Africa-focused investment company Tapir Holdings (LON: TAPH) joined AIM on 11 March. Trading in the shares has been limited. Around 15,000 shares have been traded this morning and the share price has risen 15.4% to 37.5p.
Chemotherapy drugs developer CRISM Therapeutics (LON: CRTX) has gained orphan drug designation from the US FDA for irinotecan for the treatment of malignant glioma. This utilises the company’s ChemoSeed technology, which is an implantable, biodegradable technology designed for the localised and sustained delivery of chemotherapy directly into cancer tissue. The orphan drug status will enhance the profile of the commercial development programme. The share price is 14.6% higher at 13.75p.
Atlantic Lithium (LON: ALL) is raising up to £8.2m from Ghanaian investors. There is an initial subscription of £3.7m at 14.6p/share and warrants that could raise a further £4.5m at 21.9p/share. Warrants will be exercisable if the Ewoyaa project reaches certain milestones. There will also tb £4m raised from Long State Investments. The share price increased 11.4% to 15.825p.
Payment services provider Boku (LON: BOKU) increased 2025 revenues by 30% to $128.8m with the main growth coming from digital wallets and bundling. Active users are 31% higher at 114.4 million. Operating profit trebled to £18.9m. The company’s cash increased to £102.9m. The momentum is continuing. Boku intends to repurchase up to 4 million shares. Former boss Jon Prideaux is stepping down from the board. The share price gained 7.9% to 177.5p.
FALLERS
ImmuPharma (LON: IMM) has launched a subscription and retail offer to raise up to £7.5m at 6p/share. ImmuPharma says that there is significant interest from potential licence partners in its autoimmune disease programme P140. Lanstead Capital Investors approached the company to offer further funding for P140 and Kapiglucagon, a form of glucagon that could be used in dual-hormone artificial pancreas devices. The retail offer could raise up to £1.5m of the total fundraising. The share price slipped 22.3% to 5.4p.
Richmond Hill Resources (LON: RHR) says a drone survey of the Martello gold project has been completed. An assessment has been commissioned. A maiden drill programme should folowThe share price fell 20.5% to 1.55p.
A disappointing trading statement from identity management software provider Intercede Group (LON: IGP) has led Cavendish to downgrade forecasts. The company has been hit by disruption to government buying cycles in the US and uncertainty in the Middle East. Cavendish has cut full year forecast revenues from £18.7m to £17m and the pre-tax profit estimate from £4.9m to £4.1m. The share price declined 18% to 79.5p.
Physiomics (LON: PYC) has launched a revised fundraising the day after it received a general meeting request from Michael Whitlow, who owns 13.7%. A placing raised £490,000 at 0.4p/share and a retail offer could raise up to £110,000 more. The original fundraising was at 0.3p/share. Michael Whitlow wants to appoint Nicholas Tulloch, Ian Bagnall, Martin Gouldstone and himself as directors and remove Dr Jim Millen, Shalabh Kumar, Dr Tim Corn, and Dr Peter Sargent, as long as least two of the new directors are appointed. The share price fell 8.6% to 0.425p.
Litigation Capital Management (LON: LIT) says that an Australian court has found against the party funded by the company. So far, A$1.4m has been invested. The next move is being considered. The share price is down 7.81% to 7.79p.
The resilience of the FTSE 100 was on show again on Tuesday, as London’s leading index carved out minor gains despite persistent concerns over the conflict in the Middle East.
Oil prices remained above $100 on Tuesday, but traders seem to believe the war in Iran won’t last long enough to have a major impact on the global economy. Or that any potential impact has already been priced into stocks.
The FTSE 100 was 0.3% higher at the time of writing.
“The FTSE 100 ticked higher and outperformed some of its counterparts as oil continued to climb,” says Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell.
“The longer the oil price stays above $100 per barrel, the louder the alarm bells for the market over inflation risks. Iran’s continued attacks on regional energy infrastructure are helping to keep crude at elevated levels.
“The FTSE 100 has a large weighting towards oil and gas producers, although it also has plenty of constituents that have big energy or fuel requirements or which might lose out from interest rates staying higher for longer.”
There was an element of risk aversion in Tuesday’s rally, with defensive sectors such as utilities, consumer goods, and pharma among the top risers.
Centrica, United Utilities, and Severn Trent were higher between 2% and 2.5% at the time of writing.
