Alkemy Capital (ALK) updated on the supply of feedstock and the sale of lithium products from its proposed facilities at the Teesside Freeport, UK and Port Hedland, Western Australia. The company said it was continuing discussions for the refining of lithium raw materials with several key globally significant feedstock suppliers and end customers, and it is delighted at being shortlisted as a favoured refining partner by a global automotive OEM.
Comment: ALK remains on the front foot as far as its newsflow is concerned. One would suggest that the shares remaining in the 140p – where they were in May, seems rather harsh given the progress made.
Character Group (CCT)’s year-end Trading update for August reports a stronger H2 after a tough H1. Interims turnover fell to £58m from £91m with a PBT of £0.5m against £6.6m and it expects to report full year underlying profitability in line with current market expectations, so the recovery is underway. Since 1991 CCT have designed, developed, and internationally distributed toys, games, and giftware mainly sourced from overseas to sell to UK Retailers. Its strength is the depth of the product portfolio which includes Peppa Pig, Mutant Turtles, Dr Who, Fireman Sam etc. Its Financially well managed with a strong balance sheet with net cash position and even declared an increased dividend to 8p at the interims.
Comment: Henry Spain Investment Services increased its holding to 20% and Director also brought shares. The Mkt Cap of £51m at 267p seems set to recover.
EQTEC (EQT) shares rose 36%, yesterday after the COO acquired £5,000 worth at 0.074p. The Mkt Cap is £8.65m so extrapolating that makes a £3m increase in value. There are 11.5 billion shares in issue in this global technology innovator powering decarbonised new energy infrastructure through its waste-to-value solutions for hydrogen, biofuels, and energy generation. Interims to June were reported late last week showing reduced Revenue to €0.145m and a €2.4m loss. A 10-year strategic development plan is being contemplated requiring a serious strategic investor to back it. The opportunity is for EQT to exit the expensive troublesome legacy projects, clean up the unbalanced balance sheet and for the investor to support engineering work on the renewed portfolio that will gradually convert to equipment sales and paid fees for engineering, licensing & maintenance support.
Comment: There are not likely to be many takers.
Invinity Energy Systems (IES) a manufacturer of utility-grade energy storage, is pleased to announce a 1.1 MWh sale to Taiwan’s National Applied Research Laboratories. IES said it was extremely excited to see NARLabs demonstrate the capabilities our VFBs can deliver to the Taiwanese grid and beyond. Regional demonstrations like this helps it and it customers work side-by-side to fully unlock its batteries’ potential, proving it can deliver safe, long-duration and high-throughput energy storage that goes above and beyond the limited services possible using lithium solutions.
Comment: IES follows on its recent strong run of deals. It is a slight shame that there are no financials mentioned, but the momentum is clear.
Ascent Resources (AST), the onshore Hispanic American and European focussed energy and natural resources company, announced the signature of a Strategic Collaboration Agreement with investment company MBD Partners SA alongside agreeing a material strategic equity investment at a significant premium and the right to propose the appointment of a new nominated Non-Executive Director. AST said this is a highly advantaged subscription despite difficult markets, which serves both to fund the business at a premium whilst also de-risking its near term inflection point with the expected Slovenian arbitration result. It is delighted to welcome MBD as a cornerstone shareholder and looks forward to refining and delivering its strategy together.
Comment: It would appear that AST has found a decent player to take a punt on its almighty Slovenian arbitration result. This of course makes it all the more tempting for everyone else to do the same. What could possibly go wrong?
Fulcrum Metals (FMET), a company focused on mineral exploration and development in Canada, announced the staking of three new claim blocks totalling 4,856 hectares (48.56km2) contiguous to and extending the Company’s Charlot – Neely Lake uranium-gold project in northern Saskatchewan to 12,481 hectares (124.81km2) – a 63% increase. FMET said he low-cost acquisition of the additional claim blocks through staking is based on the encouraging preliminary results of phase 1 exploration at Charlot-Neely announced on 7th September. Not only were several areas of high radioactivity, including off-scale scintillometer readings of +65,535 counts per second identified, but new uranium trends Fall-1 and Fall-2 were discovered in the same northeast-southwest trend as the Black Bay fault.
Comment: Uranium looks to be becoming the new lithium at the moment, something which seems quite correct given the mad scramble for Net Zero. Ideally, this move by FMET will garner favour in terms of the rather unfairly treated share price.
Oxford BioDynamics (OBD), a biotechnology company developing precision medicine tests based on the EpiSwitch 3D genomics platform, confirms the assignment and publication of a Proprietary Laboratory Analysis Code (PLA Code) by the American Medical Association’s CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) Editorial Board. The company said a unique code is critical to the reimbursement process. With the code issued at this early stage of the test introduction, it is in a good place to drive adoption of this highly accurate test. Effective on 1 January for all requests for insurance reimbursement, whether from Medicare, Medicaid or private payors, this unique code will enable discussions regarding coverage decisions as well as negotiating the reimbursement rate.
Comment: It is interesting that OBD released RNSs like today’s with not much reaction. However, now that it is the hottest biotech around, this may mean it continues its stellar rebound from the 11p area. This is coincidentally the zone of the early August £543,577 PrimaryBid raise – quite a win for those who took part.
Valereum (VLRM) announced its interim results for the six-month period ended 30 June 2023. The company said Valereum’s entire management team is focused on completing the Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX) acquisition and is in further discussions with the GFSC around its application and request for a further extension. Although a successful conclusion with the GFSC is not guaranteed, the board of Valereum is optimistic and looks forward to announcing its plans and executing them in future.
Comment: Although VLRM says a successful conclusion to the GFSC deal is not guaranteed, it is difficult to imagine how such a scenario would not pan out, and indeed what the latter would do if VLRM did not prevail.
Author
