Argo Blockchain secures future

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Argo Blockchain (LON: ARB) has secured a deal that will reduce the crypto currency miner’s debt by £34m and enable it to continue in business. The shares bounced back from suspension and are two-thirds higher at 6.25p, having been around 8.7p early in the day.

Galaxy Digital Holdings (TSX: GLXY) is acquiring Argo Blockchain’s Helios facility in Texas for £54m and Galaxy will provide a £29m loan to replace current debt. Argo Blockchain will still operate the bitcoin mining machines in the Helios facility.

The two-year hosting agreement includes the provision of electricity by Galaxy via a fixed price purchasing agreement that it will sign. There will also be a hosting fee.

The focus will be growing the two datacentres in Quebec, which are powered by hydroelectricity. These are still owned by Argo Blockchain.

The new loan will be secured on 23,619 Bitmain S191 Pro mining machines at Helios, plus some of the mining machines in Quebec. The initial term is 36 months. The disposal funds and loan will be used to pay £70m of debt and interest, plus other creditors.

Third quarter figures have been delayed, but because these are not required on the Main Market in London Nasdaq trading will also recommence. The company has been warned that the price for the ADSs is required to be above $1 for a minimum of ten consecutive days by 12 June 2023 or the Nasdaq listing will be cancelled.

Innovative Eyewear: a year of progress at the Tekcapital portfolio company

Innovative Eyewear, a Tekcapital portfolio company has released a review of their strategic and commercial progress in 2022 – a year which saw the company list on the NASDAQ and raise approximately $7.35 million.

Innovative Eyewear is the operator of Lucyd® and Nautica® smart eyewear brands.

The company has recorded significant milestones this year including the signing of a global license with the Nautical lifestyle brand, listings on Dick’s Sporting Goods website and securing a retail presence in over 250 outlets.

A number of key hires were also achieved to help accelerate growth. Innovative Eyewear bolstered their sales and marketing department with extensive experience gained in major eyewear and retail companies.

Tekcapital shares were 1% higher at 17.8p at the time of writing.

New Year prospects: Dianomi

The digital advertising market is growing, but the progress in 2022 was slower than previously expected. Investors had anticipated rapid growth from companies in this area, but they have been disappointed.
Targeted digital advertising services provider Dianomi (LON: DNM) says revenues will be flat in 2022 and EBITDA will halve to around £1.6m. Advertisers are not spending as much as forecast, although the US digital advertising market is growing.
Having joined AIM in May 2021, Dianomi raised £5m at 273p a share and soon after that the share price reached 495p. Since then, the share price has b...

New Year prospects: Actual Experience

Digital workplace management platform developer Actual Experience (LON: ACT) is one of the worst performing AIM companies in 2022. The share price has fallen by 94.1% to 1.5p (1.4p/1.6p), making it the ninth worst performer – although some companies that have gone bust are not included.  
The technology came out of Queen Mary University of London. The model is an analytics-as-a-service one. The digital workplace management platform provides human experience insights helping to improve efficiency and it was launched recently. It helps to cope with and provide data for hybrid working. The f...

Aquis weekly movers: Hydrogen Utopia delays Main Market switch

Asimilar (LON: ASLR) has bounced back by 15.4% to 1.875p, following the share price slump in the previous week because investee company Dev Clever (LON: DEV) is leaving the standard list. However, there were no trades reported.

Hydrogen Utopia International (LON: HUI) will not be able to retain its Aquis quotation when it moves to the standard list. The move has been delayed until the publication of a supplementary prospectus. Even so, the share price rose a further 7.77% to 13.875p.

Wishbone Gold (LON: WSBN) has commenced a Magneto Tellurics survey on its interests in Western Australia. Once the survey is completed there will be a further six weeks before the data is analysed. This will help to choose where to drill next year. The share price increased by 4.35% to 4.8p.

The NHS is encouraging the use of the medical cannabis registry, and this helped add 1.94% to the share price of Ananda Developments (LON: ANA) and it ended the week at 0.525p. The acquisition of the remaining stake in DJT Group has been completed so Ananda Developments’ core business is growing and providing medicinal cannabis.

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Fallers

British Honey Company (LON: BHC) has published its 2021 accounts and the latest interim results, enabling trading in the shares of the craft spirits producer to recommence. The share price slumped by 44.4% to 19.75p. In 2021, revenues were £7.96m, but an impairment of the value of the United Distillers business, which is being integrated, meant that the loss was £11.9m. Interim revenues edged up from £2.99m to £3.04m, while the underlying operating loss increased from £1.31m to £1.96m, while there was an exceptional reorganisation cost of £396,000. Annualised cost savings of more than £1m are anticipated.  

