88 Energy Ltd (LON:88E) (ASX:88E) said it has reached an agreement with XCD Energy Ltd’s (LON:ASX:XCD) board for a unanimously recommended merger. The prior unsolicited takeover bid had achieved backing of about 18.5% of XCD’s shareholders, and the recommended merger comes with improved terms. In the all-paper deal, 88 Energy will issue 2.4 new 88 Energy shares and 0.7 for every listed share option held - up from 1.67 per share and 0.5 per option. XCD’s board now recommend that its shareholders accept the offer, in the absence of any superior proposals. They will hold around 20% of the enlarged company as a result of the transaction.
C4X Discovery Holdings PLC (LON:C4XD), the AIM-listed drug discovery company, has raised £1.6mln through an oversubscribed placing at 15p a throw. C4X shares closed at 15.25p yesterday and the placing was the equivalent of 10% of its share in issue The net proceeds will be used to further strengthen the company’s balance sheet as its partnering and strategic collaborations progress and will boost working capital during the progression of its pipeline portfolio C4X said the new funds should provide it with at least twelve months working capital, assuming that a material tax credit will be received both this year and in the first half of next year, as has been the case in previous years.
Panther Metals PLC (LON:PALM) has announced the commencement of a three-week field exploration programme from this weekend on the gold-focused Big Bear property in Ontario, Canada. The main market-listed company, which is focused on mineral exploration in Canada and Australia, said the three-week work sampling and mapping programme, which will build its understanding of possible drill and trench targets is commencing on May 10. It noted that the work will target both orogenic gold and volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) style mineralisation.
MaxCyte Inc (LON:MXCT) has signed a clinical and commercial agreement with a US life sciences group for its cutting edge gene-editing technology. Caribou Biosciences will use MaxCyte’s flow electroporation systems and the company’s ExPERT platform in its allogeneic t-cell therapy programmes. MaxCyte will receive undisclosed development and approval milestones as well as sales-based payments and “other licensing fees”. “This important agreement represents another key expansion for MaxCyte, emphasising the value of our technology platform to companies developing pioneering gene-editing and cell therapies,” MaxCyte’s chief executive, Doug Doerfler said in a statement.
Jubilee Metals Group PLC (LON:JLP) said its Windsor platinum group metals and chrome operations in South Africa have restarted operations, following the restart of work at Inyoni a fortnight ago. “With all our operations being surface based processing facilities, they lend themselves to a rapid ramp-up to achieve targeted throughputs,” said chief executive Leon Coetzer.
ReNeuron Group PLC (LON:RENE) said new positive data relating to its CTX cell therapy candidate have been published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Stem Cells. The developer of cell-based therapeutics said the data was included in a paper entitled "Implantation of the clinical-grade human neural stem cell line, CTX0E03, rescues the behavioural and pathological deficits in the quinolinic acid-lesioned rodent model of Huntington's disease". It said the new data show for the first time that ReNeuron's CTX human neural stem cell line can rescue deficits associated with an accepted animal model of Huntington's disease, a progressive genetic brain disorder.
KRM22 PLC (LON:KRM) told investors that trading has continued as stated in its trading statement last month and that it is continuing talks about a potential fundraising The risk management software specialist put out a statement on Thursday afternoon in response to a fall in its share price Discussions with shareholders and certain other investors regarding an equity fundraising or potential alternative financing are continuing, the London-based company said. “These discussions remain ongoing and a further update will be made when appropriate,” the AIM-listed firm said.
Enteq Upstream PLC (LON:NTQ) bobbed higher on Thursday after it announced the award of a new material contract with a new international customer The oilfield services firm said it had received confirmation of the contract on 7 May alongside a cash deposit valued at US$1mln for the customer’s operations in China.
Ncondezi Energy Limited’s (LON:NCCl) future lies beyond its current development of a thermal power station in Mozambique and in off-grid solar generation, according to broker Canaccord Genuity. The broker, which has a ‘speculative buy’ rating and 13p price target on the AIM-listed company’s shares, said, however, that the short-term picture will be dominated by the 300Mw- coal-to-power project in Tete Province.
Conroy Gold and Natural Resources PLC (LON:CGNR) is confident it will receive all of the outstanding money from its placing in February after another £50,000 was deposited today. The Irish gold explorer was pledged £250,000 though the placing but only received £50,000 at the time. Subsequently, it received a further £50,000 from the placee and with this latest payment is now awaiting the final £100,000.
NQ Minerals PLC (LON:NQMI) has unveiled a new resource statement for the Beaconsfield gold mine in Tasmania. Total resources rise to 1.454mln tonnes at a grade of 10.3 grams per tonnes (g/t), for 483,000 ounces gold. There are 354,000 ounces in measured and inferred resources, 485,000 tonnes at 11.4 g/t in measured for 177,000 ounces and 492,000 tonnes at 11.2 g/t in indicated for 177,000 ounces. A further 477,000 tonnes at 8.4 g/t remains in the inferred resource category, and, the company told investors that significant additional gold potential is still to be assessed.
