There were no prizes for investors in Stride Gaming PLC (LON:STR), owner of Kitty Bingo and host of similar websites, whose shares fell 32% this week.
The problem? A brush with the Gambling Commission, which has informed Stride that it will likely have to pay a “significant financial penalty” following a review of its activities here in the UK.
While the notice isn’t final and the company is taking advice over its next move, those following the group had seen quite enough.
In fact, it has been a downhill ride for the last six months for those with cash tied up in Stride with two-thirds knocked off the value of the stock in that time.
Market subdued
Turning to the wider market, the AIM All-Share Index fell around 1.5% over the week. The FTSE 100 fared a little better, registering a 1% decline.
What’s been interesting this week is we’ve continued to see a great deal of activity - particularly of the fundraising variety - among the juniors.
Normally, the cash spigots are turned off by the end of June, to be restored in the first weeks of September.
This year, for some unknown reason, deals are still being done – and reasonably chunky ones at that.
Funding taps on
Avacta Group Plc (LON:AVCT), the life sciences group that recently announced a ground-breaking US tie-up, was able to raise £11.4mln to fund its work.
And Vitesse Media PLC (LON:VIS), owner of titles such as What Investment and Growth Company Investor, came to the well to bankroll the £21mln acquisition of US group InvestmentNews.
Concepta PLC (LON:CPT) and European Wealth Group PLC (LON:EWG) were also able to get fundraisers away before the summer exodus.
It was a decent week for Herencia Resources PLC (LON:HER) as trading in shares of the mining junior was restored and the shares promptly rose 30% after the company belatedly filed its annual report and accounts.
During the hiatus the company was also able to raise some funding.
Summit up
There were some buyers in the market this week for Summit Therapeutics, which advanced 10% on the back of some encouraging data from its phase II antibiotic, Ridinilazole.
The picture isn’t quite so rosy if one looks at the three-month performance of the drug developer with the stock down almost 80%.
This followed the failure in June of the Ezutromid phase II trial, for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which caught the market on the hop.
One suspects the markdown of Summit has been overdone since it has cash in the bank (£28mln, supplemented by a recently-awarded a £3.5mln grant) and still owns a promising drug undergoing clinical trials.
A market capitalisation of £33mln on most measures probably isn’t reflective Summit’s real value.
Finally, a new listing made headlines this week as London’s first crypto-currency business made its debut Friday supported by some heavyweight cornerstone investors.
Argo on then
Argo Blockchain PLC (LON:ARB) raised £25mln as institutions and influential high net-worth backers got behind the company’s mining-as-a-service (MaaS) business model.
On the shareholder register are Miton Capital, Henderson Global Investors and Jupiter Asset Management, while founders Jonathan Bixby and Mike Edwards own around 13% of the company.
At 16p a share, the company is worth £47mln. The proceeds from the listing will be used to acquire hardware, pay for power and to fund its marketing strategy.
Headquartered in London and with a brand-new data centre based in Quebec, Canada, running off cheap and green hydro-power, it has the capacity to offer mining at scale.
But unlike publicly-owned rivals – such as Hut 8 and Hive - it is focused on home-miners.
Founders Jonathan Bixby and Mike Edwards were inspired to start Argo by the success of Netflix and Amazon Web Services.
While the former has popularised monthly subscription-based content for viewers worldwide, the latter has levelled the playing field for anyone needing access to data processing at scale.
Argo is building capacity to attract 30,000 subscribers in the first year, rising to 140,000 in year-two.
The service, which went live on June 11, initially covers four cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin Gold, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic and Zcash, which together have a market capitalisation of US$51bn.