Hikma Pharmaceuticals was the top riser, adding 3%.
As expected, BP and Shell played their role in lifting the index with oil prices remaining above $100. BP added 1.5% while Shell gained 1%.
The attraction of the FTSE 100’s oil majors is likely to persist with the conflict showing little sign of letting up.
“Tehran has launched intense attacks on the American embassy in Iraq and is continuing to strike key infrastructure sites of US allies across the Middle East,” said Susannah Streeter, Chief Investment Strategist, Wealth Club.
“Iran is intent on causing as much disruption and damage to facilities as possible to stop the flow of oil, with energy its key weapon in this conflict.”
Next Tuesday, 24th March, Gattaca (LON:GATC) will be declaring its Interim Results for the six months to end-January this year.
Capitalised at £33m, I believe that the specialist staffing solutions business will announce a promising set of half-time figures, which should help to point towards a higher share price than the current 104p.
The Business
For over 42 years, Gattaca has been helping clients across the world grow by solving their biggest talent challenges.
Based in Fareham, Hampshire, with some 386 employees, Gattaca has been at the heart of ...
Analysis for informational purposes only. Capital at risk.
The “Lobster” Adoption Wave: Chinese hyperscalers like Tencent and Alibaba are actively promoting OpenClaw‑style autonomous agents, potentially converting users into recurring, high‑volume cloud customers and locking in API/token revenue in the long run.
Chinese Variants Mitigate Security Risk: Chinese hyperscalers have developed secure, managed OpenClaw variants to mitigate inherent security risks. By banning raw OpenClaw in high-value SOEs and financial sectors, regulators are effectively forcing these lucrative users into domestic ecosystems.
Inference Shifts Chip Dynamics: Mass agent deployment shifts the AI compute workload away from raw training (GPU-heavy) toward memory-centric inference. This creates potential opportunities for inference-optimized hardware (ASICs, NPUs, and domestic Chinese chips) to capture inference workload growth.
Reassessing China’s AI Story: The Overlooked Application Layer
Markets commonly treat China’s AI story as one of fast followers limited by chip export controls and a relative lack of frontier compute. That view implies slower monetisation and keeps Chinese hyperscaler multiples compressed versus US peers.
What many investors miss is the AI application layer—the user-facing, operational software that runs on top of models and can scale token consumption.
OpenClaw: The Agent That Sparked a Wave
OpenClaw, an open‑source autonomous‑agent framework, has created an adoption wave across China’s digital economy recently, nicknamed “raising a lobster”.
Unlike passive chatbots, OpenClaw executes multi‑step workflows (clearing inboxes, booking logistics, controlling desktop environments) without ongoing user prompts, turning single queries into complex, cross‑application tasks.
The China Deployment Machine
In the West, OpenClaw adoption remains niche: it requires technical effort to install and operate and is mainly used within developer communities. In China, that friction is being removed through coordinated commercial and public‑sector actions:
Tencent—WeChat Gateway: Tencent has embedded OpenClaw, via WorkBuddy and QClaw, natively inside the WeChat ecosystem and run large offline onboarding events (1,000+ attendees), lowering adoption barriers. Its lightweight cloud product Lighthouse had attracted more than 100,000 customers to deploy OpenClaw in just one week.
Alibaba—One-Person Company and Mobile Users: Alibaba’s CoPaw sells a cloud‑hosted deployment template for RMB 9.9, explicitly targeting China’s growing “one‑person company” (OPC) segment. Each converted OPC becomes a recurring API consumer, not just a free‑tier user. In addition, it has released its mobile app version of “OpenClaw”, JVS Claw, to allow mobile users to perform various agentic tasks.
ByteDance – The Browser Play: ByteDance launched ArkClaw, a cloud-based OpenClaw variant that eliminates local installation complexity, targeting non-developer users who lacked the technical threshold to run a local agent.
Local Government Support: Municipalities such as Shenzhen’s Longgang District and Suzhou are drafting measures to support OPCs and agent deployments, helping keep the required digital infrastructure domestic and scalable.
Why agents matter financially
Autonomous agents are token multipliers: a single complex agent workflow can potentially consume 10–50x the tokens of a conversational query. By subsidising agent access and monetising the resulting API/token usage, Chinese hyperscalers convert frequent users into high‑volume, recurring cloud demand without charging premium model subscriptions up front.
