Tekcapital has announced its portfolio company Lucyd will be launching a new line of innovative smart eyewear products following the completion of a $7.4m IPO on the NASDAQ.

Innovative Eyewear is launching the Lucyd^® Lyte Fall ’22 smart eyewear line which further bolsters their range of glasses with smart capabilities such as audio functions and bluetooth. Lucyd smart eyewear is distributed in the US through retailers including Amazon and Walmart.

“Our mission at Lucyd has always strived to be the ‘go-to upgrade’ of your eyewear from sunglasses to prescription frames you wear all-day, everyday day. Simply put, the Lyte Fall ’22 collection comprises our most advanced glasses yet,” said Harrison Gross, Lucyd CEO & Cofounder.

Lucyd is targeting the $5.1 billion US hearables and digital assistant market and will invest the proceeds of this week’s IPO on marketing and developing new products.

Innovative Eyewear IPO Completion

Tekcapital’s IPO of Lucyd subsidiary Innovative Eyewear completed on Wednesday raising a total of $7.35 million, before the deduction of underwriting discounts and offering expenses.

The IPO consisted of 980,000 units, comprised of one share and two warrants with an exercise price of $7.50. As of the close of trade on the NASDAQ last night, each share was worth $5.36 and each warrant closed at $0.70 to total $6.76 per unit.

The IPO underwriters had been given a 45-day option to purchase additional shares/warrants and have taken up warrants to purchase 294,000 shares.

The FTSE 100 dipped on Wednesday after UK inflation increased concerns about domestic demand sending housebuilders lower, along with stocks exposed to the financial health of UK consumers and investors.

The FTSE 100 started the day in positive territory before ebbing into native territory throughout the session as the market digested the implications of higher inflation on rates and spending power.

“Unlike the US, where there is evidence surging prices have started to peak, inflationary pressures look pretty entrenched in the UK with further increases in energy prices still to come,” said AJ Bell financial analyst Danni Hewson.

“The inflation reading will only add to conviction that the Bank of England will hike rates a further 50 basis points at the next opportunity – providing consumers with a double whammy of rising food and energy bills as well as higher mortgage costs.”

The pound dipped against the dollar later in the day and overseas earners found support while UK domestic facing stocks sank, cementing a negative day for the Footsie.

Persimmon was the biggest faller after revealing a drop in first half completions, and took the rest of the housebuilders down with them. Persimmon gave up 5% while Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Developments shed over 2%.

Travel companies and retailers also suffered on concerns consumers ability to make discretionary purchases. Next sold off 1.8% and IAG shares decreased 3%.

Alcohol and Tobacco stocks

As investors sold UK domestic stocks, there was a rotation into defensive sectors and companies with reliable cashflows. British American Tobacco and Diageo were the top two risers as demand for their goods is largely inelastic and holds up well during tougher economic conditions.

Pharma stocks AstraZeneca and Dechra were also among the gainers, adding around 1%.

This morning Sarah Willingham’s expanding cocktail bar group Nightcap (LON:NGHT) has announced that after a very competitive process it has secured a very useful £10m debt refinancing with HSBC.

The facility is a bundling of its various loans totalling £5.5m across its businesses, together with a £4.5m capital expenditure facility for the Group’s additional sites as Nightcap extends its new openings programme across London and major UK cities.

Nightcap is a leading hospitality group in the UK offering unique, premium experiences for Millennial and Gen Z customers at affordable prices.

 The Group incorporates The Cocktail Club, The Adventure Bar Group and Barrio Familia. Nightcap’s executive team is led by prominent hospitality entrepreneur and investor, Sarah Willingham, and boasts a market leading operational and corporate finance track record. 

To date, the Nightcap operates across 31 sites in the UK including London, Birmingham, Exeter, Reading and Cardiff, while another 3 are in the process of refurbishment.

The company also has another 22 sites in various stages of negotiation.

Sarah Willingham, CEO, stated that:

“When we listed Nightcap on AIM and embarked on a company and new site acquisition programme last year, we knew that we would want to consolidate our debt facilities with the right banking partner.

