ALO Placing, BMR Metallurgical Test, EMAN Acquisition, MARL* Drill Update, PGY Pre-Close Trading Statement, PLI* Partnership, PRM Placing, RCN New Contract, RSTR New Deals, SAR* Funding Award, TST FDA Submission, TRAK New Contract
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The Hybridan Small Cap Wrap is a weekly review of some of the most interesting small cap stories of the past week. Our review will usually be of those companies whose market capitalisations are less than £50m although we may occasionally cover larger companies.
Alecto Minerals, the mineral exploration company focussed on West and East Africa, announced that it has raised £0.3m by way of a placing at a price of 0.1 pence per placing share, with an existing institutional investor. The placing shares will represent approximately 21.43 percent of the company's enlarged issued share capital. The net proceeds of the placing will provide the company with additional working capital as it actively conducts due diligence on potential acquisition opportunities in line with its over-arching strategy to become a gold producer in Africa. In addition, the company is currently advancing negotiations regarding partnership opportunities for its West African gold portfolio.
BMR Mining (LON:BMR)
The company announced that the metallurgical test programme on the Wash Plant Tailings (WPT) and Leach Plant Residue Tailings (LPR) using an acid/brine leaching process to recover lead and zinc has been successful. The objective of the metallurgical test programme was to confirm the technical viability of the acid/brine leach process for the extraction of lead and zinc from the WPT and LPR. The metallurgical testing was conducted by Kupfermelt CC at their laboratory in South Africa. The results demonstrated high metal recoveries from both the WPT and LPR of circa 80 percent Pb, 70 percent Zn, and 80 percent Pb, 50 percent Zn, respectively, into a pregnant liquor solution from which both lead and zinc could be extracted by precipitation and also zinc alone by electro winning. Liquid residue discharges from the process were non-toxic. As a result, the company is able to establish the mass, pulp and water parameters required for the construction of the planned pilot plant at Kabwe. It is therefore now focussing on the design and construction of the pilot plant and intends to source the majority of requisite equipment in-country.
Everyman Media Group (LON:EMAN)
Everyman announced that the company has now exchanged with Odeon Cinemas Limited and ABC Cinemas on the acquisition of four cinemas located in Gerrards Cross, Esher, Muswell Hill and Barnet. Completion of the acquisition remains subject to landlord consent on each of the sites, save for Muswell Hill where consent has been provided and completion is expected to occur soon. The timetable for exchange on the acquisition is in line with the board's expectations at the time the acquisition was proposed and initially announced on 20th April 2015. The company also announced that it has exchanged on the acquisition of a site in Stratford upon Avon. The opening of an Everyman in Stratford upon Avon is expected to occur during 2017.
Mariana Resources, the exploration and development company with projects in South America and Turkey, reported further high grade gold-copper (Au-Cu) intercepts from the ongoing drill program at the Hot Maden Project, eastern Turkey. Assays have now been received for drill holes HTD-12 through HTD-14 with results demonstrating continuity of a very high grade Au-Cu core within the broader, significantly mineralised Au-Cu zone, and with mineralisation remaining open to the south as well as both up dip and down dip. Drill hole HTD-13, the 'step back' hole designed to test the down-dip extension to the high grade Au-Cu mineralisation intersected in HTD-05, successfully intersected 109.9 metres (m) at 11.9 g/t Au and 1.13 percent Cu from 259.1m. Also includes bonanza grade interval of 12.9m at 89.6 g/t Au and 1.7 percent Cu from 259.1m. Additional intercepts of 12m at 3.6 percent Zinc (Zn) (211m-223m) and 3m at 7.4 percent Zn (233m-236m) immediately to the east of the Au-Cu zone were also present. Drill hole HTD-12, the 'step forward' hole designed to test the up-dip extension to the Au-Cu mineralisation intersected in hole HTD-11, successfully intersected 38m at 3.0 g/t Au and 1.74 percent Cu from 227.0m, this includes 5m at 7.5 g/t Au and 2.1 percent Cu (235m-240m) and 2m at 17.5g/t Au and 5.2 percent Cu(253m-255m). Additional intercepts of 26.8m at 1.6 percent Zn (148.8m-175.6m) and 4m at 1.3 percent Zn (191m-195m) immediately to the east of the Au-Cu zone were also present. Drill hole HTD-14 intersected a north west-trending, post mineralisation fault zone. Nevertheless, the highly milled material in HTD-14 did return the following intercepts: 8m at 2.2 g/t Au and 0.23 percent Cu (37m-45m), 17.3m at 1.05 g/t Au and 0.31 percent Cu (70.7m-88.0m), 10m at 1.29 g/t Au and 0.85 percent Cu (104m-114m), and 3.5m at 1.96 g/t Au and 0.74 percent Cu (116m-119.5m).
