GreenRoc has released results for the year to 30th November 2022 in which the company confirmed the maiden resource estimate for the Amitsoq Project and pursued further evaluation of the project.

In March 2022, the maiden resource estimate of 8.28Mt at 19.75% graphitic carbon was declared for the Amitsoq Project.

In addition, the company has undertaken a 19 hole drill programme totalling of 2,844m – the company said every hole intersected significant graphite layers.

The drill programme culminated in the trebling of the resource to 23.05 Mt at a grade of 20.41% graphitic carbon.

Despite the year of ‘enormous progress’, GreenRoc shares are down 50% over the past year.

“Enormous progress has been made, in particular, at Amitsoq, where we have built up a substantial graphite resource and have done so without any sacrifice to grade, with Amitsoq now firmly established among a very select grouping worldwide of graphite deposits with resource grades averaging more than 20%,” said GreenRoc’s Chairman, George Frangeskides.

“At the same time, we have greatly advanced our metallurgical test work programme in order to demonstrate the amenability of our graphite to the production of high purity spherical graphite which is in such demand for electric vehicles.”

“These achievements mean that we can now focus our efforts for the rest of this year on our ongoing development work and furthering our discussions with potential strategic partners, putting us in a very strong position as we seek to accelerate Amitsoq along the path to production.”

Sponsored by Viritech

Viritech, the leading developer of high-performance hydrogen powertrain solutions for the automotive, aerospace, marine, and distributed power industries, has announced that Phil Wild will join as Associate Director board member from 1^st April to help develop its commercial scale-up plan for 2024 onwards.

Viritech is a cleantech technology company which develops advanced hydrogen powertrain technology for licensing to vehicle manufacturers and major component suppliers.

Find out more on Viritech’s Crowdfunding page

Following two years of R&D, Viritech is focussed on a development pipeline of 24 products for hydrogen powertrains, including hydrogen storage, advanced battery systems and power electronics. It will introduce these over the next 24-months, with sales revenues expected to commence by Q4 this year.

In addition to its ambitious product development pipeline, Viritech has also recently announced two major partnerships. The first is with the Anand Group in India to establish a manufacturing JV in 2024. The second is with Horiba MIRA, a leading European automotive engineering and testing consultancy, and Intelligent Energy, the leading British fuel cell manufacturer, to develop hydrogen fuel cell powertrain solutions suitable for 40-tonne Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs). Further high-profile projects in partnership with major manufacturers are expected to be announced in the near future.

With the company demonstrating commercial engagement with major global manufactures over the next six months, Mr Wild will work with Viritech’s CEO & Founder, Timothy Lyons to develop the company’s long-term scale-up strategy for implementation in 2024.

To support this plan, the company will be seeking a £5m equity raise later this year, targeting Venture Capital investors, Strategic Investors and Family Offices.

Find out more on Viritech’s Crowdfunding page

Osirium Technologies, the UK-based cybersecurity software company, said a 46% jump in their customer base and 96% renewal rate were evidence of a significant year of progress in 2022.

Total revenue rose 31% to £1.92m in 2022, up from £1.47m in 2021. Total bookings rose 86% to £3m.

Osirium said their Privileged Process Automation (PPA) and Privileged Endpoint Management (PEM) offerings were now contributing materially to bookings and will add to sales from the more established Privileged Access Management.

Osirium’s systems allow organisations to automate and enhance their cyber security programmes.

The company said the higher customer base provided the platform for upselling opportunities in the future.

“It has been another year of significant progress for Osirium in which we have achieved record levels in bookings and revenue and further grown our customer base while also taking substantial steps to reach cash breakeven and beyond,” said Stuart McGregor, CEO of Osirium

“We have started the new year with a refocused sales strategy and a partner first sales approach, through which we expect to see increased interest across a wider range of sectors and geographies. As privileged security continues to rise up the agenda of IT professionals globally, we are excited for the future and the continued growth of the business.”

The FTSE 100 was marginally lower on Wednesday as markets braced for the Federal Reserve’s interest rates decision later today.