Source: AP estimates
The 5-layer AI framework: Leasing the “Hand” Over the “Brain”
Under the five‑layer framework (energy → chips → infrastructure → models → applications), the US retains advantages at chips (NVIDIA) and models (OpenAI, Google). China’s strengths lie in energy and infrastructure, it’s closing the gap on models (e.g., DeepSeek, Qwen), and it’s pushing to lead at the application layer — notably via agent frameworks like OpenClaw.
Different monetisation strategies
Western incumbents typically bundle models and applications (e.g., Gemini + NotebookLM) for consumers while selling model‑only APIs to enterprises and developers.
Chinese players lean the other way: open or low‑cost models to drive adoption (minimal customer acquisition cost), then monetise the application and cloud layers.
Source: AP
Chinese OpenClaw Variants Mitigate Security Risk
Security and regulatory risk remain the main barrier to near-term mass adoption. OpenClaw requires broad system permissions that raise security concerns. Chinese regulators have flagged these risks and banned installation of the raw OpenClaw software on devices used by state‑owned enterprises (SOEs), government agencies, and major financial institutions.
That ban, however, does not equally affect managed, enterprise‑grade deployments.
Compared to raw OpenClaw’s system vulnerabilities, Chinese hyperscalers have built commercial variants that meet enterprise security expectations.
For example, Tencent’s WorkBuddy and Alibaba’s CoPaw are architected to reduce those vulnerabilities: WorkBuddy requires explicit, sandboxed permission grants and limits operations to designated folders. CoPaw, on the other hand, is a cloud‑based deployment with no access to sensitive local data.
As the regulators ban raw OpenClaw from SOEs and financial institutions, they effectively push these valuable users toward proprietary solutions from Tencent and Alibaba.
Inference Reshapes Semiconductor Landscape
Mass deployment of AI agents could materially alter the semiconductor competitive dynamic over the long run.
Training vs. Inference: Training (building model intelligence) and inference (running models in applications) impose different hardware demands. Training is bursty and GPU‑heavy. Inference is steady and memory‑centric, requiring sustained VRAM, high memory bandwidth, predictable throughput, and low latency.
The Inference Battleground: NVIDIA dominates training and today’s inference market thanks to its GPU architecture and CUDA ecosystem. But inference is more open to specialized ASICs and inference‑optimised chips, so competition is likely to intensify as workloads shift away from raw GPU and CUDA dependency.
Agents Accelerate the Shift: Continuous, multi‑step background agents (e.g., OpenClaw deployments) increase sustained inference volume. Deloitte estimates inference would account for about two‑thirds of total AI compute demand, up from one‑third in 2023. Mass agent adoption would push that share higher, favoring chips optimised for memory, bandwidth, and efficient inference.
China’s Inference Strategy: Inference reduces the absolute advantage of GPU incumbents and opens a path for inference‑optimised chips—an area where Chinese players can potentially compete and accelerate semiconductor localisation. Chinese firms are targeting this opportunity with cost‑effective, large‑scale deployments: Huawei is rolling out Ascend series chips and networking them into massive clusters to offset single‑chip limitations; Alibaba is developing HanGuang inference chips tuned to its models; and domestic vendors such as Cambricon and MooreThreads are shipping affordable, locally produced accelerators purpose‑built for inference workloads.
Source: Deloitte, AP
The Cloud Export: Emerging Markets as Expansion Frontier
Beyond the domestic market, Chinese hyperscalers can package autonomous agents as low‑cost, plug‑and‑play digital workforces for emerging markets.
They’ve expanded actively in these regions, attracted by strong growth and fewer geopolitical or regulatory hurdles than Western markets. Those markets are currently dominated by Western providers (Microsoft Azure, AWS) with few low‑cost alternatives—an opening Chinese hyperscalers can exploit.
Alibaba has opened data centres in Dubai and announced facilities for Mexico and Brazil while expanding in Southeast Asia.
Tencent is expanding its cloud footprints across Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
This article is a “periodical publication” for information only and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell securities. This article does not constitute a “personal recommendation” or “investment advice” under UK FCA regulations. Investing in equities involves significant risk. The author holds NO position in the securities mentioned. There is no warranty as to completeness or correctness. Please do your own due diligence or consult a licensed financial adviser. Please read the Full Disclaimer before acting on any information. Images created with the assistance of Gemini AI.
