Plans are currently being delayed by ‘procedural matters’ in this group’s application for a listing on the Australian Securities Exchange. 

On Tuesday 13^th August the hopes were that CleanTech Lithium (LON:CTL) had submitted its Prospectus for a dual-listing on the ASX. 

It also inferred that it was hoping to raise up to A$20m in the process. 

Management Comment 

At that time Chairman and Interim CEO Steve Kesler stated that: 

“CleanTech Lithium is positioning itself to become a leading supplier of battery-grade lithium to the growing EV and energy storage market to support the global energy transition. 

We’re excited of the prospect to join the ASX which is home to many of the world’s leading lithium companies. 

In addition to our existing AIM listing, the dual-listing in Australia will provide us with access to a broader collection of security holders and stakeholders who have a deep understanding of the lithium industry and its importance in supporting the world’s ambitions for net-zero.  

We are looking forward to introducing CTL to the Australian market, providing Australian investors the opportunity to invest in an emerging producer of battery grade lithium from a country with an established lithium industry, an FTA with the USA and a preferential trade agreement with the EU. 

Our two core projects host, in aggregate, total resources of more than 2.7 million tonnes of LCE and we are advancing the use of DLE technology, which features much higher recovery rates and less environmental impact compared to conventional forms of lithium extraction.  

We are also aiming to be powered by renewable energy once in production, utilising Chile’s excellent renewable energy resources including in the region of our projects. 

Harnessing DLE and renewable energy positions CTL to be a leader in a more efficient method of producing lithium in Chile, and we believe this will give us an advantage in supplying a premium lithium product to the market.” 

The company declared that the proceeds of the proposed Fundraising could be applied towards the development of the company’s suite of projects in Chile, primarily the completion of the Pre-Feasibility Study at the Laguna Verde Project and ongoing operations at the DLE pilot plant, which is producing battery-grade lithium carbonate.  

CTL’s projects are centred in an area of northern Chile dubbed the ‘lithium triangle’ which is shared with Argentina and Bolivia.  

CTL aims to become a leading producer and supplier of ‘green’ battery-grade lithium to the Electric Vehicle and Energy Storage market by utilising advanced environmentally-sensitive processing technology powered by renewable energy. 

Submission Of Replacement Prospectus 

On Tuesday 27^th August the group announced that it had needed to issue a Replacement Prospectus to the ASX clarifying the scalability and global usage of Direct Lithium Extraction and the company’s reliance on renewable energy and potential exposure to fossil fuels.  

The amended copy now also contains additional information on the Chilean national electricity grid’s existing high renewable energy mix.  

It noted that it plans, where possible, to include renewable energy sources to power operations in line with its objective of promoting sustainable lithium production. 

At that time the company stated that it did not anticipate that the lodgement of the Replacement Prospectus would impact the timing of its admission to ASX and declared that admission is expected to occur on or around 24^th September. 

Offer Period Extended 

On Monday 9^th September the company noted the delay and reactively decided to extend the Offer Period for its fundraising from 9^th September to 23^rd September. 

It stated that it will provide a further update once it has received confirmation of the proposed ASX Admission and commencement of trading dates.  

Update On Its ASX Listing 

Last Friday 20^th September the company announced that it had been informed by representatives of the Australian Securities Exchange that due to procedural matters the approval process of the company’s listing on ASX will be extended. 

CleanTech Lithium informed investors that it is working with its lawyers in Australia, its other advisers and ASX to address the matters expeditiously and will provide the market with a further update when greater clarity has been obtained on the revised expected timetable. 

In My View 

This £23m capitalised group’s shares, which hit 94p in February last year and were down to just 10.50p in April this year, before rapidly picking up to 25.30p in late July, then drifted back to 14p just over a month ago. 

Despite the ‘procedural delays’ they are now trading at around the 15p level. 

I hope that the company can get its ASX listing speeded up, thereby enabling the required funding to complete. 

Getting that out of the way will allow mining sector punters to react rapidly to any items of good corporate news that are sure to follow. 

