RUA Life Sciences (LON: RUA) says the change in strategy has reduced the cash burn while also enabling operations to make progress. There has been a contract manufacturing bid request that could be worth £1.5m/year and is further potential work worth £500,000/year. This business could double in scale over the medium-term. However, later in the week RUA Life Sciences admitted that the interim revenues of the contract manufacturing business declined. Group interim revenues will be 28% lower at £794,000, even though Elast-Eon royalties increased by 6%. Development and testing of the structural heart valve leaflets is exceeding expectations. The plan is to make the company’s composite available to other companies to use in their heart valves. A large heart valve company is expected to start testing the composite. The vascular product is ready for regulatory testing in the US. As this will take up to three years and cost £6m a partner is being sought. The share price ended the week well of its high, but it was still 77.8% higher at 28p.
Gold explorer Oriole Resources (LON: ORR) has announced heads of terms with contractor BCM International for the development of the Bibemi and Mbe gold projects in Ghana. BCM can earn up to 50% of the Bibemi project by making a cash payment of $500,000 and commit to spend $4m on the project. BCM will pay $1m in cash and spend a further $4m to earn a 50% stake in Mbe project. The share price jumped 61% to 0.165p.
Battery technology developer Ilika (LON: IKA) has achieved its D4 development point for the Goliath battery. This is the start of turning the development into a battery product. Ilika will be able to create P1 samples for testing by customers. At the end of the week, Ilika confirmed that its interims will be in line with expectations with revenues of £1.3m and there is £13.2m in cash left. The share price improved 49.2% to 44p.
Phoenix Copper (LON: PXC) has extended its $2m loan facility until 8 December. The company is trying to obtain investor interest in a corporate copper bond issue. There is scope to extend the loan facility until 23 March 2024. The share price increased 34.8% to 31p.
FALLERS
Velocys (LON: VLS) is the worst performer on the day after the sustainable fuels company said that there is a potential bid at 0.25p/share from a consortium including Lightrock and Carbon Direct Capital Management. This would ensure long-term funding of the business. The low share price makes it difficult to finance the sustainable fuels operations. The share price dived 63.7% to 0.25p, which values Velocys at £4.5m. A large multiple of that value needs to be raised to fund development and production. Interim funding will be required.
Active Energy Group (LON: AEG) says construction of Coalswitch fuel reference plant at Ashland, Maine is still being delayed. It will not be up and running until the first quarter of 2024. The facility is 12 months late and management has lost confidence in contractor Player Design Inc. John Celaschi reduced his stake from 11.5% to 6.24%. The share price dipped 52.7% to 1.95p.
Video games developer Team17 Group (LON: TM17) says 2023 trading is slightly better than expected, although some titles are not performing as well as anticipated and that has hit margins. There has also been overspending and delays on some development projects. That means that underlying EBITDA will be around one-sixth lower than forecast at around £40m. Some titles are being reassessed and that is likely to lead to impairment charges of up to £11.5m. The share price slumped 47.8% to 180p. That is not far from the all-time low at the end of 2018.
Helium One Global (LON: HE1) says that drilling at the Tai-3 well confirms the presence of helium. Onsite pressure volume temperature analysis of fluid samples yielded helium concentrations of 8,320 parts per million. However, drilling was not able to reach the depths that management wanted. The drilling rig will be moved to Itumbula, where the iron rough neck and hydraulics will be repaired. The news disappointed the market and the share price dived 46.9% to 2.975p.