Progility, the systems integrator and project management services firm, issues a pre-close trading statement for the financial year ending 30 June 2015, ahead of announcing full year results in September 2015. Significant strategic progress continues to be made, with a new, experienced senior management team now in place, and revenues over 50 percent up on the prior year, at an annual run-rate of some £70m. In the interim results on 27 March, they stated that the outturn for the year to 30 June 2015 would be heavily dependent on trading in the final few months, which are critical months for sales across the major businesses in the group. Although almost all divisions are trading profitably, the final few months' trading is expected to be disappointing with EBITDA, after central costs, markedly below expectations. Actions are in train both to address the underlying business performance and to establish the platform ever more firmly to facilitate future growth.
ProMetic Life Sciences (TSX:PLI)*
ProMetic Life Sciences, a Canada-based biopharmaceutical company, provided an update regarding its strategic partnership with GENERIUM Pharmaceuticals. This partnership provides for several plasma-derived biopharmaceuticals to be manufactured in GENERIUM's facility and commercialised in Russia and CIS, as well as for the co-development and co-global commercialisation of two plasma-derived coagulating factors. ProMetic updates its stakeholders that the construction of Generium's GMP plasma purification facility is progressing rapidly and ahead of the originally anticipated timelines. The facility designed to process up to 600,000 litres of plasma annually is expected to be operational in H2 2017. Moreover and pursuant to the parties' intentions to leverage each other's capacity as contract manufacturing organisations for specific biopharmaceutical products, GENERIUM has committed to use only FDA / EMA certified plasma. This will provide ProMetic with greater indirect manufacturing capacity than originally anticipated for the production of specific, high-value, orphan drugs. ProMetic will reciprocate by contributing part of its existing manufacturing capacity to GENERIUM's development program and global commercialisation efforts related to two plasma-derived coagulation factors.
Proteome Sciences (LON:PRM)
Proteome Sciences, a protein biomarker company specialising in proteomics and peptidomics services and applications, announced it has conditionally raised approximately £2.5m, before expenses, through the placing at a price of 18 pence per ordinary Share. The net proceeds of the placing will be used to increase capacity and shorten lead times ensuring the company can continue to meet the significant increase in demand for its Biomarker Services from a growing list of international clients and for general working capital purposes.
Redcentric, a leading UK IT managed services provider, announced that it has won a major new contract with the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) worth in excess of £3.5m. Through the two year contract Redcentric will provide Database as a Service (DBaaS) devised to support a national infrastructure programme. DBaaS will power a repository for healthcare data in England enabling a range of reporting and analysis to support the NHS in the delivery of healthcare services. Delivered by Redcentric's team of database experts, the managed service is a proven model for delivering high availability cloud database environments and will support HSCIS's critical repository. DBaaS, procured via the G-Cloud framework, will be provided from Redcentric's England based secure and accredited data centres, delivering a highly scalable and high performance system.
