Mineral & Financial Investments Ltd (LON:MAFL) rallied after saying its investee company TH Crestgate GmbH sold a 25% stake in Redcorp Empreendimentos Mineiros Lda , the owner and operator of the Lagoa Salgada zinc-copper project in Portugal.
TH Crestgate sold the stake to Ascendant Resources Inc for US$2.5mln in cash and shares.
Mineral & Financial owns a 49% stake in TH Crestgate and after the transaction will have a 2.2% stake in Ascendant.
TH Crestgate, assuming a full earn-in, would earn US$8.6mln in cash in total if Ascendant exercises its option to increase its stake to 80%.
Shares in Mineral & Financial increased 17% to 8.25p.
MC Mining shares rise as it takes direct control of Uitkomst mining operations
MC Mining Limited (LON:MCM) shares rose 7% to 23p as it said it had purchased the mining assets of Khethekile Mining (Pty) Ltd, the contractor of the company’s Uitkomst metallurgical and thermal coal colliery, in a deal valued at ZAR65mln.
The company will take over Khethekile's mining equipment, including conveyor systems and coal mining and transportation equipment.
MC Mining bought Utikomst last June, meaning the colliery is now an owner-operated mine.
Chief executive David Brown said despite implementing substantial changes at the colliery and improving cost savings, mining production has been "adversely affected by contractor equipment availability challenges".
He added: "The direct control of Uitkomst mining operations is expected to result in a steady increase in output and the colliery is expected to exceed financial year 2018's production levels during financial year 2019.”
On the downside, Sanne Group PLC (LON:SNN) shares fell 8% to 646p after saying it expects margins to weaken in the first half after investing in its operations.
The provider of alternative asset and corporate services said: “As with the second half results in 2017, this investment will result in lower reported margins in the first half of 2018, although the timing of this investment and the resultant benefits are expected to drive an improved result in the second half and for the full year.”
It added that revenues for the full year are expected to return to the group's “traditional pattern of being second half weighted, driven by continued organic growth momentum”.
Gattaca gains as international growth offsets weak UK market
Engineering and technology recruitment firm Gattaca PLC (LON:GATC) posted a 6% increase in full-year gross profit, driven by growth in its international business.
Shares rose 8.5% to 136p in late morning trading.
In a trading update, the group said net fee income – a measure of recruiters’ gross profits – rose to £78.8mln in the year to July 31 from £74.7mln last year.
On a like-for-like basis, net fee income increased 1%.
In the UK division, net fee income was flat with a 1% increase in the engineering segment and a 4% fall in technology.
The international division delivered net fee income growth of 7%, driven by growth in the Americas.
In contrast, Ferrexpo PLC (LON:FXPO) shares were under pressure as it reported a drop in first-half earnings and production.
The iron ore miner said underlying earnings (EBITDA) fell 18.5% to US$234mln as total pellet production declined 1.2% to 5.1mln tonnes and sales volumes decreased 5.3% to 4.8mln tonnes. The dip in production reflected the group’s planned refurbishment of a pelletiser line.
Revenue edged up 4.4% to US$617mln on higher pellet premiums, which mitigated lower iron ore prices.
Shares slipped 16% to 169p.
Countrywide slumps as it announces discounted shares sale to raise £140mln
Countrywide PLC (LON:CWD) shares plunged 61% to 19p after saying it plans to raise £140mln from a discounted placement of shares to cut debt.
The British estate agent made the announcement as it posted a 61.5% fall in first-half adjusted earnings (EBITDA) to £10.7mln and an 8.7% drop in total income with declines across its sales and lettings, financial services and B2B divisions.
Weaker demand since Brexit and tough competition from online rivals have hit the company’s network of high street branches, leading it to issue four profit warnings in eight months.
Meanwhile, CVS Group PLC (LON:CVSG) was also under the cosh after the veterinary services group said heavy snowfall and a lower-than-expected performance of some acquisitions hit earnings in the year to June 30.
The company, which bought 52 surgeries during the period, predicts adjusted EBITDA will be “broadly in line with analysts' consensus expectations” while total revenue rose 20.7% to £327mn and like-for-like revenue increased 4.9%.
“The unusually severe snow at the end of February and start of March is estimated to have reduced sales by approximately £1.0mln, the company said.
Elsewhere, Goldstone Resources Ltd (LON:GRL) said a review of drill core from historically producing mines at the Akrokeri-Homase gold project in Ghana “clearly show” visible gold.
