Boohoo Group PLC (LON:BOO) received approval of its move to acquire 100% of Pretty Little Thing (PLT), with the shares up 17% at 392p.
The online retailer acquired the 34% of PLT that it did not already own for a combination of cash and shares that could potentially rise to £323.8mln.
It will pay an initial £269.8mln to the minority owners, being chief executive Mahmud Kamanis son Umar Kamani and chief operating officer Paul Papworth, who are both continuing in their roles running the subsidiary.
3.30pm: Touchstar trades profitably in first quarter
Touchstar PLC (LON:TST) climbed 21% to 42.50p on the back of well-received full-year results.
The supplier of mobile data computing solutions saw its loss before tax narrow to £829,000 in 2019 from £1.32mln in 2018 and its order book rise to £1.2mln from £254,000 a year earlier.
The company revealed it had traded profitably in the first quarter of 2020 and this trend continued into April.
2.30pm: Cineworld given some breathing space by bankers
Cineworld Group PLC (LON:CINE) shares, up 21% at 94.02p, were a box office hit after it receiving a liquidity boost.
The group, which owns 787 cinemas across ten countries, said it has arranged US$110mln (£90mln) of bank liquidity and plans to request US$70m from UK and US government loan schemes to give it sufficient headroom to support the group if cinemas remain closed until the end of the year.
Lenders also agreeing to loosen its covenant terms for this year, waiving the leverage test for June and increasing the December test covenant to 9.0 times net debt-to-EBITDA (underlying earnings).
1.30pm: Genel lower after receiving payment for oil sales in April
Genel Energy PLC (LON:GENL) fell 6.2% to 118.6p despite revealing that more payments for oil sales have been received from the Kurdistan Regional Government.
The Taq Taq licence area partners have received a gross payment of US$1.9mln in respect of oil sales in April, with Genel's net share of the payment being US$1.1mln.
The partners in the Tawke production sharing agreement have received a gross payment of US$8.5mln,, of which Genel has pocketed US$2.1mln.
12.30pm: Surgical Innovations expecting slow recovery in elective surgery levels
Surgical Innovations Group PLC slipped 7.1% to 1.30p after it rvealed a sharp drop in April in the number of patients electing to undergo surgery.
The designer, manufacturer and distributor of innovative technology for minimally invasive surgery revealed that first quarter revenues were down roughly 25% year-on-year and were some 70% below 2019s levels in April.
Early signs are positive that elective cases may recommence in August, Surgical Innovates said, and caseloads may return to pre-Covid levels in the final quarter of the year, although the companys internal financial forecasts, used for banking and planning purposes, are more cautious, reflecting “the significant challenges which may be encountered in accessing hospitals to provide sales and technical support in surgery”.
11.30am: Attis Oil and Gas raises cash as reverse takeover collapses
Attis Oil and Gas Ltd (LON:AOGL) returned from suspension 78% lower at 0.0155p after the reverse takeover of the company collapsed.
The company had entered into a memorandum of understanding with an oil and gas company focused on North America that was planned to result in a reverse takeover but due to a number of factors, not least the impact of the global coronavirus pandemic on oil prices, the deal was called off.
Instead, Attis has raised £500,000 by placing shares at 0.0115p and has raised a further £420,000 through a bridging loan as it seeks to plough on alone.
10.30am: Costain sees strong demand for open offer shares
Costain Group PLC (LON:COST) saw its shares harden 14% to 78.7p after it received strong interest from shareholders in its recent open offer of shares.
The company received valid acceptances from qualifying shareholders under their basic open offer entitlements in respect of 27.8mln open offer shares, representing roughly 83.4% of the shares that could have been taken up with full acceptance.
Also, the company received applications under the excess application facility in respect of 46.7mln representing about 140.1% of the total number of open offer shares, as a result of which applications for excess shares will have to be scaled back.
