Video analytics provider Big Sofa Technologies Group PLC (LON:BST) has announced the appointment of Kirsty Fuller as chief executive with immediate effect, sending its shares higher.
Fuller co-founded Flamingo Group, the international consultancy that became part of Omnicom about 11 years ago. She was appointed to the board of Big Sofa last month as chief commercial officer and will now replace the group’s co-founder Simon Lidington as chief executive.
“Kirsty is a highly-regarded expert in the field of consumer insight,” said chairman Nicholas Mustoe.
“She has been instrumental in integrating innovative methods as the insight industry has evolved and has worked with leading blue-chip companies. Kirsty is also a proven business leader, having co-founded, grown, sold and thereafter continued to run one of the world's most successful qualitative research agencies.”
Shares rose 13.65 to 3.12p.
Primorus Investments PLC (LON:PRIM) shares edged down 6.9% to 0.14p after saying an end-to-end workforce software vendor it has invested £1.4mln into reported third quarter revenue that missed expectations.
Engage Technology Partners saw run-rate average monthly revenues fall below management forecasts due to product scaling refinements.
“We invested in Engage not because of its immediate revenue generation, and there was a (now mitigated) revenue miss this quarter as outlined above, but because we believe the viral nature of the platform has the potential to totally disrupt the existing software offerings servicing this huge global sector,” said Primorus executive director Alastair Clayton.
He added: As with many of the private businesses we meet, I see the biggest risk for Engage as one of executing small short-term financings in a market dominated by large, private equity and venture capital investors. Make no mistake, just because Engage needs modest amounts of money to execute its plan, it doesn't mean the resulting company cannot, in my opinion, be a global market force."
Codemasters shares edge higher as it signs strategic partnership with NetEase
Video game developer Codemasters Group PLC (LON:CDM) shares rose 9.1% to 167.5p after saying it has entered into a strategic partnership with Chinese internet technology firm NetEase Inc. (NASDAQ:NTES).
Beijing-based NetEase will become the exclusive publisher for three of Codemasters' upcoming video games titles in China. NetEase will be responsible for obtaining necessary regulatory approvals in China. It will also invest in marketing and localising the games.
Codemasters said revenue resulting from the agreement will be shared between the two companies.
Highlands Natural Resources PLC (LON:HNR) shares are up 5.7% to 13.85p after announcing that hydraulic fracturing operations for the six new wells at its East Denver Project will resume this week,
It said that flow results from the new wells are expected in late December 2018 or early January 2019.
Sophos Group slumps on disappointing first-half trading update
Sophos Group PLC (LON:SOPH) shares dropped 24% to 346p after the IT security firm reported a disappointing first-half performance.
The company said billings in the first half rose by 3% to US$353mln, missing the previous guidance of 6%.
The group hoped to return “mid-teens” billings growth in the second half, but it is now guiding for just a “modest improvement”.
88 Energy Ltd (LON:88E, ASX:88E) shares increased 11.3% 5 to 1.23p as it issued a positive update on its conventional oil exploration assets in Alaska.
The company has amassed a prospect inventory representing potential resources of 2.4bn barrels of oil.
The prospects within the Project Icewine acreage count for the largest portion of the estimates, with some 2.1bn barrels ‘seen’ across 17 prospects in three play fairways.
A farm-out transaction anticipated before the end of this year, which would allow the explorer to advance the portfolio to drilling so that some of the theoretical resources can be realised as actual discoveries.
Franco Manca and The Real Greek owner rallies as first-half turnover grows
Franco Manca and The Real Greek owner Fulham Shore PLC (LON:FUL) shares gained after saying turnover and customer numbers grew in the first six months of the year.
In a brief trading update, the company said a strong performance at Franco Manca and The Real Greek boosted its overall performance.
The group has opened two new Franco Manca pizzerias in Bath and Cambridge since the beginning of the year and aims to open another near Aldwych in London before Christmas, bringing the total number of restaurants to 43. The Real Greek currently operates 16 restaurants.
Shares shot up 11% to 11.9p in morning trading.
Betting technology firm Sportech PLC (LON:SPO) shares are down 17% to 44.6p after saying earnings were likely to miss market forecasts.
The group said some key sales contracts are unlikely to be secured this year so adjusted earnings (EBITDA) were now expected to be 5% to 10% lower than the current market estimate of £8.5mln.
"Whilst we are disappointed not to have secured some international sales contracts by the year end, we continue to focus on signing these contracts,” said chief executive Andrew Gaughan.
Contract news gives a boost to Bruno Brookes' Immedia
Former BBC radio DJ Bruno Brookes will be smiling this morning after shares in the digital content channels provider he founded, Immedia Group PLC (LON:IME) topped the London’s market’s gainer board in early morning trading on Tuesday, leaping 21.3% higher to 28.5p on news it has finally signed a three-year contract with a major UK high street financial institution.
