logo-loader

CloudCall falls to earth after gloomy trading update

Last updated: 00:37 02 Jun 2020 AEST, First published: 17:34 01 Jun 2020 AEST

De La Rue PLC -

CloudCall Group PLC (LON:CALL) drifted lower in a rising market, shedding 4.6% at 84p after a trading update.

The integrated communications company has continued to see “ongoing challenges” within the broader marketplace with CloudCall's prospective customers reducing non-critical additional spend, which has had a near term impact on the sales pipeline.

The company has seen a 35% year-on-year reduction in existing customer sales bookings for the year to date.

2.30pm: Zoetic buzzing after new distribution deal

Zoetic International PLC (LON:ZOE) was hitting the heights, rising 41% to 7.25p after it signed a multi-state distribution agreement with a new partner, BettermentRS.

The cannabis products firm said the deal, which will see BettermentRS distribute Chill products among its network of outlets, is the latest development from Zoetic’s partnership with US firm Ox Distributing.

Ox is owned by the Schrader family and forms part of the same group as the Schrader Oil convenience store chain, through which Zoetic sells its Chill products.

1.30pm: Star Phoenix slides as it offers debtor more time to pay

Star Phoenix Group Ltd (LON:STA) fell 5.2% to 2.75p after it agreed to give a debtor more time to pay.

The oilfield services provider said it has agreed to provide an extension to June 8 of this year to LandOcean Energy Services to provide the remaining cash consideration of US$459,970 (which includes an interest rate of 8% per annum) relating to the sale of Range Resources Trinidad.

In addition, LandOcean will provide a cash payment of US$810,000 to Star Phoenix by no later than June 8, 2020 in settlement of the outstanding payable due from Range Resources Trinidad to Range Resources Drilling Services for the services provided by the latter from March 31 to June 8.

12.30pm: Iq-ai boosted by grant award

IQ-AI Limited (LON:IQAI) jumped 13% to 3.05p after a consortium it belongs to received a US$2.56mln grant.

The company said the funding, from the National Institutes of Health, will begin on July 1 with the primary purpose of optimising and validating multi-vendor quantitative perfusion tolls for the prediction of brain tumour response to therapy on a patient-specific basis.

The project is a collaboration between Iq-ai subsidiary Imaging Biometrics and the Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI), the Mayo Clinic (AZ), and the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW).

11.30am: Warpaint says wilko is "the ideal partner"

Warpaint London PLC (LON:W7L) scrubbed up well on Monday, rising 14% to 65p, after it was announced the wilko chain will stock its products.

The cosmetics said that from mid-September 2020 it is planned that roughly 100 exclusive Body Collection branded products, designed in partnership with wilko, will be stocked in 355 wilko stores and more than 115 different Technic branded products will be stocked in 189 wilko stores.

"Significant parts of the UK market remain largely unexploited by Warpaint and we continue to seek new channels through which to sell our products. The agreement with wilko comes on the back of the successful start to sales of the Group's W7 products through Tesco and we look forward to reaching agreement with other leading retailers to stock the group's products in due course,” said Sam Bazini, the chief executive officer of Warpaint.

10.30am: Motif Bio jolted back to life by appointment of Peel Hunt as strategic adviser

Motif Bio PLC (LON:MFB), the bombed-out cash shell, showed signs of a pulse, rising 64% to 1.3p after it appointed a strategic adviser.

Peel Hunt has got the gig to provide directors with guidance on strategic initiatives, including selecting an appropriate reverse takeover candidate.

Motif said it is in discussions with several reverse takeover candidates in the healthcare sector. The company has until July 28 to engineer a reverse takeover, otherwise, its listing on AIM will be suspended.

9.30am: De La Rue off to strong start to new fiscal year

De La Rue PLC (LON:DLAR) shot up 37% to 55.69p in early trade on Monday after it said it had made a strong start to the new fiscal year.

The banknotes and passports printer has had a rough couple of years that has seen the shares slump from around 600p but this morning it boasted of a series of significant contract wins for both its Authentication and Currency divisions.

