If you find this podcast useful please give it a rating and review on iTunes by clicking here
Welcome to taking stock on Friday 14th July 2023
It's a look at today's top business news & investment views plus today's winners, losers, the most read & the most followed including:
WINNERS
McBride - Full year trading update
McBride plc, the leading European manufacturer and supplier of private label and contract manufactured products for the domestic household and professional cleaning and hygiene markets.
The Group is pleased to confirm that its full year results will report a return to profitability following the exceptional input cost inflation of the past two years, driven first by post Covid-19 supply chain disruptions and more recently by the associated economic and inflationary impacts of the war in Ukraine.
Upland Resources - Sarawak Block SK334 Brunei Collaboration
Upland Resources announce that Upland's local Joint Venture company, Upland Big Oil Ventures Sdn Bhd ("UBO") has this week met with the Petroleum Authority of Brunei Darussalam, the central authority regulating the Brunei Darussalam oil and gas industry and also separately with Brunei Energy Services & Trading (BEST) a subsidiary of Brunei's National Oil Company, to discuss collaboration on Block SK334 in Sarawak.
Discussions and key areas of focus centered on Block SK334 prospectivity, development potential and cross border data sharing with discoveries in Brunei, communications are set to continue with a focus on this mutually beneficial opportunity and data sharing of nearby discovered resources.
LOSERS
Zoo Digital Group - Trading Update
Update on Q1 trading
First quarter FY24 trading has been impacted due to a well publicised hiatus in the normal flow of orders across the industry, resulting in lower revenues than previous management expectations in a quarter that the Board already expected to be weaker than the previous year.
This has been caused by two short-term market factors that are affecting the wider industry. Firstly, several of ZOO's major streaming company clients have for some months been implementing cost-saving measures and reorganising their operations as the industry evolves and confronts higher levels of competition, leading to the deferment of some costs. Secondly, the Writers Guild of America strike is in its third month and this is now having an impact on the levels of localisation and media services work on new titles.
The Group is financially strong with net cash of $23 million as at 30 June 2023.
MGC Pharmaceuticals - £0.7 million Fundraising
Versarien - Placing to raise £650,000
Most Followed
Future Plc
Future is a digital-first global platform for intent-led specialist media. Underpinned by leading technology and enabled by data, we operate c.250 brands in diversified content verticals, across our B2C and B2B divisions with multiple market leading positions and three core monetisation frameworks: advertising, eCommerce affiliate and direct consumer monetisation.
Some of the sites tey own include Marie Claire, Country Life & GoCompare.
Recent news:
Proposed Return of Cash via a Share Buyback Programme
Future is proposing to return up to £45 million of cash to its shareholders, through the means of an on-market share buyback programme (the Share Buyback Programme).
A notice convening a general meeting (the General Meeting) at which shareholders will be asked to approve a resolution authorising the Company to buy back up to 10 per cent. of its existing ordinary share capital through on-market purchases (the Share Buyback Authority) is expected to be posted to shareholders shortly.
Most Read RNS
Versarien - Placing to raise £650,000
Highlights
· Versarien has raised £650,000, before expenses, through placing of 65,000,000 new ordinary shares in the capital of the Company at a price of 1.0 pence per share
· The net proceeds of the Placing will be used for working capital purposes and as bridge finance to extend the Company's cash runway ahead of any funds received from asset sales
· The issue of the Placing Shares is within existing authorities granted by shareholders at the general meeting of the Company held in July 2023 and therefore no shareholder approval is required for the Placing
· Company directors, Chris Leigh and Stephen Hodge, participated in the Placing
3 of the 4 most read RNSs today are placings...
RNS Worth Reading
ATOME Energy - Transaction by Significant Shareholder
ATOME has been notified that Molecular Energies the former parent company of ATOME prior to the Company's spin-out and IPO, has sold 800,000 ordinary shares ("the Block"), representing approximately 2% of ATOME, in the Company at a price of £1.00 per share. The resulting holding of Molecular in ATOME is now 8,272,045 ordinary shares representing 20.5% of the entire issued share capital of ATOME.
The purchaser of the Block is CFT Ventures, a Guernsey registered company, being the Crandall Family Trust. Mark Crandall was the head of Glencore's oil trading business before co-founding in 1993 the international commodity trader, Trafigura, with five other founding partners.
Since leaving Trafigura, Mark founded and is currently Chairman and member of the Executive Board of PostScriptum Energy Pte Limited (www.postscriptum.com), a leading renewable energy developer active in grid-connected development in Europe and in the development of green hydrogen projects on three continents.
About ATOME
ATOME Energy PLC is an AIM listed company targeting green hydrogen, ammonia, and fertiliser production with over 500-megawatt of projects in Paraguay, Iceland, and Central America.
Since its admission to AIM in December 2021 ATOME has signed its first electrolyser purchase order for its hydrogen transport Mobility Division due to start generating revenue in 2023 and signed a 120MW power purchase agreement with ANDE, the state energy company in Paraguay for production of green ammonia to produce industrial scale premium value green fertiliser in 2025. It has procured 30 hectares of land in Villeta, Paraguay for that facility, mandated Natixis Corporate Investment Bank and the multilateral IDB Invest to lead the project funding and the FEED study is currently underway with the international companies Urbas and Casale.
Top Business Stories
AI trend drives rise in students wanting to study computing
School-leavers are choosing computing courses in record numbers, according to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).
This year's application data showed 18-year-olds were increasingly inspired to study computing "thanks to the rise of digital and AI", UCAS chief executive Clare Marchant said.
Applications to study computing were up almost 10% compared to 2022.
However, it was only the seventh most popular area of higher education study.
While nearly 95,000 students applied for courses in computer and AI related courses, almost twice that number applied to study business and management. More than 125,000 applied for design, creative and performing arts courses.
The US competition watchdog has launched an investigation into the creator of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has begun an examination into the ChatGPT maker, OpenAI, seeking to find out what the company's data privacy rules are and what action it takes to stop its technology from giving wrong information.
More than one million public sector workers, including teachers, police and doctors, have been offered pay rises of between 5%-7%, the government says.
Under the proposals, police and prison officers in England and Wales would receive a 7% pay rise, while teachers and junior doctors in England would get 6.5% and 6% respectively.
Four education unions said the deal would allow them to end their dispute.
They said they would advise their members to accept the offer.
Gatwick Airport to he hit by eight days of strikes over summer holidays
Nearly a thousand workers are set to take eight days of strike action at Gatwick Airport over the summer holidays in a row over pay, the Unite union has said.
Disruption, delays and cancellations are inevitable due to the scale of the action, the union said.
The workers, at four firms, include baggage handlers and ground staff.
They will strike over two weekends at the end of July and the beginning of August.
There will be four days of strike action between Friday 28 July and Tuesday 1 August, then a further strike between Friday 4 August and Tuesday 8 August.