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Proactive news headlines: Genedrive, i3 Energy, Tekcapital, Vectura Group …

Last updated: 00:33 02 May 2020 AEST, First published: 00:30 02 May 2020 AEST

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Genedrive PLC (LON:GDR) has said that its coronavirus testing kit has completed the last significant manufacturing milestone and remains on track. The diagnostics firm said the test has completed its pilot manufacturing runs and yielded high performing multiplexed assays for coronavirus testing. The company is now aiming for the test to receive CE marking in around three weeks.

i3 Energy PLC (LON:I3E) told investors that it was not able to enter into a reserves based lending facility of alternative funding facility by April 30, the extended deadline set by noteholders back in November. Nonetheless, it said that it remains in talks with all noteholders to waive this condition. The group added that it will update the market once these discussions have concluded.

Tekcapital PLC (LON:TEK) said it has raised £925,000 via a share placing to provide additional funding for its portfolio firms and additional working capital. The IP investment group said it raised the funds through the issue of around 9.2mln new shares at a price of 10p each, a 13% discount to its closing price on Thursday. The shares in the placing will represent around 10.54% of the enlarged share capital.

Vectura Group PLC (LON:VEC) has drawn attention to a recommendation relating to the use of one of the company’s asthma treatment formulations in Europe. In a statement, the company noted that the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has adopted a positive opinion recommending the approval of Novartis's Enerzair Breezhaler (QVM149). Enerzair Breezhaler, which uses a formulation devised and licensed by Vectura, is a maintenance treatment for uncontrolled asthma in adult patients.

Catenae Innovation PLC (LON:CTEA) has confirmed it has built an operational prototype of a breakthrough phone app that can store and share coronavirus (COVID-19) test information It is expected that Cov-ID, a GDPR-compliant identity documentation exchange system, will enter the testing and finalisation phase of its development by May 18. Catenae is working with a consortium of companies led by the Z/Yen Group to develop a product that will be marketed to businesses and “other organisations”.

Inspiration Healthcare Group PLC (LON:IHC) has revealed that the first consignment of ventilators it will distribute to the National Health Service (NHS) has arrived in the UK. The medical technology company said the consignment will shortly be shipped to a holding and distribution facility managed by the Ministry of Defence. In the last few days, Inspiration Healthcare has also extended its 24-hour helpline facility for clinical staff at all UK hospitals.

MaxCyte PLC (LON:MXCT) chief executive Doug Doerfler has described the company’s £25.1mln fundraiser, which also marks the start of preparations for a NASDAQ listing in the US, as the start of a “new and exciting growth chapter” for the company. The issue of new stock priced at 131p will be split into two tranches - a £7.3mln placing and subscriptions to bring in a further £17.8mln. The cash will be put to work on a number of fronts, including helping MaxCyte prepare financially and commercially for customers scaling up their requirements. It will also be used to “accelerate growth and explore opportunities for new product development”, investors were told.

Quadrise Fuels International PLC (LON:QFI), the developer of cleaner marine fuel, said a new round of cost savings has given it financial headroom until the middle of next year. "We are pleased that we have been able to deliver a material extension to our cash runway, which will now take us to mid-Q2 2021,” Quadrise chairman Mike Kirk said in a statement. “This provides us the opportunity to progress our business development opportunities in earnest for over one-year - an increase of around 5 months to that forecasted at the beginning of 2020.”  

Braveheart Investment Group PLC (LON:BRH) revealed it has raised a further £350,000, before expenses, in the second over-subscribed placing undertaken by the company this week. In a statement, the group said that, following significant demand from investors in the last two days, its broker, Peterhouse Capital placed a further 1,590,909 new ordinary shares at a price of 22p each. On Wednesday, Braveheart said it had raised £275,000 via a placing of around 1.6mln new shares at a price of 17p each.

Frontier IP Group PLC (LON:FIPP) revealed that its portfolio firm Molendotech has raised £425,000 in an equity funding round to accelerate the development of its bacteria testing technology. The investment firm said, following the fundraising, Molendotech is now worth £3.9mln, valuing Frontier’s own 12.6% stake in the firm at around £493,000. Before the funding round, Frontier held a 14.1% stake valued at £324,000.

KR1 PLC (LON:KR1) revealed that it has invested US$75,000 into Union Finance, a credit mutual built on Ethereum. The blockchain and cryptocurrency investor said Union Finance will allow people and organisations to take out loans on the blockchain without the need for collateral, a credit score, or revealing personal information on a public ledger. KR1 added that it will receive a yet-to-be-determined amount of discounted tokens from its participation in the seed round.