Should I buy an S&P 500 ETF at current levels? There’s no two ways about it, for many investors, buying the S&P 500 index is probably the best thing they could do if they’d like to get exposure to the stock market.

The numbers are compelling. The S&P 500 has outperformed most active managers by some margin over the past decade. 

However, while this fact is often touted by ETF proponents, it doesn’t take into consideration that private investors can be a lot more nimble than your average fund manager, apply a degree of trading to their portfolios, boosting returns.

That is, of course, if they have the experience to do so. Those who don’t have a reasonable level of experience in the stock market are probably better suited to sticking to the broader equities indices.

Investors in the S&P 500 index will gain exposure to the world’s largest companies. Household names such as Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Amazon make up a large proportion of the index and, therefore, your investment when you buy an S&P 500 index ETF.

These companies and the S&P 500 have been a safe bet and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future. 

There is one technique that savers and investors should be aware of to help smooth out the inevitable bumps in the road when investing in stocks. 

That’s dollar cost averaging. Or pound cost averaging, depending on which side of the Atlantic you’re on.

The answer to our question of whether you should buy an S&P 500 ETF at current levels is probably yes. But it will also be yes at the same time next month, and the month after that, and, yes, the month after that.

By drip-feeding your cash into the S&P 500 on a regular basis, you even out your investment and soften any bouts of volatility. They even become an opportunity and can boost your long-term returns.

Who knows if the S&P 500 will be 5% higher or lower next month? With dollar cost averaging, it doesn’t matter; you buy anyway. It builds your investment and smooths out the entry points.

Fresh after London’s largest technology IPO of 2024, the computing and technology company announced a solid set of first half results on Tuesday. Raspberry Pi raised $179m in June this year.

Despite marginally lower volumes than the comparative period, Raspberry Pi’s overall performance was better than expected during the period. 

EBITDA was 55% higher in H1 2024 than in H1 2023 due to issues with supply in the first half of last year which made this year’s number look that much better.

Investors will also be encouraged to hear that the company sees higher volumes in the second half. 

“The IPO was the watershed moment of the first half, with Admission to trading just two weeks before the period end,” said Eben Upton, CEO of Raspberry Pi.

“In continued pleasing trading in the first half, we saw strong uptake of our latest flagship SBC, Raspberry Pi5, the launch of the Raspberry Pi AI Kit, and the successful ramp to production of RP2350, our second-generation microcontroller platform. The higher than usual customer and channel inventory levels which were evident at the time of the IPO have continued to unwind, and there is a growing sense that this will have concluded by the year end.

“We have an extraordinary team, a world class product set backed up by an exciting future roadmap, and a loyal and engaged customer base that we can continue to grow. In the second half, we have further planned product releases and a number of initiatives to further expand our engagement within our Industrial and Embedded market”.

Antofagasta shares are supported by long-term structural economic expansion and the demand for copper from the clean energy transition.

After touching highs above $10,000 per tonne earlier this year, copper prices have gently eased amid concerns about Chinese growth. However, the Federal Reserve’s decision to start cutting interest rates has sparked a rally in the copper, which touched two-month highs last week. 

Copper’s high correlation with the underlying growth environment has earned the metal the title ‘Dr Copper’, as a rise in the price of metal is usually caused by improving sentiment or economic expansion.

It remains to be seen whether the recent rally in copper is just a result of improving sentiment after the Fed cuts interest rates or is a predictor of future economic buoyancy. Indeed, the shift in copper’s narrative to US interest rates away from Chinese growth will likely be short-lived.

That said, if we see any signs of positivity from China in the coming months, copper prices have plenty of space to rally.

In addition to immediate macroeconomic considerations for the price of copper, the metal is set to benefit from long-term structural demand from the green energy transition. For all the furore around lithium, cobalt, and uranium, copper is the essential metal at the heart of most green energy technologies, including electric vehicles and power generation.

Investors seeking exposure to further recovery in the price of copper or would like to position for the green transition without buying futures or trading another form of derivative should look no further than Antofagasta.

