Jubilee (JLP), a diversified metals producer with operations in South Africa and Zambia, announced an operational update at its Zambian copper business. Further to the announcement of 6 February 2025, the Company has now successfully commenced with the processing of the new high-grade copper feed material at its Roan concentrator facility.
The material feed grade is in-line with management expectations with current feed assays exceeding 1.6% Cu, approximately double the grade of material previously processed at Roan and forms part of Roan’s accelerated production plan to recoup part of the lost production over a short period of time.
Comment: JLP continues to be a stock where the market has treated it on the mean side, even when the newsflow like today’s underlines that this is a company which is moving to sort itself out materially.
Fiinu (BANK), a fintech group and creator of the Plugin Overdraft®, is pleased to announce that it has raised gross proceeds of £1,250,000 through the issue of 12,500,000 new ordinary shares at 10 pence per share. The Subscription Shares were issued in response to market demand, and the funds will be utilised to develop its Plugin Overdraft® product as a white-label offering, as previously announced, and to provide additional working capital.
Comment: Although it may have been that BANK did not really need the topping up cash, given that it has got itself over the line in terms of the Plugin Overdraft, one can imagine that the “market demand” was too much to resist, as well as being prudent to take up.
Blencowe Resources (BRES) provided an update on its 7,000 meter drilling programme, currently underway at the Orom-Cross graphite project in Uganda. BRES said “We are particularly eager to test a completely new deposit in this region, which, if successful, could further demonstrate the immense scale and potential of the graphite mineralisation at Orom-Cross which has previously been estimated at 2-3 billion tonnes.”
Comment: The market continues to treat BRES as is it both underfunded and with a sub scale project, when the opposite is true, especially the size of Orom-Cross.
GENinCode (GENI), a genetics company focussed on the prevention of cardiovascular disease and the early detection of ovarian cancer, today announces its intention to raise a minimum of £4.0 million through a placing and subscription at the issue price of 3.7 pence. The proceeds will be sufficient for at least 12 months and will be used to fund the completion of the Company’s US regulatory and reimbursement program whilst driving commercialisation in the US, expanding its activities in the UK and Europe whilst positioning the Company on a pathway to breakeven/profitability over the medium term.
Comment: One would imagine that the swift retreat for the shares last month after the sharp spike was one or two people guessing that a £4m fundraise may be on its way. Given that the market cap is £6.9m the quantum of the cash call is going to hurt.
John Wood Group (WG.) announced a trading update for the year ended 31 December 2024, an update on the independent review, an updated outlook, and an update on refinancing. FY24 adjusted EBITDA1 of around $450 million to $460 million. FY24 adjusted EBIT2 of c.$205 million to c.$215 million. Actions taken to mitigate weaker-than-expected trading in Q4, including cancelling executive and employee bonuses and actively managing working capital at year end. Order book increased to c.$6.2 billion at 31 December 2024, significantly improved on c.$5.4 billion at 30 September 2024.
Comment: It is perhaps not surprising that one would not be able to glean from the RNS that WG’s share price fall was one of the most calamitous on the LSE over the past year.
Serinus Energy (SENX) announced that the Superior Court of Cassation and Justice of Romania has ruled in favour of Serinus Energy Romania vs. Agenția Națională de Administrare Fiscală, in the case of the rejected VAT refunds. In 2018 and 2019, ANAF, the Romanian tax authority, refused to refund VAT amounts totalling RON 8.32 million (approximately US$1.73 million) after a routine VAT return submissions in those years. In addition to the award of the VAT refunds, Serinus is also awarded interest compensation for the delayed refund of the VAT funds in the amount of RON 3.61 million (approximately US$0.75 million).
Comment: Although SENX shares have not exactly been top of the pops, they have bounced since the start of the year, something which today’s win could extend. That said, $1.73m is not a lot of cash these days for a public company.
Proton Motor Power Systems (PPS), the designer, developer and producer of fuel cells and fuel cell electric hybrid systems with a zero-carbon footprint, announces that, further to the announcement on 7 February 2025, today is the last day of dealings in the Company’s ordinary shares on AIM and the Company’s ordinary shares will be cancelled from trading on AIM at 7.00 a.m. on 17 February 2025.
