Banquet Buffet
Physiomics* 1.5p £1.08m (LON:PYC)
The oncology consultancy using mathematical models and its Virtual Tumour™ technology to support the development of cancer treatment regimens and personalised medicine solutions, has updated its shareholders in light of the rapidly evolving COVID-19 outbreak.
The Company's first concern is of course for the well-being of its employees and to this end, the Company confirmed that many of its employees and consultants already work remotely on either a full-time or flexible basis. The nature of the Company's business is such that remote working can be as effective as office-working and this extends to its interactions with clients, the vast majority of which are also conducted remotely through the use of phone, email, teleconference and screen-sharing technologies.
The Company has a strong pipeline of work, which it expects will keep its project teams occupied until beyond the end of the current financial year ending 30 June 2020. The only material risk that the Board has clear visibility on at this point, is the possibility of a delay in the start of the recently announced i4i-award funded personalised dosing study, due to measures being taken by all hospitals in the UK to minimise non-COVID-19 related activity. Even were this to materialise, the Board believes that it is currently trading in line with market expectations for the current financial year based on current assumptions around the impact of COVID-19.
AB Dynamics (LON:ABDP) 1080p £243.2m
Performance for the six months ended 29 February 2020 was ahead of the comparative period and in line with expectations.
Good progress has been made against the Group's strategic priorities, which are focused on broadening and strengthening ABD to ensure it continues to capitalise on the substantial growth opportunities across its end markets .
“The Board is continually monitoring the rapidly changing global situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it is difficult to predict its impact at this stage, the Board anticipates that any potential deferred customer order intake and / or supply constraints will likely have an impact on the financial performance in the second half of the year.
We have sufficient inventory levels to support ongoing production and alternative sources of supply for the majority of items that might be affected if the current situation continues into the longer term, absent any additional trade or travel restrictions. Clearly the global impact of COVID-19 is evolving however, we will keep the situation under close review and update investors on any material changes.” “Our balance sheet remains strong with cash at 29 February 2020 of £35.2m, underpinning our investment plans. Following a detailed review of inventory, a number of items previously included in the carrying value have been written off. This one-off charge will be excluded from adjusted operating profit.
Ariana Resources (LON:AAU) 1.95p £20.6m
Production guidance for 2020 for the Kiziltepe Mine. Kiziltepe is part of the Red Rabbit Joint Venture ("JV") with Proccea Construction Co. and is 50% owned by Ariana through its shareholding in Zenit Madencilik San. ve Tic. A.S. ("Zenit").
Highlights:
· Gold production guidance for 2020 from Kiziltepe is c. 18,000 oz Au*, c. 30% above feasibility plan for this stage of the operational mine life.
· The mine plan forecasts average monthly production of approximately 20,000 tonnes of ore, peaking during Q2 2020.
· Ore throughput to the mill during 2020 is expected to be c. 205,000 tonnes, which represents a 37% increase over the feasibility plan.
· Average grade of gold to be mined during the year is expected to be c. 2.5 g/t Au and gold recovery is expected to exceed 90%.
· Open-pit mining will be completed at the Arzu South pit by Q3 2020, and mining transitioned completely to the Arzu North and Derya areas.
Notes fall in oil price and positive effect on mining and processing costs.
ProPhotonix (LON:PPIX) 1.125 $1.05m
The designer and manufacturer of LED illumination systems and laser diode modules with operations in Ireland and the United Kingdom, is pleased to announce the entering into of a three-year framework product supply and intellectual property agreement with a European based global technology group, an existing ProPhotonix customer.
Pursuant to the Agreement, ProPhotonix will supply a custom LED illumination system, including hardware and software, featuring unique design attributes to allow for real-time high-speed inspection of manufactured products with irregular optical properties.
