hVIVO (HVO) (formerly Open Orphan plc), a specialist contract research organisation, announced a trading update for the period ended 31 December 2022.
The company said it expects to report record full year revenues of £50.6 million (2021: £39 million), a 30% increase year-on-year. The significant growth in revenue provides further validation of the long-term sustainable growth in the human challenge trial market, for which hVIVO is the world leader.
Comment: With seemingly endless 7 figure contract wins over the past year, it is not surprising that HVO has served up a meaty revenue growth forecast. The only question now is how soon it will take for the share price to positively re-connect with the fundamentals?
AQRU (AQRU), an incubator specialising in opportunities in DeFi, announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Accru Finance Ltd. has launched a liquidity pool allowing investors to generate yield from tax credit receivables originating from IRS programmes. The company said that through Accru Finance’s new service offering, digital asset holders will be able to invest their USDC, a stablecoin designed to track the value of the US Dollar, into a lending pool available on Maple Finance, an institutional lending platform in the DeFi sector.
Comment: The market is yet to fully appreciate the value of AQRU’s DeFi niche, something which has been clouded (unfairly) by recent events in the cryptocurrency space. However, updates like today’s which illustrate the practical side of DeFi, and the financial potential, can be expected to turn the tide of sentiment.
Audioboom (BOOM), the podcast company, announced that, on 24 January, Michael Tobin OBE, non-executive Chairman of the Company, purchased 2,500 shares at 400p. Following this purchase, Michael Tobin holds 719,739 ordinary shares in the Company, representing approximately 4.4 per cent. of the Company’s issued share capital.
Comment: One of the most famous sayings in the stock market is not to catch a falling knife. It will be interesting to see whether management leading from the front in terms of share purchases will either be enough to turn the tide of a share price decline from over 2,000p versus 400p now, or we reach a valuation inflection point?
Greatland Gold (GGP) provided an exploration and development update for Havieron, its flagship gold-copper project located in the Paterson region of Western Australia. The company said tremendous progress has been achieved in advancing the decline in recent months. The improved ground conditions has enabled record rates of advancement. Results from the growth drilling programme towards the end of 2022 continued to identify higher grade extensions to the mineralisation in the Northern Breccia and Eastern Breccia. The success of the drilling programme supports the expectation for Havieron to deliver an expanded mineral resource estimate.
Comment: “Tremendous progress” may have been made. However, the acid test for many observers of the company is when the share price will turn back up? What the market continues to ignore is the presence of Dr Andrew Forrest’s 8.6% stake in the company. The Australian billionaire gives the company validation on his own, whatever the operational progress may be.
eEnergy (EAAS), the net zero energy services provider, is pleased to provide an update on trading for the six months ended 31 December 2022. The Board said it was pleased with progress made on trading during H1. Strong H1 revenue growth, up 58% to £15.1 million (H1 2022: £9.6 million). Improving operating margin with Adjusted EBITDA up 87% to £1.5 million (H1 2022: £0.8 million).
Comment: eEnergy is one of those companies that remind us that there is no substitute for investing companies in the right space at the right time. The added luck factor of the energy crisis means that the fundamental boost to eEnergy over the past year looks likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
IOG (IOG), the Net Zero UK gas and infrastructure operator focused on high-return projects, provided a corporate update in advance of the company’s full-year 2022 results, which are scheduled for release in March 2023. The company said at the Southwark A2 well it has now taken the production logging data and is preparing to isolate three of the six stimulated zones. Two of the three exposed gas zones will then be re-perforated with a view to improving productivity and the well will then be re-tested. The learnings from A2 are being assimilated into the A1 stimulation programme.
Comment: Recent days have seen some brave souls (hopefully correct), attempting to catch the falling knife of the share price. Presumably those who have will be sitting on the edge of their seats until FY results in March.
East Star Resources (EST), the Kazakhstan-focused mineral explorer, announce that, as a result of a detailed literature review following its successful 2022 HEM survey, it has identified a substantial copper-lead-zinc-deposit located within its 100% owned ‘RA3’ licence, centrally located in the world-class Rudny Altai VMS belt. The company said the newly identified polymetallic volcanic and sediment hosted exhalative sulphide deposit is within the greater Verkhuba Ore District which includes the (previously announced) four Priority 1 HEM anomalies, and has the potential to become a deposit of regional significance.
Comment: The market has continued to regard East Star as just another mining minnow, without taking into account the scale of the opportunity in Kazakhstan (said to be like Australia in the 1970s), and the potential that East Star is sitting on. Today’s announcement should start to turn heads.
Technology Minerals (TM1), announced the addition of seven new prospecting licences to its ground holding on its Leinster Lithium Property, Republic of Ireland. This addition brings the Company’s licence position to 23 licences covering a total of 760km2 of highly prospective geology with verified occurrences of spodumene-bearing lithium pegmatites.
Comment: TM1 is blessed with a solid retail investor base, but needs to turn this enthusiasm into a decent share price trend. The drip-drip of positive news as we have been treated today, is of the type that could revive the stock price in 2023.
Tern (TERN), the company focused on value creation from IoT technology businesses, updated on the recent activities of its portfolio companies. The company said the goal of Tern is to help build companies, providing them with the capital and hands-on support they need, including introducing third party investors, so that they have the means to flourish and grow to the point where Tern can exit and deliver quantifiable returns to its shareholders.
Comment: Perennial bear target Tern may have defied the worst expectations of the bears, but it has perhaps not been a party for the bulls either. The line in the CEO comment about providing companies with capital is perhaps the bit that the longs are not so keen on, and the timeframes involved.
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