Anglo Asian Mining have made their third investment in Libero Copper & Gold Corporation as part of a placing to maintain their 19.8% stake in the company.

 Anglo Asian Mining subscribed for 2.6 million new Libero Copper & Gold Corporation shares at CAN 15 cents per share for a total of CAN$390,000 (US$289,000).

Anglo Asian Mining have sought additional exposure to copper and Libero’s exploration projects with their investment in the TSX-listed company. Libber’s exposure includes Mocoa, one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper-molybdenum resources.

Anglo Asian Mining is one of the leading gold and copper producers in Azerbaijan. The company said they expect production of between 54,000oz to 58,000oz gold in 2022.

“We are pleased to make a third investment in Libero in little over a year. With an exciting range of significant copper assets across the Americas, and an experienced management team, we have the upmost confidence in Libero to develop these assets in a swift and responsible manner,” said Anglo Asian CEO Reza Vaziri.

“I look forward to updating our shareholders on Libero’s progress in the coming months.”

Richard Morris, Chief Executive of Tortilla Mexican Grill (LON:MEX), in announcing a Trading Update for the full year to 1 January, declared that:

“We have a proven and highly popular customer proposition. During difficult economic times, restaurants that offer great, consistent food at competitive price points will be the winners, and we sit comfortably in this space.”

It goes without saying that times have been tough out there in the hospitality sector over the last six months or so. 

Therefore the confidence of Morris rings more hopeful than many would have expected.

The £35m capitalised Tortilla Mexican Grill group now has some 82 fast-casual sites worldwide selling freshly made Californian-inspired Mexican cuisine, 65 of which are in the UK operated by the group, 9 are franchised out in the UK and 8 are franchised sites in the Middle East.

The last year was one of high resilience, especially in the face of so many challenges.

The group stated that it was helped by the ongoing strength of its customer proposition and the demand for its sector-leading brands.

Despite the Q4 rail strikes and weather disruptions the group actually saw a 16% like-for-like sales advance over the same period in 2019.

Analyst Anna Barnfather at Liberum Capital rates the group’s shares as a Buy at the current 87p, with a Target Price of 170p.

Her estimates for the last year suggest sales of £58.4m (£48.1m) and an EBITDA of £4.0m (£8.7m).

For the current year Barnfather is going for £69.8m takings and an EBITDA of £5.0m.

The ability of the group to fund itself through current pressures is seen by her estimate of current year end cash of £2.3m (est £0.4m debt).

The group’s management remains confident in its outlook for this year and beyond, and its ability to continue to implement its proven growth strategy. 

Richard Morris stated that:

“Looking ahead, we remain as motivated and enthusiastic as ever about Tortilla’s significant organic growth opportunities in the UK, with the added excitement of growing our already successful franchise partnerships both in the UK and abroad.”

Understandably, with so many external pressures over which its management had no control, this group has withstood and now is ready to push forward again.

The group’s shares reflect the balance sheet ability to resume growth and the continuation of new sites and franchises being rolled out this year.

The FTSE 100 rallied on Friday and closed in on pre-pandemic levels after a robust US jobs number demonstrated strength in the worlds largest economy, at a time inflation rates have began to decline.

The FTSE 100 was trading at 7,689, up 0.71% at the time of writing. A close above 7,672 would be the highest closing level since before the start of the pandemic in 2020.

US futures were surging with the S&P 500 up 1% and NASDAQ up 1.05%.

London-listed equities tracked a US equities higher as investors digested a US jobs report that showed the US unemployment rate falling alongside lower average wage growth, while the headline Non-Farm Payrolls beat expectations.

The US economy added 223,000 jobs in December, beating analyst estimates of 203,000 jobs added.

The Federal Reserve is now contending with falling inflation in a healthy economy, apparently able to withstand high prices and sharply higher interest rates. US CPI data due next week will be closely watched for confirmation of a trend to the downside in inflation figures and hints of what the Fed will do next.

Shell & BP

The strong jobs number helped build on a FTSE 100 rally on Friday that started with strength in oil majors BP & Shell. Shell released an insight into their Q4 results on Friday highlighting strong performance in their gas divisions.

Shell was 1.5% higher and BP was gaining 1.6% at the time of writing.

UK Retail spending

UK food retailers Sainsbury’s, Ocado and Tesco caught the interest of investors on Friday following Kantar data for the Christmas trading period earlier in week continued to provide support for the sector. Attractive results from Next and Greggs also provided evidence of a resilient UK consumer during December.

Tesco is set to report Christmas trading 13th January and Sainbury’s will release their figures 11th January.

Nanoco shares jumped on Friday after the company announced it reached a no fault settlement with Samsung relating to the infringement of Nanoco’s intellectual property.

Nanoco is the manufacturer of cadmium-free quantum dots with a broad range of applications including LED and security tagging.

It was alleged Samsung had infringed a number of patents related to technology used in TV screens and Nanoco filed lawsuits in the US, Germany and China.

A term sheet for a no fault settlement has now been agreed and each party has 30 days to agree the details of a binding agreement.

Nanoco shares were 34% higher at the time of writing.

Shell have released a precursor to their Q4 results reflecting ongoing benefits of higher oil prices due geopolitics, and the negative impact of windfall taxes.

“In its usual teaser of quarterly results Shell has a classic good news/bad news combination to offer shareholders,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“First the good news: the company’s large liquefied natural gas business is expected to have delivered a very strong performance despite lower output on plant outages. This demonstrates just how robust LNG pricing is right now as countries scramble to replace Russian gas.”

“Now for the bad news: lower oil prices will hit the oil products part of the business and Shell has quantified the material impact of freshly introduced windfall taxes in the UK and Europe – which are now expected to run into the billions.”

Shell said new EU and UK levies on profits from hydrocarbon production would cost them around $2 billion.

Nonetheless, Shell shares rose on stronger LNG trading and positive refining margins which are expected to increase in $19 per barrel in Q4, up from $15 per barrel in Q3.

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has lifted profits at Shell and the oil major on course for record earnings in 2022.

Shell shares were trading at 2,338p, up 1.1%, at the time of writing.