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What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?** 

Substrate Artificial Intelligence, an artificial intelligence company based in Spain that creates, buys and scales companies around AI in diverse sectors such as fintech, agritech, energy, human resources, and health, intends to join the Access Segment of the AQSE Growth Market. Expected Admission 21 July 2023. 

 

Blackpoint Biotech plc, a medical cannabinoids company established to fulfil gaps in the medical cannabis market by creating products that provide fast onset of action and accurate dosing, intends to join the Access Segment of the AQSE Growth Market. Expected Admission 20 July 2023. 

 

Metals One Plc, a company focusing on acquiring natural resources projects with a focus on critical battery metals, including nickel, lithium, cobalt and copper intends to join the AIM Market. The Company will have interests in the Paltamo and Rautavaara projects (nickel, copper, zinc) in Finland (together the Black Schist Project) and the Brownfield Råna Nickel project in Norway (Brownfield Rana Project). These projects represent opportunities to develop deposits of scale, in stable jurisdictions, well situated to supply fastest growing European electric vehicle and energy storage markets. The Company aims to raise £2.5m at 5 pence per share with an anticipated market cap of £10.77m. Expected Admission date is 17 July 2023.

 

Ora Technology plc, a software company developing a digital carbon trading platform, offering users the ability to buy, sell and retire verified carbon credits in the voluntary carbon market, intends to join the Access Segment of the AQSE Growth Market. Ora’s platform aims to allow access to carbon assets - and the broader carbon economy - with the goal of reducing the complexity of current industry practices, and an emphasis towards providing a simple and intuitive user experience. 

 

Praetura Growth VCT plc, a newly established VCT announces its intention to float on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange. The Company will provide growth funding to scalable businesses predominantly based in the North of England, across a range of sectors including technology and healthcare. The Company will be managed by Praetura Ventures Limited, a venture capital and EIS business associated with the wider Praetura Group, a Manchester based venture capital investor and small business lender. The Company is targeting to raise £10m at 1 pence per share, via an offer for subscription. The Directors will have the option to utilise an over-allotment facility that will allow the Company to issue a further 10m Ordinary Shares under the Offer.

 

Banquet Buffet*** 

Equipmake Holdings 9.5p  £90.08m (AQSE: EQIP) 

The UK-based engineering specialist pioneering the development and production of electrification products across the automotive, aerospace, bus, coach, and fire truck industries announces a trading update for the year ended 31 May 2023 (FY2023). The Company listed on AQUIS and raised £16.2m during the year. Revenue expected to be £5.1m (FY2022: £3.7m) and gross margins expected to be ahead of half year at 23.9%, with loss before tax expected to be £4.4m, inclusive of IPO-related costs (FY2022: £4.3m). The Company holds cash at year end of £7m. The Company secured, and delivered, further orders for electric vehicle powertrains for fire trucks for both the UK and US markets and is trading in line with expectations. 

 

Helios Underwriting 162.5p  £125.6m (HUW.L) 

A limited liability direct investment into the Lloyd's insurance market announces that in line with its strategy of increasing underwriting capacity through acquisition, it has acquired the entire issued capital of Chorlton Underwriting Limited for a total consideration of £1.99m, of which £200k has been satisfied by the issue of shares at £1.62 per share with the remainder satisfied in cash. 

 

Johnson Service Group 105.6p  £445.6m (JSG.L) 

A UK textile services provider releases an update on trading. Group revenue is expected to be £215.0m (2022: £176.2m) with revenue in their Workwear business of £71.0m (2022: £66.0m) and in HORECA £144.0m (2022: £110.2m). The Company has now secured fixed prices for 84% of their anticipated gas requirement and 87% of their anticipated electricity requirement for the remainder of this year. In addition, 50% of their anticipated gas requirement and 64% of their anticipated electricity requirement is now fixed for 2024 with further agreements at a lower level in place for 2025. The Company aims to report operating profits slightly ahead of current market expectations. 

 

McBride 31.1p  £54.1m (MCB.L) 

The European manufacturer and supplier of private label and contract manufactured products for the domestic household and professional cleaning and hygiene markets, provides a trading update for the twelve months ended 30 June 2023. Overall revenues for the full year, will show growth of 28.4% on a constant currency basis compared to the year to 30 June 2022. Volumes were up 5.4% for the full year, following 12.7% growth in the fourth quarter. The improvement in demand for their products has been driven by a combination of business wins and strong demand increases on existing contracts. The Group confirms that its full year results will report a return to profitability. 

 

PanGenomic Health 4p  £3.97m (AQSE: NARA) 

A precision health company that has developed a self-care digital platform to deliver personalised, evidence-based information about natural treatments announces that independent directors, Peter Green and Jonathan Lutz, tendered their resignations effective as of 12 July 2023. The Company will immediately commence the process of identifying and appointing two new independent directors and will make further announcements in due course. 

 

Savannah Resources 4.65p  £78.5m (SAV.L) 

The European lithium development Company announces that further to its announcement dated 13 July 2023 it has successfully completed the Placing. The Company has raised, in aggregate, £6.1m before expenses, from £2.4m at the issue price of 4.67 pence per Placing Share. The Placing comes at a premium of 1.5% to the closing price of 4.6 pence 13 July 2023. Following the Placing, Savannah now has approximately £11m in cash, which means the Company can move forward knowing that they have monetary reserves available to complete the DFS drilling programme, the Mineral Resource Estimate upgrade, the RECAPE submission, the processing plant and infrastructure design, and team expansion and community relations development.  

 

Strategic Minerals 0.15p  £3.0m (SML.L) 

A operating minerals company actively developing projects tailored to materials expected to benefit from strong demand in the future provides updates on the Company’s projects. Cornwall Resources Limited (CRL) continues to seek to expand its mineral footprint in Cornwall and expects to be able to report on progress in the second half of the year. CRL was recently notified that its comprehensive grant application to the Cornwall and Isle of Scilly Council (CIoS) Shared Prosperity Fund had proven unsuccessful and is now, with encouragement from CIoS, working on resubmitting a modified version prior to the next application deadline (4 August 2023). CRL is in active discussions with various parties concerning collaboration to progress the Redmoor project. 

 

Upland Resources 0.53p £5.8m (UPL.L) 

The oil and gas company actively building a portfolio of attractive upstream assets announce that Upland's local Joint Venture company, Upland Big Oil Ventures Sdn Bhd has this week met with the Petroleum Authority of Brunei Darussalam and also separately with Brunei Energy Services & Trading 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. The Company looks forward to developing its relationship in Brunei further. 

 

Versarien 1.22p  £3.2m (VRS.L) 

The materials engineering group announces it has raised £650k before expenses by way of a placing new ordinary shares in the capital of the Company  at a price of 1.0 pence per share. The placing is raised at a discount of approximately 44% to the closing price of 1.79 pence on the 13 July 2023. 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. As previously announced, the Company is pursuing a disposal of assets, including its mature businesses and the intellectual property and plant acquired from Hanwha Aerospace in 2020. 

 

Zoo Digital Group 74p  £72.3m (ZOO.L) 

A provider of end-to-end cloud-based localisation and media services to the global entertainment industry, provides an 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 expectation. Several of ZOO's major streaming company clients have 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 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 $23m as at 30 June 2023. 

 

* A corporate client of Hybridan LLP

** Arranged by most recent first

*** Alphabetically arranged

 

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