News blog

Quoted Micro 23 June 2025

BY: Andrew Hore |
POSTED: 22/06/2025 |

AQUIS STOCK EXCHANGE

Fund manager and broker Oberon Investments (OBE) won the Aquis company of the year award at the 2025 Small Cap Awards.

Ajax Resources (AJAX) has moved from the Main Market to Aquis. It previously raised £1m at 4p/share and another £500,000 is being raised at 5p/share. Ajax Resources has exercised an option to acquire the Minas La Escondida project in Argentina for $80,000. It has conditionally agreed to acquire a nearby licence area.

Helium Ventures (HEV) gained shareholder approval for investment in Bitcoin mining and the establishment of a Bitcoin treasury. The company is changing its name to VaultZ Capital, and it has raised £4m at 43p/share, most of which will be invested in Bitcoin. Former Argo Blockchain director Alex Appleton has been appointed chief executive and Sarah Gow, who was also at Argo Blockchain, has joined the board as an executive director. Pierre Villeneuve is chief investment officer. Global Investment Strategy UK is the new broker.

Hot Rocks Investments (HRIP) has bought 200,000 more warrants in The Smarter Web Company (SWC) exercisable at 2.5p each for 100p/warrant and one million shares in Tap Global Group (TAP) ahead of its move to AIM. The Smarter Web Company raised £29.3m at 180p/share and then announced a subscription agreement over 21 million shares, which Shard will try to place over the coming months. The total Bitcoin holding is 346.63 with an average price of £78,480 each. That is an investment of £27.2m.

Coinsilium (COIN) says the retail offer to raise £2.5m at 22.2p/share was heavily oversubscribed, and it decided to accept £4m. The Forza Gibraltar subsidiary has bought nearly 24.5 additional Bitcoin for £1.91m. The total cost of the 43.1077 Bitcoin owned is £3.38m.

Vault Ventures (VULT), which is starting a Bitcoin and Ethereum treasury, raised £1.25m at 0.018p/share. There is an eleven year plan, which focuses on growing the technology investment business, as well as the cryptocurrency investment. So far, 34.47 Ethereum and 0.22 Bitcoin have been purchased at a total cost of £81,000. Acquisitions are being assessed.

Pubs operator Daniel Thwaites (THW) reported an improvement in full year revenues from £115.5m to £120.6m, while pre-tax profit rose from £9.1m to £9.8m after doubled property disposal gains of £400,000. The total dividend is raised from 3.35p/share to 3.5p/share. The pubs division improved operating profit from £13.9m to £14.6m and the hotels contribution rose from £6.2m to £7.4m. That is before group overheads. Net debt was £71.4m at the end of March 2025.

Marula Mining (MARU) has secured a 30-year surface use agreement for the Blesberg lithium and tantalum mine in South Africa. Progress is being made towards the granting of the ten-year mining right. The remaining condition is completion of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment structure for the subsidiary.

Incanthera (INC) says an independent study has confirmed the protective effects of its Skin + CELL product. Skin pre-treated with the lotion showed a 6.5 fold reduction in DNA damaged. It was also shown to boost mitochondrial performance.

Valereum (VLRM) has invested €1.7m for a minority stake in Fideum Group, which will be paid in a number of tranches up until June 2026. Fideum is a blockchain business. Gary Cottle has been appointed chief executive of Valereum.

SulNOx Group (SNOX) has raised £1m at 50p/share. SulNOx Innovations has been launched to invest in new fuel efficiency technologies.

Diagnostics developer EDX Medical (EDX) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Spire Healthcare. They will promote each other’s products and develop joint propositions.

Walls & Futures REIT (WAFR) gained shareholder approval to leave the Aquis Stock Exchange on 26 June and the proposed changes to the board were voted down.

Prize draw and rewards business Good Life Plus (GDLF) has raised £750,000 via a convertible loan note issue to a company associated with Mark Blandford and hopes to raise a further £750,000. The loan notes last until the end of June 2028 and offer an interest rate of 10%. The conversion price is 2.15p.

Zentra Group (ZNT) has sold land in Leicester for £250,000.

Amazing AI (AAI) says the loan facility provided by director Paul Mathieson has been increased in from £2m to £5m.

Cooks Coffee Company (COOK) has appointed Allenby as corporate adviser and broker.

EPE Special Opportunities (EO.P) had net assets of 316.2p/share at the end of May 2025.

AIM
Frasers Group (FRAS) has decided not to make an offer for cosmetics supplier Revolution Beauty (REVB). There is continued engagement with other parties interested in a deal, as well as with shareholders about the alternative of a fundraising.

Defence services provider RC Fornax (RCFX) has issued a trading warning weeks after joining AIM. There have been delays in spending due to the Strategic Defence Review. The disruption related to the flotation on AIM is also blamed for a lack of new orders. Co-founder Dan Clark is stepping down. Cavendish has slashed its forecast revenues for the year to August 2025 by nearly two-thirds to £4m, down from £6.5m last year. That means that there will be a £1m loss. The share price had soared from the February 2025 placing place of 32.5p. Chair Mark Fahy, who bought his initial shares in the placing, acquired a further 38,173 shares at 26.95p each. Finance director Rob Shepherd bought an initial 93,000 shares at 26.8p each.

