* A corporate client of Hybridan LLP
** Arranged by type of listing and date of announcement
*** Alphabetically arranged
**** Potential means Intention to Float (ITF) has been announced, or it is a rumour
*New product launch*
Dish of the day
Banquet Buffet***
1Spatial 59p £65.6m (SPA.L)
A Location Master Data Management and software solutions provider announced the renewal and expansion of a key contract with the National Public Authority (NPA) in France. The Euro 1.5m contract over four years has
reoccurring annual revenue of Euro 0.38m. SPA’s platform manages huge volumes of complex location data at scale and will enable the NPA to automate the integration and validation of millions of location data points every day across 3,500 different agencies nationwide. The interims to June will be released in October.
Aukett Swanke Group 1.62p £5.5m (AUK.L)
The architecture group transitioning via acquisitions in Smart buildings reports a trading update and the sale of a property for £2.5m. Trading for H2 for its September 2024 year-end is expected to be break-even and so will report a loss of £0.8m for the full year. The target for the cost reduction programme has been increased from £1m to £2m with staff and financing costs aimed at the Architecture business and post acquisition rationalisation of the four Smart building related acquisitions made. The Smart Building focus is expected to require investment and take time to generate meaningful profits.
Christie Group 110p £29.2.8m (CTG.L)
A Trading Statement from this professional business services and Stock and Inventory Systems Services group with 37 offices across the UK and Europe remains positive for a return to profits for the full-year to December 2024, but they will be below expectations. Its interim to June are likely to show an operating loss of £0.5m due to weak invoicing in its international brokerage operations. There is low growth from its visitor attraction software, but losses from its retail stocktaking business are lower than H1 2023. The professional services UK Transactional pipeline is 24% higher than last year with new instructions from clients across its specialist sector seeking to buy and sell business and likely to recover to broking over 1,000 business with an increased level of fees in H2. Full year profits are anticipated to be between £0.5m and £1.m on revenue of c. £60m which is a recovery from last year’s losses.
Gelion 21p £28.7m (GELN.L)
The Anglo–Australian battery innovator has incorporated a new wholly owned subsidiary called Battery Materials to develop and then commercialise the Lithium-Ion recycling technology acquired from Johnson Matthey in 2023.
BM has been awarded a grant of up to £170,000 by the UK Department of Business and Trade. The new subsidiary will develop this recycling process which is designed to provide lower cost, lower waste and lower eCo2 and provide the ability to efficiently extract lithium from more battery scrap sources. The growing volume of battery waste presents an environment challenge and potentially a worthwhile economic opportunity estimated to be worth $30-$40 billion by 2030. The initial funds will be to used to identity the most efficient route to commercialise the process.
Jade Road Investments 0.55p £2.1m (JADE.L)*
Jade has today constituted up to £1,000,000 in principal value of convertible loan notes (CLN). The CLN is non-interest bearing, has a maturity of 10 months and is convertible at either the option of noteholders or the Company into JADE shares at a price which is 30% below the lowest closing bid price over the 30 business days prior to the date on which either party notifies the other it wishes to convert. Jade has today issued £80,000 in principal value of CLN to MBM, having received such sum from MBM in the timeframe agreed with MBM under the terms of the two firms' strategic partnership. The Board of JADE is excited about the prospects this partnership presents and looks forward to providing further updates in the near future.
Poolbeg Pharma 10.375p £49m (POLB.L)*
Interims to June 2024 are reported and the financials show increased an operating loss of £2.5m up from £2.1m and cash balances of £10.1m. There are however many non-financial significant business highlights including, an independent study showing the potential market opportunity of c.US$10bn for its lead POLB 001, which is s an orally delivered preventative therapy for cancer immunotherapy-induced Cytokine Release Syndrome. This is a rare disease for blood cancers and POLB 001 is on track demonstrating its efficacy. The developing patient portfolio is focused on rare and orphans diseases and has been significantly strengthened and expanded. Rare diseases affect a small percentage of the population, and due to the high unmet medical need, regulatory authorities offer significant incentives for developing orphan drugs. The management team has been expanded and its experience strengthened and are focused on developing and commercialising high value programmes and partnerships relating to drug targets and treatments some of which have been identified in the AI (Artificial Intelligence) led infectious disease programmes.
Skillcast 49p £43.4m (SKL.L)
A provider of SaaS compliance platforms and off-the-shelf e-learning courseware announces interim results to June 2024 which show continued growth in recurring subscription revenue and a return to profitability. Revenue growth of 24% is driven by a 35% increase in subscription revenues from new customers and upselling to existing customers. The EBITDA of £31k compares to a £0.7m loss and reflects the operational gearing impact of the revenue growth, with gross margins improving to 71%. The £8.3m cash allowed a 0.168p dividend to be declared. Having reached break-even, the investment phase is completed and the focus is on growth and driving profitability.
Star Energy Group 7.36p £9.59m (Star.L)
A UK oil and gas production company with development assets in Croatia and seeking to develop geothermal technology announces its interims to June showing flat revenue at £23.2m and a lower Ebitda at £8.9m on the Oil and gas division relating to organisation changes. The geothermal divisions adjusted EBITDA reported an increase loss to
£2.4m. Its net production averaged boepd (Barrels of Oil Equivalent Per Day) of 2,012 which is on target to achieve full year forecasts with a hedge giving an average price of $83.4/bbl. Technical seismic and magnetotelluric data is being processed at its three Croatian licences to rank the optimal sequencing of their commercial development. The cashflows from UK oil and gas will be applied to develop its oil and gas assets while the UK Government gives clarity on the support for the geothermal clean energy business. There is net debt of £1.4m with cash of £4.2m and a new Euro 25m secured loan facility to support geothermal energy and to enable continued investment in its oil and gas.
Strix Group 81.7p £187.8m (KETl.L)
Acquisitive kettle controls and water filtration products suppler report interims to June with revenue of £67.2m, an increase of 3.5% and adjusted PBT up 15.9% to £8.0m. The improvement is due to with a strong performance from kettle sales and a higher margin product mix. An equity raise and strong cash management has reduced the debt leverage to under 2x and to £68.3m with a target to 1.5x leverage. There is a working capital facility for £10m. The business is going through a rebasing and restructuring process with disposals expected to be completed this year and further cost cutting. The medium term strategy is for new product launches, further rationalisation of the consumer goods division and the roll out of the Billi products which include a multi-function tap into key
European markets, although modest operational growth is expected.
Transense Technologies 180p £27.4m (TRT.L)
After a competitive bid process, TRT have been selected as a key partner in a £11m electric vehicle (EV) research and development programme as part of a funded UK Government through the Advanced Propulsion Centre. In partnership with Unipart, Viritech and Hypromag, it will deliver cutting edge power electronics products and manufacturing capabilities for the EV market. TRT’s technology will contribute to the wheel motor assemblies for both light weight and heavy duty EVs to improve control and performance. Part of the funding will be used to develop its supply chain and manufacturing capabilities.
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