The Agreement runs for three years, with renewal provisions thereafter, unless otherwise terminated pursuant to various provisions of the Agreement. Whilst the Agreement does not stipulate or require that the customer makes any purchases, ProPhotonix anticipates that system revenue could equate to approximately $0.7m per annum bringing the total anticipated annual revenue from this customer to approximately $1.2m.
88 Energy (LON:88E) 0.6p £42.6m
Update related to operations for the Charlie-1 appraisal well, which is currently being drilled on the North Slope of Alaska.
Highlights
Drilling of production hole to commence imminently
After a minor delay, mainly due to weather, surface casing has now been set and cemented. A mandatory test of the Blow Out Preventer system was also completed successfully, which will now be followed by a Formation Integrity Test. Drilling will then proceed in the 8.5" production hole.
The results from the Logging While Drilling phase of the program are expected to be announced after Total Depth has been reached and initial analyses have been completed, scheduled for early April.
The Company can confirm that COVID-19 has had no impact on the program to date and appropriate measures have been put in place to ensure that any potential impacts are being proactively addressed.
Escape Hunt (LON:ESC) 3.5p £0.94m
Trading in the period from 1 January 2020 to 29 February 2020 continued the strong trend experienced in December 2019, with revenues and site performance in the UK comfortably ahead of expectations and franchise activity trading in line. In the first two weeks of March, sales in the UK business held up remarkably well with almost no discernible impact from COVID-19.
However, COVID-19 will prove to be a huge challenge for us all. In the past few days, countries around the world have been adopting increasingly stringent measures to curb the spread of the virus, in many cases leading to the forced closure of all non-essential retail and leisure facilities. In this environment, we fully expect franchise income will progressively decline or cease.
May benefit from government support, cutting costs, current cash £1.8m.
Impax Asset Management (LON:IPX) 229p £299m
AGM Statement. "Since the start of its financial year on 1 October 2019, the Company has had strong net inflows. At the end of February 2020, assets under discretionary and advisory management were £16.3 billion, an increase of 8% over five months. During March, the funds and accounts that Impax manages or advises have generally performed in line with the market, while flows have been slightly negative. The Company's pipeline of potential new business remains encouraging and is largely unchanged. In line with its normal practices, the Company intends to provide a further update in the first full week of April."
VR Education (LON:VRE) 4.625p £8.93m
The virtual reality ('VR') technology company focused on the education and enterprise training space, announced that following on from successfully hosting the 2020 HTC Vive Ecosystem Conference via its ENGAGE platform, HTC Corporation has indicated to the Group that they want to enter into a strategic partnership.
The basis of this strategic partnership would be for the distribution of the Group's ENGAGE platform globally through all HTC enterprise sales channels. At this early stage, there can be no certainty that a strategic partnership will be concluded and a further announcement, as appropriate, will be made in due course.
With the global spread of COVID-19 HTC and VRE are working closely together to help alleviate current commercial and education issues created by widespread self-isolation enforced by governments worldwide.
OKYO Pharma (LON:OKYO) 1p £5.6m
The company, focused on the discovery and development of novel molecules to treat inflammatory dry eye diseases and chronic pain, has conditionally raised £560k at 0.5p. The Placing Shares were placed privately with Panetta Partners Ltd, a major shareholder in the Company and a further strategic investor. Proceeds (1) to complete IND enabling studies of Chemerin for dry eye followed by IND submission by Q1 2021, (2) to complete Pre-IND studies and validation of Proof of Concept for Bam-8 for the treatment of ocular and chronic pain, and (3) for working capital and other general expenses.
OnTheMarket (LON:OTMP) 39.5p £27.75m
Payment support initiative for its agent customers to help ease the anticipated impact of the evolving COVID-19 situation.
33% listing fee discount for 3 months.
To help reduce the cash flow pressure which agents are expected to face, OnTheMarket is introducing a 33% listing fee discount for invoices issued in the 3 months starting April 2020. This discount will be given to all OnTheMarket agent customers who are paying on full-tariff listing agreements.