To paraphrase an investor on Twitter, Trakm8 Holdings PLC (LON:TRAK) is a company that delivers fantastic technical innovation and shareholder disappointment.
The global telematics and data insight provider saw revenue in the six months to the end of September dive to £8.8mln from £14.1mln the year before.
READ Trakm8 shares crash as first half profits plunge and full year guidance downgraded
https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/market_reports/209342/ftse-100-s-losses-lengthen-as-futures-point-to-a-soft-us-opening-209342.html
The company fell into the red with an adjusted loss before tax of £2.46mln versus a profit the year before of £363,000.
Worse than that, the group said that the improved financial performance it had looked forward to at the time of its September trading update will not materialise.
“Continuing delays in decisions by customers is preventing the return to the usual levels of success in Fleet and Optimisation, a move to a rental model in the automotive space, and the loss, due to sanctions, of a multi-million-pound contract for the supply of Insurance solutions into Iran, has meant that revenue for the current financial year is now expected to be 20-25% below the FY2018 outcome, and 10-15% below on a like-for-like basis,” the company said.
Signs were 1) cash flow - prior period rubbish 2) accounting 3) needed a massive H2. Uninvestable
— Here&There (@here_there) November 16, 2018
If this was an ECG chart it would be pronounced dead - Trakm8 Holdings pic.twitter.com/wE8s8pDShh
— Buy High Sell Low (@high_sell) November 16, 2018
Hutchison China Meditech Ltd (LON:HCM) had almost £1bn wiped off its value as flagship treatment fruquintinib stumbled in a final stage lung cancer trial.
In a study of 527 patients in China, fruquintinib slowed the disease but failed to improve survival rates to any significant degree over existing treatments.
“This business has been one of the stars on London’s junior stock market AIM in recent years but is suffering a fall from grace after its own lung cancer trial for the Fruquintinib drug resulted in failure,” commented Russ Mould, the investment director at investment platform operator, AJ Bell.
“With a more concentrated portfolio, its fortunes were always going to be much more closely tied to this result,” he added.
Shares in Hutchison were down 17% at 4,635p.
1.15pm: China Nonferrous glistens as it passes milestone at the Pakrut gold mine
China Nonferrous Gold Limited (LON:CNG) was the second biggest riser of the day after an operational update.
The company has succeeded in finalising the combined/linked commissioning of the filling system and tailings transportation at the Pakrut gold mine.
The company said it has now achieved a production scale of 2,000 tons per day – that’s the old-fashioned short ton (2,000 US pounds), not the new-fangled metric version or even the old-fangled British ton, also known as the long ton (2,240 pounds or 160 stones).
That’s a ton of irrelevant information …
The important thing is that the shares were up 43% at 5.7p on the news.
News of a share placing by a small-cap normally sends the shares lower but Empyrean Energy PLC (LON:EME), the oil and gas development company with interests in China, Indonesia and the United States, has bucked the trend.
The shares were up 0.725p at 10.25p after the company announced it was raising just over a million smackers through a placing of shares at 10p.
The fund-raising follows last week’s estimate upgrade for the company’s Pearl River Mouth Basin project in China.
Empyrean Energy and Bushveld Minerals set the pace https://t.co/isbUhAimAE via @proactive_uk #brighterir #AndrewScottTV #CapitalNetwork1
— John Harrington (@JournoJohnH) November 9, 2018
READ Empyrean Energy reveals estimate upgrade for China prospects
Malcy's blog today: Oil price, Empyrean Energy And finally... - https://t.co/WVgSAX4aBf
— Malcolm Graham-Wood (@mgrahamwood) November 16, 2018
10.30am: Good Energy provides a winter warmer
When you have the ticker symbol “GOOD”, as Good Energy Group PLC (LON:GOOD) does, it is apposite to deliver happy news.
The renewable energy company did just that this morning with a trading update covering the first 10 months of 2018.