Rainbow Rare Earths Limited (LON:RBW) said activity at its Gakara mine has continued largely unhampered by restrictions imposed to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Although foreign travel has been largely suspended into and out of Burundi, goods are now able to pass across road borders, and the latest export of 100 tonnes of concentrate reached the port of Dar-es-Salaam unhindered, Rainbow told investors. Work continues towards the completion of the company's maiden JORC-compliant resource estimate, which is expected to be completed in the coming weeks, it added.

Afarak Group PLC (LON:AFRK) said its first-quarter production was down year-on-year, largely as a result of reduced mining activity at the Mecklenburg and Stellite mines. In an update released late on Thursday, the chrome producer said it mined 76,405 tonnes in the first three months of 2020, compared to 133,217 tonnes in the same period of 2019.

Block Energy PLC (LON:BLOE) told investors that the company is prepared for an extended period of low prices, and its fundamentals remain strong, as it reported results for the 18 months to December 31, 2019, after the market close on Thursday. “We are accelerating the exploitation of gas resources in West Rustavi and are planning the increase of oil production and exploitation of gas resources in the blocks being acquired from Schlumberger,” Block Energy chairman Philip Dimmock said in the results statement. “We are confident the market will recognise our inherent value and re-rating potential.” Block Energy ended December with US$6.49mln of cash, and it reported a US$6.03mln loss for the year.

Bahamas Petroleum Company PLC (LON:BPC) said it has received confirmation that its fund has been approved for listing on the Bahamas International Stock Exchange (BISX). It has been set up to enable Bahamas investors to participate in the company’s exploration programme, with shares in the company issued to the fund via subscription. The Central Bank of the Bahamas (CBB) has also now approved the process by which Bahamas Petroleum will receive subscription funds, expected to take place shortly after the CBB has finished vetting the investors.

Midatech Pharma PLC (LON:MTPH) has said it knows of “no operational or corporate reason” for a recent movement in its share price. In a brief statement, the company said it is continuing its formal sale process and confirmed that there were “no material updates” following its announcements on April 20 and on March 31. The firm also said it expects to announce its full-year results by the end of June.

Ariana Resources PLC (LON:AAU) has announced the repayment of a US$33mln capital loan by the company’s 50% owned joint venture company, which in turn owns the Kiziltepe Mine. The loan was repaid according to the scheduled payment dates, which ran up to the end of April 2020. Ariana managing director Kerim Sener described it as a fantastic result for the company. “This serves to demonstrate the strong operating credentials of the JV and the profitability of the Kiziltepe Mine,” he said in a statement. Sener added. “Meanwhile our new exploration drilling programme which commenced late last week at Kiziltepe is proceeding as planned.”

Ferro-Alloy Resources Limited (LON:FAR) said it expects to resume production of acid-recovered vanadium concentrates this month as coronavirus restrictions in Kazakhstan are eased. The company owns the Balasausqandiq project in Kazakhstan, where it is producing vanadium concentrates and working on a feasibility study to assess the potential of the whole site. Output of vanadium pentoxide in concentrate rose to 49.1 tonnes in the first three months of 2021, with 61 tonnes shipped, it added.

Rose Petroleum PLC (LON:ROSE) told investors it has agreed to defer completion of the acquisition of an interest in the McCoy lease in Colorado. The company now has until December 31, 2020, to asses market conditions before making an investment decision. The group said the extension was agreed without any additional financial costs. Rose also announced that it has implemented a further cost-cutting programme in order to maintain financial flexibility during the coronavirus pandemic which includes significant reductions in the cash compensation for directors and the executive management team.

Kromek Group PLC (LON:KMK) has updated on the status of its business and its response to the coronavirus pandemic. In a trading update on Friday, the detection technology specialist said despite the outbreak it will continue to deliver on its multi-year contracts, which it said will give it “good visibility over future revenues”, adding that it also has a healthy pipeline of projects.

Scancell PLC (LON:SCLP), the developer of novel immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, announced that in recognition of the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis and to help fund the initial research work to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 the members of its senior management team have agreed to a temporary 25% reduction in salaries with effect from May 1, 2020. The group said none of Scancell's other employees will be affected. The company also announced that on April 30 it granted 1,000,000 share options to acquire ordinary shares in the company to each of the members of its senior management team - Dr John Chiplin, Dr Cliff Holloway, Professor Lindy Durrant, Dr Sally Adams, Dr Richard Goodfellow and Mr Keith Green – with an exercise price of 8.15p each which will vest twelve months from the date of the grant.