9.30am: Nanoco soars after signing agreement with STMicroelectronics
Nanoco Group PLC (LON:NANO) had traders dotty over its shares in early trade on Thursday – up 36% at 14.96p – after it announced a quantum dot material supply agreement.
The developer and manufacturer of cadmium-free quantum dots and other nanomaterials, which last month took down the “for sale” sign, has signed an agreement with STMicroelectronics.
The framework agreement covers development work and commercial supply of nano-materials for use in various infra-red sensing applications over an initial five-year period. The agreement extends the collaboration that was in place while both companies were working for a mutual customer in the US.
Bidstack Group PLC (LON:BIDS) shot up 12% to 5.75p after it noted that the fledgeling In-game advertising industry is currently seeing a spike in demand during the coronavirus (COVID-9) lockdown.
The company, which hosts its annual general meeting later today, has seen notable momentum in recent weeks with new agreements entered into for key partnerships and it is now working with most of the major ad firms.
James Draper, Bidstacks chief executive said in a statement: “The disruption to the advertising industry arising from the global cancellation of live sports as a result of COVID-19 has resulted in media buyers following audience demand and seeking to get in front of the increasing numbers of consumers turning to video gaming as an alternative.”
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Bidstack Group PLC (LON:BIDS) told investors it is pleased with its progress and noted that the fledgeling In-game advertising industry is seeing a spike in demand amidst the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The company, which hosts its AGM later on Thursday, has seen notable momentum in recent weeks with new agreements entered into for key partnerships and it is now working with most of the major ad firms. James Draper, Bidstack chief executive said in a statement: “The disruption to the advertising industry arising from the global cancellation of live sports as a result of COVID-19 has resulted in media buyers following audience demand and seeking to get in front of the increasing numbers of consumers turning to video gaming as an alternative.
Galantas Gold Corp (LON:GAL) has told investors that concentrate processing has now restarted at its wholly-owned gold mine near Omagh, Northern Ireland. During the downtime, maintenance of certain aspects of the processing plant was undertaken which is expected to minimise any future disruptions, the company noted. Staff previously furloughed under the UK government grant scheme are now back at work, it added. Corporate activities also continue, the company noted. “Discussions with a number of parties continue in terms of a corporate action involving a potential sale or joint venture and due diligence materials continue to be processed,” Galantas said in a statement.
Oncimmune Holdings PLC (LON:ONC) said it has signed its largest contract to date with Swiss pharma giant Roche to profile auto-antibodies in patient samples collected during cancer immunotherapy trials. The new contract follows an initial project between the companies over the past two months and will enable further assessment of individual patient responses to immunotherapy through immune profiling. The contract involves a substantial upfront payment, added the AIM-listed group and starts immediately. Initial results are scheduled to be provided to Roche within three months and the project to be completed by November.
Filta Group Holdings (LON:FLTA) said it believes revenues and margins will return to levels seen in the first quarter once social distancing restrictions are lifted and the restaurant and hospitality industries return to normality. “Albeit that there has to be some uncertainty as to how long, and to what extent the restrictions may persist, we believe that, by the actions we have taken, we will be able to manage the group through that period and to be in a strong position thereafter,” said Filta's chairman Tim Worlledge. His comments accompanied full-year 2019 results from the oil filtration and fryer management group. Revenues for the 12 months ended December 31, 2019, were up 75% to £24.9mln, reflecting an £8.6mln contribution from the 2018 acquisition, Watbio.
AFC Energy PLC (LON:AFC) has said its HydroX-Cell(S) fuel cell system remains on target for initial release in 2022 following successful development works this year. The hydrogen power generation specialist said designs have been engineered for the first full commercial scale prototype system, which will commence manufacture in June and build on positive results achieved both at laboratory scale and single-cell commercial-scale testing. AFC also said that its internal capacity to produce HydroX-Cell(S) electrodes has increased and a pilot fabrication process for the production of membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) is under development.