The company noted that the coronavirus pandemic had so far had little effect on the company’s operations although a small number of Government Revenue Solution contracts have had their timescales extended.

Also on the up, Strategic Minerals PLC (LON:SML) has been awarded US$21.9mln in arbitration damages and costs, exclusive of additional interest, sending its shares 37% higher to 0.82p.

The decision of the arbitrator relates to a dispute centred around the company’s Cobre magnetite operation.

The award comprises liquidated damages of US$4.2mln loss of profits of US$14mln, punitive damages of US$3.6mln, and arbitration costs of US$23,660.

Proactive news headlines:

Zoetic International PLC (LON:ZOE) said it has signed a multi-state distribution agreement with a new partner, BettermentRS, to market its Chill brand of cannabidiol (CBD) products. The cannabis products firm said the deal, which will see BettermentRS distribute Chill products among its network of outlets, is the latest development from Zoetic’s partnership with US firm Ox Distributing.

IQ-AI Limited (LON:IQAI) shares climbed on Monday after the company’s subsidiary, Imaging Biometrics (IB), was awarded a US$2.57mln, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – National Cancer Institute (NCI). The company said the funding will begin on July 1 with the primary purpose of optimising and validating multi-vendor quantitative perfusion tolls for the prediction of brain tumour response to therapy on a patient-specific basis.

Strategic Minerals PLC (LON:SML) has been awarded US$21.9mln in damages and costs, exclusive of additional interest. The decision of the arbitrator relates to a dispute centred around the company’s Cobre magnetite operation. The award comprises liquidated damages of US$4.2mln loss of profits of US$14mln, punitive damages of US$3.6mln, and arbitration costs of US$23,660.

Feedback PLC (LON:FDBK) has revealed that Bleepa, its flagship imaging-based medical communications platform has achieved a CE Mark for Europe. Feedback said its directors'  believe Bleepa, which allows clinicians to access medical-grade images through smartphones, tablets and desktops, is the only communication platform to address the UK market that has met Medical Devices Directive certification requirements. In a statement, Tom Oakley, the chief executive officer of Feedback said: "We believe that Bleepa is the future for communicating about patient care and is already changing the way in which clinicians discuss cases and process patients through the hospital system. The CE mark is an important milestone in its commercialisation and sets Feedback apart from other providers."

Thor Mining PLC (LON:THR)(ASX:THR) has entered into an exclusive option to acquire 100% of the shares in American Vanadium Pty Ltd, a private Australian company, with interests in uranium and vanadium focussed projects in Colorado and Utah in the United States of America. The company is also raising A$970,000 to facilitate the deal, including A$130,000 from Metal Tiger PLC (LON:MTR). American Vanadium Pty Ltd has 100% interests in 199 contiguous claims in the Uravan Mineral Belt in south-western Colorado, and 100 claims in south-eastern Utah approximately 40km north of the town of Moab.

Bahamas Petroleum Company PLC (LON:BPC) has posted full-year results highlighting the explorer’s relatively strong financial performance, as it awaits a hotly anticipated drill programme that was delayed amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Financial results for the twelve months ended December 31, 2019, confirmed BPC finished 2019 with US$11.2mln of cash. Subsequently, the company has further supported its funding position with an £8mln financing facility with a Bahamian private family office investor and the establishment of a separate Bahamian domiciled mutual fund to specifically investing BPC shares.

Tissue Regenix Group PLC (LON:TRX) said its OrthoPure XT product has been awarded a CE mark following a single-arm, non-comparative, prospective study undertaken over three years. The regenerative medical devices specialist said the CE mark has been awarded for revision of the anterior cruciate ligament following re-rupture and also permits use for the reconstruction of other knee ligaments, including multi-ligament procedures following trauma.

Braveheart Investment Group PLC (LON:BRH) said its subsidiary, Paraytec, and Sheffield University are to press ahead with the development of a proposed rapid coronavirus (COVID-19) test. The fund management and strategic investment group first alerted the market to the potential collaboration on 6 May when the Aptamer Group was also in the mix as a project participant; the project will continue without Aptamer’s involvement, Braveheart said.