First Graphene Ltd (ASX:FGR) and planarTECH (Holdings ) Ltd are to collaborate on a range of graphene-enhanced personal protective equipment (PPE) products. PlanarTECH says it has already developed a face mask that utilises a graphene coating to provide anti-static and bacteria-resistant properties to the mask and needs to increase manufacturing capability to meet the demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The mask already uses PureGraph additives supplied by First Graphene, but now the companies want to ramp up production.
Next Fifteen Communications Group PLC (LON:NFC) has announced that Penny will become the new chair of its board with effect from February 1, 2021, replacing Richard Eyre who will complete nine years as its chairman on May 11, 2020. Ladkin-Brand, who has chaired the Next 15 Audit Committee since 2017, also becomes the company’s Senior Independent Director with immediate effect. The group said its board has asked Eyre to continue in the post to the end of the current financial year, and, consequently, he will seek re-election at the AGM and be available to support a smooth transition. Ladkin-Brand is currently chief financial officer at Future PLC (LON:FUTR), the FTSE 250 global multi-platform media company, and she will be moving into a new role of chief strategy officer on June 1, 2020, and will step down from the group’s board.
Frontier IP Group PLC (LON:FIPP) said its portfolio firm Exscientia has entered into a collaboration with US research centre SRI International to expedite the discovery of molecules for a high value oncology target. The IP investor said the agreement will see the two firms implement a new approach to drug discovery using SRI’s automated synthetic-chemistry system with Exscientia's Centaur Chemist system. Frontier IP owns a 2.3% stake in Exscientia.
Eden Research PLC (LON:EDEN) said it is “poised to capitalise on new product and market opportunities in 2020” as it predicted more sales for its Cedroz product. Posting its results for the year ended December 31, 2019, the biopesticide specialist said it expected to “build on the sales achieved in the territories where it received approvals during 2019 and early 2020”, including sales for Cedroz in Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom where the applications for registrations have now been outstanding from the early part of 2019. The firm also said it expected US regulators to approve Cedroz and its Mevalone product during 2020, although the pace of approvals has been slowed by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Premier African Minerals Ltd (LON:PREM) has agreed to acquire a further 7% interest in the Otjozondu manganese mining project in Namibia. The transaction sees Premier buy a 7% interest in MN Holdings Limited, the project’s owner, for US$700,000 paid in new shares. It will increase Premier African’s stake in MN to 19%. “This further proposed increase in our holding in MNH is based on the same valuation formula applied to our initial acquisition,” George Roach, Premier African's chief executive said in a statement released after the market close on Wednesday.
Amryt Pharma PLC (LON:AMYT) has taken another important step towards the global launch of its phase III treatment for the rare skin condition epidermolysis bullosa (EB) by announcing its brand name. AP101 will be launched commercially as FILSUVEZ. “This, alongside our recent completion of recruitment into the EASE study, represents further progress as we endeavour to develop a therapy for patients with EB, a rare and distressing genetic skin disorder affecting young children and adults for which there is currently no approved treatment," Amryt chief executive, Dr Joe Wiley said in a statement.
Amryt Pharma also announced that its results for the year ended December 31, 2019, will be released on May 11, when it will also issue Q1 2020 results.
Genel Energy PLC (LON:GENL) has told investors that production at the 25% owned Tawke and Peshkabir fields averaged 61,493 barrels of oil per day (bopd) and 53,714 bopd, respectively, during the first quarter The company noted that following the completion of five development wells across the licence area, three rigs have now been released and drilling equipment has now been stored or demobilised amidst the current challenging market environment. A work-over rig continues to service production wells, and a drill rig has been stacked at each field so that they can be mobilised quickly once conditions warrant it, the group added.
Anglo African Oil & Gas PLC (LON:AAOG) said it has noted the recent rise in its share price and confirms that it knows of no reason for this movement. As announced on May 1, 2020, the company has completed the sale of Anglo African Oil & Gas Congo S.A.U to Zenith Energy Limited on the terms set out in the announcement of April 17, 2020.
Silence Therapeutics PLC (LON:SLN), a leader in the discovery, development and delivery of novel RNA therapeutics for the treatment of serious diseases, said its annual general meeting will be held on June 9, 2020, at 10.00am at Herons Ghyll, Tilford Road, Tilford, Surrey GU10 2DD. It added that in order to comply with the UK Government's Stay at Home measures, shareholders will not be allowed to attend the meeting in person and are strongly encouraged to, therefore, submit their votes, in respect of all matters of business, via proxy as early as possible. If the situation changes then shareholders will be notified via the company's website at https://www.silence-therapeutics.com and via RNS announcement.
Woodbois Limited (LON:WBI), the African focused forestry and timber trading company, has announced that following the release of the audited results for the year ended December 31, 2019, on April 30, the company has made their latest corporate presentation available from the investor centre of the company's website.
Base Resources Limited (LON:BSE) (ASX:BSE), the African mineral sands producer, has announced that the latest investor update presentation is now available from the company’s website - www.baseresources.com.au - and a pre-recorded webcast of that presentation can be viewed at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/6av8h2ew