IP Group, the London-listed science and technology investor, swung back into profit in 2025 as the value of its stake in Pfizer’s obesity drug pipeline helped drive a 13% rise in net asset value per share to 110.4p.
The results underscore the significant value in IP Group shares, which are trading at about a 50% discount to the NAV, despite robust progress in the portfolio.
The group posted a profit of £66.9m for the year, a sharp reversal from the £207m loss recorded in 2024, with total NAV rising to £975.1m from £952.5m.
A key driver was the recognition of £128.2m in discounted future royalty and milestone income following Pfizer’s acquisition of portfolio company Metsera, giving IP Group ongoing exposure to Pfizer’s obesity franchise, including the Phase 3 candidate PF’3944, which reported positive Phase 2b data during the year.
Cash proceeds from exits totalled £68.1m, down from £183.4m the previous year, with notable realisations including the NYSE listing of digital health company Hinge Health and the sale of Monolith to Nasdaq-listed CoreWeave.
The group reiterated its target of delivering more than £250m in exits between 2025 and the end of 2027.
“2025 was a notable year for IP Group,” said Greg Smith, Chief Executive of IP Group.
“Pfizer’s acquisition of Metsera highlighted the strength and value of licensing activities in the obesity drug space where we hold valuable rights to several promising programmes. This drove a return to NAV growth. A further highlight was the successful IPO of Hinge Health on the NYSE, an investment from which we have now fully exited following the sale of our remaining holding in early 2026.
“We also delivered strong cash realisations, allowing us to retire almost a tenth of our shares in issue through buybacks, while maintaining a robust liquidity position.
“We are also pleased to be working with Aberdeen to manage a portfolio of early‑stage and growth investments in the UK, further extending our ability to support the next generation of innovation‑led businesses. As one of the world’s most experienced university IP investors, our unique model – combining deep partnerships with leading research institutions and access to long-term committed capital – positions us to support breakthrough science from inception to scale. We remain focused on creating long-term value for our shareholders while driving innovation that addresses some of society’s most pressing challenges.”
IP Group shares were 9% higher at the time of writing.
Travis Perkins, the UK’s largest building materials distributor, reported a drop in full-year profits as tough trading conditions continued to weigh on its core merchanting business, though a much-improved balance sheet and strong progress at Toolstation provided some bright spots.
But investors will ultimately look at the wider economy and weak trading conditions and wonder whether shares at six-month lows have further downside potential.
Adjusted operating profit fell 12.5% to £133m for the year to December 2025, down from £152m, as lower volumes and increased promotional activity squeezed margins in the merchanting division.
On a statutory basis, the group swung to an operating loss of £97m after booking £222m of adjusting items, largely tied to impairments at Toolstation Benelux and restructuring costs.
Toolstation UK was the best-performing area, lifting adjusted operating profit by 29% to £44m as it continued to gain market share and its store estate matured.
The full-year dividend was cut to 12.0p per share from 14.5p, in line with the group’s payout policy of 30-40% of adjusted earnings.
Gavin Slark, the former SIG and Grafton Group chief executive, took the reins as CEO on 1 January 2026 and has already flattened the management structure so that all divisional heads report directly to him.
“It is the strength of our balance sheet that now provides the necessary resilience and flexibility to underpin our competitiveness in what remains a challenging market backdrop for UK construction activity,” Gavin Slark said.
“We will maintain our disciplined and selective approach to capital allocation as we navigate our way back to better market conditions.”
Trading since the start of 2026 has remained ‘subdued’, reflecting weak UK construction activity through the final quarter of last year. The group said it would focus on improving its customer offer and driving further efficiencies while it waits for the market to turn.
Travis Perkins shares were flat at the time of writing.
Lord Ashcroft has floated BVI-based Tapir Holdings, which was spun out of former AIM-quoted recruiter Impellam before it was taken over, on AIM. The focus is investment in land and urban development projects in Africa.
Trading in the shares started at 30p and ended the first day at 32.5p. The share price has stayed at that price since then. The bid/offer spread is 25p/40p. There were 10,000 shares traded on the first day and none on the second day. This was followed by 1,740 shares and 21,540 shares in the next two days respectively. There did not appear to much trading on the Bermuda Stock Ex...
Nebius Group has secured an AI infrastructure supply agreement with Meta worth up to $27 billion over five years, marking one of the largest cloud computing contracts announced this year.
