Evgen Pharma shares soar 149.12% to 7.1p on US$160m licensing deal for SFX-01
Evgen Pharma said it has licensed the global rights for its lead asset SFX-01 to Stalicla SA, a Swiss company specialising in the identification of specific phenotypes of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Evgen retains the global rights for all other indications.
Evgen will receive US$0.5m upfront and US$0.5m on completion of the already financed Evgen-sponsored Phase 1 study. Milestone payments are US$26.5m up to commercial launch, including US$5m on grant of IND by the FDA. Total milestones of US$160.5m are payable to Evgen Pharma in relation to the first neurodevelopmental disorder indication under the license.
Evgen said its partnership with Stalicla will enable the targeting of patient groups most likely to benefit from SFX-01, de-risking clinical development. Evgen and Stalicla will collaborate initially on a clinical programme in ASD, with Stalicla funding all clinical development activities.
Dr Huw Jones, Evgen CEO, commented:
"This is an exciting opportunity to work with Stalicla to develop a potential treatment for ASD and other neuropsychiatric disorders. There are no current approved treatments for ASD but a molecular target activated by SFX-01 offers considerable promise in alleviating some of the complex behavioural challenges experienced by people with these conditions."
LendInvest shares fall 30.26% to 68p on conservative FY guidance and mortgage market warning
LendInvest said in an interim report for the 6 months ended 30 September that its platform assets under management increased 33% YoY and 13% since the start of the FY to £2.4bn, driven by growth across all lending products.
Likewise, LendInvest's funds under management (committed and deployed capital) increased 20% YoY and 17% since the start of the FY to £3.4bn. This was helped by the company's fourth securitisation, completed in May, comprising of £270m of prime Buy-to-Let mortgages. LendInvest said it currently has over £950m of lending headroom, up from £793m on 31 March, to support its medium-term growth trajectory.
What prompted the negative market reaction was LendInvest's conservative FY guidance and warning on the mortgage market:
"Looking ahead, we are acutely aware of the disruption in the UK mortgage market, which is affecting confidence and for the moment, applications for new mortgages have slowed across the market." the company said.
LendInvest added: "There is considerable short term uncertainty around macroeconomic conditions. Supported by our technology platform, we responded quickly to the volatile market movements by ensuring that we re-priced our products and remained open for new business. At the same time, we have tightened our credit appetite to protect investor returns given the heightened risk of falling property prices."
Due to unfavourable market conditions, LendInvest said it expected a reduction of its rate of growth in 2H, particularly in Buy-to-Let, and was therefore reducing its growth in operational expenditure accordingly. The company said it expected its FY22 pre-tax profit to be in line with the previous year.
Still, the company remained optimistic. Rod Lockhart, CEO, commented:
"Recent market dislocation has demonstrated the flexibility and speed to market capability of our platform. This provides us with a competitive edge, flexibility, and proven risk management capabilities, which in addition to the size of our addressable markets and our strong financial position, gives us confidence in our long-term prospects."
Abingdon Health shares fall 16.67% to 7.5p on volatility following favourable outcome of trial against Department of Health and Social Care
Abingdon Health said on Friday a court had ruled in favour of the UK's Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in a lawsuit brought to it by Good Law Project Limited (GLP) questioning the legality of contracts for the development and manufacture of lateral flow test kits for COVID-19 antibodies awarded to Abingdon Health by the DHSC.
Abingdon said the judgement by Mr Justice Waksman confirmed that contract award decisions by the DHSC for the development and manufacture of the kits by Abingdon Health had been lawful and complied with the principles of public law. All grounds brought by the GLP in the case were dismissed.
The monies received under the contracts totalled £10.3m. This does not include a final £1.5m cash payment from the DHSC, currently held under charge until the outcome of the judicial review, that is now expected to be released, bringing the total amount paid to Abingdon by the DHSC to £11.8m.
Shares jumped 38.46% on the news on Friday, but corrected down 16.67% today.
Europa Oil & Gas shares fall 42.05% to 1.28p on Serenity SA02 well result
Europa Oil & Gas said its Serenity appraisal well on UK license P.2358, Block 13/12c. was drilled to a total vertical depth of 5,630 ft below sea level. The targeted Lower Cretaceous Captain sand, containing hydrocarbons in the 13/23c-10 well discovered in October 2019, was not present at the location, the company reported. Over 100 ft of other Captain sands in various sequences were found, but were water wet. Therefore, Europa said the well was to be plugged and operations suspended.
On the bright side, Europa and its partner i3 Energy gathered valuable data from the appraisal well that will be integrated into future reservoir modelling to optimise ongoing development of the site, particularly reserves proven up by the prior discovery well in the eastern area of the structure.
The financial setback to the company will be limited. The Serenity appraisal well was drilled significantly below budget at an estimated total cost of £10.4m of which Europa bore £4.8m and i3 Energy bore £5.6m.
Simon Oddie, CEO of Europa, commented:
"Although this is a disappointing result the data gathered during the drilling of SA02 has improved our understanding of the Serenity field and we continue to interpret the well data which will help us establish a suitable development plan to maximise the value of the already discovered resources within the eastern area of the Serenity field. The SA02 well was drilled safely and below budget and has demonstrated how well the i3 Energy ("i3E") and Europa teams work together. We look forward to continuing to build on this strong relationship with i3E as we work on assessing the monetisation routes for the discovered resources at Serenity.
Europa is in a financially strong position with ongoing production generating material monthly net income. We will continue to execute on our stated strategy of pursuing new assets to build a balanced portfolio, focussing on opportunities that need further appraisal to unlock the asset value."
Europa also has a 30% interest in the Wressle project, one of the most productive conventional-producing UK onshore oilfields, set to become second only to Perenco's Wytch Farm. To date, Wressle has produced over 225,000 barrels of oil with zero water cut, with an average rate of 300 bopd and instantaneous rates of over 1,000 bopd achieved. GaffneyCline's recent independent report estimated steady production of c. 800 bopd for at least another 5 years.