RA International Group PLC (LON:RAI) has won a US$9.1mln contract to provide construction services in Somalia to a subsidiary of AECOM, one of the world’s largest civil engineering firms.
The project involves repairing an asphalt runway for the US Naval Facilities Engineering Command in the east African country.
RA is due to begin work later this year and is expected to last for around 11 months.
“We are pleased to have partnered with AECOM to secure this latest contract in Somalia,” said chief executive Soraya Narfeldt.
“The area where the project is to be undertaken is one where we have been working for six years and already have a team on the ground.” Shares rose 5.4% to 70p.
Premier Veterinary now forecasting a loss
Shares in Premier Veterinary Group PLC (LON:PVG) lost more than a third of their value to sit at 55.8p after the pet care firm said it expects to report a £3.25mln loss this year.
Revenues are now forecast to be £2mln, the lower end of management expectations, largely due to a predicted slowdown in its Dutch operations – the company’s most significant territory in Europe.
On the financing side of things, Premier said it needs to raise money and it is in discussions over a long-term secured loan facility with its chief executive Dominic Tonner.
“The directors are confident of being able to raise the additional finance required.”
Photo-Me's Japanese business to return to growth in 2019
Photo-Me International plc (LON:PHTM) expects its struggling Japanese business to return to growth in 2019.
Given the “challenging” market conditions over there, Photo-Me bosses have reshuffled the Japanese management team, while low revenue machines have been relocated and unprofitable ones removed altogether.
New units which promise a 35% faster return on investment have also been deployed.
“Whilst the photo-identification market in Japan remains highly competitive, the benefits of Photo-Me's initiatives are becoming evident earlier than initially expected,” read today’s AGM update.
The company added that it is trading in-line with expectations. Share flashed 15.3% higher to 114.8p.
Silence Therapeutics investors make some noise over rumoured US takeover interest
Shares in Silence Therapeutics PLC (LON:SLN) surged in early afternoon trading on rumours that the RNA interference specialist is being eyed up by potential buyers in the US.
FTAlphaville said there seems to be “some gossip around right now about interest in Silence from the US”.
It added that the biotech industry in the US is clustered around San Diego, name checking Cidara Therapeutics, although its market cap is smaller than Silence’s.
FTAlphaville does caveat the story though, saying it is “just a rumour at this stage, so needs a RAW disclaimer”. Still, it got the market excited, with Silence immediately climbing 11.4% to 123.7p.
IAG flies higher on Deutsch price target hike
Deutsche Bank has upgraded its recommendation European airlines and said British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines Group PLC (LON:IAG) is its top pick in the sector.
Many carriers have been hit by negative sentiment concerning high oil prices, rising costs and intense competition of late, but analysts reckon the sector has been “oversold” and moved their rating to ‘overweight’ from ‘underweight’.
They picked out IAG as their preferred stock, hiking its price target to 770p (from 750p) in the process.
“We see IAG's multiple airline brands with specific customer offerings as facilitating a level of flexibility and efficiency that should allow it to approach future opportunities and risks from a position of strength,” the analysts said, maintaining their ‘buy’ recommendation on the airline group headed by Willie Walsh.
IAG shares flew 1.7% higher at 570.8p on Wednesday morning.
Ethernity flies on chunky contract win
Ethernity Networks Ltd (LON:ENET) has landed a previously flagged substantial contract to supply its ENET switch and traffic manager firmware.
The customer is a North American tier 1 telecommunications manufacturer that has integrated Ethernity’s firmware into its existing fibre-to-the-home optical networking platform for advanced broadband services with 4K video.
In its interim results, Ethernity had indicated that it was most of the way down the road to porting its ENET software on to the manufacturer’s platform.
The contract represents nearly US$500,000 in short-term revenue for Ethernity and is expected to generate an estimated US$2mln in future royalty streams over the next 30 to 36 months, with additional royalty streams extending thereafter.
To put that into context, Ethernity’s revenues in the first half of the current financial year totalled US$441,247. Ethernity shares jumped 20% to 24p.
Yu Group slumps as accounting cock-up to dent profits by £10mln
Yu Group PLC (LON:YU.), the electricity supplier to small businesses, has said it will swing to a surprise loss this year in the wake of an accounting cock-up which will cost it £10mln.
Essentially, the company thought it would supply more electricity and invoice for money than it actually did.
The ‘aged accrued income’ balance – the difference between expectation and reality – totalled £4.2mln for the year ended December 2017 and £4.3mln in the first half of 2018.
On top of that, lots of small businesses haven’t been paying their bills, forcing Yu to up its bad debt provision, while intense competition means the firm is guiding for a “significant reduction” to gross margins in 2018 and beyond.
“As founder and majority shareholder, nobody is more disappointed in this development than me,” said chief executive Bobby Kalar.