Under the deal, Nebius will provide $12 billion of dedicated computing capacity across multiple locations, built on one of the first large-scale deployments of Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform. Delivery is expected to begin in early 2027.
“We are pleased to expand our significant partnership with Meta as part of securing more large, long-term capacity contracts to accelerate the build-out and growth of our core AI cloud business. We will continue to deliver,” said Arkady Volozh, founder and CEO of Nebius.
Meta has also committed to purchasing up to $15 billion of additional compute capacity across forthcoming Nebius clusters over the same period. Nebius will offer that capacity to third-party customers of its AI cloud business first, with Meta taking up any remainder.
The deal with Meta comes just days after Nvidia announced a $2 billion strategic investment in Nebius, granting the company early access to its latest chip architectures, including the Vera Rubin platform, now central to the Meta contract. That partnership is designed to help Nebius scale to more than five gigawatts of capacity by the end of the decade.
Together, the two deals position Nebius as an increasingly significant player in the race to build out hyperscale AI infrastructure, with backing from both the leading chipmaker, Nvidia, and one of the world’s biggest consumers of AI compute, Meta, who has signalled further capex spend on infrastructure this year.
Tekcapital portfolio company Guident has taken one step closer towards its IPO with an updated S-1 filing with the SEC.
There still isn’t a firm date for the autonomous vehicle company’s NASDAQ listing, but the updated filing suggests the wheels are in motion.
Many NASDAQ IPO have been delayed in recent months due to the prolonged government shutdown and market conditions. It appears that Guident has been one of the companies affected.
The updated S-1 included Guident’s 2025 results, which showed that although the company is still in the early stage of commercialisation, it is making progress in revenue generation through partnerships with Michigan State University and deployments in Boca Raton and West Palm Beach.
Most other details in the S-1 remain unchanged, suggesting the filing was a fine-tuning exercise before the IPO moves forward.
The pricing range remains the same, with a mid-price of $4.50, implying Tekcapital’s stake could be worth around $26m when GDNT starts trading on NASDAQ.
This is worth more than Tekcapital’s entire market cap of £18m. Tekcapital’s other major holding is in MicroSalt, which is worth around £17m. It also has stakes in GenIP and US-listed Innovative Eyewear.
The FTSE 100 was higher on Monday, with oil companies providing support for the index as Brent Crude traded above the $100 mark
London’s leading index was 0.4% higher at 10,310 at the time of writing.
“The FTSE 100 ticked higher at the start of the week as its material weighting towards energy continued to offer some ballast during the Iran conflict,” says AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
“Oil prices were higher again and Asian markets were lower as fighting in the Middle East rumbles on. By the time markets opened in Europe, oil was a little off its highs for the session. Over the weekend, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the strategically important Strait of Hormuz was only closed to the US, Israel and its allies.”
It is probably too early to call a bottom, but the FTSE 100 is showing signs of building a base around the 10,250 level, having found support there a couple of times in recent trading sessions. Perceptions of how damaging any response by central banks to manage inflation will likely dictate whether this level holds.
The majority of FTSE 100 shares were higher at the time of writing, led by SEGRO, which reacted well to news that it has reached an agreement for a new data centre in the South East of England.
The UK’s public markets lack ‘AI enablers,’ and although SEGRO is just providing the facility to host the data centre, it does offer interesting exposure to the rapidly growing AI industry.
Andrew Pilsworth, Managing Director of Data Centres and Strategic Partnerships at SEGRO, said that the update allowed SEGRO to “demonstrate further progress in our strategy to execute on the 2.5GW+ opportunity in our powered land bank.
“The critical mass of data centres we have built up at Slough over the last 20 years, together with the Simplified Planning Zone status we have secured there were integral to enabling us to work with an existing customer to expand its campus, while allowing SEGRO to profitably utilise a relatively small 3.5 acre plot.”
SEGRO shares were 2.6% higher at the time of writing.
CRH
The mild optimism in London’s market on Monday was dealt a blow from the news that CRH would cancel its London listing and add to the growing list of companies that are leaving the UK’s markets.
“Having already shifted its primary listing to the US, building materials specialist CRH is to now turn its back completely on London,” Russ Mould said.
“The development, though not seismic, is another sign of London’s diminished status in the roster of global markets. Companies who switch their main listing to the US often pledge to keep a presence in London, but CRH’s actions suggest that is no longer a given.”
