Henry Turcan, a non-executive director of Minds + Machines Group Limited (LON:MMX) has bought 575,000 shares of the top-level domains owner.
Turcan paid 6p a share for his shares, which means he shelled out £34,500.
The shares rose 0.35p to 6.15p on the news.
Sticking with the internet theme, shares in Bigblu Broadband PLC (LON:BBB) rose 5.5p to 100.5p, and all it had to do was announce the appointment of Dowgate Capital to act as its joint broker alongside existing broker Numis Securities.
1.45pm: Hardy Oil loses patience in India and Urals Energy loses money in Russia
Hardy Oil and Gas PLC (LON:HDY) has joined the long list of European companies cheesed off trying to do business in India.
The oil and gas exploration and production company has been trying for aeons to get the Indian government to honour the international arbitration award relating to the CY-OS/2 licence block, located in the northern part of the Cauvery Basin offshore from Pondicherry, is honoured.
The Supreme Court of India (SC), after 48 listings over 24 months, overruled a previous Delhi High Court (HC) order and deemed that India Courts did have jurisdiction to hear the Government of India's (UOI) appeal of the CY-OS/2 international arbitration award.
In what might possibly be an underestimation of the sclerotic pace of the Indian legal system, Hardy said the appeal process is expected to take three to five years to conclude.
In view of that, the company has decided to write-down US$51.1mln of intangible assets associated with CY-OS/2 exploration expenditures and to curtail funding for its wholly-owned Indian subsidiary, HEPI.
The group is reviewing its strategic objectives, which could include one or more of individual asset sales, a sale of HEPI and a sale of the ongoing CY-OS/2 litigation.
Shares in Hardy fell 5.2% to 4.74p, having fallen as low as 3p at one point.
Hardy Oil and Gas (HDY LN) – H1 FY 2019 results
arden@arden-partners.com
Disclaimer: https://t.co/gLLy7q1CKj
— Arden Partners plc (@Arden_Partners) November 22, 2018
Sector peer Urals Energy PLC (LON:UEN) was also on the skids after it published the initial finds from an independent review of the accounts of its 98.56%-owned subsidiary, Petrosakh.
The review focused on loans and transactions authorised by Petrosakh’s president, Sergey Kononov, without the knowledge of Urals Energy.
The parent company’s previous best guess at the extent of these loans and transactions was US$3mln or thereabouts; it turns out that US$5.1mln is closer to the mark.
Urals energy said that some or all of this US$5.1mln may not be recoverable.
The board has proposed that Kononov take personal responsibility for the loans and transactions and organise their prompt repayment, failing which he must repay Petrosakh the full amount as soon as practical and must deliver acceptable evidence without delay that he has the means to do so.
Not surprisingly, Kononov has been asked to resign as president of Petrosakh.
It is a sorry mess but at least the company is not operating in India …
The shares were down 28.6% at 25p.
11.45am: End of the line for Juridica while Ebiquiti plunges after a profit warning
Shares in Juridica Investments Limited (LON:JIL) halved as the company announced plans to wind the business up and cancel its listing on AIM.
The investment company, which has been in run-off mode since 2016, said it believes the costs of maintaining its listing outweigh the benefits of winding up, delisting and liquidating the remaining assets.
Subject to shareholder approval at a general meeting to be held on December 20, it is expected that the listing will be cancelled on December 21, exactly 11 years after the company was launched.
Juridica had an unusual business model; it invested directly and indirectly in a diversified portfolio of corporate claims in litigation and arbitration.
Marketing and media group Ebiquity PLC (LON:EBQ) saw 25% wiped from its value on Thursday morning after warning that operating profit will be “materially below” current forecasts.
continued underperformance of the US Digital Analytics practice and delays in closing recent Media practice opportunities in Germany will result in operating profit being materially below current market expectations pic.twitter.com/Yk0e9o1Y59
— Alex (@DeGrooteMedia) November 22, 2018
The AIM company is in the process of offloading its floundering Advertising Intelligence division to Nielsen Media Research, a deal which regulators formally approved earlier today.
Unfortunately, it is still stuck with another underachieving business in the shape of its US Digital Analytics practice which has endured various “challenges” over the past year, while delays in closing new contracts in Germany haven’t helped matters.
10.30am: Wressling with Lincolnshire County Council could pay off for Egdon; Wynnstay raises profits guidance
Egdon Resources PLC (LON:EDR) said its application for planning consent for the Wressle development has received a recommendation for approval from North Lincolnshire Council's planning officer.
The original planning application was knocked back last year, but the officer said the concerns raised back then “have been overcome”
The application will be considered by a meeting of the North Lincolnshire Council Planning Committee on November 28.
If Fracking ever takes of in UK which it should - @EgdonResources will go to the moon- news from Wressle today helpful to get to launch pad pic.twitter.com/5Mro16MmGI
— Andrew Monk (@AmonkMonkey) November 22, 2018
Egged on by the news, market makers pushed the company’s share price 13% higher.
“EDR has strengthened its submission through additional groundwater test-work and proposed monitoring as well as a redesigned site. While this is a positive step for EDR it remains for the planning committee to approve the application at next week’s meeting,” noted VSA Capital.
