Motif Bio plc (LON:MTFB) – BUY*: Placing to raise £22 million
Market Cap: £41m; Current Price: 64p; Target Price: 89p
£22m conditionally raised to advance antibiotic programme
- Conditionally placed 44,000,000 new ordinary shares, at a placing price of 50p per ordinary share with institutional investors to raise £22 million.
- Northland Capital Partners acted as joint broker on the deal.
- The net proceeds of the Placing will be used:
- a) to complete preparations to enter Phase III trials with its flagship antibiotic iclaprim, including: ensuring that trial sites for the Phase III trials are set up and ready for the trials to be conducted; re-qualifying existing iclaprim Active PharmaceuticaI Ingredient; formulating iclaprim clinical trial supplies; sourcing vancomycin (the comparator drug) clinical trial supplies, and commencing the Phase III trials of iclaprim.
- b) to fund part of the ABSSSI (skin infections) trials for iclaprim;
- c) to fund additional preparations to enable "first patient in" in the second half of 2015;
- d) to advance the Company's portfolio, including potentially initiating the chemistry programme for MTF-001 and investing in external collaborations to potentially secure one or more novel antibiotic programmes from existing relationships that the Company has established; and
- e) to start development work on an oral formulation of iclaprim and on exploring additional iclaprim indications and formulations.
- The Placing is conditional upon shareholder approval and the successful grant of the QIDP designation for iclaprim in the US (such grant not to be later than 24 July 2015). Forecasts will be updated post the GM.
NORTHLAND CAPITAL PARTNERS VIEW: This placing represents yet another major milestone for Motif. The £22m (gross) will allow the company to rapidly progress iclaprim into the clinic. Iclaprim, is set to fill a major market void. The drug’s safety and efficacy is well supported, having already been tested on more than a thousand patients. If approved, the drug could achieve over $1bn/year in sales.
Amphion Innovations plc (LON:AMP) Preliminary results
Market Cap: £13.5m; Current Price: 6.9p
Preliminary results for the twelve months ended 31 December 2014
- Amphion announced Preliminary Results for the year ended 31 December 2014.
- The key highlight was the post period end successful AIM flotation of the group’s lead portfolio company Motif Bio plc ("Motif") on 2 April 2015 at 20p per share.
- In April 2015, Motif obtained agreement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (the "FDA") to proceed with its proposed clinical development programme for its late stage antibiotic iclaprim.
- Since listing, Motif's shares have risen sharply and are trading near 60p per share at which level Amphion's holding is worth approximately £25 million.
- Just today, Motif announced that the company has conditionally placed 44,000,000 new ordinary shares, at a placing price of 50p per ordinary share with institutional investors to raise £22 million, representing yet another major milestone achieved by the group.
- Amphion’s business model continues to focus on starting and building high potential companies such as Motif.
- Finally, the group reported Adjusted NAV per Share at 19 June 2015 of 10p (15.7 US cents).
NORTHLAND CAPITAL PARTNERS VIEW: With the floatation of Motif, and its subsequent success on the market, Amphion has demonstrated its ability to generate significant shareholder value - Amphion's holding in Motif being worth approximately £25 million. Having floated two companies to date (Motif and Kromek), Amphion is clearly well placed to continue generating returns from its portfolio companies.
Mariana Resources (LON:MARL) – SPECULATIVE BUY: Hot Maden update
Market Cap: £16m; Current Price: 2.1p
109.9m at 11.9g/t Au and 1.13% Cu
- Mariana has now received the results from HTD-12 to HTD-14.
- 109.9m at 11.9g/t Au and 1.13% Cu from 259.1m and 12m at 3.6% Zn from 211m in HTD-13 that was designed to test the down dip extension to the high grade gold and copper in HTD-05.
- 38m at 3g/t Au and 1.74% Cu from 227m and 26.8m at 1.6% Zn from 148.8m in HTD-12 that was designed to test the up-dip extension to the gold-copper mineralisation.
- 8m at 2.2g/t Au and 0.23% Cu from 37m, 17.3m at 1.05g/t and 0.31% Cu from 70.7m, 10m at 1.29g/t Au and 0.74% Cu, and 3.5m at 1.96g/t Au and 0.74% Cu from 116m in HTD-14 that intersected a northwest trending post mineralisation fault zone.
- HTD-15 has been completed and intersected the down dip extension to HTD10. It intersected an upper mineralised zone, possibly a splay structure, of 58m containing minor pyrite and chalcopyrite from 31m and a main mineralised zone of 131m with strong pyrite and chalcopyrite mineralisation from 200m.
- HTD-16 and HTD-17 are underway. HTD-16 is yet to reach target depth and HTD-17 intersected massive pyrite and chalcopyrite over 70.7m from 51.3m.
- Lidya has now earned a 20% interest in the project.
NORTHLAND CAPITAL PARTNERS VIEW: Another set of impressive results from Mariana Resources at the Hot Maden project. These results focus on testing the up-dip and down-dip extensions to the mineralisation, with later drilling expected to target the southern extension. HTD-13 demonstrates the continued down dip extensions of the high grade gold-copper zone, very high grade massive zone and the zinc zone. HTD-12 demonstrates the up dip extension to the massive sulphide mineralisation though the gold grade is lower while the copper grade is significantly higher. As expected HTD-14 hit a post mineralisation fault zone that lowers the grade but still indicates significant mineralised clasts. The next set of holes that are completed with assays pending or still in progress, appear to indicate the continued presence of a splay or secondary mineralised zone defined in HTD-09 as well as the down-dip extension of the zinc and copper-gold zones.
SyQic (LON:SYQ) – Prelims
Market Cap: £10.6m; Current Price: 39.5p
Progress on a number of fronts
- Revenue +127% to £10.7m with PBT +250% to £2.1m. Cash of £0.2m (FY13: £1.1m) following investment in 2014 into premium content licensing and the redesign work for the launch of the new Korean content streaming service. Long-term receivables reduced to £0.8m (FY13: £2.3m) with better payment terms from Indonesian customers. Current cash >£650k (including payment in transit) and a working capital facility of up to £3m has been agreed.
- During the year: acquired Maaduu, a Korean content streaming site, rebranded as ‘Cool2vu’; established a telco brand in Myanmar; Yoomob transaction numbers increased to 21.5m from 9.6m. 6.7m Yoomob subscriptions have been booked as at the end of April – revenue value of c. £4.0m. Deferred consideration of c. £0.5m on Maadu unlikely to be played.
NORTHLAND CAPITAL PARTNERS VIEW: Progress on a number of fronts with the Cool2vu content streaming site now available to users in Southeast Asia, Europe, South America, Central America, India and the Philippines and good growth in subscribers for the core Yoomob telco business. As importantly, the dependence on the primary Indonesian master content provider (MCP) reduced to 52% from 62% in FY13 and the payment terms have also improved, removing some of the strain on working capital.