What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?
AIM
Block Energy—a UK based oil exploration and production company whose main country of operation is the Republic of Georgia, looks to join AIM end of February 2018. Offer TBC
Cradle Arc—holding company of a group of companies focused on the exploration and development of precious and base metals projects in Africa. Offer raising £2.4m with market cap of £20.13m. Expected late Jan 2018
Volex (LON:VLX) —The global provider of cable assemblies is proposing to move from the main market to AIM on 19 January. £75m market cap. FYMar18E rev £241.5m and £7.19m PBT.
OnTheMarket—Intention to float on AIM to raise c.£50m which will be used to fund the growth of the OnTheMarket.com portal, already the third biggest UK residential property portal provider. Expected valuation £200m to £250m.
Main Market Specialist Fund Segment
Sure Ventures –Raising up to £50m at £1. Focus on FinTech, IoT and Augmented/Virtual Reality. Postponed to 22 Jan.
Main Market Premium Listing
Press speculation that iconic luxury car builder of James Bond fame, Aston Martin is considering a London IPO with a valuation of up to £5bn
GEMS Education—report by Reuters that the private schools group is seeking a $4.5bn to $5bn London float in 2018. FYAug17 rev $926.2m and adjusted EBITDA $261.6m.
Vivo Energy—The Africa-focused company, which operates around 1,800 Shell forecourts across 16 countries reported by City A.M. to be preparing for a London float next year
Breakfast buffet
Toople* (LON:TOOP) 1.2p £2.175m
The provider of bespoke telecom services to UK SMEs has announced publication of its Annual Report for FYSep17, which has been a year of solid progress.
Financial Highlights
· Revenue growth of 34% to £1.28m
· 23% reduction in operating loss to £1.31m
· Gross margins up 4.3%
· Cash of £820k from £743k.
Operational Highlights: 300% growth in customer orders. Average conversion rate of 43% against all leads generated
Net growth month-on-month in customer base on contracts up to 36 months
Toople is well placed to accelerate its growth and further drive gross margins, with continued high customer satisfaction scores on Trustpilot, and a recently deployed in-house dedicated sales office, and a focus on the higher margin hosted telephony product.
Empyrean Energy (LON:EME) 12.6p £50.58m
The “oil and gas development company with interests in China, Indonesia and the United States, is pleased to announce that it has been informed by Sacgasco Limited (ASX: SGC), the operator of the Dempsey 1-15 well in the Sacramento Basin, onshore California, that production and sale of natural gas from the Dempsey 1-15 well has commenced. Empyrean has a 30% working interest in the Dempsey 1-15 Well.
The Dempsey 1-15 well is flowing gas at a rate of approximately 140 mcf/day with a flowing tubing pressure of 670 pounds per square inch (psi).
Concurrently the application process for the permitting of the enhanced reservoir stimulation of the well is proceeding as planned with stimulation operations expected in the first quarter of 2018.”
Tern (LON:TERN) 2.9p £3.8m
“The investment company specialising in the Internet of Things ("IoT"), announces that it will issue and allot 11,000,000 Ordinary Shares of 0.02 pence each at a price of 2.5p pursuant to the conversion of £275,000 of the loan note which was announced on 9 January 2018.
As previously announced, the funds raised will be used to maintain the Company's current position in its portfolio companies and for general working capital.”
Faroe Petroleum (FPM.L) 112.84p £413m
“The independent oil and gas company focussing principally on exploration, appraisal and production opportunities in Norway and the UK, is pleased to announce that it has been awarded eight new prospective exploration licences, including four operatorships, in the Norwegian North Sea under the 2017 Norwegian APA (Awards in Pre-defined Areas) Licence Round.”
“We have further consolidated our position in core areas of the Norwegian continental shelf in which we have delivered recent exploration success. We look forward to high-grading these new licence opportunities in the coming period. This good quality new exploration acreage, together with our enhanced production portfolio and development pipeline, ensures that our shareholders are exposed to a well balanced and sustainable set of growth opportunities going forward.”
Touchstar (LON:TST) 69.9p £4.41m
Touchstar has announced “details of a fundraise consisting of a firm placing, a conditional placing and an open offer to raise in aggregate up to £1.3m, before expenses.
