GenIP (GNIP) hosted a closed-door senior roundtable earlier this week in partnership with Knowledge Exchange UK (KEUK), bringing together more than twenty of the UK’s most senior figures in research commercialisation, technology transfer, and science policy.
The room carried significant weight. Attendees included senior decision-makers from Russell Group and research-intensive universities, the UK Government, leading national research agencies, and international bodies including the Association of Commonwealth Universities. The session was chaired by Lord Willetts, former Minister for Universities and Science and Non-Executive Director of GenIP, with the discussion led by the Chief Executive of KEUK.
Attendees included existing GenIP clients and prospects.
Discussion focused on the role of AI in reshaping technology transfer, reinforcing GenIP’s market positioning, with consensus that intelligent, expert-led use of AI tools is the direction the sector is moving, not automation for its own sake.
The Board views events of this calibre as central to GenIP’s commercial development strategy and will provide further updates on outcomes in due course.
Comment: I was honoured to be invited to this event, which was the most high level discussion on AI and tech transfer that it is possible to have in this country. In addition, the brains trust present reminded me how it feels to not always be the smartest person in the room. It was like a Mensa convention.
Cambridge Cognition (COG), the neuroscience technology company whose digital cognitive assessments drive scientific discovery, accelerate drug development and improve patient care, is pleased to announce a retail offer via BookBuild at an issue price of 35.0 pence. The Directors intend to use the net proceeds of the Equity Fundraising, inclusive of any additional proceeds from the Retail Offer, to support the next phase of the Company’s development, focused on expanding adoption of its digital cognitive assessment platform within healthcare and clinical settings and progressing towards a more scalable, commercially focused business model.
Comment: Yesterday COG announced it was to raise a combined £3m in total via a placing / bookbuild, although it may have been helpful to mention the numbers again today so one did not have to look it up.
Quantum Helium Limited (QHE) announced that OAK Securities has published an independent research report on the Company, which is now available on the Quantum Helium website. The report highlights the scale of the Company’s Colorado helium portfolio, recent operational achievements at Sagebrush, and what OAK Securities believes is material upside to the current Quantum Helium share price. The OAK Securities research report is available under the Research section of the Company’s website and can be accessed using the following link:
https://www.quantum-helium.com/investors/research/
Comment: A timely piece of literature from our dear friends at Oak Securities, who have a knack of raising the right amount of cash for the right company at the right time. With helium continuing to be hotter than London on June 24 2026, it is appropriate that we get further insight into what QHE has under the bonnet.
Zinc Media Group plc (ZIN), the award-winning television, brand and audio production group, is pleased to announce that Zinc Distribution, the Group’s international sales division, has secured several international sales for Brexit: A Very British Civil War, a major new two-part documentary produced by Brook Lapping. The series tells the inside story of the EU referendum on its tenth anniversary, drawing on first-hand accounts from those at the heart of both campaigns, including David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, Michael Gove, George Osborne, Gordon Brown and Jeremy Corbyn. The 2 x 60-minute series premiered on BBC Two on 8 June 2026.
Comment: Everything in the UK is actually a civil war, either on the basis of class, race, money et al. Today’s RNS actually reminds us that ZIN should be commissioned to produce “Stock Market Gangsters: Hidden Shorting Conspiracies From Those Who Pretend To Be On The Side Of Investors, But Are Not.” Catchy Title?
Tower Resources plc (TRP), the AIM-listed oil and gas company focused on Africa, is pleased to provide an update on the approval process in respect of the farm-out transactions with Prime Global Energies Limited in Cameroon and Namibia, announced on 10 January 2025. Tower is also pleased to announce a subscription to raise £400,000 at a price of 0.016p. TRP said “We are pleased to be making progress on both approval processes, even though we wish they were already completed. It is important to remember that even a straight-forward farm-out proposal requires substantial government due diligence involving multiple departments, and we are grateful to all the individuals who have contributed to this process. We are not the only company to have experienced delays in approval processes in Namibia, in particular, for reasons I explained in our preliminary results statement. However, it is clear to us that the new organisation at the Ministry and the Upstream Petroleum Unit is much improved and we believe this reorganisation will be to the benefit of the whole industry in the longer term.”
Comment: TRP remains a company whose merits are as much to do with the ability to sneak out a fundraise as what it is doing in or under the ground. At least Namibia is a hot postcode at the moment, and at least TRP has managed to fund itself through the revealed time slips. Shame about the share price.
