Belvoir Group PLC (LON:BLV) reported £1.9mln of gross contributions from mortgage broking in the first 10 months of the year and expects a further profit boost from a new exclusivity agreement signed with a Yorkshire-based chain of estate agents. The property franchise group, which augmented its lettings and sales services with a financial services arm in 2016, has increased its number of financial advisers by 30% to 160 so far this year and has written 7,961 mortgages for independent estate agencies and via its group franchisees.
IQ-AI PLC (LON:IQAI) said it is working on a new package for the assessment of stroke victims that emanates from an initiative to develop a brain scanning process free of the contrast agent gadolinium. The innovation is being developed by the firm’s subsidiary Imaging Biometrics (IB) and also builds on its work mapping tumours.
AFC Energy PLC (LON:AFC) has said its HydroX-Cell(S) fuel cell can “compete favourably” with alternate proton exchange membrane (PEM) technologies in the market. The AIM-listed firm, which specialises in hydrogen power generation, said one advantage of HydroX-Cell(S) is that it is capable of accepting low grade, low cost hydrogen to generate power, unlike PEM, which requires high cost, high grade hydrogen.
KRM22 PLC (LON:KRM) has signed a partnership deal with deltaconX, a regulatory reporting services provider for financial, energy and commodity traders in Europe. The risk management group will make deltaconX’s service available through its Global Risk Platform which it says will simplify regulatory reporting through automation and “dynamic error handling, minimising manual work and the likelihood of human error”. In a separate announcement, KRM22 said it had raised £1mln through the placing of around 1.9mln new shares at a price of 52p each, a 4.6% discount to its close price on Wednesday.
ANGLE PLC (LON:AGL) (OTCMKTS:ANPCY) revealed that leading European cancer centre, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Germany has published results of work demonstrating that the company’s Parsortix system can be used as a liquid biopsy to investigate prediction and monitoring of therapy responses for melanoma patients. In a statement, the AIM-listed company said the results of the study by UKE have been published in the renowned peer-reviewed medical journal, Cancers.
Diversified Gas & Oil PLC (LON:DGOC) has sold its non-producing assets in Monroe County, Ohio, for US$10mln. The sold assets include three drilled and uncompleted wells classified as proved undeveloped wells as well as undeveloped acreage containing additional drilling locations.
InnovaDerma PLC (LON:IDP) has appointed its finance director, Joe Bayer, as its new executive chairman. Bayer, who has served finance boss of the personal care products maker since 2015, will replace outgoing executive chairman Haris Chaudhry, who is stepping down with immediate effect for personal reasons and to pursue other interests.
Zoetic International PLC (LON:ZOE) shares shot higher on Thursday as it agreed to a share buyback plan with one of its investors, Diversion Technologies. The company said following its decision to exit its natural resources business, Diversion had agreed to sell back the 950,000 shares it owns in Zoetic as well as paying US$65,000 to settle a debt.
Integumen PLC (LON:SKIN) confirmed it is on track to exceed £1mln in revenues by the year-end as it confirmed its Labskin subsidiary had signed commercial agreements with three companies. It didn’t reveal the identities of the customers, but said they were top-20 cosmetic firms.
Polarean Imaging PLC (LON:POLX) has completed patient enrolment for a Phase III clinical trial of its MRI lung scan technology. The medical imaging specialist said it had enrolled 80 patients, 48 of which are in a lung transplant pathway while the remaining 32 are for lung resection, a process where part of the lung tissue is removed.
Bushveld Minerals Limited (LON:BMN) achieved record output from its vanadium arm Vametco in September after a series of upgrades to the plant. Vametco upgraded the crusher and mill and kiln availability, which increased recoveries and leach plant efficiency. Bushveld Minerals has also completed the acquisition of Vanchem for a total consideration of US$53.5mln.
Base Resources Limited (LON:BSE) has been told to suspend on-the-ground activity at the Toliara mineral sands project in Madagascar while fiscal terms are agreed. The company said work on its definitive feasibility study for the development is unaffected as all necessary on-ground works have been completed. Base intends to release the DFS on schedule in December, it said today.
Sound Energy PLC (LON:SOU), the Moroccan focused upstream gas company, said that as the company has entered the final phase of the marketing process for its Eastern Morocco Portfolio and following the award of exclusivity agreement announced on 6 November 2019, it is planning to make various changes to its board in order to ensure it has the appropriate management and cost structure in place for the next phase of Company's development. The group, therefore, announced that JJ Traynor, the company's CFO, will on 6 February 2020 step down from the board and leave the company, with his duties to be divided among its other staff.
Echo Energy PLC (LON:ECHO), the Latin American-focused upstream oil and gas company, announced that, further to the announcement made on 4 November 2019, it has now received the acquisition waiver required by the company from the minority co-owner of the Santa Cruz Sur assets. The firm added that completion of the acquisition remains conditional on the passing of the Resolutions at the General Meeting of the company to be held on Thursday.
MaxCyte (LSE:MXCT) (LON:MXCS), the global cell-based therapies and life sciences company, announced that its president and chief executive officer Doug Doerfler will present on the company's CARMA cell-therapy platform at the annual BIO Europe conference on 13 November 2019 at Hamburg Messe, Hamburg, Germany. The group said the presentation, which will take place at 10:30am CET in Hall B1, Room 6, will focus on MaxCyte's position at the forefront of the development of next generation cell-based medicines with the proprietary CARMA platform.
Arix Bioscience PLC (LON:ARIX) a global venture capital company focused on investing in and building breakthrough biotech companies, noted that its portfolio company, Autolus Therapeutics PLC (NASDAQ:AUTL) today announced its third quarter 2019 operational and financial results. Dr. Christian Itin, chairman and chief executive officer of Autolus commented: “This quarter we have made significant operational progress, delivering cell products from our new manufacturing operations at the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult and further strengthening our management team. Supported by a strong balance sheet, our key focus is on moving AUTO1 into our first pivotal clinical program in adult patients with ALL.”
Arix Bioscience also said it has appointed Peel Hunt as its joint corporate broker, with immediate effect, alongside its existing corporate broker Jefferies International.
Seeing Machines Limited (LON:SEE), the advanced computer vision technology company that designs AI-powered operator monitoring systems to improve transport safety, has published the presentation delivered at its Capital Markets Day in London on Wednesday 6 November, on its website.