Genel Energy PLC (LON:GENL) told investors that it continues to seek a viable commercial way forward for the Bina Bawi project’s oil and gas resources. In a statement, the company said it received documentation, including a new draft production sharing contract (PSC), from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in mid-April following a commercial understanding reached in September. It added that the documentation requires further negotiation, and, whilst these talks are ongoing, the KRG has said it will not serve notice to terminate the existing PSC.

Shield Therapeutics PLC (LON:STX) said it has seen little disruption from the coronavirus pandemic on plans to commercialise its iron deficiency drug Feraccru. Talks to find a partner for the product in the US, where it is known as Accrufer, are ongoing, it added, with significant interest from a range of companies. Sales of Feraccru in Germany and the UK rose during the first quarter of 2020, according to the firm's European partner Norgine, though Shield noted this was before the full impact of the pandemic became clear. Shield added, however, that it has had to repay a €2.5mln milestone to Norgine following the results of the AEGIS-H2H clinical study, which showed Ferracru had not met its primary endpoint of non-inferiority at 12 weeks in both the "intention to treat" (ITT) and "per protocol" (PP) populations.

Horizon Discovery Group PLC (LON:HZD), a cell engineering company focused on commercialising the application of gene editing and gene modulation to accelerate scientific innovation and biopharmaceutical drug development, has announced the appointment of Dr Siddhartha Kadia as a non-executive director, with effect from April 30. The group also announces that Dr Susan Galbraith stood down from her position as a non-executive director with effect from the same date. It noted that Dr Kadia has a deep background in executive management and public company governance across a range of global businesses, predominantly in the Life Sciences Tools, Diagnostics and Medical Technologies, High Tech and  TIC (Testing, Inspection and Certification) industries. He was formerly president and CEO of EAG Laboratories until its acquisition by Eurofins Scientific in 2017 and continued to serve as the CEO of EAG laboratories until December 2018. Dr Ian Gilham, Horizon’s non-executive chairman commented: "We are delighted to welcome Siddhartha to the Board. He brings a wealth of US public company experience and international expertise in the life sciences tools arena across global markets with a particular emphasis on North America, Asia and Europe.” He added: ”At the same time, on behalf of my colleagues, I would like to thank Susan for her outstanding contributions and commitment to the Group since her appointment in 2014. We wish her every success in the future."

Echo Energy (LON:ECHO) has announced that, further to its proposals for the restructuring of the Latin American focused upstream oil and gas company’s Luxembourg listed 20.0mln euro 8.0% secured notes, the meeting of noteholders convened for Friday was adjourned for want of the necessary quorum. The group confirmed, however, that voting instructions representing 2.8mln euro of the notes were lodged by noteholders to date which were unanimously in favour of the proposals. It said the adjourned noteholder meeting, to consider the proposals in unchanged form, will now be held at 10.00am on May 22. The company said that meeting will require a quorum of 25% of the aggregate principal amount of the outstanding notes, being considerably lower than the 75% of the aggregate principal amount of the outstanding notes that had been required for the adjourned meeting.

Clinigen Group PLC (LON:CLIN), the global pharmaceutical and services company, said it has appointed JPMorgan Cazenove as its nominated adviser and joint broker with immediate effect. It added that RBC Capital Markets will continue to act as the company's joint broker.

Eurasia Mining PLC (LON:EUA) said that further to its announcement of April 9, 2020, the company confirms that WH Ireland has now ceased to act as its nomad and joint broker with immediate effect. The group added that it is in advanced discussions with a new nomad, which has substantially completed its due diligence procedures and it will provide a further update shortly. The company noted that, under AIM rules, if a new nomad is not appointed by 7am on May 29, 2020, trading in the company’s shares on AIM will be cancelled.

Kavango Resources PLC (LON:KAV), the exploration company targeting the discovery of world-class mineral deposits in Botswana, announced that it has published a new corporate presentation on the company's website. The firm said it has updated the presentation following the recent successful financing and subsequent release of Dr David Holwell's independent review of its Kalahari Suture Zone Project. The presentation can be viewed here - https://www.kavangoresources.com/investor -relations/presentations - and Dr Holwell's full report can be viewed here -https://www.kavangoresources.com/media/attachments/2020/04/29/mineral-systems-review-of-the-ksz-botswana.pdf.

Sareum Holdings PLC (LON:SAR), the specialist small molecule drug development business, announced that the company's virtual presentation, including the video content, given by its CEO, Dr Tim Mitchell delivered on April 28 at BioTrinity 2020 can now be viewed via the company's website and at bit.ly/3aMVo8Z.

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