Shares plunged 84.1% to 94.5p in early trading on Wednesday.
Final spin of Challenger’s New York wheel
It looks like the final spin of the wheel for the New York Wheel Project, in which Challenger Acquisitions Limited (LON:CHAL) has a minority stake.
The developers of the giant observation wheel have issued a status update in which they admitted: "there appear to be no viable options for financing the balance of the work required to complete the project".
"For all the stakeholders in the NYW Project, this is definitely not a good development assuming the project does in fact not proceed,” said Mark Gustafson, the chief executive officer of Challenger.
The developers are now planning to maximise “potential cash recovery” from the design-build team and its parents. Shares almost halved to 0.07p.
First contract win in Côte d'Ivoire for Capital Drilling
Capital Drilling Ltd (LON:CAPD) shares rose on Wednesday on news it has been awarded a drilling contract with Canada-based Sama Resources at its Yepleu property in Côte d'Ivoire.
The Africa-focused driller noted that the contract is its first in the country following its strategic expansion into West Africa where the company now has 31 rigs, representing a third of its fleet.
The contract will initially see it deploy two diamond drill rigs, sourced from the group's base in Yamoussoukro, which was established in first-half of 2018.
Commenting on the contract award, Jamie Boyton, Capital Drilling’s executive chairman, said: “With the increased fleet and new infrastructure in place, we are well positioned to continue to secure additional work in the country in the future.” Shares zipped 6.7% higher to 40p.
Other Proactive news headlines:
Ethernity Networks Ltd (LON:ENET) has bagged a substantial contract to supply its ENET switch and traffic manager firmware to a North American Tier 1 OEM.
Landore Resources Limited (LON:LND) has unearthed a new gold deposit at the Junior Lake project, in Ontario, Canada. The company, in a statement, said that exploration drilling located one kilometres to the east of the BAM gold deposit encountered “significant” gold mineralisation with grades up to 26.2 grams per tonne over a 1.02 metre section.
Arix Biosciences PLC (LON:ARIX) has seen a significant uplift in the value of its investment in a pre-clinical genome editing company, which recently made its stock market debut on NASDAQ. The UK investor in life sciences opportunities owns a stake 12.9% stake in LogicBio (NASDAQ:LOGC), worth US$30mln, which is US$16mln more than Arix ploughed into the business.
Scancell Holdings Plc (LON:SCLP) said it is working closely with the US drugs regulator to address questions raised ahead of the launch of a phase II clinical study of its cancer immuno-therapy. The UK group is planning to use its SCIB1 in harness with Merck’s Keytruda to treat patients with advanced melanoma.
Stobart Group Ltd (LON:STOB) expects the number of passengers using Southend Airport to rise to two and a half million in 2019. Passengers rose 37% to 839,000 in the six months to August, but easyJet recently added a fourth plane, while Ryanair will base three aircraft at the airport from next year.
Minerals explorer Erris Resources PLC (LON:ERIS) has delivered another set of “excellent” drilling results at its Abbeytown zinc-lead-silver-copper in County Sligo, Ireland.
Anglo African Oil & Gas plc (LON:AAOG) has agreed a £5mln convertible loan financing with Sandabel Capital. The facility provides ‘future funding flexibility’ to support the ongoing drilling of the TLP-103C well as well as working capital, the company said.
AfriTin Mining Limited (LON:ATM) expects the next six months to see a major step forward in its plans to bring the Uis tin mine in Namibia back into production. The period should see the construction of the pilot plant and a JORC-compliant resource at Uis based upon the 1980s SRK resource statements produced by early 2019.
Canadian copper miner Rambler Metal & Mining PLC (LON:RMM, CVE:RAB) saw a sharp increase in the production of saleable copper in the third quarter.
Sativa Investments PLC (LON:SATI), the UK's first medicinal cannabis investment vehicle, said it has now signed the option agreement to lease a 7.53 acre site for medicinal cannabis production in Wiltshire on which the company intends to build a glasshouse facility. In a separate announcement, Sativa also announced that Mark Blower, currently an executive director of the company, is moving to a non-executive director role with immediate effect.
Minds + Machines Group Limited (LON:MMX) announced that the forthcoming launch of .luxe, the first top-level domain designed to resolve both on the World Wide Web and the Ethereum blockchain, will be marked by the company performing the Market Opening Ceremony at the London Stock Exchange on 26 October 2018.
Solo Oil PLC (LON:SOLO), the natural resources investment company focused on acquiring and developing a diverse global non-operated portfolio of strategic oil and gas assets, said its directors will be hosting an evening for investors on Thursday 22 November, commencing at 6.00pm in a private room downstairs at Williamson's Tavern, 1 Groveland Court, London, EC4M 9EH.