Seeing Machines Ltd (LON:SEE) rallied after announcing a contract to supply its FOVIO driving monitoring system technology to a German car company.
The deal is with a “premium German automotive partner”, which will use FOVIO in its new car models that are due to begin mass production in 2020.
FOVIO uses machine vision technology to measure and analyse head pose, eyelid movements and eye-gaze under a full spectrum of demanding lighting conditions, including through sunglasses.
The data is used to deliver real-time information on driver attention state, focus, drowsiness and impairment levels.
DMS technology is normally used to enable advanced driver-assistance systems and semi-autonomous driving systems.
Shares gained 14.29% to 5.0p.
Strategic Minerals Plc (LON:SML) edged down 8.57% after saying it has raised £1.5mln after placing more than 66 million shares.
The mining company said the placing will support the acquisition and development of mineral and metal projects that the directors “expect to have significant value upside over the next three to five years”.
2.50pm: Starcom slides as it raises capital to repay loans
Starcom Plc shares were sitting lower even after saying it expects revenue to be higher than last year on the back of an increase in capital.
The company, which develops portable wireless tracking devices that can be attached to valuable assets, people and pets, said it has raised £475,000 before expenses through a placing of more than 36 million shares.
Proceeds will be used to accelerate completion of a new orders received from customers and ensure the “timely” supply and delivery of products by year end. The fundraise will also help the company repay US$100,000 due to YA II PN, Ltd and other commercial loans amounting to US$115,000.
"We are pleased to have raised this level of new funding which will strengthen our balance sheet and provide the necessary capital to ensure that our growth continues as anticipated,” said Starcom chairman Michael Rosenberg. With this additional capital, the board is increasingly confident that revenues for this year will comfortably exceed those of last year."
Weatherly International plc (LON:WTI) shares swept higher after the copper mining company said it has been given more time on repayments due on its loan with Orion Mine Fund.
The two companies have amended their agreement on an existing loan facility with the first repayment now due on 31 December, instead of 31 October, and the second repayment deadline pushed back to 31 January from 30 November.
Weatherly added that it has made no further drawdown on the uncommitted US$10mln loan announced on 28 July to accelerate the building of the leach pads and to fund working capital requirements at the Tschudi mine in Namibia. The company said it has hedged copper and currency through until May 2018 to ensure the loan would be sufficient to meet the necessary funding requirements.
Weatherly said it remains in talks with Orion about its loan as it is unlikely to generate sufficient surplus cash to meet all loan repayments when due, particularly in the near term.
Shares increased 13.3% to 0.85p.
1.00pm: Cabot Energy shares up on positive well testing results
Cabot Energy PLC (LON:CAB) shares rose 12.50% to 4.50p after the oil and gas company said its 16-05 side track well in Canada tested at “significantly higher” rates than expected.
Following the completion of drilling, the well produced a total 573 barrels of oil during testing over two days.
Cabot said the well is producing under natural flow and is expected to produce at a restricted rate of 200 to 225 barrels of oil per day following pump installation next week to “best manage the longer term production potential of the reservoir”.
Ortac Resources Ltd (LON:OTC) shares edged down 10.53% to 2.12p after announcing a management shake-up and a £1.7mln fundraise through the placement of shares.
The company placed has placed 85 million new shares at 2.0 pence to fund further investments in core African assets.
In line with its revamped strategy, the group said Vasillios Carellas has stepped down as chief executive and will become chief operating officer. Non-executive director Nick von Schirnding has been appointed executive chairman.
11.40am: Oilex slides as it says funding for projects remains challenging
Oilex Ltd (LON:OEX) shares slipped into the red after saying that low oil and gas prices continue to impact its operations.
In its annual report, the operator of the Cambay Project in Gujarat, India said overall capital expenditures remained low with funding for greenfield exploration projects “challenging”.
Oilex has been working with its joint venture partner, GSPC, to resolve a number of unpaid cash calls going back several years. At 30 June 2017, gross unpaid cash calls issued to GSPC totalled about US$5.492mln.
Separately, Oilex announced that Max Cozijn will retire from the board as a non-executive director after stepping down as chairman in February.