FTSE 100-listed Antofagasta is the ultimate play on copper prices for UK-focused equity investors. The company’s resource base is around 21 billion tonnes, making it one of the world’s leading copper miners in terms of resources.

Focused on Chilean copper assets, Antofagasta’s strength lie in extensive production operations and the supportive environment for copper prices.

Antofagasta invested in mining operations at a time when capital costs were much lower. This provides investors with the attractive advantage of an upside in copper prices without the CAPEX required to bring mines online.

It has become hugely expensive to construct new mines, leading to a dearth of new mines coming on line. It’s one thing for early-stage companies to identify economically viable resources; securing the funds to extract them is something entirely different, especially at the scale at which Antofagasta is operating.

Antofagasta produced 284,000 tonnes of copper in the six months to the end of June 2024. Although this was slightly lower than in the same period last year, group revenues rose 2% due to a higher comparative copper price.

The company expects to spend $2.7bn in capital expenditure for the full year. A large proportion of this will be allocated to improving facilities to increase copper production.

Antofagasta has plentiful resources in place, and its growth strategy is to increase the pace at which it is monetised. Very few miners have the mineral or capital resources to achieve the levels of production Anto is targeting, giving it a huge competitive advantage.

Investors should also note the company’s willingness to return cash to shareholders. Antofagasta pays out 35% of underlying earnings per share. This policy means payouts can be volatile, but it leaves plenty of opportunity for substantial payouts on periods of good performance. 

In conclusion, the stock offers robust chances of both capital growth and income, and with shares below 2,000p, it should be on the watch list of any natural resources fan. 

This coming Thursday, 26^th September, Sosandar (LON:SOS) will be holding its AGM in Wilmslow, Cheshire. 

It will sign off on a small loss-making year’s business, just £0.3m down on a £46.3m turnover, but it is not so much about what happened last year, instead confirming that the current year to end-March 2025 will see the business turn back into profits. 

The Business 

Sosandar, which was founded in 2016 and listed on AIM in 2017, is one of the fastest growing women’s fashion brands in the UK targeting style-conscious women who have graduated from lower quality, price-led alternatives. 

Over 1m women now have items of the company’s clothing hanging in their wardrobes, its product range is diverse, providing an array of choice for all occasions across all women’s fashion categories. 

The company, which sells predominantly own-label exclusive product designed and tested in-house, states that for its underserved audience it offers fashion-forward, affordable, quality clothing to make them feel sexy, feminine, and chic.  

Sosandar’s success has been built on an exceptional product range, seamless customer experience and impactful, lifestyle marketing, all of which is underpinned by combining innovation with data analysis.  

The group’s growth strategy has been focused upon continuing to grow brand awareness and expand its addressable market and routes to market, reaching customers wherever they wish to shop.  

The company sells through Sosandar.com and has brand partnerships in place with Marks & Spencer, The Very Group, JD Williams, J Sainsbury, The Selfridges Group, and Next. 

The Latest Trading Update 

On Tuesday 16^th July the group, when announcing its 2024 results, issued a Trading Update for the first quarter of the current year. 

Co-CEO’s Ali Hall and Julie Lavington stated that: 

“Looking ahead, FY25 is focused primarily on delivering sustainable growth in our gross margin, pre-tax profit, cash generation and maintaining a strong balance sheet.  

Nonetheless, we do expect revenue growth from on our own site, further third party partnerships, opening shops and the compounding positive effect that the shops will have across all our channels.  

We believe that the future is very bright as we take the Sosandar brand to more customers across the UK and worldwide, as we move forward towards reaching our strategic goal in the medium term.” 

It gave guidance that market expectations for the year to end-March 2025 are currently revenue of £54.6m and PBT of £1.0m. 

In Q1 there was a continued focus on prioritising margin enhancement and profitability, while the balance sheet remained robust with £8.3m in cash allowing the company to self-fund its planned store roll out. 

Analyst View 

Analyst Matthew McEachran, at Singer Capital Markets, rates the group’s shares as a Buy, looking for 31p in due course. 

