ECR Minerals (LON: ECR) has appointed Argonaut PCF to help it to take advantage of its $75m of tax losses through the sale of assets in Victoria, Australia. The tax losses could be worth at least A$18m to a buyer, but ECR would be unlikely to be offered more than 50% of that value. The share price improved 12% to 0.28p.
Video games company Devolver Digital (LON: DEVO) has raised £7.9m via a placing at 33p. This will strengthen the balance sheet. Existing shareholders were keen to invest more cash. In November 2021 when the company joined AIM, there was £190.9m raised at 157p/share, although most went to existing shareholders. That is more than the current market capitalisation. The share price recovered 11.7% to 33.5p.
Bezant Resources (LON: BZT) investee company IDM International, which bought the Mankayan copper gold project in the Philippines from Bezant Resources, says prefeasibility drilling is complete on the project. IDM is consulting with the local population The JORC mineral resource is 793Mt containing 2.8Mt copper, 9.7 million ounces of gold and 21 million ounces of silver. Bezant Resources owns 23% of IDM, which is seeking a reverse takeover and other ways of securing funding. The share price increased 7.5% to 0.0215p.
Mercia Asset Management (LON: MERC) has £47m in cash at the end of March 2024 following the realisation of the investment in nDreams. Assets under management have reached £1.8bn, helped by a new mandate from the British Business Bank. EBITDA was £5.6m in 2023-24 and the strategy is to double that figure in three years. NAV improved to 43p/share despite the write down of the investment in Impression Technologies. The share price rose 4.84% to 32.5p.
FALLERS
Martin Andersson has stepped down as executive chairman Chaarat Gold Holdings (LON: CGH) as the company is in restructuring discussions with Labro Investors, which he is associated with. He remains a non-exec. David Mackenzie is acting chief executive. The company has enough cash for the next few weeks but cannot fund the $1.2m repayment due on the Labro convertible loan in September. The restructuring discussions relate to this. The share price slumped 50.9% to 1.35p.
Fertiliser producer Harvest Minerals (LON: HMI) has raised £425,000 via a placing and settled £575,000 of director fees through the issue of shares at 1p each. The cash will be spent on the Arapua project to test for rare earth elements. The share price slipped 46.3% to 1.1p.
Retailer Shoe Zone (LON: SHOE) has been hit by higher freight costs and weaker spring trading, which has led to a reduction in pre-tax profit estimates for the year to October 2024 from £13.8m to £10m. Last year’s pre-tax profit was £16.5m and revenues are likely to be 1% lower. A total dividend of 6.5p/share is forecast. The share price declined 16.4% to 127.5p.
Semiconductors designer CML Microsystems (LON: CML) had a tough year to March 2024 and this year will also be difficult, but design wins mean that the longer-term outlook is more positive. Revenues grew from £20.6m to £22.9m, although that was due to a near-six month contribution from last year’s acquisition MwT. Underlying pre-tax profit dipped from £3.6m to £3.1m. Destocking by customers and a change in product mix hit profit. A further dip in profit is expected this year, but new contracts and a broader product range, including new digital radio technology DRM, will improve revenues in two to three years. The balance sheet remains strong with net cash of £18.2m. The share price fell 10.4% to 302.5p.