Shares rose 15% to 1.9p in morning trading.
“This reinforces our confidence in the wider mineralised potential of the project, which is located just 8km along strike from one of the world's major gold mines - the Obuasi Gold Mine, which has a total gold endowment in excess of 70 million ounces of gold,” said chief executive Emma Priestly.
She said the group will continue to advance development of the project with the intention of bringing it back into production within two years.
Non-Standard Finance PLC (LON:NSF) shares rose 9% to 60p after the consumer finance company hiked its interim dividend by 20% on the back of strong first-half results.
Underlying profit before tax rose 4% to £5.6mln and revenue jumped 51% to £78.9mln in the first six months of the year, boosted by robust loan book growth and tight controls on impairment.
The dividend was raised to 0.6p from 0.5p as the company said the third quarter underpins is “confidence in the full year outlook”.
Proactive news headlines:
Amryt Pharma PLC (LON:AMYT) has been awarded rare paediatric disease designation for AP101 by the US Food & Drug Administration. Currently undergoing Phase III clinical trials, the cream is being developed to treat Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), a condition which occurs prominently in children and makes skin fragile to even the faintest touch.
Ceres Power Holdings PLC (LON:CWR) is to receive £7mln in funding to continue work with Nissan on fuel cell technology for electric vehicle applications.
Hurricane Energy PLC (LON:HUR) has reached what is described as a ‘critical milestone’ in the development of the Lancaster field’s early production system (EPS), completing the installation of a turret mooring system. It included the connection to the newly-constructed buoy for the Aoka Mizu floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.
Advanced Oncotherapy (LON:AVO), the developer of proton beam systems used to treat cancer, has completed a share placing with Swiss investors, bringing in £6.41mln. Shares were issued at 49p each, which was a modest discount to last night’s closing price of 51p, with a number of prominent private banks and healthcare providers buying into the company.
NetScientific PLC (LON:NSCI) said its portfolio company, ProAxsis Limited, has registered a CE mark for an immunoassay to help research respiratory diseases.
Concepta PLC (LON:CPT) has raised £2mln in an oversubscribed share placing to fund the expansion of its myLotus product in the Chinese market.
Frontier IP Group PLC (LON:FIPP) said it has partnered with the UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT) to step up its presence in Portugal.
European Wealth Group Limited (LON:EWG) said major shareholder Astoria Investments has subscribed for 7.92mln shares at 16.5p each, raising £1.31mln for the company and lifting Astoria's stake from 13.7% to 18%.
Metminco Limited (LON:MNC) (ASX:MNC) has announced the appointment of Nick Winer to the role of director of exploration, based in Medellin, Colombia. Winer is a geologist with over 30 years' experience in gold, base metals in South America and will lead the company's activities in Colombia, in particular, the advancement of the portfolio of gold assets in the Quinchia district.
IronRidge Resources PLC (LON:IRR) has carried out an additional 1,000m of drilling at Ewoyaa in Ghana after discovering extensions of lithium-bearing pegmatite not visible on the surface. Len Kolff, IronRidge’s chief geologist said: "Drilling has identified a new pegmatite extension to the central Main Zone with an additional 400m strike length of pegmatite drilled and still open to the north, that has no obvious surface expression and occurs within a valley below recent sediment cover.
A further planning roadblock has been revealed for the Wressle oil project onshore UK, in Lincolnshire, where the latest decision has gone against the group of companies hoping to bring the new field into production. Europa Oil & Gas Holdings PLC (LON:EOG) hold a 30% stake in Wressle; Union Jack Oil PLC (LON:UJO) retains a 27.5% stake.
Mosman Oil And Gas Limited (LON:MSMN) the oil exploration, development and production company, has appointed SVS Securities as joint broker to the company, effective immediately. The group said SP Angel remains its nominated adviser and joint broker.
CentralNic Group PLC (LON:CNIC), the internet platform that derives revenue from the worldwide sales of internet domain names and associated web presence services, has said the acquisition of KeyDrive SA and associated placing of 46,153,847 new ordinary shares to raise approximately £24mln, announced on 16 July 2018, are now complete. Ben Crawford, CentralNic's CEO, said: "The transaction is a milestone in the Company's history as it cements CentralNic's position as a consolidator in the market to rival its competitors, including large and influential US players."