READ Good Energy Group boosted by strong cash generation, trading ‘slightly ahead’
The board said the group had traded “slightly ahead of management expectations with continued strong cash generation”.
Introducing an element of caution - probably a good idea for any company dependent on the British weather - the board continues to expect a full-year performance in line with market expectations, adding the caveat “assuming normalised consumption and weather for the remainder of the year”.
The shares were up 10% at 98p.
Cyber-security outfit Falanx Group Limited (LON:FLX) shot up 21% to 3.45p as institutional investors got behind the company.
The company raised £4.16mln earlier this week through the issue of shares, most of which were taken up by institutional investors, such as Miton Asset Management and Amati Global Investors, who are new to the company’s share register.
Today, it was revealed that Octopus Investments has a 12.5% stake in Falanx and Miton has an 8.32% stake.
9.00am: Adept4 stumbles after warning of margin erosion
Information technology services provider Adept4 PLC (LON:AD4) lost a fifth of its value after it revealed a drop in full-year earnings.
The company said that revenue in the year to the end of September is expected to be roughly in line with the year before but the gross profit margin has fallen to 56% from 61% due to a change in the sales mix.
The reduced profit margin means that the trading group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation will be down year-on-year, at around £600,000.
Don't believe everything you read about #MicrosoftAzure! We think its #great!!! https://t.co/R6ka1oU6PP
— Adept4 (@Adept4) November 15, 2018
In the second half of the financial year, the company undertook a cost rationalisation programme but the effects have yet to fully feed through to the bottom line.
Shares in Adept4 were down 0.3p at 1.1p.
Proactive news headlines:
IQ-AI Limited (LON:IQAI) has announced the first commercial sale of its StoneChecker kidney stone medical imaging software.
Rapid diagnostics specialist Genedrive PLC (LON:GDR) is proposing to raise £6mln through a placing of shares and the issue of convertible loan notes.
Seeing Machines Limited (LON:SEE) has appointed supply chain management specialist Paul McGlone as senior vice president and general manager of the group's fleet division.
Live Company Group PLC (LON:LVCG) have announced the upcoming launch of BRICKLIVE BRICKOSAURS, a new LEGO brick touring show.
Gaming Realms PLC (LON:GMR) wants permission to issue shares if required for a £3.5mln loan owing to mining and casino games group Jackpotjoy. In December last year, Gaming Realms agreed to supply Jackpotjoy with Slingo-based real money services for ten years
Metal Tiger PLC (LON:MTR) has completed the sale of the T3 project in Botswana as well as creating a new joint venture (JV) company formed by itself and partner MOD Resources Limited.
Eland Oil & Gas PLC (LON:ELA) has updated on the field development operations at the Gbetiokun project area, where the initial discovery well has now been re-opened for production. Gbetiokun is to be the second producing oil field within the OML 40 set of assets, following on from the successes at the Opuama, well which is currently producing more than the targeted 30,000 bopd.
Iofina PLC (LON:IOF), specialists in the exploration and production of iodine and halogen-based specialty chemical derivatives, announced the appointment of Frank Mermoud as a non-executive director with immediate effect. The group said Mermoud has held senior international, economic and commercial policy positions within the US Government, having served as the Secretary of State's Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs at US Department of State from 2002 to 2009.
Horizonte Minerals PLC (LON:HZM) (TSX:HZM) announced that on 15 November, its chief financial officer, Simon Retter purchased 1,000,000 ordinary shares in the company at a price of 2.1p each. Following the purchase, the group said, Retter is now interested in 1,000,000 ordinary shares representing 0.07% of the total voting rights of the company.
MaxCyte (LON:MXCT) (LON:MXCR), the global cell-based medicines and life sciences company, said it will host a webinar, entitled "Non-viral cell engineering: enabling a therapeutic revolution," for investors and sell-side analysts between 15:00 - 16:00 GMT on Tuesday 20th November 2018. To attend, interested parties should contact the company via MaxCyte@consilium-comms.com.