue over funding for theThar thermal power station in Pakistan. Major shareholder Brandon Hill is lending the money for a year on an unsecured basis. The coupon is 12%.
Savannah Resources Plc (LON: SAV) has commenced its second round of reverse circulation drilling at the Mina do Barroso lithium project in Portugal. The aim is to define a JORC resource.