Greatland Gold (GGP) announced the results of its 2022 exploration programme at its 100%-owned Scallywag project in the Paterson region of Western Australia. Scallywag is located adjacent to Greatland’s flagship Havieron gold-copper project which the company discovered in 2018. The company said its recent exploration campaign at Scallywag has delivered the most encouraging results to date. At the A35 Prospect, pre-collar drilling was completed with gold mineralisation intercepted plus important pathfinder geochemistry encountered, including bismuth which is associated with the Havieron and Telfer gold-copper deposits. The high-grade silver and copper mineralisation intercepted at the Pearl Prospect, confirms the possibility of a new style of deposit being identified.
Comment: It will be interesting to see whether today’s announcement will move the dial in terms of the ongoing drift in the share price. That said, even at just 7.25p the company does have a £367m market cap, which is nothing to be sniffed at.
Netcall (NET), a provider of intelligent automation and customer engagement software, announced its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2022. The company said it was pleased with the trading performance during the first half with continued double-digit revenue and profitability growth together with accelerated progress in annual contract value, supporting strong forward momentum. During the period, it has seen healthy demand for its Liberty platform, particularly for cloud-based solutions, as organisations use automation technologies to make their operations more efficient whilst improving their customer and employee experiences.
Comment: The RNS Hotlist continues to champion companies that are thriving in the current allegedly bleak economic environment. Double digit revenue growth at Netcall should continue to support the share price, which has already doubled over the past year.
Poolbeg Pharma (POLB), a biopharmaceutical company, said it has been granted a patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for methods of treating hypercytokinaemia using POLB 001, a small molecule immunomodulator being developed to address the unmet medical need arising from severe influenza and other acute inflammatory conditions. The company said it is expanding its IP portfolio across the globe, allowing us to continue advancing and protecting its programmes for the treatment or prevention of severe influenza and hypercytokinaemia.
Comment: Building up IP is key for companies like Poolbeg as it is the backbone of the fundamental valuation. The latest news from the company underlines the momentum building here, with the share price still below the IPO price, despite all the achievements since then.
Roquefort Therapeutics (ROQ), the Main Market listed biotech company, announced the development of a new novel platform of anti-cancer mRNA therapeutics. This is the company’s fifth program and the third in its Midkine family. The company said it is continuing to build momentum in 2023 having successfully completed the Midkine antibody pre-clinical development milestone in January and the Randox licensing deal in February. In parallel, its R&D team has been perfecting four mRNA anti-cancer therapeutics that target Midkine.
Comment: It is clear from the recent newsflow that Roquefort is starting to get its act together in terms of its development program, and this is starting to be reflected in the share price. This is all the more significant as London investors tend to be rather slow on the uptake as far as the biotech space is concerned.
musicMagpie (MMAG), a refurbished consumer technology group, gannounced its audited full year results for the year ended 30 November 2022. The company said it was delighted with the performance of its core Consumer Technology business, which grew by over 12% and now accounts for nearly 70% of our total revenue. It completed the roll-out of our SMARTDrop kiosks with Asda, significantly growing its consumer rental subscriber base, to adding products to both Back Market and Walmart and launching its consumer tech rental service for corporates.
Comment: Brave talk from the company today, and something which could be justified on the basis that the shares have more than tripled off their autumn lows. Name dropping the likes of Asda and Walmart helps.
Zephyr Energy (ZPHR), the Rocky Mountain oil and gas company, updated on operations on the State 36-2 LNW-CC well and the State 16-2 LN-CC well at the company’s flagship project in the Paradox Basin, Utah, U.S. The company said it was excited to production test the State 36-2 well, an operation which will commence shortly and which is anticipated to take significantly less time than the State 16-2 well production test, which is still in the late flow back phase to clean up all injected completion fluids. In respect of the State 16-2 well test, the company deliberately limited the well from a production perspective in order to first test flow assurance and uptime at a measured set of rates.
Comment: After a good performance towards the end of last year shares of Zephyr seem to have hit a wall near 7p. Today’s “holding pattern” RNS suggests that further share price consolidation around current levels may be required.
Time Finance (TIME), the specialist finance provider provided a trading update for the nine-months ended 28 February 2023. Revenue up 28% to £20.0m (As at Q3 2021/22: £15.6m). Profit Before Tax was up 172% to £3.0m (As at Q3 2021/22: £1.1m). The company said despite the well-publicised wider macro-economic ‘headwinds’, the Group has continued to grow at a faster rate than expected, demonstrating that demand for finance from UK businesses is robust.
Comment: One would venture to suggest that Time Finance has “never had it so good.” That said, it may be one of the few companies to be able to thrive in the current environment, despite the “headwinds.”
Cornerstone FS (CSFS), a foreign exchange and payments company, announced that it has agreed to vary certain incentivisation and settlement arrangements with Robert O’Brien, General Manager APAC and Middle East, and Craig Strong, Director of Capital Currencies Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company that was acquired on 31 January 2022. The company said it was pleased to have agreed these amended payment terms with Rob and Craig, which reflect their support of Cornerstone and belief in its success.
Comment: Shares of Cornerstone have seemingly been waiting for today’s announcement, trading flat. It may be sufficient for the incipient recovery we saw to start the year to continue back towards 10p.
Angus Energy (ANGS) announced that the second compressor is now fully commissioned and processing gas for export. The company said that well completion continues on the sidetrack well SF7V with clean-up work awaiting coiled tubing due late March. The intervening time window offers a useful opportunity to perform regular maintenance on the first compressor.
Comment: Given the frenzy of interest in the company, a RNS that was not so short and sweet may have been appreciated. The recent recovery in the shares has so far hit a block at 1.6p.
Challenger Energy (CEG), the Caribbean and Americas focused oil and gas company, said that, further to entry into a binding term sheet with Predator Oil & Gas Holdings Plc and relevant subsidiary entities, Predator has now completed all confirmatory due diligence and the company and Predator have entered into fully-termed long-form legal documentation. Challenger said the Transaction is in line with the company’s strategy in Trinidad and Tobago of seeking to monetise assets not in the core area of operation, so as to maximise cash and offset risk and work program commitments, but at the same time retain upside exposure.
Comment: We certainly await the share price effect on both companies, once this non-core asset for Challenger gets over the line, although perhaps it is PRD which stands to gain most.
Ovoca Bio (OVB), a biopharmaceutical company, announced that it has agreed the disposal of certain Russian assets to Desirix LLC, a private Russian company, for a cash consideration of 84.6 million Russian rubles (approximately €1.05 million at the current exchange rate. The company said Regretfully, it has proved increasingly difficult to continue Ovoca’s operations in Russia under the current constraints and this has led us to conclude that a disposal of our Russian assets is the correct course of action for the wider business. However, it is optimistic about further increasing the value of its global assets associated with Orenetide as a potential treatment for hypoactive sexual desire disorder in wider international markets, including the US and EU.
Comment: In the current geopolitical environment, it is certainly quite an achievement to sell down Russian assets. Hypoactive sexual desire disorder is worth a Google, for those who are not familiar.
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