Falkland Islands oil and gas explorer Borders & Southern (LON: BOR) is raising £2.5m at 1.75p a share to finance studies of its 100%-owned Darwin gas condensate discovery. The previous market price was 3.15p and the share price has fallen 35.9% to 2.0175p.
Covid lockdowns in China have hit production of the customers of kettle controls supplier Strix (LON: KETL). Zeus has reduced its 2022 pre-tax profit forecast by 17% to £23.2m and cut the 2023 figure by 11% to £29.7m. There could be some upside from the recently acquired water appliance manufacturer Billi, where there could be opportunities to improve its performance as part of Strix. The share price, which had been recovering, dived 34.8% to 81.3p.
TomCo Energy (LON: TOM) is raising £925,000 at 0.35p a share, while the market price is down 26.4% to 0.355p. The cash will help to finance progress with oil sands prospect Unita Basin in Utah, where subsidiary Greenfield has a 10% stake. It has an option to acquire the other 90% for $16.25m, which is likely to be funded by debt. The $1m loan from Valkor Oil & Gas has been extended to the completion date of a funding transaction for Greenfield.
Market research services provider System1 (LON: SYS1) swung from profit to loss in its latest interims as revenues fell faster than costs. Second half revenues should be better, but the profit outlook remains poor. Net cash is £6.6m. The share price is 13.9% lower at 140p.
Luxury brand Mulberry Group (LON: MUL) reported flat interim revenues with higher international sales offsetting a decline in the UK. Mulberry moved from profit to loss as marketing and other spending was increased. There was an £11.2m cash outflow from operations. The share price fell 7% to 265p.
Europa Metals (LON: EUZ) has unveiled an increased resource at the Toral zinc lead silver deposit in northern Spain. The new resource is 20Mt grading 4.4% zinc, 2.3% lead and 23g/t silver. The orebody remains open at depth so the resource will be larger. The share price moved up 10.3% to 3.75p.
SLB has decided not to take up its option to acquire 108 million shares in Block Energy (LON: BLOE). This removes potential dilution. A further 12 million options have been assigned to Jindal Petroleum and expire on 30 November 2023. The share price increased by 9.8% to 1.4p.
Aquaculture company Benchmark (LON: BMK) made good progress in 2021-22 with each of its divisions growing revenues and the group generating £10.8m in cash from operations. Net debt excluding leases was reduced from £56.9m to £47.5m. All salmon egg production from the new Iceland facility was sold in the fourth quarter. A share issue in Norway will raise £13.2m at the equivalent of around 37.5p a share and that will provide liquidity for the proposed Euronext Growth Oslo flotation as well as further reducing net debt. The share price moved 6.67% higher at 40p.
C4X Discovery (LON: C4XD) is rising again on the back of an exclusive worldwide licence deal with AstraZeneca announced on Monday that could be worth up to £402m. This relates to the use of the NRF2 activator programme to develop an oral therapy for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. There is an upfront payment of $2m. There had been some profit taking after the initial rise, but the share price has improved by 4.77% to 23.05p today.
