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Quoted Micro 16 January 2023

  • BY: Andrew Hore |
  • POSTED: 16/01/2023 |

AQUIS STOCK EXCHANGE

Tap Global (TAP) completed its reversal into Quetzal Capital last week. The share price ended the week up 29.4% to 4.4p. There was £3.1m raised at 4.5p, even though the market price had not been that high since May last year. Tap Global was valued at £20.5m in the reversal and it is a crypto-fiat exchange service provider with a neo banking platform. It has gained Mastercard approval. The regulator is the Gibraltar Stock Exchange. The cash raised will be used for marketing and to grow internationally.

Cannabis company Apollon Formularies (APOL) is selling IP assets to Canada-listed Global Hemp Group for $250,000 in cash and 10 million shares in the acquiror at C$0.015 each. The first tranche of $100,000 has been paid with the rest of the cash due by the end of January. Global Hemp Group has an option to acquire the other assets of Apollon in return for 771.2 million shares. The Apollon share priced dived 14.8% to 0.66p.

NFT Investment (NFT) has been hit by a cyber incident that resulted in a loss of $250,000 of assets. That is less than 1% of NAV. Further technical precautions are being investigated. The share price slumped by 10.8% to 0.825p, which values the company at £9.3m.

Wishbone Gold (WSBN) has acquired a tenement covering 19 blocks in the Paterson Range in Western Australia. This cost A$50,000.

Marula Mining (MARU) says graphite exploration activities have commenced at the Bagamoyo project in Tanzania. This involves mapping, sampling and trenching and should be completed in the first quarter. Marula has secured a 73% interest in the project.

Olivia Edwards, Nicholas Lyth and Misha Sher have resigned from the board of ChallengerX (CXS), while Lucas Caneda will take over as chief executive. Stuart Adam is joining the company as finance director.

Chris Akers has increased his stake in Asimilar (ASLR) from 6.63% to 7.41%.

Guanajuato Silver Company Ltd (GSVR) has completed the C$8.5m fundraising.

EPE Special Opportunities Ltd (ESO) had net assets of 255.42p a share at the end of 2022.

AIM

Marks Electrical (MRK) continues to outperform its electrical retail rivals. Revenues in the third quarter to December 2022 were one-third ahead at £29.8m and margins are improving. More customers are taking advantage of the installation service offered by the company. Nine-month revenues are 22% higher at £72.9m. The interim growth rate was 15%. Profit is still likely to be lower this year and earnings certainly will be because of the additional shares in issue after the 2021 flotation. Full year pre-tax profit is expected to decline from £6.44m to £5.67m, but the strength of the third quarter revenues means that there is a chance that this figure could be beaten.

Floorcoverings distributor Likewise Group (LIKE) finished 2022 strongly with more than doubled revenues. Acquisitions were behind most of the growth in revenues to £124.4m, but like-for-like sales were still 26% higher. That is impressive considering that the market probably contracted last year. The sales team has been expanded and this is starting to pay off. Margins have declined and pre-tax profit should improve from £1.6m to £2.5m.

Devolver Digital (DEVO) sales were also disappointing at the end of 2022. Although revenues were within the guidance range, Zeus has cut its underlying 2022 EBITDA forecast by 28% to $21.7m. There will also be an impairment of capitalised development spending on video games. The 2023 forecast EBITDA has been cut by one-third to $22.8m.

Virgin Wines (VINO) was hampered by problems with its new warehouse management system, which led to lost revenues and higher costs. There was also lower spending by clients. There were 60,000 additional customers in the first half. Forecast full year revenues have been cut from £69.1m to £63m, while pre-tax profit estimates have been slashed from £4.3m to £1.8m.

Trading is ahead of expectations at Cornerstone FS (CSFS) and 2022 revenues were £4.8m – more than double the 2021 figure. Direct sales increased from 56% to 78%, helping gross margins increase from 52% to 61%.

Forward Partners (FWD) has invested £1m in hospitality management platform Dines. Clients already include Delfont Mackintosh Theatres and the Shard’s skyline bar.

Supreme (SUP) had a better than expected Christmas trading period. Vaping revenues continue to grow, while lighting revenues are recovering. The other products are trading steadily. The consumer products supplier is on course for market expectations of 2022-23 earnings of 9.6p a share.

Credit provider Morses Club (MCL) says it intends to leave AIM and will hold a general meeting. JO Hambro sold its shareholding of 8.8 million shares. It previously said it intended to vote for the proposed AIM cancelation.

Parkmead Group (PMG) says a gas discovery has been made at the LDS-01 well on the Drenthe VI concession – Parkmead has a 7.5% interest. A second well is being drilled and after that the discovery will go into production. First gas production should be before the end of the first quarter.

Physiomics (PYC) signed a further contract with Cancer Research UK to provide mathematical modelling for a clinical trial of a candidate for the treatment of blood cancers developed by Aleta Biotherapeutics. The project will be completed in the first quarter of 2023. The company completed an observational trial run by the University of Portsmouth that collected data from prostate cancer patients treated with docetaxel. The data will help clinicians make decisions about dosage.

Customer engagement software provider Pelatro (PTRO) shares fell sharply after it revealed that delayed contracts will reduce 2022 revenues. Dowgate reduced its 2022 revenues forecast by $2.4m to $5.8m, which means that there will be a loss of $2.6m. One licence contract is being changed to a managed services contract and revenues from another contract will be taken in 2023. Pelatro may withdraw from another contract and that would mean a $300,000 provision.

Arkle Resources (ARK) has discovered lithium bearing pegmatites on the Mine River licences in Ireland. Six assayed rock chip samples show grades of more than 0.02% lithium. Enriched levels of caesium, rubidium and tantalum were also identified.

Tertiary Minerals (TYM) has been boosted by the news of a $150m investment in the Mingomba copper deposit, which is near to the company’s Konkola West copper project in Zambia.

MAIN MARKET

Hydrogen Utopia International (HUI) has made its move from the Aquis Stock Exchange to the standard list. The waste-to-energy facilities developer started the day at 16.625p and closed at 16.75p (16.5p/17p) with nearly 765,000 shares dealt in 21 trades on the standard list. The share price ended the week at 16.7p. Hydrogen Utopia raised £3m at 7.5p when it joined the Access segment of Aquis on 6 January 2021, so last Friday was its first anniversary and its last day of trading on the Access Segment. However, it is now listed on the Aquis Main Market. Hydrogen Utopia has an exclusive, non-transferrable licence for the distributed modular gasification technology developed by AIM-quoted Powerhouse Energy (PHE).

Nanoco (NANO) says that the litigation settlement with Samsung will be at the lower end of the range of expectations for a successful jury trial. There is likely to be a one-off payment.

BATM Advanced Communications (BVC) has received a $26m cyber security order from a defence customer, which will be delivered over five years.

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