What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?
Ultimate Products - The Telegraph reports Jim McCarthy, former chief of Poundland has been appointed Chairman of Ultimate Products ahead of a £100m listing in H1 2017. Ultimate Products owns the Beldray cleaning brand and the licence to sell Russell Hobbs and Salter electrical products in the UK.
ECSC - Schedule 1 from provider of cyber security services. Raising £5m. Vendor sale £0.9m. Target date 14 Dec. Expected market cap £15m, with issue price of 167p.
RM Secured Direct Lending - The secured direct lending fund intends to float on the Main Market on 15 December raising up to £100m
Breakfast buffet
Fitbug Holdings* (LON:FITB) 0.21p £2.52m
The provider of digital wellness for corporate organisations, announced a strategic partnership with Olympic gold medallist Sally Gunnell, OBE, to help promote and expand its digital wellness offering to businesses in the UK. The partnership combines Sally's workplace wellbeing programme and Fitbug's scalable digital platform to offer a rich corporate health and wellness proposition and to generate new growth opportunities. Sally Gunnell commented “Working with Fitbug allows us to reach a much larger audience, and provide a more powerful programme. That way we can have a bigger impact, and create a lasting health legacy within many organisations.
Mporium Group (LON:MPM) 13.75p £70.7m
The "mobile native" technology firm, announced an agreement to provide its IMPACT technology product to Jellyfish, a market-leading independent digital agency. This new partnership follows the successful trial of IMPACT on the digital marketing campaign for one of Jellyfish's largest blue-chip clients. As the world's biggest boutique digital agency, Mporium's partnership with Jellyfish represents a significant step in the commercialisation of IMPACT, in addition to securing the opportunity to work with Jellyfish's global client base which includes Experian, Under Armour, Nestlé, Toyota, Fitbit and Samsung.
Tertiary Minerals (LON:TYM) 1.1p £2.94m
FYSep16 results from company building a strategic position in the fluorspar sector. Operational highlights include: Storuman Exploitation (Mine) Permit approved by the Swedish Mining Inspectorate. Phase 4 drilling programme completed on the MB Project in Nevada. Significant lateral and depth extensions to fluorspar mineralisation proven in the Western Area on the MB Project. Modelling, economic evaluation and metallurgical test work progressing for the MB Project. Sale of the two non-core gold assets potentially providing the Company with future cash-flow through its retained royalty interest. £474k loss. Net current assets of £461k.
European Metals Holdings (LON:EMH) 37p £47.9m
EMH has announced the successful manufacture of >99.5% pure lithium carbonate using an industry proven, sodium sulphate roast-based flow-sheet from mica-concentrate from the Cinovec Project. Cinovec, which contains the largest lithium resource in Europe and one of the largest undeveloped tin resources in the world, is the Company's 100% owned lithium and tin project located in the Czech Republic. The roasting flow-sheet reflects a simplified version of the well-proven technology that converts spodumene concentrate to lithium carbonate. Numerous lithium carbonate plants currently employ this technology internationally.
Utilitywise (LON:UTW) 195p £152.62m
The independent utility cost management consultancy, has partnered with Business Stream, the UK's third largest non-domestic water supplier. Utilitywise will offer gas and electricity procurement services and technology to Business Stream's customer base through a joint marketing programme, initially in Scotland and additionally in England when Business Stream's acquisition of Southern Water's non-domestic business takes effect in April 2017. Business Stream and Southern Water currently serve approximately 90,000 and 100,000 customers respectively.
Velocys (LON:VLS) 36.25p £52.16m
Strategy update from the specialist in smaller scale gas-to-liquids. Construction of Velocys' commercial reference plant in Oklahoma City is complete. Commissioning is ongoing. The new strategy will build on this and Velocys' leadership position,. Pillars of the strategy include partnerships, a capital light model, a ‘one-stop-shop’ offer and leveraging its differentiated technology, engineering and operational capabilities, working seamlessly with its partners to modularise and drive down costs of the complete offer.
Microsaic Systems (LON:MSYS) 4p £7.25m
The developer of chip-based mass spectrometry instruments, designed to improve the efficiency of pharmaceutical R&D has released a trading update. It is expected that EBITDA and pre-tax profit for 2016 will be broadly in line with market expectations. MSYS has reshaped its business strategy to focus on the Pharma market where clear opportunities exist for its products. Despite progress on many fronts, the business has encountered challenging trading conditions in a particular market sector, especially in H2. This will impact growth in 2017.
4d Pharma (LON:DDDD)697.5 p £452.4m
The pharmaceutical company focusing on the development of live biotherapeutics, updated on the phase 1 clinical trial of Blautix, for the treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. IBS patients receiving Blautix showed an increase in microbiome diversity and microbiome stability that was comparable to healthy controls. IBS patients receiving placebo showed a reduction in microbiome diversity and exhibited microbiome instability. This result may be indicative of a relevant therapeutic effect of Blautix & will be investigated further in phase 2 clinical studies scheduled for 2017.
Seeing Machines (LON:SEE) 4.5p £48.4m
The technology company with a focus on operator monitoring and intervention sensing technologies and services, has conditionally raised £15 million, before expenses, through a placing and subscription at 4p. Up to a further £2m maybe raised in an overseas and Australian Offer. The Fundraising will provide growth capital to continue the ongoing commercialisation of the Company's technology, including the FOVIO automotive business.
Bushveld Minerals (LON:BMN) 1.58p £10.76m
The diversified mineral development company with projects in South Africa & Madagascar, has agreed terms to acquire a significant interest in the Uis Tin project through its wholly owned subsidiary, Greenhills Resources. Under the Agreement Greenhills Resources will acquire 49% interest in Dawnmin Africa Investments Ltd which is the 85% owner of the Uis Tin Project, subject to due diligence, from a consortium of Namibian shareholders. 41m shares consideration. One of the largest undeveloped opencast hard rock tin deposits in the world and has a history of significant tin mining.