NCC Group (NCC) shares ticked up 15.94% to 294.5p after announcing £165m acquistion and £70m placing
Shares in the information assurance company jumped on Thursday unveiled to investors its plans for a £156m acquisition and a £70m placing as it strives to become “a market leader.”
NCC has agreed to acquire IPM, a leading software provider which offers resilience services to a large and diverse US market. The Company says it believes its move to acquire the business will provide it with immediate additional scale to its core software resilience business, making the US the largest contributor of the division's revenues and profits.
The Group added that the proposed acquisition represents “a compelling opportunity” for both of NCC's Assurance and Software Resilience divisions to benefit from revenue synergies across an enlarged, blue chip customer base which spans a majority of the Fortune 500.
Meanwhile, the proposed transaction is expected to provide the enlarged group with a number of financial benefits. The firm explained to investors how the acquisition will be significantly accretive to earnings per share from completion, even without factoring in revenue synergies.
Lexington Gold (LEX) shares soared 24.68% to 4.8p after group hails 'transformational' year
The gold exploration and development company released its results for the year ended 31 December 2020 on Tuesday highlighting that its total assets were $5.5m at by period-end, up from $0.4m a year earlier, while the firm’s net cash position improved to $2.9m from $0.01m.
Despite reporting a net loss for the year from continuing operations of US$0.7m against the prior year loss of US$0.5m, the firm described the year as “transformational” for the business as it completed the acquisition of majority interests in four gold exploration projects in North and South Carolina in the US and was readmitted to trading on AIM on 25 November 2020.
Looking ahead, and in with the Company's stated strategy, the Directors said they believe that the acquisition of GAR represents ‘an excellent opportunity to create long-term shareholder value through the identification and exploration of gold deposits within a well-mineralised but under explored Super Terrane in North and South Carolina in the United States.’
GoldStone Resources (GRL) shares jump 24.24% to 14.25p as it commences mining in Ghana
In a morning statement, the group told investors that mining and ore stacking at the Homase Mine within its Akrokeri-Homase Gold Project in south-western Ghana has commenced with the first mined ore having been successfully stacked onto the heap leach pad.
To date, 80,000 tonnes of ore have been stockpiled, equating to around one month of mine production at full 3,000 tonne per day heap leach capacity, the company told investors.
According to figures derived by Goldstone, which believes the cash cost lies within the lower quartile of industry cost standards, the first eight months production of Homase is forecast to produce some 25,000 ounces of gold, at a total cash cost, pre-tax, of under $600per ounce.
Goldstone said it expects to increase the planned production rate to around 50,000 ounces of gold per annum, an increase of more than 300% from the original production schedule.
Following the increase in mineable resources and the optimization review, GoldStone said it is in the process of updating the DEP and added that it will update the market in Q3 2021.
PHSC (PHSC) shares rose 21.43% to 17p as it unveils share buyback progamme
Shares in the Group, which provides health, safety, hygiene and environmental consultancy services and security solutions to the public and private sectors, jumped on Thursday despite the firm issuing an update which highlighted the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While its health and safety division saw increased activity over the financial year in certain operational segments, such as risk assessment, PHSC told investors that it was unable to service many clients in the leisure and education sectors due to the requirement for their premises to close or to operate at a reduced capacity as a result of COVID-19 restrictions.
However, the company said its management systems subsidiary was able to remain profitable despite reduced revenues. In particular, its security division, which suffered as a consequence of lockdown and the closure of non-essential retail, was able to operate at breakeven due to grant funding as well as from contribution from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
In a separate statement, the firm also unveiled plans for a share buyback programme which will cover up to £0.325m and will form part of PHSC’s strategy to deliver shareholder value.
Cineworld (CINE) shares fall again by a further 5.06% to 84.81p
Shares in the cinema chain have shed over 6% in value since the beginning of the month. Last week, it was reported that Legal & General Investment Management planned to vote against the re-election of the company’s chairman, Alicja Kornasiewicz, at yesterday’s AGM.
In a statement released last Thursday, the firm said it possessed “strong concerns about the structure of the long-term incentive plan granted to the executives, and its misalignment with the long-term interests of the company, its shareholders and other stakeholders”.
The move from shareholders comes at a crucial time for Cineworld which is set to reopen its sites in the UK on Monday as part of the UK’s next phase of easing lockdown restrictions.
The firm told investors yesterday that resolutions to approve the Directors' Remuneration Policy and the Directors' Remuneration Report were passed with support of around 74% of the votes cast. The Board said it will continue its dialogue with shareholders on remuneration matters.
All other resolutions were passed with high levels of support ranging between 85% and 99%.