Rightster Group, the digital video distribution and monetisation network, announced two new deals with the global brand, Procter & Gamble (P&G). To celebrate Father's Day, the P&G brand Vicks India partnered with Rightster and Publicis Kaplan Thaler NY to run a timely campaign entitled #HugYourDad, promoting Vicks VapoRub. Rightster was responsible for sourcing suitable User-Generated Content for the campaign and negotiating rights clearance with the relevant Content Owners. The campaign was launched on the 7th June and has already achieved over 4m views. The company also recently partnered with P&G in France in June to help promote their new Tampax Compak Pearl campaign. To promote the campaign, Rightster sourced the popular French YouTube talent, "Caroline et Safia", whose channel focuses on beauty, fashion and wellness. This resulted in the production of a 'Get ready with us - Period Version' video which was also shared across the talent's own social networks, including Facebook and Twitter. The video has already generated over 1.4m views and over 18,000 likes on YouTube alone, both as a result of organic views and the amplification achieved through P&G's investment in TrueView.
Sareum Holdings (LON:SAR)*
Sareum, the specialist cancer drug discovery and development business, announced that it has received notification from the UK's innovation agency, Innovate UK, that it has been successful in its latest application to the Biomedical Catalyst and has been awarded funding of up to £0.14m. The award will provide funds for Sareum to investigate the potential of lead molecules from its TYK2 autoimmune disease programme to treat T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (T-ALL). T-ALL is a rare type of leukaemia that most often occurs in late childhood and early adolescence. The company has previously demonstrated the efficacy of its lead TYK2 molecules in models of autoimmune diseases, such as psoriasis and multiple sclerosis, in collaboration with co-development partners, SRI International. There is evidence in the scientific literature that TYK2 inhibition may be a strategy for treating T-ALL and this funding award will enable Sareum to further determine the feasibility of this novel approach. Receipt of the funding award is conditional on Sareum contributing up to £60,000 during the funding period, as well as a compliance review by Innovate UK and execution of final documentation. The funding period is expected to start in August 2015 and continue for 12 months.
Telesta Therapeutics (TSX:TST)
Telesta Therapeutics, a Canada-based company engaged in human therapeutics, announced that it has submitted electronically, through its U.S. agent, a Biologics License Application (BLA) to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for MCNA. MCNA is Telesta’s novel biologic immunotherapeutic for the treatment of high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer patients who have failed first-line BCG therapy. Telesta also announced that they have received from the FDA a waiver exempting Telesta from the payment of the $2.3m BLA application fee. The FDA has a 60-day filing review period to determine whether Telesta’s BLA submission for MCNA is complete and acceptable for filing, whether MCNA will be designated for priority review or standard review and whether an advisory committee meeting will be scheduled. Their decisions on these items will be communicated to Telesta in the FDA’s official filing communication known as the “Day-74 letter”. Telesta will communicate the FDA’s filing decisions upon receipt. Telesta’s BLA submission has been made following extensive and ongoing dialogue with the US FDA, including a formal pre-BLA meeting in November, 2014 and a Type C facility meeting in February, 2015. As part of this process, Telesta has incorporated the FDA’s recommendations into the current submission and the company has also been working with top tier regulatory consultants to ensure that their BLA submission meets all current regulatory requirements. Concurrently with this BLA submission, Telesta confirmed the completion of a number of upgrades and improvements to Telesta’s manufacturing facility and operating procedures, undertaken following recommendations received from the FDA at the Type C facility meeting held in February.
Trakm8 Holdings (LON:TRAK)
Trakm8, the telematics and data provider to the global market place, announced it has been awarded a contract by Bibby Distribution, part of the Bibby Line group. The contract is valued at c.£1.1m and will see Trakm8 supply Bibby's fleet with a tailored Fleet Management Solution powered by its' UK manufactured T8 mini device. As part of the five year contract Trakm8 will also supply bespoke Engineering Services to integrate the SWIFT 6 platform into ESSL, Bibby's workflow management software platform. Bibby Distribution was established over 30 years ago and with locations throughout the UK it is one of the UK's leading logistics providers. The contract between Trakm8 and Bibby Distribution will strengthen the group's presence in this sector.