XP Factory (XPF) report a second trading update for the 15months to the new March year-end. Its turnover was £57.8m after a period of exceptional growth and development. (12 months to Dec 2022: £22.8m and around Break Even). It operates the Escape Hunt and Boom Battle Bar brands both improving 11% and the overall performance in line with expectations. Escape Hunt experiences are delivered by a network of owner-operated franchised outlets in five continents with digitally delivered games. The Boom Battle Bar is a is also owner-operated with franchises and its competitive activities include a range of games such as augmented reality darts, Bavarian axe throwing, ‘crazier golf’, shuffleboard and drinking. It generated £9.5m cash to December and after making follow-on investments its net cash was nil. The full report is set for Monday 2nd September.
Comment (Jon Lev): At 15p and a Mkt Cap of £25.7m Directors have been persistent buyers at around this price . The mix of leisure and property is attractive and it could be worth joining the fun.
Vector Capital (VCAP) announced that a circular will be sent to Shareholders later today detailing the following Resolutions to be considered at a General Meeting scheduled for 2.00 p.m. on 20 August 2024: a Tender Offer for up to 11,244,385 Ordinary Shares at the Tender Price of 33 pence per Ordinary Share, representing up to £3.71 million to Shareholders; and the proposed cancellation of the admission to trading of the Ordinary Shares on AIM.
Comment: For AIM, another one bites the dust, but in not as bad a way for shareholders of VCAP. The issue remains how and why the cost of being a listed PLC, and the lack of liquidity have been allowed to get to a stage when being there is no point being a growth / small cap company on the London market. All the new proposed easing of rules is clearly too little, too late, and comes from those who are merely parasites that have killed the golden goose.
Lift Global Ventures Plc (AQSE:LFT), an investment company focused on financial media, technology and the energy sector, announced that the Redemption Date for Trans-Africa Energy Limited Loan Notes, as subscribed for and announced by the Company on 31 January 2023 has been extended by mutual consent to 25 October 2024 from 2 August 2024. The consideration for Lift agreeing to the New Redemption Date, is that the Loan Notes shall be increased by TAE in the amount of £250,000 without Lift subscribing for further cash. Therefore, the principal amount to be redeemed on the New Redemption Date shall be £1,000,000.
RentGuarantor (AQSE: RGG), a provider of rent guarantee services to prospective tenants across the socio-economic spectrum wishing to rent property in the UK private rental sector, announce its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2024. Revenue up 70% on the comparative six-month period last year to £517,589 (H1 2023: £304,965).
Comment: Although RGG is not yet up to being a CBRE, we can thank the lord that there is a company on Aquis with a decent revenue jump, and perhaps also that this news is being covered by someone who cares about this being the case.
First Class Metals (FCM) is a UK metals exploration company focused on the discovery of economic metal deposits across its extensive Canadian – northern Ontario land holding, announced that it has completed the repayment of the shares loaned to the Company by James Knowles, a director of FCM. FCM also announce that it has completed a private placing at a price of 2.7 pence raising gross proceeds of £256,500.
Comment: It is not a surprise that FCM has taken advantage of its recent share price recovery by raising some cash. Clearly, the priority here is discovery, and those boots on the ground come at a price.
UK Oil & Gas (UKOG) announced that its strategic Dorset and Yorkshire underground hydrogen storage projects have received a further key letter of support from RWE, a leading global energy company and one of the largest renewable and conventional UK electricity generators, supplying around 15% of UK power demand. RWE is also a major player in the UK green hydrogen space, a sector with key synergies to UKEn’s storage projects.
Comment: UKOG provides some decent backing for the recent rather unexpected share price spike, perhaps just when many in the market had effectively written the company off.
ITM Power (ITM) said in its trading update announced on 6 June 2024 it stated that it expected the EBITDA loss for the 12 months ended 30 April 2024 to be between £39.0m and £44.0m, improving on the previous guidance of £45.0m to £50.0m. The EBITDA guidance included a provision relating to disputes on legacy projects. We have now concluded these matters and can release the provision for FY24. Accordingly, with the audit nearing completion, we expect the EBITDA loss for the year to improve to between £30.0m and £32.0m.
Comment: It seems to be the rule on the stock market it is better to lose a chunky amount, rather than the odd million. The market cap of ITM is still over £300m, and it would be churlish to enquire about profitability, for a company in a space which has been promising to be the new rock and roll for rather a long time.
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