Cobra (COBR), a South Australian mineral exploration and development company, is pleased to announce further rare earth resource definition results at the Boland Prospect and initial drilling results from the Head Prospect. COBR said “Results from the Head Prospect indicate the presence of a significant system that remains open to the north and south. The prospect contains all the right features to enable cost-efficient ISR – aquifer confinement, acid generation and highly permeable mineralisation. It highlights that the target geology within the Pidinga formation is likely to be regionally extensive across the 3,200km2 of palaeochannel systems contained within the Company’s landholding.”
Comment: COBR has already proved itself, and continues to prove itself in its original rare earths focus. Therefore it is all the more encouraging that the company has an extra string to its bow in the form of copper. One looks forward to further positive newsflow and a firm share price.
THG PLC (THG) provided the following update on trading ahead of its Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) later today. THG said “We are on track with our growth and margin expansion strategy across the Group. By prioritising home markets and trending categories in THG Beauty, we continue to drive high-quality growth across an expanding customer base. In THG Nutrition, Myprotein is reaching more consumers than ever. Year-to-date unit growth of +60% has been underpinned by our rapid retail expansion and category diversification, with c.18% of D2C customers purchasing activewear in May 2026. “The Group continues to deliver strong year-on-year Adjusted EBITDA growth, notwithstanding the broader macroeconomic backdrop, including unprecedented whey commodity inflation levels.”
Comment: THG shares remain rangebound at the lower levels, and it would appear that unless the CEO gets a sudden popularity injection, or the market actually embraces the businesses the company is in more fully, this is likely to be where the share price remains.
Fulcrum Metals plc (FMET), a technology-led company focused on the recovery of precious and critical metals from mine tailings in Canada using innovative cyanide-free processing technology, with additional interests in highly prospective exploration projects, announced final results for the year ended 31 December 2025. FMET said “2025 has been a transformational year for Fulcrum as we transitioned from concept validation to disciplined project advancement and positioned the Company firmly on the pathway toward pilot-scale implementation. At Teck-Hughes, we materially enhanced our understanding of the project through expanded drilling, significantly improved metallurgical recoveries and encouraging economic studies, reinforcing our confidence in the scalability of our cyanide-free tailings strategy.”
Comment: Normally when a company says it has been a transformational year, (or in the case of UOG, a landmark year) it has not, and we are talking wishful thinking. However, in the case of FMET it really has, and this has been achieved despite a great degree of difficulty which makes the change all the more impressive. This point is witnessed by the way that there has been minimal retracement in the shares of late.
Hydrogen Utopia International PLC (HUI), a pioneering company transforming non-recyclable waste plastic into hydrogen, clean fuels and advanced materials, and which holds exclusive rights to the Inentec PEM melter system in the MENA region, and currently focussed on KSA, announced that it continues to advance a number of defence energy and Sustainable Aviation Fuel (“SAF”) opportunities across its target markets. HUI said “Would anyone burn £200 for no reason? Of course not. Yet that is effectively what we have been doing by treating plastic as rubbish instead of recognising its true economic and strategic value. Aside from progressing in the GCC we have begun working on a UK project alongside our TRL9 partners, and the opportunity is becoming increasingly clear. Our analysis shows a four-year payback programme, strengthened by the emerging value of SAF certificates.
We have demonstrated that our technology offers one of the lowest CAPEX and OPEX solutions capable of addressing the global waste plastic challenge. The market has yet to fully understand the scale of what this represents commercially, strategically, and militarily.”
Comment: It beggars belief that despite all the ground breaking initiatives that HUI has been making of late, the share price remains the same. If there ever was evidence of a shorting conspiracy in the stock market, not only in terms of price, but also on a personal basis, HUI must be regarded as a prime example. Go on, keep on keeping a lid on the stock.
United Oil & Gas Plc (UOG), the oil and gas company with a high impact exploration asset in Jamaica and a development asset in the UK announced the publication of its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2025. UOG said “2025 was a landmark year for United. We set out to build the foundations necessary to advance the Walton-Morant Licence and delivered on every objective: the licence extended to January 2028, regulatory approvals secured, the SGE programme fully contracted and funded, and the survey vessel mobilised in January 2026. Every stage of the programme was executed safely and without incident. In a year that required discipline, focus and operational rigour, United demonstrated it can deliver and to a standard that matters in this industry.”
Comment: Every year in the past 9 years has been a landmark year for UOG, and one presumes that there will be many more. That said, I have left instructions with my children that if anything should happen to me, when UOG finally strikes it big, they are prepared to cover the story and give the company its due when Jamaica comes in.