The Chairman, Ian Martin, said: "We have refocused Touchstar to be a business that enables data to be captured, moved and used, which is a good place to be in the modern world. This successful fund raising allows the development and growth of the business to be faster. It is an exciting time for us." We could see no forecasts.
Cronin Group (LON:CRON) 2.5p £13.76m
The “company focusing on digitizing chemistry, announces that its scientific founder and Non-Executive Director, Professor Lee Cronin, has published favourable results using methodologies covered by Cronin Group's patent US9757706, Methods of evolutionary synthesis including embodied chemical syntheses. The paper entitled "Artificial intelligence exploration of unstable protocells leads to predictable properties and discovery of collective behaviour" is published today in the peer reviewed National Academy of Sciences.
Utilising more than 7,000 experiments collected using an autonomous robotic platform, the authors illustrate how smart automation can help with exploration, optimisation, and discovery of new behaviours, but is also core to developing a fundamental understanding of such systems.”
Gattaca (LON:GATC.) 257p £82m
“The specialist Engineering and Technology (IT & Telecoms) recruitment solutions business, notes the recent share price fall. Gattaca has historically provided recruitment solutions to Carillion plc and its subsidiaries, primarily in the public sector arena. Whilst Gattaca has outstanding debts from the Carillion group, the vast majority of these are insured by a leading credit insurer and, at this time, we estimate our uninsured balance sheet exposure to be less than £100,000. The impact of Carillion's liquidation on our balance sheet will therefore be minimal. Our annual Net Fee Income from the Carillion group of companies is in the order of £0.5m.” Actively engaging with the relevant Carillion counterparties to ascertain how we can continue to support the related underlying projects which would also maintain this income, whilst ensuring that we will be paid for such services. Consensus forecasts shows FY 2018 rev of £657m, EBIT of £19.5m and EPS of 35p
Midwich (LON:MIDW) 594p £471.2m
FYDec17 trading update from the specialist audio visual and document solutions distributor to the trade market. “The Group's trading momentum continued in the second half of the year, with encouraging growth seen across all of the Group's divisions. Additionally, all of the acquisitions made in 2017 performed either in line or ahead of our expectations and continue to benefit from being part of the Group.
Consequently, the Board now expects to report revenue for 2017 of approximately £470m, representing growth of around 28% over prior year. Movements in exchange rates account for approximately 3% of this growth.” As a result of this strong performance, the Board now anticipates reporting adjusted profit before tax for 2017 comfortably ahead of its previous expectations. Consensus forecast for FY 2017 show revs of £451m, EBIT of £23m and pre tac profit of £19m
adept4 (LON:AD4) 3.6p £8.17m
FYSep17 results from the provider of IT as a Service.
• Revenues of £10.3m (FY16: £4.9m1)
• Recurring revenues of £7.3m (FY16: £3.2m), representing 71% of total revenues (FY16: 65%)
• Adjusted trading Group EBITDA of £1.5m (FY16: £0.9m1)
• Loss before tax for the year of £0.8m (FY16: £1.4m)
• £2.9m cash at bank at 30 September 2017 (FY16: £4.3m) resulting in net debt of £2.0m5 (FY16: £1.6m).
Security and consumptive pricing shifts remain key drivers. Company remains vigilant for acquisition opportunities.
We could see no forecasts
genedrive (LON:GDR) 30p £5.5m
genedrive, the near patient molecular diagnostics company, provided an unaudited period end update for the six months ended 31 Dec 2017.
Group revenue was £2.6m (2016: £2.8m) with diagnostic (Genedrive®) related revenue of £1.3m (2016: £1.2m). Diagnostic revenue was largely comprised of the US Department of Defense project, with £1m of development income and £0.3m of product related sales.
genedrive has made significant strategic and operational progress in the period with the CE marking of its Genedrive® HCV ID Kit, the appointment of its distribution partner, Sysmex Corporation, in the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions, and the launch of the Hepatitis C test in Africa.
The Company closed the period with cash of £4.6m (30 Ju 2017: £5.1m), following the receipt of £1.2m R&D tax credits in the period.