The group said the contract, which was the subject of releases by Immedia to the market in March 2017, April 2018 and July 2018, relates to the delivery of live audio stream to all of the institution's consumer retail estate in the UK.
Another big early riser on partnership news was advanced materials engineering group Versarien PLC (LON:VRS), which added 10.6% at 125.50p on news it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Chinese firm Tunghsu Optoelectronic Technology Ltd. covering cooperation, particularly focused on graphene industrialisation.
Tunghsu Optoelectronic, one of the world's leading suppliers of optoelectronic display materials, is currently the largest LCD glass substrate manufacturer in China and the fourth largest LCD glass substrate manufacturer in the world.
And Microsaic Systems PLC (LON:MSYS) gained 8% at 1.35p after the developer of point of need mass spectrometry instruments revealed that it had signed an exclusive agreement with Spark Holland Inc – which trades as iChrom - to distribute a Microsaic-branded 4500 MiD(R) MS detector in the US and Canada.
The group noted that iChrom serves several industries including drugs of abuse (DOA), clinical chemistry, and drug development in both the small molecule pharmaceutical area and protein characterization.
Proactive news headlines:
88 Energy Ltd (LON:88E, ASX:88E) has updated investors on its conventional oil exploration assets in Alaska, where it has amassed a prospect inventory representing potential resources of 2.4bn barrels of oil. The prospects within the Project Icewine acreage count for the largest portion of the estimates, with some 2.1bn barrels ‘seen’ across 17 prospects in three play fairways.
Highlands Natural Resources PLC (LON:HNR) shares advanced in Wednesday’s early deals as the company told investors that hydraulic fracturing operations started this week at the East Denver project. It said that flow results from the new wells are expected in late December 2018 or early January 2019.
Initial human tests of SkinBioTherapeutics PLC’s (LON:SBTX) SkinBiotix cream have confirmed the product’s safety as well as delivering positive data regarding irritancy and moisturisation potential. These initial results are effectively a precursor to the main element of the study involving 120 volunteers with dry skin. This kicks off later in November and will assess the longer-term moisturisation potential of the technology.
Savannah Resources PLC (LON:SAV) has discovered three new lithium pegmatites in the Pinheiro deposit at its Mina do Barroso project in Portugal. The mining firm said the three new pegmatites covered a “considerable” strike of over 250 metres and depths of over 100m.
Tower Resources PLC (LON:TRP) has inked a new petroleum Agreement ("PA") with the Government of the Republic of Namibia, giving the explorer an 80% interest in prospective offshore acreage. The three exploration areas (blocks 1910A, 1911 and 1912B) cover a total of 23,297 Square kilometres in the Walvis Basin and Dolphin Graben.
InnovaDerma PLC (LON:IDP) is now at a “strategic inflection point”, its chairman Haris Chaudhry will tell investors who attend the Skinny Tan company’s annual meeting in London’s Square Mile later Wednesday. The end of exclusivity periods for its flagship products will usher in deals with major retailers, he will explain.
Mkango Resources Ltd (LON:MKA) has released the results of a 45 drill hole campaign from its Songwe Hill Rare Earths project in Malawi. The AIM-listed exploration firm said the drilling programme was a key component of the ongoing initial phases of its feasibility study for Songwe.
Cabot Energy PLC (LON:CAB), the AIM-quoted oil and gas company creating predictable production growth in Canada balanced with high impact exploration in Italy, has announced the appointment of Rachel Maguire as an independent non-executive director with immediate effect. The group noted that Maguire is an entrepreneur who is the founder and CEO of Arko Iris, a business consultancy advising organisations on best practice in stakeholder engagement, corporate governance and corporate responsibility.
SigmaRoc PLC (LON:SRC), the AIM-listed 'buy-and-build' construction materials group, announced that Gary Drinkwater has resigned from its board of directors with immediate effect due to personal health reasons.
European Metals Holdings Limited (LON:EMH) (ASX:EMH) has announced the appointment of WH Ireland Limited as joint broker to the company.
Collagen Solutions PLC (LON:COS), the developer and manufacturer of medical grade collagen-based biomaterials for use in research, diagnostics, medical devices, and regenerative medicine, has said it will hold an investor results presentation on Tuesday, 4 December 2018 at The Brand Exchange, 3 Birchin Lane, London EC3V 9BW at 4.30pm for a 4.45pm start. The group said its CEO, Jamal Rushdy and Hilary Spence, its CFO, will summarise the half-year results and present the key financial highlights, outlook and future vision and how they plan to deliver on the Company's growth strategy.