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Small Cap Wrap - Directa Plus, Trackwise Designs, Character Group and more...

Published: 14:32 22 Jan 2021 GMT

Character Group - Sm

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Urban & Civic  has left the Main market following acquisition by The Wellcome Trust.

CPL Resources  has left  AIM following acquisition by Outsourcing Talent Ireland.

 

What’s Cooking In The IPO Kitchen?

NQ Minerals, the base and precious metals producer from its 100% owned flagship Hellyer Mine  and the 100% owner of the Beaconsfield Gold Mine, both in northern Tasmania, Australia, has submitted a draft prospectus to the UK Financial Conduct Authority  for approval. The Company is considering applying for admission of its ordinary shares to the Official List of the FCA by way of a Standard Listing and to trading on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange . Details TBA

Foresight Group , the award-winning infrastructure and private equity investment manager  to IPO on the Main Market (Premium). The Offer will primarily comprise a sale of shares by existing shareholders (c.80% of the Offer) with a smaller offering of new shares (c.20% of the Offer) to be issued by the Company. Details TBA.

Cornish Metals (TSX-V: CUSN) intends to list on AIM. The Company is proposing to raise £5m by way of private placement of new Common Shares to advance the United Downs copper-tin project. The Company expects that Admission will become effective in February 2021.  The Company’s Common Shares will continue to be listed and trade on the TSX-V in Canada.

VH Global Sustainable Energy Opportunities plc, a closed-ended investment Company focused on making sustainable energy infrastructure investments announced it intends to launch an IPO of shares on the Official List (Premium) of the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange.  Due by Early Feb.

 

Breakfast Buffet

Learning Tech Group 174.6p £1,290m (LON:LTG)

The provider of services and technologies for digital learning and talent management updated for the year ending 31 December 2020.

The Board expects Group revenues to be not less than £131.0 million (2019: £130.1 million).  Recurring revenues increased to c.80% (2019: 74%), driven by the ongoing performance in the Software & Platforms division and the expansion of LTG’s business in open-source learning management systems through the acquisitions of Open LMS, eCreators and eThink Education.   Adjusted EBIT is expected to be ahead of consensus1 and not less than £40.0 million (2019: £41.0 million), demonstrating the resilience of the Company amid wider market disruption and its ability to adapt its operating model in the face of significant changes in demand across the business.

The Group’s net cash position at 31 December 2020 of £70.2 million was significantly ahead of consensus of £59.6 million, driven by strong operating cash conversion and additional net cash balances of £1.6 million from the acquisitions of eCreators and eThink. This robust capital position will enable the Group to continue its track record of acquisitions that add to LTG’s capabilities in the market – including the recently announced acquisition of Reflektive, which will complete on 29 January 2021.

 

Botswana Diamonds 0.675p £4.9m (LON:BOD)

Botswana Diamonds has today undertaken a Company-arranged placing with existing and new investors to raise  £363,000 via the issue of 60,500,000 new ordinary shares , which includes the cash subscription by certain directors as detailed below, at a placing price of 0.6p per Placing Share. Each Placing Share has one warrant attached with the right to subscribe for one new ordinary share at 0.6p per new ordinary share for a period of two years from 22 January 2021 (the “Placing Warrants”), being the expected date of the Placing Warrants issue.

The funds raised will be used to fund exploration activities during the current year in Botswana and South Africa, which remain ongoing, and to provide additional working capital for the Company.

 

Kooth 271.5p £89.75m (LON:KOO)

Kooth, a leading digital mental health platform, announces a trading update for the financial year ended 31 December 2020.

Underlying revenue is expected to be ahead of market expectations and in the range of £12.5m to £13.0m, with strong growth of more than 40%.

Net cash at year end was £7.8m with the Group debt free following its IPO in September 2020.

Kooth will provide further details in its full year results, which are expected to be announced in April 2021.

 

St Peter Port Capital 3p £1.9m (LON:SPPC)

Update on Buried Hill. It was announced on 21 January, 2021 that the Turkmen and Azeri Governments have signed a Memorandum of Understanding  covering the development of a disputed area in the Caspian Sea. It has been separately confirmed that the area includes the hydro-carbon blocks under licence to Buried Hill by the Turkmen Government.

It is not yet clear what the impact of the MOU will be on the final commercial arrangements for developing the field, which is to be renamed Dostluk. However, the ending of the longstanding dispute between the Governments seems to be a historic milestone in unlocking the development of the field.

 

Journeo 56p £4.9m (LON:JNEO)

The information systems and transport technical services group has received purchase orders for the supply of its advanced public transport information Systems from a Northern Transport Partnership. 

The purchase orders worth £1.3m in total are part of tranche 2, announced on 10 December 2019, of the Transforming Cities Fund (TCF) and include the supply of the company’s latest double-sided thin-film transistor (TFT) display systems. Approximately £1m is expected to be delivered in the current financial year.

