On Friday afternoon, improved harness technology and printed circuits supplier Trackwise Designs (LON: TWD) revealed that it had renegotiated its contract with its electric vehicle manufacturing client. Delays to the contract have put pressure on cash flow and the new agreement involves an upfront payment of £3.99m this year. There is a fixed quantity production order between January and June 2023. The cash should enable Trackwise Designs to start production, but more cash will be needed. Partnerships with larger companies may help funds to last longer. The share price recovered 150% on the week with all the rise coming after 2pm on Friday and it is back to the level prior to when Trackwise Designs warned it required more funding.
Baron Oil (LON: BOIL) was the best performer of the week rising 176% to 0.24p. Baron Oil has been granted a six-month extension to the 75%-owned Chuditch production sharing contract in offshore south of Timor-Leste. A decision whether to undertake drilling can be delayed until 18 June 2023. There should be news concerning the interpretation of seismic data by next week.
MobilityOne (LON: MBO) announced a joint venture with Super Apps Holdings to expand its eproducts and services business. The ecommerce payments services provider is also selling its 60% stake in OneShop Retail to Super Apps for initial proceeds of £7.53m followed by £3.76m within 180 days of completion. The sale should be completed by the end of the year, although it is dependent on the merger of Super Apps and Technology & Telecommunication Acquisition Corporation. The share price increased 125% to 9p.
A trading update from Naked Wine (LON: WINE) has helped to claw back some of the recent losses. The share price recovered 48.3% to 125.4p. Management had been far too optimistic about the rate of growth that could be achieved after the Covid-related boost to demand. Costs and stock levels were too high. Marketing spending is being cut by £18m and the emphasis put on existing customers. That should enable Naked Wine to make an operating profit of around £10m in the year to March 2023.
Property lending platform operator Lendinvest (LON: LINV) is one of the better performers this week, having slumped last week after its trading statement. The share price rebounded 41.1% to 87.5p. finnCap downgraded its full year forecast after the statement, but there was share buying by directors.
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Fallers
Verditek (LON: VDTK) shares slumped 48.6% to 0.9p after it revealed that it is no longer exclusive lightweight solar panels supplier to a joint venture between Bradclad and Protan AB and it has not received any orders since June. John Celaschi has increased his stake from 10.6% to 11.3% on the day of the announcement.
Gold and base metals explorer Rockfire Resources (LON: ROCK) has raised £375,000 at 0.125p a share with senior management contributing one-fifth of the funds. That is a big discount to the previous market price and there was a 33% slump to 0.1375p. The cash will fund a geophysical survey and initial drilling at the Molaoi zinc, lead and silver deposit in Greece.
Revenue recognition disagreements over a multi-year contract between auditor EY and MJ Hudson (LON: MJH) mean that the full year EBITDA of the asset management services provider will be lower than anticipated. EY is also questioning cost allocation and capitalisation. Management is positive about current trading. The shares dived 31.3% to 15.75p.
Real-time assistance products supplier CPP Group (LON: CPP) intends to focus on its insureTech business Blink and its operations in Turkey and India. The Blink business needs to be scaled up. The remaining legacy and non-core operations will be sold or closed. The Mexican legacy business for $1 and CPP has left £280,000 of cash in the loss-making business. The share price fell 29.8% to 99p.
Shares in North Sea gas producer IOG (LON: IOG) slumped after a reduction in production guidance and reserve estimates. The share price recovered later in week when IOG said that there is more than £36m in the bank, of which £5m is restricted. IOG has modelled scenarios including lower production, extended downtime and lower gas prices and there is no requirement for external funding. Andrew Hockey is stepping down as chief executive and he is being replaced by Rupert Newall, who has bought 600,000 shares at 9.6p a share. Other directors and senior management acquired more than 450,000 shares at the same price. The share price slumped 29.7% on the week to 13.35p.