Coinsilium Group Ltd (LON: COIN) investee company Greengage Global Ltd is launching an e-money account service in January. The company generated more than £1m in revenues this year. The share price fell 8.57% to 1.6p and it is two-thirds down on the start of the year.

AQRU (LON: AQRU) has acquired an investment in LawBEAM Ltd, which is a legal practice focusing on digital assets. LawBEAM will offer tech-enabled advice to organisations around the world. A new platform is under development and will be launched in 2023. The share price fell 6.8% to 0.685p.

Fuel consumption and emissions reduction additives developer SulNOx Group (LON: SNOX) raised £7650,000 at 11.5p a share. Nistad AS increased its shareholding to 13.1%, and it will introduce SulNOx products to the Scandinavian shipping market. The share price dipped 2.08% to 11.75p.

New Year prospects: Victoria

Floorcoverings and tiles manufacturer Victoria (LON: VCP) has done well despite the poor trading conditions in the past year. A small recovery in the share price since the interim has still left it 56.7% lower since the beginning of 2022 at 520p.
AIM-quoted Victoria has operations in the UK, Europe, Australia and North America. It was originally a UK-based carpet maker, but a change of management led to an acquisition strategy that has expanded the business into areas, including ceramic tiles, hard wood flooring, vinyl tiles, artificial grass and other floorcoverings.
There are factories in ei...

New Year prospects: Portmeirion Group

Ceramic housewares and giftware supplier Portmeirion Group (LON: PMP) has been hit by the weakening consumer market. The international spread of the business has helped, but there have been forecast downgrades and the share price has slumped by 51.2% to 302.5p.
Portmeirion owns a range of well-known ceramics brands including Portmeirion, Spode and Royal Worcester, as well as fragrance and gift brands, such as Nambe and Wax Lyrical. It has its own factories in England and outsources other product manufacture.
This year Portmeirion acquired the AromaWorks brand and other assets from administrato...

AIM weekly movers: Tekmar recovers but no news on strategic investor

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Subsea cable protection services provider Tekmar Group (LON: TGP) is recovering some of its recent losses with a 121% improvement in the share price to 16p, although it has still fallen by more than two-thirds this year. Tekmar has won a contract to supply cable protection systems for the third phase of the Dogger Bank C wind farm in the North Sea. Delivery will start in the third quarter of 2024. Tekmar is already supplying the other phases. There is no news about the strategic review or the potential strategic investor, which has exclusivity until mid-January.

X-ray screening systems developer Image Scan (LON: IGE) is the second-best performer this week following the purchase of at 2.37% stake by investment company Braveheart Investment Group (LON: BRH). The share price has jumped by 94.7% to 1.85p. Braveheart Investment bought 3.25 million shares at 1p a share and it believes that Image Scan has medium-term growth potential despite being loss making. Three Image Scan directors purchased shares following the stake announcement. The chief executive Vincent Deery bought 153,846 shares at 1.3p each and finance director Sarah Atwell King 152,985 shares at 1.2995p each. Chairman Timothy Jackson bought an initial 378,300 shares one day later at 1.85p each.

Shares in MS International (LON: MSI) jumped by 64.83% to 745p after it announced a £22.4m contract to supply new land-based mobile gun systems for air defence. They will be supplied to an overseas customer in 2023. The share price has risen by 247% this year.

LBG Media (LON: LBG) has revised guidance for 2022 and a strong second half recovery is expected. Full year revenues will be £63m. However, Zeus has cut its pre-tax profit forecast by 18% to £13.5m. Net cash has been revised downwards from £46.1m to £31m. The 2023 pre-tax profit forecast has been cut from £20.1m to £17.2m. Even so, the share price is 61.8% higher at 110p, which is 21 times prospective 2022 earnings. Chief executive Solly Solomou bought 50.000 shares at 100p each. In November, he acquired 900,000 shares at 51p each. He owns 42% of the media company.

Composite aerospace parts kits supplier Velocity Composites (LON: VEL) announced a $100m plus work package agreement with GKN Aerospace in Alabama, which provides a significant boost to its entry to the US market. This sparked a 42.6% increase in the share price to 38.5p. The 2017 placing price was 85p. The agreement with GKN, which is an existing client in the UK, covers five years. The new US production facility opens at the beginning of 2023. Once the US is fully up and running the company could move into profit in 2024.  Braveheart Investment took advantage of the sharp jump in the Velocity Compositesshare price to reduce its stake to below 3%. Braveheart Investment took a 4.13% stake on 24 September 2021, and it was trimmed to 3.69% in November.

