A round-up of some of the market’s major risers and falls over the past week in London.
Shipbuilding in the UK might be a sunset industry, but there is one company trying to instigate a revival.
Harland & Wolff surged 180% to 25p this week after landing a major contract win.
Market Summary > @HarlandWolffplc
LON #HARL
21.69 GBX+3.50 (19.55%)⤴️today
17 Nov, 09:11 GMT • Disclaimer
1,200 jobs created as Naval Shipbuilding returns to #Belfast Defense Secretary @BWallaceMP stated that the deal was a “feather-in-the cap” HARL https://t.co/N2DJr6tTFS https://t.co/RDGGu97MmU pic.twitter.com/cLQwCrWIzi— Share_Talk ™ (@Share_Talk) November 17, 2022
Based in Belfast, the shipyard and offshore construction firm are renowned for building the Titanic.
It has now been selected as the preferred bidder for a £1.6bn contract to manufacture three vessels providing munitions, stores and provisions to the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers, destroyers and frigates.
The Belfast shipyard will construct all three 216-metre-long vessels, which upon completion will be the second-longest UK military vessels behind the two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers.
@HarlandWolffplc (AIM #HARL) Fleet Solid Support Preferred Bidder Status Award, Naval Shipbuilding Returns to #Belfast https://t.co/IJv05ZWkYs
— Share_Talk ™ (@Share_Talk) November 17, 2022
Harland & Wolff has secured MoD contracts in the past, but not on a scale of this magnitude.
Placed into administration in 2019 but back afloat again, the shipyard’s iconic yellow cranes are known by the locals as Samson & Goliath, a symbol of Belfast’s once-mighty shipbuilding industry.
This latest contract win “will be a significant boost to the UK shipbuilding industry… creating around 2,000 UK jobs, and showcasing cutting-edge British design,” said defence secretary Ben Wallace.
Production is due to start in 2025 and all three support ships are expected to be operational by 2032.
As part of the proposal, a group called Team Resolute pledged a £75mln investment in infrastructure to support the British shipbuilding sector.
Poolbeg Pharma was another Ireland-based business on the rise, climbing 27% to 10.5p as a consortium it is part of won a €2.3mln government grant from the Irish government to develop an oral vaccine platform.
The consortium plans to develop at least one anti-infective oral vaccine candidate to a Phase-one trial ready state in three years.
Market Summary > @PoolbegPharma
LON #POLB
10.80 GBX+0.90 (9.09%)⤴️today
New 🔝 52-wk high 11.00
18 Nov, 12:49 GMT • Disclaimerpic.twitter.com/Dw5Q98B6ul https://t.co/Bg8XNqDqTq— Share_Talk ™ (@Share_Talk) November 18, 2022
Elsewhere, it was good news for cows as BSF Enterprise announced that wholly owned subsidiary 3D Bio-Tissues had successfully produced three prototypes of lab-grown meat, sending its shares up 42% to 11.3p.
The investment company said in a statement that three small meat fillets, roughly 30mm in height and 15mm in diameter (smaller than a 5p piece), weighing five grams, were produced by the subsidiary.
Overall, it was a decent week for London’s junior markets, with AIM100 up 0.39% to 4,034 though it again lagged Footsie, which rose more than 0.8%.
Among the fallers was Firering Strategic minerals, shedding 17% to 13.2p after the first set of assay results from its drill programme at its Atex lithium-tantalum project in Côte d’Ivoire.
Firering liked the results and most likely there was an element of profit-taking as the shares have doubled over the past month.
A second phase of exploration with Ricca Resources is being prepared, it said, following a recent US$18.6mln investment agreement.
Is Premier African Minerals the best LSE lithium stock to watch in 2023? This was the title of a blog published in the first week of this month, the crazy thing is the numbers are already out of date as the sp keeps going from strength to strength.
@Premafrimin 𝐄𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 Bin feeders are being moved to the loading area at Stark Resources ready to be delivered to Zulu Lithium Pilot Plant #PREM pic.twitter.com/ZpgOpknTNd https://t.co/Bk4lwOiM7D
— Share_Talk ™ (@Share_Talk) November 18, 2022
PREM was up 155.26% over the past year to 0.48p and with a market cap of £110.10 million, today the numbers tell a different story. Today the Mkt cap is sitting at c£128.28m, SP 0.57 and continues to rally going into 2023, one very much for the watchlist as we are following the progress closely.
Baron Oil on Tuesday announces a retail offer to raise £ 5 million before expenses (the ” Placing and Subscription ” ) at a price of 0.12 pence per new Ordinary Share (the “Issue Price”).
Trader's Café #BulletinBoardHeroes takes a closer look at the #BOIL fundamentals @ZaksTradersCafe Fund raised cleared the pitch/technicals, end of day close buy signal 0.15p – you may want to wait on RSI to go above neutral 50, watch the end of day close @BaronOilplc https://t.co/QMr0rCDfL0 pic.twitter.com/QtOOtdlA3c
— Share_Talk ™ (@Share_Talk) November 19, 2022
In total, the Placing and Subscription and the REX Retail Offer have raised gross proceeds of approximately £5.36 million for the Company, via the Placing and Subscription of 4,166,666,667 Placing and Subscription Shares and the 302,856,299 REX Retail Shares to be issued pursuant to the REX Retail Offer.
The volume of trading after the announcement has been nothing short of amazing, the appetite of the private and retail investors has churned the placing shares through the marketplace and has already turned the sp into the positive gain territory.
Eco (Atlantic) was less confident and halved in value to 19.3p as it revealed the Gazania-1 well offshore South Africa had come up dry. More work will be undertaken to analyse the data, the oil company said.
@EcoAtlantic_OG (AIM #ECO) Update on Gazania-1 well, offshore South Africa 🇿🇦 The well reached target depth of 2,360m but did not show evidence of commercial hydrocarbons. It will now be plugged and abandoned. https://t.co/pMyDZfnGPp via @share_talk pic.twitter.com/ZnZOrJx0zP
— Share_Talk ™ (@Share_Talk) November 18, 2022
Finally, another company from the 2021 IPO rush has come to an inglorious end with Parsley Box deciding to delist after only a year and a half on AIM.
Shares, which were floated in March 2021 at 200p for an initial market cap of £83mln, went on to lose over 99% of their value.
The ready meals provider is arranging a shareholder meeting to approve the delisting move after it was unable to attract funding.
Parsley Box’s cancellation comes hot on the heels of the collapse of fellow ‘class of 21’ member Made.com into administration earlier this month, while other alumni such as In The Style, Revolution Beauty and Seraphine have seen their values plummet.
“Another day and another recent IPO goes up in smoke,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
Disclaimer & Declaration of Interest
The information, investment views and recommendations in this article are provided for general information purposes only. Nothing in this article should be construed as a solicitation to buy or sell any financial product relating to any companies under discussion or to engage in or refrain from doing so or engaging in any other transaction. Any opinions or comments are made to the best of the knowledge and belief of the writer but no responsibility is accepted for actions based on such opinions or comments. The writer may or may not hold investments in the companies under discussion.
