(Alliance News) – Rachel Reeves acknowledged people are “angry at unfairness” in the British economy ahead of unveiling her second budget on Wednesday.
In a filmed address ahead of the budget, the UK chancellor said the government had started to see results in the past year with “wages rising faster than inflation, hospital waiting lists coming down, and our economy growing faster and stronger than people expected”. “But I know there is more to do,” she said. “I know that the cost of living is still bearing down on family finances, I know that people feel frustrated at the pace of change, or angry at the unfairness in our economy.
Comment: Reeves today will be doing what Labour governments always do, buying votes by handing out welfare paid for by confiscating money from the rich, the successful, and the hard working. In other words, creating more unfairness. The government hopes it will be able to buy off and buy back at least some of the electorate by 2029 via handouts. People are not frustrated by the pace of change, they do not want Labour’s changes. The double speak is at painful levels.
WeCap PLC: A Retail Look at a Company Suddenly in Focus
Amazing AI plc (AQSE: AAI) AAI is a global fintech group with a Digital Asset Treasury Policy that provides online consumer loans and AI finance-related services. AAI announced it has appointed leading UK law firm Rosenblatt Law Limited as its new Company Legal Advisers. Rosenblatt Law Limited specialise in litigation and corporate law and have been engaged to pursue legal proceedings against Thomas John Zacchaeus Winnifrith and Share Prophets Ltd for defamation and legal damages. Paul Mathieson has also engaged Rosenblatt Law Limited in his personal capacity to advise on and coordinate a separate legal action that is seeking damages against the Parties and associates.
Comment: The irony is that so far AAI has fallen victim to exactly what it was complaining about in the first place. The message to it and other small cap companies is that you have to play the City establishment’s game, and know your place. It is a bit like being at school in the playground when faced with bullies, who are rather better than meting it out than taking it. Time for Round 2 it would appear.
East Star Resources Plc (EST), the Kazakhstan-focused gold and base metals explorer, announced an Independent JORC-Compliant Exploration Target for the Soviet-era Rulikha Deposit. The Rulikha Deposit is located primarily on East Star’s 100%-owned tenements in the East Region of Kazakhstan. The estimate contains an upper limit of 23Mt @ 2.4% copper equivalent (CuEq), constrained by an open pit using the processing recoveries and metal prices contained in Table 2 below. Using the upper limit assessment, the deposit has the potential to contain over 550,000 tonnes of copper; nearly double the CuEq metal of the Company’s Verkhuba Copper Deposit.
Comment: Doubling Verkuba is stunning, and obviously worth rather more than the initial 7% mark up for EST’s shares this morning. Oh to be an explorer on the London stock market.
Pets At Home (PET) maintained its interim dividend but reports lower earnings for the first half of the financial year amid ongoing softness in the UK pet retail market. The Cheshire, England-based pet product retailer said pretax profit falls 29% to GBP36.2 million in the 28 weeks to October 9, down from GBP51.1 million a year ago. Revenue declined 1.3% to GBP778.3 million from GBP789.0 million. Underlying pretax profit down 34% to GBP36.2 million from GBP54.5 million. PET confirmed its full year guidance for underlying pretax profit of between GBP90 million and GBP100 million. The company noted that its guidance for underlying pretax profit had been reduced in September.
Comment: It would appear that the cost of living crisis is such that even people’s pooches are not getting the film star treatment that they may have grown accustomed to in recent years. Perhaps a downgrade to a goldfish is in order?
Atlantic Lithium Limited (ALL), the Africa-focused lithium exploration and development company targeting the delivery of Ghana’s first lithium mine, provided an update on its funding agreements with Long State Investments Ltd. The Company has notified Long State to undertake a second placement under the Share Placement Agreement to raise an additional £2m (AUD 4.06m) through the placement of 19,417,475 shares. ALL said “Following a positive trading period, which has seen a notable increase in the Company’s share price, we are pleased to have concluded the Initial Placement undertaken under the Share Placement Agreement with Long State at a premium, raising £2m. On the back of this success, we are proceeding with the Second Placement to raise an additional £2m, intended to further enhance the Company’s financial position in a manner that minimises shareholder dilution.”
Comment: Shares of ALL have been on a tear of late, with the market clearly warming to the type of ongoing funding news that has been reported today. One would expect further positive developments in this respect going into 2026.
Cake Box Holdings (CBOX), the UK’s largest retailer of fresh cream celebration cakes, today announced its unaudited half-year results for the twenty-six weeks ended 28 September 2025. Group revenue increased in H1 FY26 by 53.5% to £28.8m (H1 FY25: £18.7m). Significant organic growth* as Cake Box revenues increased by 18.9% to £22.3m (H1 FY25: £18.7m). Contribution from Ambala to Group performance was in line with the Board’s expectations with revenues of £6.5m (H1 FY25: Nil) and underlying EBITDA of £0.4m (H1 FY25: Nil). Trading remains on track to deliver another year of growth in line with market expectations despite the challenging consumer environment.
Comment: The Ambala deal was the perfect way for CBOX to ride out, and indeed flourish in the current consumer environment. The company can quite justifiably enjoy the sweet smell of success, in terms of ongoing growth.
Oracle Power PLC (ORCP), an international project developer, announced assay results from the first six drillholes of the recently completed vertical Grade Control drilling programme at the Northern Zone Intrusive Hosted Gold Project, located 25km east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Assay results from a further 15 drillholes are still to be assayed, with results expected in the near term. In addition, drilling is progressing on a new ~40-hole drilling programme, with 12 holes completed to date.
Comment: ORCP has been living off its Northern Zone asset very well of late, and it would appear that this state of affairs is set to continue, helped along of course by gold at $4,000 plus, and the expansion of exploration.
Arrow Exploration Corp. (AXL), the high-growth operator with a portfolio of assets across key Colombian hydrocarbon basins, provided an update on the operational activity at the Mateguafa Attic field on the Tapir Block in the Llanos Basin of Colombia where Arrow holds a 50 percent beneficial interest. AXL “The M-6 well reinforces that the Mateguafa Attic discovery is material to Arrow and we are looking forward to the results of the horizontal well M-HZ7 which will further develop this discovery and help determine the extent of the pools and the potential reserves additions. Initial results indicate that the discovery will develop into another core area for Arrow with the potential for horizontal drilling development.”
Comment: It would appear that the more AXL drills and discovers, the more the share price goes down. Presumably one day soon the company will do something different to escape from this apparent doom loop.
Ascent Resources Plc (AST), the onshore US focused oil and gas company, is pleased to announce that it has, together with its partner American Helium, LLC, entered into an option agreement with Neometals Ltd (ASX: NMT) and its partner Omaha Value, LLC. The agreement grants NMT/OMA a 60-day exclusive option (extendable by mutual consent) to negotiate a definitive access and use licence over Ascent and AH’s portfolio of existing oil and gas wells and leases in the Paradox Basin, Utah, for the purpose of exploring and potentially extracting lithium and potash from critical mineral-rich brines.
Comment: After a relatively quiet period AST is back with a strong RNS, something which should remind investors here of the potential of the company, with any near term Slovenian upside thrown in for free in terms of the arbitration there.
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.