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Fallers

Shares in molecular diagnostics company Yourgene Health (LON: YGEN) slumped by 81.1% to 0.35p, following a large fundraising. In addition to the £6.4m already raised, a retail offer of up to £1m has been launched at 0.3p a share – it closes on 6 January. The subsidiary in Taiwan is likely to be sold and a strategic investor is being sought. The cash raised should last until the third quarter of 2023. Finance director Barry Hextall bought 3.4 million shares at 0.344p each, taking his stake to four million shares.

Shareholders of Star Phoenix (LON: STA) voted against the removal of the auditor and the appointment of the proposed replacement auditor, which has already started work on auditing the accounts. However, the new auditor has to be appointed by shareholders, so accounts cannot be published. Another general meeting will be held next year. This means that trading in the shares will be suspended on 3 January. The share price slumped by 55.6% to 0.6p.

City of London Group (LON: CIN) shares have fallen a 43.1% to 30p after it revealed that it is seeking shareholder approval for leaving AIM and winding up the company. As part of the liquidation, it will distribute its stake in Recognise Bank to City of London shareholders on a pro rata basis. A cash injection to Recognise Bank provides a valuation of 30p/ City of London Group share for the stake. Shareholders owning three-quarters of the company support the proposals.

Katoro Gold (LON: KAT) says its nominated adviser RFC Ambrian is resigning and a replacement needs to be found by 11 January or trading in the shares will be suspended. The minerals explorer will need to raise cash early next year to fund its iron ore project in Namibia. The share price is 41.7% lower at 0.105p. The par value of the shares is 1p, so it appears that a capital reorganisation will be required in order to issue more shares.

Egaming company Gfinity (LON: GFIN) reported a slightly lower underlying loss of £4.1m in the year to June 2022, down from £4.5m, if the gain on disposal is excluded. Revenues fell by 8% but costs were also reduced. There was a £2.57m cash outflow from operating activities. Gfinity has £2.14m in the bank. Potential deferred consideration is payable based on 30% of revenues generated by recent acquisitions over specific periods. Yet another fundraising appears likely in 2023. There are unexercised warrants that could generate £2.7m, but they are exercisable at 1.25p. The share price slumped 39.3% to 0.575p.

New Year prospects: Likewise Group

Floorcoverings distributor Likewise Group (LON: LIKE) is a consolidator in the floorcoverings sector. An experienced management team provides the expertise to assess acquisitions and integrate them into the group. It is one of around 250 AIM companies whose share prices have at least halved over the past year.
The core market for AIM-quoted Likewise is residential, although there are also commercial customers. Likewise supplies independent retailers and fitters with products sourced from a range of countries.
Likewise chief executive Tony Brewer joined fully listed floorcoverings distributor ...

Crystal Amber plan to revitalise Hurricane Energy

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Activist investment company Crystal Amber (LON: CRS) is requisitioning a general meeting at North Sea oil and gas producer Hurricane Energy (LON: HUR). It wants to remove three directors and replace three of its own nominees with two new directors.

There would be proposals at a general meeting to remove executive directors Anthony Maris and Richard Chaffe, along with chairman Philip Wolfe. Crystal Amber wants Tony Buckingham and Franco Castelli to be appointed to the board. On top of this, David Craik, John Wright and Juan Morera would also leave if the two new Crystal Amber nominees are voted onto the board. All three were nominated by Crystal Amber and the first two were appointed after a previous general meeting requisition.

This would mean that there would still be a majority of independent directors on the board. Tony Buckingham and Franco Castelli run Albion Energy, so they have sector expertise.

Formal sale process

A potential bid of 7.7p a share was rejected by Hurricane Energy, but this sparked a formal sale process that has led to other potential bid approaches. They have until 7 January to submit bids. Hurricane Energy has also said that it will return $70m to shareholders, which is equivalent to 3.1p a share, if there is no successful bid.

Net cash is expected to be $118m at the end of 2022 and Crystal Amber believes that the Lancaster field can continue production until the second quarter of 2025. Crystal Amber is supportive of the cash distribution. There are also $370m of tax losses.

The proposed directors believe that there is substantial potential in the Hurricane Energy interests and attracting new investment would enable them to be exploited.

Albion Energy would be granted an option equivalent to 5% of Hurricane Energy at 0.1p a share. A further 10% would be under option at 10p a share. In order to take up these options, Hurricane Energy would have to raise $250m for drilling by July 2023.

The Hurricane Energy share price rose 0.17p to 7.78p, which values the company at £152m. Crystal Amber is unchanged at 97.5p.