AFC Energy PLC (LON:AFC) has announced it is to test its alkaline H-Power fuel cell technology at one of construction group ACCIONA's sites in Spain. ACCIONA is one of Spain's renewable energy leaders as well as being a construction group and is looking at ways to decarbonise construction across Europe, said AFC. Diesel generation from construction sites is a significant contributor to poor air quality, said AFC, and is likely to be increasingly regulated and enforced by governments. The trial will take place in early 2021 with both hydrogen and ammonia used for comparative fuel evaluation.

Faron Pharmaceuticals Oy (LON:FARN, First North:FARON) has said it will share previously published clinical data on its lead cancer drug at a leading industry conference. Safety and efficacy results from the MATINS trial are to be shared at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting, which is being held as a virtual event this year. The ASCO presentation will show Faron’s precision cancer immunotherapy Clevegen was well-tolerated without ‘dose-limiting toxicities’. A total of 30 people with advanced solid tumours who had exhausted all standard options took part in the first part of the phase I/II MATINS trial. The company said recruitment for part II was underway with patients undeterred by the coronavirus outbreak. Being assessed at three different dose levels are groups with nine different cancers and three separate colorectal cohorts.

OptiBiotix Health PLC’s (LON:OPTI) ProBiotix Health business has inked a distribution deal in the UK that will help expand the market for two of its key products. The non-exclusive agreement with Cambridge Commodities (CCL) covers the specialty ingredient LPLDL and the finished dietary supplement CholBiomex3 CCL is a supplier of nutritional ingredients to major UK retailers and supplement companies. OptiBiotix said the tie-up extends the commercial reach of LPLDL into new application areas where CCL has “specific sector expertise”, such as food and beverage, sports nutrition, health & wellbeing and beauty.

PowerHouse Energy Group PLC (LON:PHE), the waste-to-energy technology company, said it knows of no reason for the recent share price surge. The company said due diligence and legal work on the proposed acquisition of Waste2Tricity (W2T) are nearing completion. The Protos project, the first targeted commercial application of the company’s waste plastic to hydrogen regeneration technology is proceeding under the direction of Peel L&P.

W Resources PLC (LON:WRES) generated €365,000 in operating revenue in the year to December 31, 2019, up from €219,000 the previous year. The company delivered a loss for the year of just under €3mln, as it began to build up a head of steam at its tungsten operations in Spain and Portugal. There was €2.46mln in the bank at the year-end.

Mkango Resources Ltd (LON:MKA)(CVE:MKA) has donated a new state of the art Mindray WATO EX-20 anaesthetic machine to the Mercy James Centre at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi. The new anaesthetic machine will help enable the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital to set up a new operating theatre for emergency operations, specifically for patients who are suspected of having the coronavirus.

Amur Minerals Corporation (LON:AMC) has revealed that individual copper and nickel sulphide concentrates can be generated from ore at its Kun-Manie project in Russia. From the projected six million processed ore tonnes per annum, 39,300 tonnes of copper concentrate is likely to be created, with an average copper grade of 23.4%. The test-work post-dates the February 2019 pre-feasibility study, wherein the base case all-metal concentrate derived revenues from payable nickel only. 

Galileo Resources PLC (LON:GLR) has raised £900,000 in a share placing, selling 112.5mln shares priced at 0.8p each. The proceeds will provide working capital, supporting the company as it advances towards a programme of exploration at the newly acquired copper-nickel-platinum group metal licences in the Kalahari Copper Belt, Botswana, along with the Star Zinc and Kashitu projects in Zambia.

Australian Strategic Materials signs US$600 million LoI

Rowena Smith, CEO and managing director of Australian Strategic Materials Ltd (ASX:ASM, OTC:ASMMF), joins Jonathan Jackson in the Proactive studio to discuss the company’ s Dubbo Project, in Central West New South Wales. This project aims to extract and process critical minerals and rare earth...

6 hours, 53 minutes ago