Shares declined 15.15% to 0.14p.
PCI-PAL PLC (LON:PCIP), supplier of secure payment systems, rallied as it said it has won a major reseller contract with an award-winning UK-based cloud-enabled contact centre.
The company said the unidentified reseller, which has operations in the UK, the US and Australia, will integrate with its Amazon Web Services platform to provide clients with live agent and interactive voice response secure payment services.
“This technology gives us compliance with country-specific data sovereignty rules with ready integration into any telephony and payment system across a wide range of locations,” said William Catchpole, chief executive of PCI-PAL.
“This degree of service and roll-out flexibility is now expected by our clients and acts as a considerable competitive advantage for PCI-PAL in its target markets."
Shares rose 10.53% to 52.50p.
10.00am: STM shares drop as CEO arrested in Gibraltar
STM Group PLC (LON:STM) was under the cosh after the financial services firm's chief executive, Alan Kentish, was arrested in Gibraltar for allegedly failing to disclose information about a client involved in a tax dispute with two countries.
The client, who was not named, was involved in a tax dispute between two countries about their rights to tax Kentish from 2008 to 2013.
Before it was clear that the client was involved in a tax dispute, STM said Kentish had followed compliance procedures in filing two suspicious activity reports with the company's money laundering reporting officer, which was sent to the Gibraltar Financial Intelligence Unit (GFIU).
The GFIU did not respond within 14 days so the company was in its rights to continue with business as normal, STM said.
STM said the allegations against Kentish have “no merit” and is confident the matter will soon be resolved in favour of its CEO.
Shares dropped 9.96% to 52.0p.
JKX Oil & Gas PLC (LON:JKX) shares gained after saying the High Court of Justice in England and Wales dismissed an appeal by the Ukraine government to set aside a recent arbitration award in favour of the company.
The arbitration against Ukraine is related to JKX’s bid to recover excessive taxes paid by subsidiary Poltava Petroleum Co since 2011.
In February the tribunal ruled the Ukraine did not violate treaty obligations related to excessive levying of taxes but had to pay JKX damages of about US$11.8mln plus interest and costs of US$300,000 in relation to subsidiary claims.
Ukraine appealed the ruling, which the High Court of Justice of England and Wales has dismissed, meaning the government will still have to pay damages to JKX.
Shares jumped 19.61% to 15.25p.
Europa Oil & Gas Holdings PLC (LON:EOG) was on the front foot as it narrowed its pre-tax loss and grew revenue for the year.
In the year to 31 July 2017, the pre-tax loss fell to £700,000 from £1.9mln and revenue rose to £1.6mln from £1.3mln.
The company said it was a “record year” on the back of the successful farm-out to Cairn of a 70% interest in one of its South Porcupine licences, two separate sales of its interest in the Wressle oil field in the East Midlands, the acquisition of Shale Petroleum and the farm-out of a 12.5% stake in the upcoming Holmwood well in the Weald basin.
Europa expects the Wressle project be given the green light for production, to add another 100 barrels of oil per day to the group’s production. It is also set to begin drilling at the Holmwood project onshore UK.
Shares were up 13.3% to 6.38p.
LightwaveRF (LON:LWFR) shares fell after the company announced a proposed £5mln fundraising though the placement of shares and an open offer.
The company, which makes light, heat, power and security devices for the home, will use the funds to support product developments, marketing and working capital.
Shares declined 9.78% to 16.69p.
Other Proactive news headlines:
Cabot Energy PLC (LON:CAB) has told investors that the side-track of the 16-05 well at the Rainbow project, in Canada, has seen significantly better than expected flow rates during well testing. The side-track well is now in production, connected to the existing pipeline. It was tested for a 24 hour period, in which it yielded some 573 barrels of oil. The exit rate of the test was around 680 bopd.
Seeing Machines Limited (LON:SEE) shares drove higher early on Monday after the eye-tracking and facial recognition specialist won a new contract with a German car giant. The AIM-listed company will supply its FOVIO driver monitoring system (DMS) technology to the “premium German automotive partner” for use in its new car models, which are scheduled for mass production in 2020.
