Investment vehicle Unique Sports Group PLC (LON:USG) saw its shares rise 9.6% to 28.5p as it said it is close to making an acquisition.
The company, which plans to change its name to Catena Group, is in advanced discussions in relation to a potential investment into an artificial intelligence company that provides machine learning solutions to asset managers and other financial services companies.
The company added that its subsidiary, Sports in Schools, continued its strong performance in the second half of 2019.
2.00pm: Aston Martin Lagonda roars ahead after bail-out
Shares in luxury cars maker Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC (LON:AML) rose 20% to 482.3p after a rescue deal was announced.
Canadian billionaire and F1 backer Lawrence Stroll is leading a consortium of financial heavyweights in a bail-out of the company, which has struggled since floating on the stock market later in 2018.
Stroll runs the Racing Point F1 team, which will change its name to Aston Martin F1 for the 2021 season. The Canadian tycoon will become executive chairman once the deal completes.
12.45pm: Novacyt soars after launching a coronavirus test
Somebody had to do it – announce the launch of a coronavirus test – and Novacyt SA (LON:NCYT) has done so, sending the shares 143% higher.
The shares surged to 48.5p on AIM after the company said its molecular diagnostics division, Primerdesign, has launched a new molecular test for novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
As the company announced earlier this week in an operational update, the research use only test has been developed as a direct response to the recent outbreak of the respiratory virus in China.
11.30am: Billing Services to make cash distribution if shareholders approve disposal
Billing Services Group Limited (LON:BILL) was London’s best performer with a 61% gain after announcing it is to get shot of its BSG Wireless subsidiary.
The company is selling out to Single Digits Connection for US$5.25mln.
The shares soared after the company said if the disposal, which is conditional on the approval of shareholders, goes through it would make a cash distribution to shareholders.
10.30am: Laura Ashley tumbles as CEO announces retirement plans
Laura Ashley Holdings plc (LON:ALY) lost more than a tenth of its value at 2.92p after its chief executive handed in his notice.
Kwan Cheong Ng will retire from the chief executive role at the end of April but will remain on the board as a non-executive director.
Katharine Poulter, who is the chief operating officer of the struggling home décor and fashion retailer, will be appointed as executive director and will succeed Ng as the chief executive officer.
9.30am: M&C Saatchi slumps as FCA launches investigation into accounting scandal
Shares in M&C Saatchi PLC (LON:SAA) slumped 12.5p to 98p in early trade on Friday after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) commenced an investigation into the advertising agency.
The FCA’s probe comes after the accounting adjustments announced by the company last month. The company said it would cooperate fully with the FCA.
The company revealed an £11.6mln black hole in its accounts in December.
Investors also hung up on shares in telecoms services provider Toople PLC (LON:TOOP) after it announced an acquisition and a heavily discounted share placing.
The shares slumped to 0.1025p from 0.16p last night after the company raised £1.2mln by placing shares at 0.1p each.
The company is splashing out £1.56mln to acquire DMSL, a company that provides unified communication services in the UK.
Proactive news headlines:
Vast Resources PLC (LON:VAST) has received net cash proceeds of US$6.39mln from the drawdown of the first tranche of a loan from Atlas Capital. “We are pleased that Tranche 1 of the Atlas Capital Markets facility has been achieved and with the opportunity that this unlocks,” said Vast chief executive Andrew Prelea.
OptiBiotix Health PLC (LON:OPTI), the life sciences business developing compounds to tackle obesity, high cholesterol, diabetes and skin care, and Agropur Inc. have announced the launch of SlimBiome in the North American market. The move follows the announcement on 24 June 2019 that OptiBiotix had granted Agropur an exclusive license to manufacture, supply and distribute SlimBiome weight management technology in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
Sativa Group PLC (LON:SATI) has signed a deal to distribute its Goodbody Botanicals range of cannabidiol (CBD) products to pharmacies across the UK. The deal with pharmaceutical, medical and healthcare product distributor Alliance Healthcare will provide access to over 10,000 high street retailer customers, Sativa said.