Contagion from SVB and Credit Suisse appears to be contained which has helped sentiment improve this week.

In addition, bargain hunters are seeing value in FTSE 100 stocks after recent volatility, and their buying pressure will likely continue to provide support for the index.

UK banks were the standout performers as fears about the global banking system abated.

Barclays was up over 3% and NatWest gained more than 2%.

UK CPI

UK CPI unexpectedly rose in February, after months of declines, and raised the prospect of another Bank of England rate hike in the near future.

Higher interest rates will mount pressure on many areas of the economy but will help banking profitability.

Federal Reserve

The Federal Reserve are faced with a difficult decision later today; continue the fight against high level of inflation with a 50 bps rate hike, or accommodate market fears with a 25bps hike, or even no hike at all.

The Federal Reserve is trying carefully engineer a soft landing in the US economy by tightening monetary policy but not causing a recession. Looking to history for a playbook of tightening cycles, this is very difficult to achieve and many expect a recession.

No matter the decision later this evening, one would expect swings in US stocks over night that could spill over into tomorrow’s European session.

Ahead of their proposed IPO this year, Tekcapital portfolio company MicroSalt has issued an operational update and insight into their commerical progress.

Before potentially listing in London this year, MicroSalt have unveiled commercial achievements and summarised their strategic partnerships.

Highlights include the promising signs from the online sales activity in MicroSalt shakers and the ongoing relationship with Kroger.

SaltMe Crisps are stocked in thousands of Kroger stores across the US making the low-sodium products available to millions of health conscious consumers.

Also of note is progress in tests with major food companies. This could lead to significant future revenues.

Earlier this year, MicroSalt launched a media campaign with the National Pancreas Foundation which includes access to approximately 100,000 medical professionals and 170 hospitals.

MicroSalt, a Tekcapital portfolio company, appointed Zeus Capital as their Nomad ahead of a proposed IPO this year.

Despite the recent volatility being largely isolated to US and Swiss banks, the rout in banking stocks was far reaching and UK banks, including NatWest, suffered.

With NatWest shares having given up all of this years gains after a questionable outlook for 2023 in their full year results and external pressures from global banking sector volatility, the company is now at a level that may provide an entry point for investors looking to add the bank to their portfolio.

US & UK Bank valuations

Notwithstanding the sharp drop in banking shares, the valuation of the world’s largest financial institutions have been under the microscope in recent weeks.

The valuation trends of UK banks differ significantly to US banks and much was made of the low price-to-book ratio of some of the US regional banks in the midst of the recent volatility. 

In fact, after the US regional banks had lost around 80-90% of their value, their price-to-book valuation was the same as UK banks’ long term average.

For example, First Republic Bank trades around 0.2x book value, even after losing much of its value. Barclays trades at 0.3x book value and hasn’t traded a premium to book value for years.

NatWest, like most FTSE 100 banks, trades at a discount to their book value. This has become normal since the financial crisis but also suggests poor sentiment attached to UK banks. NatWest trades at 0.7x book value; the same as Lloyds, but slightly higher than Barclays.

Nonetheless, compared to their peers, NatWest will be starting to catch the eye of investors seeking a yield and opportunity for capital appreciation.

NatWest Dividend Yield

After years offering a dismal yield, NatWest has slowly become a company that provides a respectable yield to investors. With a 5.4% historical yield, NatWest has the attributes many income investors would look for. A dividend cover of 2.9 means ample space for increased payouts in the future.

With Natwest currently trading around 6.4x historical earnings, the shares don’t appear to look attractive compared to peers. However, Natwest was not as heavily hit during the recent bout of volatility which suggests the market feels the company deserves a premium valuation to peers.

2023 Outlook

Although total income grew 28.3% to £2,877 million in 2022, the outlook for 2023 was punctuated by a predicted peak in net interest margins.

This will curb enthusiasm for banking shares as it will cap earnings potential.

In addition, the fluid state of the UK economy should be a consideration for NatWest shares, despite forecasts from the OBR and Bank of England improving of late.

Natwest’s earnings growth isn’t the main event, rather relative value global banking averages.