Comment: Apart from the £0.5m plus listing costs, the £0.5m ongoing annual costs, the red tape, the auditor, accountant, lawyer, ESG, DEI, FCA, difficulty in fundraising, negative stock market sentiment, lack of coverage in the mainstream media, one wonders why any company would want to surrender its place on the greatest growth market in the world.
Totally (TLY) announced that its NHS 111 National Resilience support contract has not been renewed by NHS England and therefore will come to a conclusion on 15 February 2025. This reflects NHS England’s strategy to no longer provide resilience services (which support 111 pressures at a local level) at a national level. The value of the contract was c.£13 million, with c.£12 million being recognised in the current financial year. The Company was not reliant on the extension of the NHS 111 Contract for the delivery of its FY25 forecast and therefore remains confident of delivering FY25 performance in line with expectations of £85 million revenue and £3.5 million EBITDA. All other parts of the business are performing well and CQC ratings remain GOOD.
Comment: The whole point of the public sector gravy train is that it is reliably inefficient and wasteful, a second rate service at a first class price, meaning that its suppliers can just sit back and do next to nothing without any performance criteria. It will be interesting to see how the market factors in this expected contract loss at TLY.
Transense Technologies (TRT), the provider of specialist sensing solutions and measurement systems, announced that through its Translogik division, it has secured a landmark distribution agreement with Haltec Corporation, a leading innovator in tyre valve and management solutions in North America. The agreement will see Haltec become a formal distributor of Translogik’s advanced tyre inspection tools, significantly expanding market reach in the USA.
Comment: The US is always the big one in terms of being a challenge and win for small UK companies. It helps that for TRT this announcement comes soon after the upbeat autumn earnings results, which should add extra momentum.
Capital Metals (CMET), a mineral sands company approaching mine development stage at the high-grade Taprobane Minerals Project in Sri Lanka announced that the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau has signed an agreement pursuant to which the GSMB will provide technical services in connection with the forthcoming resampling and drilling programme. The Company is finalising the last renewal of land access permissions, with the air core drilling rig and team on standby.
Comment: It is evident that CMET is on the front foot again in terms of project development, something which should all the shares to stir in a positive way early in 2025, given that they are currently at the low end of the range.
Great Western Mining (GWMO), which is exploring and developing gold, silver and copper targets in the Walker Lane belt of Nevada, USA, announced further results from its 2024 geological field work with positive developments at several prospects. GWMO said “The high rate of success achieved through this field work clearly underlines the prospectivity of our extensive claims, both for copper and precious metals. In 2025 we will also begin work on the tungsten prospects identified at the former Defender and Pine Crow mines where we have recently staked new claims to protect our interests.”
Comment: The smaller a company, and the longer it has taken historically to get over the line, the less impact even upbeat announcements like today’s from GWMO make.
Power Metal Resources (POW), the London-listed exploration company with a global project portfolio, provide an exploration update for the Tait Hill Uranium Property. The update concerns work undertaken by Fermi Exploration the uranium-focused joint venture with UCAM Ltd comprising Power Metal’s portfolio of uranium licences, of which Tait Hill is a constituent. POW said “It is very pleasing to be able to report more progress on our well-funded exploration plan. Jack and his team are doing fantastic work establishing drill targets, which, weather permitting, we hope to get started on over the next few months. I look forward to being able to update shareholders further as these high-impact exploration programmes start to take shape.”
Comment: With POW set to be all cashed up from taking something off the table in terms of its highly successful investment in Guardian (GMET), it has plenty of firepower to develop key projects, such Tait Hill with the focus on in demand uranium.
Disclaimer & Declaration of Interest:
The information, investment views, and recommendations in this Zaks Traders Cafe interview are provided for general information purposes only. Nothing in this interview should be construed as a promotion or solicitation to buy or sell any financial product relating to any companies under discussion or referred to or to engage in or refrain from doing so or engage in any other transaction. Any opinions or comments are made to the best of the knowledge and belief of the commentator but no responsibility is accepted for actions based on such opinions or comments. The commentators may or may not hold investments in the companies under discussion.