EQTEC PLC (LON:EQT) highlighted significant progress with its recently refined strategy under its new chief executive, David Palumbo, over the last four months. The technology solutions provider for waste gasification to energy projects has continued its focus on three key verticals, namely the recovery of clean energy from biomass; the elimination of waste streams in the agri-food and industrial sectors; and elimination of municipal solid waste and refuse-derived fuel waste streams.
Frontier IP Group PLC’s (LON:FIPP) portfolio firm, Exscientia, has begun phase 1 clinical trials of DSP-1181, the world’s first drug created by artificial intelligence (AI). The drug, created as part of a joint development agreement with Japanese firm Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, is designed to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Scancell Holdings PLC (LON:SCLP) said it is increasing the number of clinical sites as it recruits patients to a UK phase II trial for its lead drug, SCIB1 for the skin cancer melanoma. The update was provided alongside the firm’s interim results, which charted a busy period for the immunotherapies specialist, one in which it brought on board a new major shareholder, the Vulpes Life Science Fund.
Ashley House PLC (LON:ASH), the health and housing property partner, said it has made good progress with its affordable housing strategy. Its F1 Modular unit has recently achieved practical completion on six affordable homes for Corby Borough Council and also on a disabled living scheme in Peterborough for a specialist care home operator.
Open Orphan PLC (LON:ORPH) has unveiled plans to raise £5mln that will be used to accelerate the growth of the pharma services group following its merger with hVIVO. A total of £1mln has already been committed to the subscription portion of the share issue, with the remainder coming via a placing of stock with “institutional and other” investors. Chairman Cathal Friel’s Raglan Capital has agreed to unwrite a £2.5mln portion of the fundraiser.
Regency Mines PLC (LON:RGM) told investors it has now rebranded its ‘Energy Storage’ division to ‘Flexible Grid Solutions’. It also confirmed board approval progress for the first project to financial close and added that first revenues are expected by the end of 2020. The first project is located in Southport, near Liverpool, and it will see the installation of a gas-fired "peaker plant" capable of generating some 7.2 megawatts of power.
Pan African Resources plc (LON:PAF) has revealed a considerable improvement in earnings amid increased low-cost production from tailings, output from remnant mining at the Evander mine, and higher gold prices. The company said that earnings per share for the six months ended 31 December would be in the range of 1.12 to 1.17 US cents, while headline earnings per share would be between 1.11 to 1.16 cents. This represents a significant improvement from the 0.39 cents and 0.50 cents per share respectively for the same period of 2018.
Genel Energy PLC (LON:GENL) told investors it has received its latest payment for oil produced in Kurdistan, northern Iraq. The company, in a statement, said that the partners in the Taq Taq field received US$7.8mln gross, of which Genel’s share amounts to US$4.3mln. The payment relates to oil sales in September. Additionally, a further US$7mln ‘override’ payment was received from the KRG representing some 4.5% gross licence revenue for the Tawke field for the month of September.
Salt Lake Potash Ltd (LON:SO4) (ASX:SO4) said it is anticipating that it will finalise full funding for its Lake Way SOP project in Western Australia “in the coming months”. In a quarterly update for the period ending 31 December, the AIM-listed firm said stage 2 of the on-lake construction of the project was progressing on schedule, with the building of evaporation ponds and trench infrastructure having begun in November, with over 400 hectares of brine evaporation pond area nearing completion and 35 kilometres of brine abstraction trenches planned to complete.
Greencoat UK Wind PLC (LON:UKW) announced that its unaudited net asset value as of 31 December 2019 was 121.4p per share. The company also said it will pay a quarterly interim dividend of 1.735p per share with respect to the quarter ended 31 December 2019 and that it has increased its target dividend for 2020 to 7.1p per share, in line with the Retail Prices Index for December 2019. The firm also advised shareholders that it will release its annual results for the period to 31 December 2019 on Thursday 27 February 2020.