 

MySale Group 8.95p £84.3m (LON:MYSL)

The international online retailer, today provides a trading update for the six-month period to 31 December 2020.

Positive trading momentum continued in the first half of the financial year, with the Group making good progress in executing its “ANZ First” strategy to simplify and refocus the business.

Group EBITDA for the half year is trading ahead of management expectations at A$2.5m, an improvement of A$6,1m from the A$3.6m loss in the prior year period. Group revenues were  A$63.3m (a 14% increase on the prior year period, excluding discontinued channels), reflecting the changes made to the Group’s operating model and increasing focus on its ” ANZ First” strategy and inventory light marketplace platform. Gross margins have continued to improve, increasing to 37.9% (FY20 H1 34.0%) with ongoing focus on operating and overhead costs, allowing the business to deliver strong operational leverage.

 

Petroneft Resources 1.025p £9m (LON:PTR)

The  oil & gas exploration and production company, operating in the Tomsk Oblast, Russian Federation, and 50% owner and operator of Licences 61 and 67, is pleased to provide a financing update.

In June 2019 PetroNeft agreed a convertible loan facility of US$1.3 million with a group of five lenders. The convertible loan matured on 31st December 2020. The Company is now pleased to announce that it has reached agreement with the five lenders to extend the term of the loan under the following terms: 

Extension to the Maturity date from 31st December 2020 to 31st December 2021. 

Interest rate to remain at 8% above LIBOR. 

Convertible right to remain at 65% of the loan amount.

 

Character Group 405p £86m (LON:CCT)

Trading update from the designers, developers and international distributor of toys, games and giftware.  The Christmas 2020 trading period was buoyant for the UK toy sector generally, with the UK market reportedly up by c.5% year-on-year.  The Group’s UK sales for the four months to 31 December 2020 were up c.25% over the same period in 2019.  International sales in the period were also significantly higher than in the same period last year, with sales to the USA  featuring particularly well.  As a consequence, overall Group sales were boosted, with an aggregate increase of over 30% against the comparable period in 2019.

All  major brands and hero lines have sold exceptionally well.  This, coupled with the judicious approach to purchases made for the UK market for the commencement of this calendar year, has resulted in the Group’s inventory at 31 December 2020 being at its lowest level for over a decade. As announced on 7 January 2021, the Group has sold the freehold to its former over-spill warehousing facility in Oldham, Vernon Works, for £3.5 million in cash (ex VAT), with completion scheduled for the end of this month.  The sale at this price will result in an exceptional profit of approximately £2 million.

Despite the extended lockdowns and logistical difficulties that have arisen from container shortages, delays with shipping from the Far East, congestion at UK ports and the fall-out from Brexit, underlying profitability for the six months ending 28 February 2021 will be significantly higher than for the same period last year.  Looking beyond this,  CCT expects that the second half year of this financial year to be challenging due to the continuance of the lockdowns, restrictions and the continuing effect that the logistical difficulties are having on freight rates from the Far East (at times quadrupling since September 2020).  Assuming no further worsening of these conditions, the Board believes the Group will achieve current market expectations for the year ending 31 August 2021.

 

Trackwise Designs 320p £91m (LON:TWD)

The provider of specialist products using printed circuit technology, provides an update on trading for the year ended 31 December 2020.

The Company expects to report full year revenues of approximately £6.1 million (2019: £2.9 million) and an adjusted operating loss of approximately £0.2 million. While the revenue is lower than expected, the operating loss is in line with current market expectations.

Year-end sales in both the IHT and Advanced PCBs divisions have been impacted by the tightening of COVID-19 restrictions in the UK and overseas and also by the nervousness at the end of the Brexit transition period. This has led to customers delaying purchases as a result of impacts on their operations and softness in their own end markets. The Company expects trading activity to normalise as restrictions ease. Through continued careful cost control within the business , the adjusted operating loss remains as expected.

The pipeline of revenue opportunities across the primary target markets of Electric Vehicle, Medical and Aerospace continues to grow. IHT total customers and opportunities had risen to 87 at the year end.

 

Directa Plus 89p £54.6m (LON:DCTA)

Producer and supplier of graphene nanoplatelets based products for use in consumer and industrial markets, announces that it has had its contract with OMV Petrom extended and increased. The Contract, initially awarded in July 2019, was for the provision of decontamination and oil recovery services using the Company’s proprietary Grafysorber® technology.

The initial value of the contract was €150,000 (of which €75,000 was delivered and invoiced in 2020) and this has now been increased to up to €410,000, with the balance of which is expected to be fulfilled by June 2021.

 

Head Chef:

Derren Nathan
0203 764 2344
derren.nathan@hybridan.com

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