Cosmetics supplier Warpaint London (W7L) expects flat like-for-like sales in the first half with growth coming from a contribution from the Brand Architekts. There was 7% growth in the first quarter. That means interim sales could be up to 13% ahead at up to £52m. Margins are expected to improve this year with cost savings from the integration of the acquisition coming through in the second half. Shore Capital is maintaining its full year forecast with pre-tax profit of £29m.

AI-based services provider to smaller businesses Pri0r1ty Intelligence Group (PR1) has announced a formal Bitcoin treasury management policy. The company can retain Bitcoin, but not other cryptocurrencies. No more than 50% of surplus cash can be retained in Bitcoin. Karen Lewis-Hollis has resigned from the board.

Litigation Capital Management (LIT) has lost a case that it co-funded. It invested £3.4m directly and its Fund 1 invested £8.2m. Total realisations for this year are A$55m, which excludes the Queensland Electricity and Quintis claims where there are appeals. Economic conditions mean that marketing for Fund III has been delayed. Cavendish forecast a A$41.7m loss in the year to June 2025.

Oxford Metrics (OMG) reported interims in line with expectations. Motion capture revenues fell compared with a strong comparative period. Acquisitions boosted the smart manufacturing revenues. Group revenues fell from £23.5m to £20.1m and Oxford Metrics slipped into loss. There was cash of £39.9m at the end of March 2025. Share buybacks are continuing and the amount has been increased by £4m.

SkinBioTherapeutics (SBTX) has signed an exclusive UK agreement with Superdrug Stores for the AxisBiotix food supplements that alleviate symptoms of inflammatory skin conditions, particularly psoriasis. On the back of this deal SkinBioTherapeutics raised £4.2m at 17p/share. Superdrug will sell AxisBiotix-Ps (for treating psoriasis) and still to be launched AxisBiotix-Ac (for treating acne) on an exclusive basis for two years. They will start to go into Superdrug stores with the highest sales of skincare products in September with a roll-out to the others next year.

Construction recruitment services provider Hercules (HERC) says interim revenues were 18% ahead at £54.6m, while pre-tax profit improved from £1.1m to £1.7m. The interim dividend is unchanged at 0.6p/share. The disposal of suction excavators has improved the balance sheet with net cash of £900,000 before deferred contingent consideration of £1m. A nominal amount has been paid for Quality Transport Training, which will be integrated with the training operation.

Quantum Blockchain Technologies (QBT) is making progress with the commercialisation of its Bitcoin mining efficiency technology. There are talks with two companies about them porting the AI technology in their existing control boards. These boards can replace the original ones in the Bitcoin miners. This will open up this market in the near future. There is engagement with two ASIC chip manufacturers about the potential to integrate the technology in their chips. This will take longer to commercialise.

CPP Group (CPP) is selling its business in Turkey for £4.6m and it may also sell its operations in India. The initial payment is £3.1m. CPP wants to concentrate on its parametric Insurtech business Blink, which has won a £1.5m licence agreement with Mehrwerk for its cyber security product. Blink generated revenues of £1.1m in 2024 and that should more than double to £2.5m this year. It will remain loss making. The funds from disposals will be reinvested in Blink, which should accelerate growth, and finance the restructuring of the group.

Investment company Seed Innovations (SEED) reported a dip in NAV from 6.73p/share to 6.1p/share, but that was after paying a 1p/share special dividend, so there was underlying growth. There was a swing from an investment loss of £1.2m to a gain of £797,000. In the year to March 2025, the overall gain was £367,000, compared with a £2.12m loss the year before. The largest improvement in valuation was for sustainable oils and fats developer Clean Food Group.

Property fund adviser and investor First Property Group (FPO) returned to profit in the year to March 2025. Revenues slipped from £7.85m to £7.55m. There have been annualised cost savings of £650,000. The pre-tax profit of £3m was boosted by an increase in the share of associates profit from £1.05m to £2.83m, while the impairment loss on investment properties was reduced from £3.75m to £242,000. Third party assets under management fell from £222m to £164m. NAV is 30.5p/share.

MAIN MARKET
Motor and property finance provider S and U (SUS) continues to improve it performance. The motor finance division is trending above budge t and the Aspen business goes from strength to strength. First half profitability should be better than last year.

Construction equipment hire company Speedy Hire (SDY) says 2024-25 revenues were flat at £417m, but underlying pre-tax profit fell from £14.7m to £8.7m with a lower contribution from the Kazakhstan joint venture. Net debt was £113.1m at the end of March 2025. The dividend is unchanged at 2.6p/share.

Online travel hostel agency Hostelworld (HSW) has launched a share buyback of up to £5m. This can continue to the end of the year. So far, 22,000 shares have been purchased at 120.41p each.

Atlas Metals Group (AMG), previously known as MetalNRG, is planning to acquire Universal Pozzolanic Silica Alumina (UPSA) via an all-share offer. No figure has been put on the deal. UPSA has commercialisation rights to a pozzolanic silica alumina (PSA) in Australia. The extraction rights for 250 million tonnes last 99 years and are held by its partner Claystone International. There are another 1.35 billion tonnes of reserves over which UPSA has the rights to extract. The estimated value of the reserves in the ground is £10/tonne. UPSA has a book value of £1.08bn, based on the 250 million tonnes of PSA.

Shell Associated British Engineering (ABSE) had cash of £344,000 at the end of March 2025. Net assets are £350,000.

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