SEED Innovations Ltd (SEED), the AIM-quoted investing company, is pleased to announce its Final Results for the year ended 31 March 2026. Net Asset Value of £11.0 million (2025: £11.8 million), equivalent to NAV per share of 5.9p (2025: 6.1p). Cash and receivables of £2.7 million (2025: £3.4 million). Shares trading at a discount to NAV of approximately 57% (2025: c.74%) at the report date, reduced to c.50% as at the current share price.
Comment: It is scandalous that SEED is trading at a 57% discount to NAV, and a sad indictment of the mechanics of the London stock market. In addition, one has to praise the company for sticking to remaining listed and paying all those fees, just for this lowly valuation.
East Star Resources Plc (EST), the Kazakhstan-focused gold and copper exploration and development company, provided an update on the Verkhuba project and Joint Venture Agreement (“JVA”) with Hong Kong Xinhai Mining Services Ltd. EST said “We are pleased with the speed at which the project has progressed following execution of the Joint Venture Agreement. The establishment of Verkhuba Limited, transfer of the initial funding and mobilisation of drilling contractors represent important milestones as we move from transaction execution into project delivery. The commencement of drilling will mark the first major technical work programme under the joint venture and is expected to provide valuable data for resource optimisation, mine design and future feasibility studies.”
Comment: Although shares of EST are up 30% this year, and were up nearly 2x last year, one always feels that the company could be better at communicating its merits. That said, the softly, softly approach probably means that unlike many of its peers the share price has a steady upward trajectory.
Thalia Therapeutics plc (THAT), a biotechnology company developing innovative RNA-based therapeutics and delivery technologies in oncology and cardiovascular disease, announced the acquisition, conditional upon shareholder approval, of Sanmirna Therapeutics, Inc., a US Corporation which holds an exclusive licence for the intellectual property and know-how around miRisten an anti-microRNA-126 for the treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, for an initial consideration of £3.675 million with deferred milestone payments worth up to an additional £13 million In conjunction with the Acquisition, the Company has conditionally raised £2.75 million through a placing. THAT said “This is an exciting and transformative opportunity to accelerate our clinical-stage oncology pipeline and diversify our RNA therapeutics pipeline, providing us with an asset that advances our development timeline by several years compared with our pre-clinical progress to date. The Sanmirna acquisition is value accretive for Thalia shareholders, as it transforms Thalia into a clinical-stage company developing a promising novel therapeutic approach to treat AML, a disease with high unmet medical need. miRisten targets microRNA-126, which has been shown to play a critical oncogenic role in AML, a life-threatening cancer where satisfactory treatments have not been developed.”
Comment: We have a satisfyingly chunky update from THAT, which the market has certainly given the thumbs up in terms of the initial share price mark up this morning. It is always difficult to make the transition from minnow to mid cap, and THAT seems to have cracked this particular conundrum.
TMT Investments Plc (TMT), the venture capital company investing in high-growth technology companies, announced the following developments in the Company’s portfolio since the publication of its 2025 Annual Report on 24 March 2026. TMT said “In the first half of 2026, TMT’s shares continued to trade at a 60%+ discount to NAV, representing a highly attractive investment opportunity. The latest increase in the value of TMT’s investment in Backblaze has further increased the upside of this holding. At the 1.16 Euro/USD exchange rate, the US$77 million value of TMT’s position in Bolt and the US$25 million value of TMT’s position in Backblaze was approximately US$20 million greater than TMT’s entire market capitalisation as of 23 June 2026. The Company’s continuing share buyback programme has been capitalising on this opportunity, with approximately 75% of the approved total buyback value having been completed to date.”
Comment: The area of tech investment companies on the London market tends to be something of an elephants’ graveyard as far as sentiment and valuation. But there are exceptions that prove the rule, and TMT is one of them. It is a shame more are not familiar with the company and the strategy.
Light Science Technologies Holdings plc (LST), the innovative technology and manufacturing business, provided an update on trading within its Passive Fire Protection (“PFP”) division following the acquisition of RLUK Injection Ltd (“RLUK”), owner of Injectaclad, the patented fire-resistant barrier system, on 14 April 2026. The Group currently has two passive fire protection installation projects in progress with a combined contract value of c.£390k to c.£775k depending on the extent of remediation required. In parallel, the Company continues to make strong progress following the acquisition of RLUK.
Comment: We already know that one of the merits of LST is that the company has various strings to its bow, and in high growth areas. This is something that we have been reminded of today, and should ensure that the share price continues its tentative rebound from March / April lows.
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.
