Tavistock Investments PLC shares have jumped after it announced late yesterday that its proposed acquisition of Morgan Financial Group Holdings will no longer take place.
Brian Raven, Tavistock's chief executive, said: "The transaction is no longer in Tavistock's strategic interests and therefore will not proceed. We wish the Morgans team well with the future development of their business."
11.05am: No alpha for Omega
Omega Diagnostics Group PLC (AIM:ODX) was the biggest faller on Friday morning after it agreed to sell its diagnostic test kit manufacturing business and facility in Scotland for £1mln cash and announced a discounted placing.
The sale of the manufacturing arm in Alva follows its expansion during the pandemic on the expectation of winning a large covid test kit contract from the UK Department of Health and Social Care.
After the DHSC decided not to progress with the contract, Omega said it “was left with insufficient demand for production volume and a manufacturing cost-base in Alva that was accordingly not sustainable”.
In a separate announcement, Omega announced that it has raised £5mln via a placing and subscription of 100mln new shares at an issue price of 5p apiece, a large discount to the 7.25p close price from the day before and its 12-month highs last spring above 100p.
It also proposes to raise up to a further £2mln in an open offer.
The net proceeds “will be used to drive growth in the profitable and growing Health and Nutrition Business, whilst also providing the necessary finance to relocate CD4 production to the company's new, purpose-built manufacturing facility in Ely, Cambridgeshire, as well as supporting a transition to a sub-contract model for COVID-19 test manufacture”.
9.25am: Kitwave waves hellos to new food-service acquisition
Kitwave Group PLC (AIM:KITW) shares were being snapped up like hotcakes in early trade on Friday, up 10% to 146p, as the wholesale delivery business said it has acquired West Country foodservice supplier MJ Baker for £24.5mln cash.
Offering around 3,500 ambient, chilled and frozen foods, alcohol, confectionery and non-food items from its base in Newton Abbott, Devon, MJ Baker reported revenues of £16.9mln and profit before tax of £1.5mln in 2020.
With the balance sheet including around £6mln of cash and a freehold property with a book value of roughly £1mln, Kitwave said it was paying about six times annual run-rate earnings and "the board believes that the acquisition will be immediately earnings enhancing".
Paul Young, Kitwave's chief executive, said: "The acquisition of M.J. Baker is an excellent addition to our foosdservice division and expands the Group's nationwide reach into the South West."
Elsewhere, i3 Energy PLC was up 3% to 19.2p after saying it plans to drill seven wells across its portfolio as part of the first phase of its 2022 capital programme, targeting 2,450 barrels oil equivalent of addition production (expected to be 55% oil and natural gas liquids).
At the same time, a programme of recompletions and reactivations is planned to take advantage of low-cost, high-return opportunities that are expected to yield 600 boepd and the investments are forecast to achieve payback within a year.
“This is the initial phase of drilling operations, and following evaluation of log and production data from these wells we will embark upon phase two which will target an additional 10 to 13 locations," said chief executive Majid Shafiq.