Synairgen PLC (LON:SNG), the respiratory drug discovery and development company, said it has completed recruitment of hospitalised patients with coronavirus (COVID-19) for its clinical trial of SNG001. Synairgen's clinical trial in COVID-19 patients (SG016) is a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. The 220 patient trial comprises 100 patients initiated in hospitals and 120 patients initiated in the home setting. The patients participating in the hospital setting have been recruited across several National Health Service (NHS) trusts.
Frontier IP Group PLCs (LON:FIPP) said its portfolio firm, Elute Intelligence has opened up access to its Patent Reader platform to a user group of experienced patent professionals to help them effectively and efficiently find relevant information. The group includes users from patent rich multinationals, high-tech SMEs and professional IP services providers, Elute said in an announcement, adding that its software tools will enable them to intelligently search patent information and identify documents of most relevance. The company, which is 43.5% owned by Frontier, said the feedback from the user group will be used to refine the Patent Reader functionality in advance of a formal launch later in the year. In a separate announcement, Frontier IP also said it has issued 81,034 shares following an exercise of options on May 27, 2020, with 24,034 options exercised at 10 pence each and 57,000 options had an exercise price of 40p each. The shares have been issued to a former employee under the 2011 Frontier IP share option scheme.
Bacanora Lithium PLC (LON:BCN) said it expects to reopen the Hermosillo pilot plant at its flagship Sonora lithium project in Mexico in June and that it has a “strong cash position” to weather market fluctuations caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The AIM-listed firm said despite the virus outbreak it was continuing to progress all feasible workstreams, with significant attention focused on the completion of project work in Sonora, although this had been affected by delays in Asia and North America.
Blue Star Capital PLC (LON:BLU) said its investee company, SatoshiPay, has received support in the form of a strategic investment from its key partner, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF). SDF has invested US$500,000 by way of a convertible loan note to support SatoshiPay in the development of its B2B solution for commercial, cross-border payments and digital wallets using the blockchain framework. The company said the funds will be used primarily to develop and market the SatoshiPay B2B solution which is currently being tested with a product expected to enter closed alpha testing within 8 weeks and a public beta launch expected in the fourth quarter of 2020.
e-therapeutics PLC (LON:ETX) has said it is moving into the field of RNA interference, also known as gene silencing. The approach won inventors Andrew Fire and Craig Mello a Nobel Prize in 2006. Since then researchers have struggled with RNAi discoveries, partly because of problems getting the molecules to their target. e-therapeutics believes its computational approach to drug discovery could aid the search for new RNAi drug candidates. Its machine learning-enhanced database of over 15mln small molecule compounds will allow scientists to perform functional in-silico (computer-based) phenotypic screens. In the same announcement, the company also said it has appointed Dr Paul Burke, head of Burke Bioventures, as chair of its scientific advisory board (SAB).
Kodal Minerals PLC (LON:KOD) told investors that its feasibility study for the Bougouni lithium project, in Mali, has been accepted by the countrys Ministry of Mines and Petroleum. The ministry confirmed that no further technical and financial meetings are required before mining licence approval. Additionally, the Directorate Nationale de la Géologie et des Mines has now agreed the mining area and new permit boundary to encompass all resources along with the proposed mining and associated infrastructure areas. Kodal also noted that its gold assets in Mali and Cote d'Ivoire have attracted interest from investors and other exploration and development companies.
Primary Health Properties PLC (LON:PHP), one of the UK's leading investors in modern primary healthcare facilities, said it has contracted to provide development funding for the construction and acquisition of a purpose-built primary care centre in Arklow, Co. Wicklow, Ireland for an anticipated total cost of €18.0mln. In a statement, the FTSE 250-listed firm said agreements for a lease with an initial term of 30 years have been signed with the Health Service Executive and a local GP practice, which will relocate to the centre on practical completion. The building, which will comprise an area of 5,333 square metres, is to be constructed to the new Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings regulations in Ireland.
Condor Gold PLC (Read More – Source
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