Blencowe Resources (BRES), the London listed graphite company advancing the 100% owned Orom-Cross Graphite Project in Uganda provided a Q&A session. This follows the recent £1.6 million capital raise to fund the completion of the Project’s DFS, in which senior management invested £500,000. Regarding funding BRES said it has raised ~£5m (including the most recent £1.6m) for DFS work, on top of the US$5m (£4m) grant received from the US Government via their private sector lending arm, the Development Finance Corporation. At this point US$1.5 million of the DFC grant funds remain undrawn but will be accessed as DFS work completes. The latest capital raise included £500,000 from senior management which is a significant commitment, as was the £1.2 million in fees taken as shares by key project partners including the Orom-Cross drillers.
Comment: US Government funding should be all the stock market needs to know regarding bidding up the share price of BRES from current levels. Indeed, there has been a rebound in the stock in the wake of the management participation in the latest fundraise.
UK Oil and Gas (UKOG) announced an offer to its existing retail shareholders via CMC CapX of new ordinary shares. In addition to the Retail Offer, the Company was also conducting a placing of new ordinary shares. The price of the Fundraising Shares is 0.025p. There is a minimum subscription of £250 per investor.
Comment: Christmas can be a difficult time for many small cap companies. Please give generously, and remember that even just giving £250 could really change lives. In fact, UKOG has raised £0.5m to fund a new H2 storage site.
Pulsar Helium. (PLSR), the helium project development company, announced that Thomas Abraham-James, CEO and President of the Company, will be delivering a presentation at the Swiss Mining Institute Annual Conference, being held on 21 November 2024. Investment highlights include an independent verified resource evaluations estimate recoverable prospective resources of up to 2.8 billion cubic feet of helium (gross, P10), and 21.3 Bcf of CO2 (gross, P10). The evaluation covers just 13% of the Company’s gross land position and highlights the potential for further resource expansion.
Comment: PLSR has knocked the ball out of the park with just 13% of its footprint, something which should ensure that the shares do not remain anywhere near their recent IPO share price.
Great Southern Copper (GSCU), the Company focused on copper-gold exploration in Chile, announced that recent exploration at its Viuda prospect, including mapping, sampling and drone magnetics has successfully identified targets for initial scout drill testing. GSCU said that since acquiring the Viuda prospect in May 2024, it has adopted an aggressive exploration plan to confirm Viuda as a porphyry copper-gold target and fast-track the prospect to drill-ready status within the Company’s drilling prospect pipeline.
Comment: The past couple of months have seen a reasonably turnaround for shares of GSCU. However, the journey to being “drill-ready” could deliver yet more upside towards the 2p plus resistance zone.
Mulberry Group (MUL), the British sustainable luxury brand, announced unaudited results for the twenty-six weeks ended 28 September 2024. Group revenue down 19% to £56.1m (2023: £69.7m). UK retail sales decreased 14% to £31.3m (2023: £36.2m). MUL’s CEO said “Though I’ve only been in the role of CEO for under three months, the first half results illustrate the clear need to reprioritise and rebuild the business.”
Comment: A month ago MUL rejected a bid from Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group, which is one of those looking a gift horse in the mouth situations. But given that saying yes would have meant a rather short tenure for the new CEO, perhaps this was a factor in the somewhat baffling rejection. Revenue and sales figures speak for themselves.
hVIVO (HVO) the specialist contract research organisation revealed that Octopus Investments have raised their stake in the company from 12.3% to 13.3%.
Comment: Given that Octopus have been so consistent in adding to their stake in HVO it seems strange that the share price is not already well over 30p. This is before considering the record half year revenues and profits up 70% as reported in September.
Imperial Brands (IMB) announced its Final Results. It delivered a further acceleration with net revenue up 4.6% from tobacco & next generation products. Aggregate market share gains (+5bps) in its five priority markets with four out of five markets in share growth. IMB said as it enters the final year of our current strategy, the investment we have made in consumer capabilities, cultural transformation and agile ways of working has supported another year of accelerated financial delivery and growing capital returns. These results demonstrate how it is fulfilling its role as an effective challenger for the industry, able to deliver consistently against operational and financial expectations.
Comment: There is nothing sweeter than a successful sin stock in a woke environment. Shares of IMB are up 32.9% so far this year.
SkinBioTherapeutics (SBTX), a life science company focused on skin health, announced that it finalised the commercial terms of its agreement with Croda plc, based on the final testing of the SkinBiotix™ technology. The terms are based on the original agreement with SkinBioTherapeutics being paid tiered royalties based on global sales revenues on any licensed products derived from the partnership.
Comment: The market has already factored in much of the glitz associated with SBTX’s giant killing deal with Croda. That said, the market cap of just £32m is still probably on the stingy side.
Eco Buildings Group (ECOB), the UK-listed modular housing company, updated following the recent visit of the Dominican Republic delegation, led by Minister Carlos Bonilla Sanchez ( Minister for Housing, Habitat and Buildings) to its manufacturing facility in Albania. Following the visit, detailed negotiations have progressed positively, building on the Letter of Intent signed with Gramma Constructora SRL (a large private construction company headquartered in the Dominican Republic). This agreement outlines the purchase of 10,000 modular homes over the next five years.
Comment: It would appear that ECOB can celebrate its “Man from Del Monte” saying yes moment. Interestingly enough, shares of ECOB were up 17% yesterday, so perhaps one or two clairvoyant traders successfully gleaned that there might be good news today.
Helix Exploration (HEX), the helium exploration and development company focused on helium deposits within the ‘Montana Helium Fairway’, updated on testing operations at the Clink #1 well at the Ingomar Dome Project in Montana. HEX said Clink #1 has delivered encouraging results, particularly in the Amsden formation, which has demonstrated robust production potential. The unexpected findings in the Flathead formation-including 2.5% helium in sampled gas and 55.2% hydrogen concentration in gas isolated during drilling- represent a unique and exciting opportunity for the Company.
Comment: It always appeared in the recent past that HEX was teeing up the market for discovery, and this is exactly what has happened. One would expect the newsflow to underpin today’s RNS for the rest of 2024.
WeCap (AQSE:WCAP) provided an update on progress of its primary portfolio company, WeShop Holdings Limited. WeShop has confirmed that as part of its listing process on a recognised stock exchange, its audited accounts for the 12-month periods ending 31/12/2022 and 31/12/2023 have been signed off by their US auditor that is Public Company Accounting Oversight Board compliant. WCAP said it is extremely encouraging that WeShop has completed the financial audit which is one of the key milestones in the listing process. It is evident that there is a substantial amount of work going on to achieve the transformational goal that a listing would bring in relation to the value proposition of the WeShop business model.
Comment: It is perhaps appropriate that given that the London market has virtually ignored both the unique proposition of the social commerce group, it would seek to list elsewhere where it is better appreciated. It can be seen WCAP is well down the road of such a process, something one would hope to see factored into the share price – presumably just before the company heads across the pond.
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