His estimates for the current year to end-March 2025 are for sales of £45.6m (£46.3m), with adjusted pre-tax profits rebounding from a £0.3m loss last year to a £1.0m profit this year, lifting earnings up to 0.4p a share. 

In My View 

I like the feel of this little £25m capitalised group. 

After last year’s loss it is quickly springing back into profit, while also pushing its online channels and opening its own shops. 

That combination could well deliver even further corporate growth in the coming year. 

Its shares at just 10p, on the face of it may look too expensive on 25 times current year earnings, but remember it is a recovery situation – one certainly worth paying attention to, especially ahead of its AGM this week and its Interim Results being announced on Thursday 10^th October. 

The FTSE 100 was broadly flat on Monday as investors continued to assess the implications of the Federal Reserve beginning to cut interest rates last week.

The Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates by 50bps dominated markets last week, and after a strong rally in US stocks, investors were still adjusting to a new world of lower rates and running scenarios for stocks going into the end of the year.

Investors had an additional monetary policy easing to consider on Monday after China cut its repo rate to help stimulate the economy.

“The 10bps cut is aimed at encouraging banks to lend more freely,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets, Hargreaves Lansdown.

“While it’s not a major move, it came alongside the news that a press conference will be held by the governor of the People’s Bank of China, focusing on financial support for economic development. Expectations are rising that another cut to interest rates could be on the way, to try to help China achieve its growth targets.”

Despite the cut to the Chinese, some China-focused stocks were actually down. Rio Tinto was in the read but Antofagasta managed to carve out gains.

Prudential and HSBC cheered the news are were higher on the session.

Rightmove was among the top risers after REA Group upped its offer for the property portal. Rupert Murdoch’s REA Group had its initial offer rejected but has shown a willingness to get the deal done by coming with a revised bid of 770p comprise of cash and shares.

“Australia’s REA has shown its determination to gain a big foothold into the UK property search market by significantly upping its takeover bid for Rightmove,” Streeter said.

“The group is frustrated by a lack of engagement from Rightmove which has clearly been holding out for a much higher offer after the first highly opportunistic bid. It’s now been increased by 9.2% which represents almost a 40% premium to its share price at the end of August. While this will certainly be very encouraging for some investors, who had seen the value of their holdings plummet from highs reached in January 2022, there is likely to be a push among others to hold out for an even better deal.”

Rightmove shares were 2.9% higher at the time of writing.

Rupert Murdoch’s REA Group has shown how keen it is to acquire Rightmove by coming back with a higher bid after an initial approach was rejected.

REA has made a improved proposal to acquire Rightmove, offering 770p share in a cash and stock deal. This latest offer, made on September 22, 2024, values Rightmove at approximately £6.1 billion and represents a 9.2% increase from REA’s initial proposal on September 5.

The new offer consists of 341p in cash and 0.0422 new REA shares for each Rightmove share.

The revised offer price represents a significant premium to Rightmove’s recent trading prices, including a 39% premium to its undisturbed share price on August 30, 2024. This move follows Rightmove’s rejection of REA’s previous improved offer of 749p per share on September 18, which the Rightmove board deemed as fundamentally undervaluing the company.

We will have to wait and see whether the Rightmove board see any merit in the revised offer, but it isn’t a huge increase on the initial offer.

“We believe that the combination of our world-leading expertise and technology with the attractive Rightmove business will create an enhanced experience for agents, buyers and sellers of property,” said Owen Wilson, CEO of REA.

“We live in a world of intensifying competition and this proposed transaction would bring together two highly complementary digital property businesses for investment and growth. We have today increased our proposal to an implied value of 770 pence – it provides a combination of immediate value certainty in cash and at the same time gives Rightmove shareholders an increasing opportunity in core digital property and adjacencies where we have much expertise. We are genuinely disappointed at the lack of engagement by Rightmove’s Board and we strongly encourage the Rightmove Board to engage.”

Rightmove is the UK’s leading property portal, and for it to fall into overseas hands at a low valuation will be a blow to London’s markets.