Union Jack Oil PLC (LON:UJO) and Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) PLC (LON:EOG) both have sizeable stakes in the Wressle oil field; the former has a 30% stake and the latter a 27.5% interest.
Strangely, Union Jack’s shares were 2.3% lower following the news while Europa’s shares were unchanged.
A trading update from Wynnstay Group PLCc (LON:WYN) preceded a 7.5% increase in the share price of the agricultural supplies group.
The company said trading across both of its divisions – Agriculture and Specialist Retail – continued strongly in the second half of the financial year, as a result of which profits for the full year are expected to be ahead of current market expectations.
The old adage has it that where there’s muck, there’s brass and that appears to be the case with the group’s fertiliser operations, where volumes were boosted by weather conditions.
8.50am: Veltyco laid low by bad debt fears, Centrica slides as dividend doubts resurface
Shares in Veltyco Group PLC (AIM:VLTY), the online marketing and operating company for the gaming industry, plummeted after it revealed continued difficulties in getting paid.
The shares were off 44% at 9.5p after it said it continues to struggle with cash collection in the online financial trading marketing sector. Since September 21, the group has received €300,000 from Altair Entertainment in respect of the September monthly payment and €50,000 from Celestial Trading; however, Altair's monthly payment in respect of October has not been yet been received.
As a result, the group has also now reduced marketing activities in this financial trading sector to zero as it seeks to reduce its receivable balance and migrate revenues to its own regulated brand, which, as set out below, is expected to be launched in December 2018.
VeltyCo plc #VLTY
Share Price 18p
Bid/Offer 16p/20p
Fundamentals always seemed to good to be true. Not run for clarity purposes, more like a 3-card Monte game!
CEO stepped down Oct 12th.
Changing regulations and previous receivables issues come to mind.
Best avoided pic.twitter.com/uHEVghhwMa
— Dearg Doom (@MyDeargDoom) November 20, 2018
Put another way, the company now believes if a job’s worth doing, it is worth doing it yourself.
As of last week, the company’s coffers had around €600,000 in them, which means it will not have very much money to promote the launch of its own brand, so the €10.6mln it says it is currently owed would come in very handy.
Utility company Centrica PLC (LON:CNA) is generally regarded as safe as houses/dull as ditch-water from an investment perspective, but not today.
The shares caught a chill early doors, falling 7.3%, after the company said it had in recent months experienced two unexpected developments affecting its asset businesses that will hit full-year profits.
In its exploration & production division, Spirit Energy’s forecast production for 2018 has fallen to about 47.5mln barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) from around 50mmboe at the time of the interim results in July, reflecting unplanned outages and operational issues in both operated and non-operated fields.
Performance in the nuclear division has been affected by extended inspections and outages at the Hunterston B and Dungeness B power stations, with Centrica's share of expected full-year nuclear output hit by around 0.2TWh (terawatt hours) since the interim results.
British Gas owner Centrica says it lost 372,000 household energy accounts in four months to October, but still on track for financial targets this year https://t.co/fr5WkYbckM
— Adam Vaughan (@adamvaughan_uk) November 22, 2018
On top of that, the company noted that the level of the default tariff price cap introduced by the government for customers who pay by direct debit has been set at £1,137 for the first quarter of 2019, which is £68 lower than the current British Gas standard variable tariff.
Ofgem's revision to the methodology for calculating supplier wholesale and hedging costs during the transitional period, and Centrica’s inability to retrospectively mitigate this change, is expected to result in a one-off negative adjusted operating profit impact of around £70mln in the initial period of the cap in the first quarter of 2019.
Proactive news headlines:
North Lincolnshire’s planning officer has recommended that local councillors approve planning consent for the development of the Wressle oil field, in which Union Jack Oil PLC (LON:UJO) and Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) PLC (LON:EOG) have sizeable stakes.
Bluejay Mining PLC (LON:JAY) has updated on the progress of its environmental and social impact assessments as work on its pre-feasibility study at the Dundas Ilmenite project in Greenland.
OptiBiotix Health PLC (LON:OPTI) said it has signed a distribution agreement for its cholesterol and blood pressure reducing LPLDL bacteria strain in Greece and Cyprus. The unnamed local partner for CholBiome was chosen for its customer network, which also covers the Middle East, and its track record of promoting and developing products. It also has access to a number of international clinics.
Directa Plus PLC (AIM:DCTA), a producer and supplier of graphene-based products, said it has made good progress in the second half of 2018. In a brief trading update, the company said it was confident of achieving consensus market estimates for the full year, including revenues of €2.3mln.
Active Energy Group PLC (LON:AEG) bosses have hit back at an article in a local Canadian newspaper which suggested that local authorities have yet to issue the firm with timber permits. Earlier this week, Active said it had received approval from the Ministry of Fisheries and Land Resources of the Crown Province of Newfoundland and Labrador for the issue of two five-year commercial timber permits.
Higher oil prices are starting to feed through into the performance of rig operator ADES International PLC (LON:ADES). The last three months was a strong quarter said Mohamed Farouk, chief executive. Utilisation rates rose to 83% helped also by the acquisition of three jack-up rigs from Nabors.
US Oil & Gas PLC said it remains intent on seeking a stock exchange listing but said work on the Eblana-3 well remains the priority.