The Telegraph: The FTSE 100 surged amid a global rally in markets following Donald Trump’s decision to pause tariffs for 90 days in a stunning reversal. Britain’s flagship stock index climbed 6pc at the start of trading in London a day after the US president’s turnabout on Wednesday night, which came less than 24 hours after steep new tariffs kicked in for most trading partners.
Comment: While Trump has been likened to Truss here and elsewhere – obviously here first, the tariff pause amounts to another historic leadership blunder, that of King Canute. It might be worth googling when he finally admitted he could not turn the tide.
CleanTech Lithium (CTL), an exploration and development company advancing sustainable lithium projects in Chile, is pleased to announce the appointment of Ignacio Mehech, former Country Manager of Albemarle in Chile, as the Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) and director of CleanTech Lithium. Click link to watch interview with Ignacio Mehech: https://youtu.be/4iMx2vIZw9g
Comment: Steve Kessler continues to be a good Chairman for CTL, and has been an excellent safe pair of hands. Ideally, the arrival of a hands on new CEO will allow the company to negotiate the journey to the ASX listing and of course, production.
EQTEC (EQT), a licensor and innovator of syngas technology announced a subscription pf £1.5m at a price of 0.85 pence per share by CompactGTL Limited. EQT said “This investment allows us to accelerate the deployment of integrated waste-to-liquid fuel solutions at scale, reinforcing our position in the rapidly expanding synthetic fuels market. We look forward to leveraging CompactGTL’s technical expertise, investor relationships, and strategic insight to maximise value for our shareholders.”
Comment: It can be seen that EQT remains a company intent on delivering its syngas dreams, and certainly while we are still all held hostage to the Net Zero scam, the company could and should make hay.
Aferian (AFRN), a B2B video streaming solutions company, announced its full-year audited results for the year ended 30 November 2024. AFRN said “”Aferian is now a turnaround story. We have started FY2025 strongly and are significantly ahead of the same period last year. Given the increased level of sales orders already received, we expect a greater than 10% revenue growth in FY2025, positive Adjusted EBITDA for the year, and positive free cash flow. Once new financing terms are secured, the company will be well positioned for the future.”
Comment: It is always a punch call for a company itself to suggest that it is a turnaround situation. But given how far the shares of AFRN have fallen, perhaps it would not take much stock market appreciation for such a comment to prove correct.
United Oil & Gas (UOG), provided a technical and operational overview on the Walton Morant Licence offshore Jamaica. This detail follows the Company’s recent announcement confirming an early two-year licence extension to 31 January 2028, and renewed momentum in the farm-out process with multiple parties now under NDA. UOG revealed c. 7 billion barrels of potential unrisked prospective resources. c.$8.5/bbl¹ estimated development cost and c. $25/bbl breakeven in success case.
Comment: It feels like we have been waiting for UOG to get over the line since we were back at school, but in fact it is only around 8 years. With the RNS containing numbers that Aramco would be proud of, could this really be the big turning point?
Mindflair (MFAI), the company investing in next-generation technology focused on AI, is pleased to announced that further to its recent announcement on 10 March 2025, the sale of Visibility Blockchain Limited (“Getvisibility”) to Forcepoint, a global leader in data and cloud security, has now been completed and it expects to receive £2.6 million from the sale.
Comment: The only thing even more surprising than the FTSE 100 being up 6%, now or at any time, is MFAI actually realising a decent chunk of money from Getvisibility. That said, it may have been helpful if the RNS included how much money the company invested in Getvisibility in the first place.
Brave Bison (BBSN), the digital media, marketing and technology company, today released its audited results for the year ending 31 December 2024. The company also announced its first dividend in 12 year as a listed company as well as News UK, part of News Corp, to become a Top 10 shareholder in Brave Bison.
Comment: Hot on the heels of Thor Explorations (THX) delivering a maiden dividend, we have BBSN. Indeed, BBSN is fast giving the impression of being the kind of grown up company it has been tipped to be for quite some time.
Arrow Exploration Corp. (AXL), the high-growth operator with a portfolio of assets across key Colombian hydrocarbon basins, provided an update on recent operational activity on the Tapir Block in the Llanos Basin of Colombia where Arrow holds a 50 percent beneficial interest.
Comment: A brilliant company, with a diabolical share price, of which little seems to be being done. At least canny investors have a great opportunity at 17p.
Richmond Hill (AQSE: SHNJ) announced that further to the announcement on 12 March 2025, it has signed a binding term sheet with Three Mile Beach Ltd (“Three Mile”) for the Company to acquire the legal and beneficial interest of certain mineral exploration licences in Quebec. The Company’s ordinary shares will remain suspended until such time as either an admission document is published.
Comment: That reminds me, the whole ad doc and share suspension routine is so 20th, or even 19th century. It wastes time and money, and is yet another deterrent for companies being listed on the stock market.
Pri0r1ty Intelligence Group (PR1) announced its entry into the US market through the first customer trial of its recently launched artificial intelligence (AI) platform, Capitano Ai. This marks the beginning of the Company’s strategic expansion into the rapidly growing US AI and sports analytics sectors.
Comment: While PR1 has been rather kicked and punched in share price terms since it came to market, notably by perhaps some rather disloyal selling of stock, it can be seen that it is boldly going forward, in this case to the US. The key here will be to monetise this manoeuvre into revenues as soon as possible.
Ocean Harvest Technology Group (OHT), a leading researcher, developer and supplier of proprietary blended seaweed products as functional additives for the global animal feed industry, gave an update for the first quarter of 2025. The Company is pleased to announce continued progress since the Trading Update on 27 January 2025 with Q1 revenues expected to be +65% year-on-year and ahead of Q4 2024. Positive momentum is a result of existing large OceanFeed blend customers returning to normal order patterns and the addition of new OceanFeed and single seaweed customers.
Comment: Welcome to the wonderful world of seaweed. Even better a company which will have minimal exposure to not so wonderful tariffs, should they ever actually happen.
Tristel (TSTL), the manufacturer of infection prevention products, confirmed it has submitted the additional information requested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Tristel OPH, a high-level disinfectant foam for use on ophthalmic medical devices, including re-usable tonometers, pachymeters and lenses that make contact with the cornea. The Company now expects a decision from the FDA by the end of June 2025.
Comment: It has taken some skill for TSTL to keep itself under the radar, but the company has managed it. Nevertheless, any small cap interacting with the FDA deserves attention, and as today, an initial share price rise.
Renalytix (RENX), a precision medicine company with lead testing service kidneyintelX.dkd, the only FDA-approved and Medicare reimbursed prognostic test to support early-stage risk assessment in chronic kidney disease, announced that Q3 trading has been in-line with expectations delivering 20% quarter-on-quarter revenue growth.
Comment: A very pleasant surprise from RENX in terms of the revenue jump, although it perhaps remains to be seen how much more good work will be required to turn the bear run of this particular oil tanker around.
