Tekcapital’s MicroSalt has secured two new commercial partnerships with Healthy Options and S&R Membership Shopping. Both companies are based in the Philippines, and the deal signifies MicroSalt’s first major deal with Asian-based distributors.

Today’s partnerships build on a series of commercial agreements inked by MicroSalt over the past year. MicroSalt products are already stocked in thousands of US stores including major outlets such as Kroger and are available on Amazon.

“We are proud of our partnership with both organizations and to be able to expand our low sodium premium line of crisps to the Philippine marketplace,” said Rick Guiney, CEO of MicroSalt®.

"Excess sodium consumption is one of the leading contributors to hypertension, and partnerships like this are the best way to provide consumers, regardless of their location, with great tasting products with less sodium."

– Rick Guiney, CEO of MicroSalt®

— Tekcapital Plc (@tekcapital) July 31, 2023

“Excess sodium consumption is one of the leading contributors to hypertension, and partnerships like this are the best way to provide consumers, regardless of their location, with great tasting products with less sodium.”

Healthy Options has 33 brick and mortar stores and a successful online business while S&R Membership Shopping is a membership-based store chain with 22 wholesale warehouse branches and 51 quick-serve restaurants.

Tekcapital said MicroSalt had received ‘sizeable’ first orders and encouraging expressions of interest for further orders. Earlier this year, CEO Dr Clifford Gross said in an investor presentation at a UK Investor Magazine Virtual Conference that commercial details such as specific order sizes and revenue figures would be included in the MicroSalt IPO prospectus when it is made available.

MicroSalt appointed Zeus Capital as their NOMAD for an AIM listing in late 2022.

On Friday, earnings updates from a raft of FTSE 100 companies dominated trade as investors shrugged off this week’s rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and ECB. A shift in policy by the Bank of Japan did little to upset UK stocks despite volatility overnight.

The FTSE 100 was dead flat at 7,693 at the time of writing on Friday, having given up early gains.

“Another week, another round of interest rate hikes. Under the circumstances, markets have held up remarkably well. As the trading week draws to a close, European stocks are doing their best to stay firm,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

Investors were digesting the latest earnings updates from Standard Chartered, AstraZeneca and Natwest on Friday. All three companies were trading in positive territory at the time of writing.

“Standard Chartered jumped to the top of the FTSE 100 leader board after lifting its profit guidance and announcing a $1 billion share buyback. Its 5% share price gain was in stark contrast to the negative market reaction this week to other London-listed banks, with shares in Lloyds and Barclays both falling on their results,” said Russ Mould.

“AstraZeneca was in-demand after second quarter results beat estimates. That helped to breath some life back into its share price which had previously found it hard to break out this year.”

AstraZeneca shares were 4% higher shortly after 1pm on Friday.

Natwest

Natwest was the last of the three UK-focused FTSE 100 banks to report this week. There has been little to separate Natwest, Lloyds, and Barclays in terms of their outlook; all three expect their key profitability metric, Net Interest Margin, to fall in the second half.

Natwest did, however, please investors with better than expected operating profit which helped shares 3% higher on Friday. Barclays and Lloyds shares both fell after their updates. As one would expect, Natwest’s earnings call was dominated by further questions about the Farage saga, which led to CEO Alison Rose’s departure.

“It’s been a week to forget at NatWest as it’s had to lose two of its top execs because of the Nigel Farage account closure debacle. Today’s results probably don’t do the group any favours either, despite a slight beat on the bottom line,” said Matt Britzman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

“We know markets are laser-focused on net interest margin and at 3.13% for the second quarter that was below expectations, leading to a miss on net interest income. But perhaps more importantly, full-year guidance has been dragged lower reflecting the ongoing deposit shift to accounts that offer better rates as consumers do all they can to make cash savings go further.”

Commodities weakness

Strength in Standard Chartered, AstraZeneca and Natwest was evened out by weakness in the FTSE 100’s commodity companies as optimism around possible Chinese stimulus faded.

Miners Anglo American and Rio Tinto were among the loser, as were Shell and BP.

Aviva was down 2.6% after being downgraded to market perform by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analysts. Admiral Group was the top faller shedding 2.9%.