“We have taken our time and at the end of a very competitive process we are delighted to have successfully agreed our Group refinancing. We are over the moon to be partnering with HSBC, who have proven themselves as long-term supporters of our sector. 

“Throughout the process the HSBC team showed an appreciation for our team and performance and a deep understanding of the unique opportunity we are capturing with Nightcap.

“The £10m debt facility will support our growth plans for the coming years as we make good on our mission for Nightcap to become the UK’s leading cocktail bar group.”

The group’s shares, which have been up to 24p within the last year, have been down to 13.50p and are now trading at 14.75p at which level they offer very good upside prospects.

The number of homes Persimmon completed in the first half of 2022 fell to 6,652 from 7,406 in the same period a year ago and revenue fell to £1.69bn from £1.84bn.

Despite completions falling, Persimmon were able to achieve a higher new home average selling price of £245,597 and remained positive on the rest of 2022.

“We continue to expect our volume delivery to be significantly higher in the second half of the year,” said Dean Finch, Persimmon Chief Executive.

As highlighted by the higher average selling prices, Persimmon’s fall in revenue was capped by a strong housing market that maintained prices, even as volumes fell. Indeed, Persimmon managed to increased New housing gross margins to 31%, up from 30.9%, in the face of rising prices and labour costs in the UK economy.

“House prices have proved remarkably robust since the pandemic began, buoyed by pent-up savings and cheap mortgages. Persimmon has gushed cash in this environment and is returning record amounts of it to shareholders,” said Charlie Huggins, Head of Equities at Wealth Club.

However, Huggins suggested that the favourable conditions may be coming to an end as economic conditions begin to soften and house prices dip.

“Persimmon is performing strongly in areas it directly controls. It has one of the best land banks in the industry and has taken steps to improve the quality of its homes and customer service. But, make no mistake – the biggest reason for Persimmon’s success is high house prices, and the general strength of the housing market.”

“That is something over which it has no control, and it could be about to change.”

Persimmon shares were broadly flat, down 0.2% at 1,845p at the time of writing.

Power Metal Resources shares jumped on Tuesday after positive findings from their drilling campaign at the Molopo Farms Complex Project in Botswana. The project is targeting nickel-copper-platinum group elements and today’s announcement confirmed the presence of a large shallow dipping magnetic conductor, which importantly, was mineralised.

The significance of the nickel-sulphide mineralisation findings in the K1-6 drill hole are highlighted below:

7.0m @ 0.443% Ni from 445m, including 0.6m @ 1.69% Ni, 0.55g/t Pt & 0.14g/t Au from 446.7m downhole.¹ This is within a broader mineralised interval from 294.7m (when pentlandite was first logged – assay result of 6606ppm Ni from 294.7 – 295.28m) to the end of the hole at 597.8m (minor sulphides logged – assay result 2852ppm Ni from 597.0 – 597.8m).

Power Metal Resources CEO, Paul Johnson spoke at the UK Investor Magazine Summer Investor Evening 30th June and gave his thoughts on the junior resource sector, emphasising how he felt it could be nearing a bottom. With a 45% jump in Power Metal Resources on Tuesday to add to gains over the last month, it at least proved to be the bottom for the company he heads up.

“Today’s exploration news is, in my view, potentially one of the more significant the Company has released in its 3-year history as Power Metal,” said Paul Johnson of today’s results.

“We have confirmed that drillhole K1-6 at Molopo Farms, drilled during the 2020/2021 programme, intersected the edge of a very large-scale and strong magnetic conductor. Significantly, drillhole K1-6 highlighted that the edge of the magnetic conductor was mineralised, with widespread nickel sulphides demonstrated from assay testing and follow up petrological analysis.”

“As a result of the findings, multiple drillholes planned for the 2022 programme will target the centre of the magnetic conductor where we believe there is the potential for a more strongly mineralised system where the conductive response is considerably stronger and larger.”

With more drill holes planned in the future, investors may receive additional positive news from the junior explorer before long.