Corero Network Security PLC (LON:CNS) has secured its first SmartWall Threat Defense contract win in the Australian market; the contract is worth more than US$200,000.
Ortac Resources Ltd (LON:OTC) has raised £1.7mln before expenses from a placing of 85mln new ordinary shares at 2p per share to fund further investments in Ortac's core African assets, and has reshuffled its management, with its CEO stepping down and an executive chairman appointed. Vasillios Carellas, the company's CEO, will step down from the Ortac’s board with immediate effect and will take up the role of chief operating officer, focusing on the group's promising African exploration assets. Nick von Schirnding will assume the role of executive chairman.
NetScientific PLC (LON:NSCI) said one of its portfolio companies will update the scientific community on an advance in the field of respiratory health. ProAxsis will give two poster presentations providing further data on its ProteaseTag technology.
Haydale Graphene Industries PLC (LON:HAYD) said its patent application governing the way it ‘functionalises’ wonder material graphene and other materials for commercial use has been granted in the US. This means the company’s plasma process is now protected in all its key markets, including UK, Europe, Japan, China and Australia.
Tekcapital PLC (LON:TEK) has licensed a patent developed by the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University that could be the backbone of software for autonomously controlling cars, trucks and drones using artificial intelligence. The company, which is wrapping the intellectual property into its Guident business, says the technology may one day be used to develop an app that will dispatch vehicles to find parking spots and then retrieve them again.
Highlands Natural Resources PLC (LON:HNR) has commenced flow back operations at the Wildhorse and Powell wells at its East Denver Niobrara oil and gas shale project in Colorado. As previously announced, the Wells were hydraulically fractured 55 times each for a total of 110 intervals.
Echo Energy PLC (LON:ECHO) has confirmed it is holding talks over a potential new acquisition in South America. The company, in a statement, told investors that it is in discussions for a potential farm-in to oil and gas assets, though due to the size of the acquisition the transaction would constitute a reverse takeover and as such the company’s shares are being suspended on AIM.
Diversified Gas & Oil PLC (LON:DGOC) told investors that its acquisition of assets from Titan Energy is now wholly complete and that overall trading remains in-line with current market forecasts. The acquisition means the company now operates around 17,000 wells and it is optimising asset performance whilst reducing costs.
Thor Mining PLC (LON:THR) says it will be able to improve the economics at the Molyhil tungsten and molybdenum project in Australia, following ore sorting tests. The project was previously the subject of an economic study which ascribed to it a net present value of A$67mln.
Wolf Minerals PLC (LON:WLFE) has received permission from the Australian Securities Exchange to grant security over the Hemerdon tungsten project in return for a £10mln extension to bridging finance offered by long-time supporter Resource Capital Funds. The total bridge finance now in place amounts to £55mln.
Katoro Gold PLC (LON:KAT) has completed the second phase of its environmental and social impact assessment study, known as an ESIA, for the Imweru gold project in Tanzania. The National Environmental Management Council has acknowledged receipt of the Scoping Report and Terms of Reference for the execution of the final phase of the ESIA, being the detailed Environmental Impact Assessment.
Strategic Minerals PLC (LON:SML) has raised just over £1mln via an oversubscribed placing of shares. The money will be used to secure and then to develop the Leigh Creek copper project in Australia, which the company currently has under option.
Keywords Studios PLC (LON:KWS), the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, has completed the acquisition of VMC Consulting Corporation and Volt Canada Inc on the terms previously announced.
Green Dragon Gas Ltd. (LON:GDG), one of the largest independent companies involved in the production and sale of coal bed methane (CBM) gas in China, announced that it has progressed discussions with the majority of its debt holders to extend existing maturities to 20th November 2018.
Capital Networks has issued a research report on e-Therapeutics PLC (LON:ETX), concluding that it is an “undervalued stock with a unique approach to drug discovery”, according to analyst Riccardo Lowi.
Capital Networks has also issued a research report on Chariot Oil & Gas Ltd. (LON:CHAR), with analyst Lionel Therond concluding that he believe this is an opportune time for potential investors to revisit the equity story.