Woodbois shares were up 0.4% to 4.4p in early afternoon trading on Tuesday after the company reported a 22% jump in Q1 revenue to $5.6 million against $4.6 million in Q1 2021.

The group further noted a gross profit margin rise of 23% from 20% last year, alongside a cash balance of $2.6 million.

Woodbois celebrated its best quarter for volume of product shipped since before the Covid-19 pandemic and highlighted a 24% increase in sawmill production and a 13% climb in veneer production year-on-year.

The company commented that it aimed to grow its exports to the United States and Europe over 2022, with an expected increase in scale and profitability as the group worked out the hurdles in its shipping and production operations.

“The business is now beginning to reap the rewards from the significant investment in capital and human resources over recent periods,” said Woodbois CEO Paul Dolan.

“The operational performance in Q1 continues the growth set out in our 2021 results, which were released on 1^st April 2022.”

“Absent any further material disruption to the shipping routes and container availability we plan to deliver strong quarter-on-quarter growth throughout the remainder of the year.”

Board Reorganisation

Woodbois announced several changes to its management, including the reintroduction of executive chair Paul Dolan as Chief Executive Officer.

Former Chief Executive Officer Federico Tonetti has reportedly been confirmed to leave the firm soon, and non-executive director Graeme Thomson has been appointed as non-executive chair.

“We needed to amend our senior team in order to ensure enhanced and dedicated focus at our key assets in Gabon so as to better deliver our expansion plans,” said Dolan.

The company also highlighted the introduction of Olivier Normand in the newly created role of Gabon Country Chief Operating Officer, who will reportedly be overseeing enhanced processes, oversight and daily functions at the Operation under the supervision of Gabon Operations head Hadi Ghossein.

Gateley, a legal and professional services firm, announced on Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with the Bank of Scotland and HSBC UK for a new revolving credit facility amounting to £30m.

Gateley’s new revolving credit facility provides £30 million in committed funding between the Bank of Scotland and HSBC UK until April 2025.

The dual bank club replaces the group’s previous £8m overdraft arrangements with Bank of Scotland and HSBC UK, giving it more flexibility to fund future growth and acquisitions.

The loan has an interest rate that is 1.95% higher than the SONIA reference rate.

“We are delighted to have agreed this new £30m facility with our long-term supportive banking partners of Bank of Scotland and HSBC UK. The facility will provide us with additional headroom to continue with our stated strategy to grow organically and through acquisitions,” said Rod Waldie, Gateley CEO.

“We continue to position ourselves to invest in and grow our Platforms to provide an increasing breadth of services to our clients.”

“The aggregation of complementary legal and consultancy services on our four market-facing Platforms of Corporate, Business Services, People and Property continues to differentiate Gateley, strengthen our appeal to clients and enhance our resilience.”

Leading global manufacturer of utility-grade energy storage, Invinity Energy Systems received 3 certifications from International Organization for Standardization (ISO) on Tuesday morning.

Following an exhaustive audit process conducted by top global assurance provider SAI-Global, Invinity Energy Systems has been certified as complying with ISO standards for Quality Management (ISO 9001), Environmental Management (ISO 14001), and Health & Safety Management (ISO 45001).

Invinity is now one of just three flow battery manufacturers in the world to hold all three certifications at the same time, confirming the company’s position as a leading producer of utility-grade solutions to the stationary energy storage industry.

International Organization for Standardization

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a significant benchmark institution in the world.

The ISO creates standards to ensure the quality, safety, and efficiency of products, services, and systems. These standards are widely recognised as the gold standard for operational excellence among major industrial companies throughout the world.

Individual criteria to which Invinity has now been certified are critical to the company’s operations.

ISO 9001 specifies the requirements for a company’s quality management system (QMS) and is founded on fundamental quality management principles such as a strong customer focus, senior management involvement and accountability, process orientation, and continuous improvement.

ISO 9001 standards and processes will enable Invinity to provide consistently high-quality products and services to its clients.

An Environmental Management System (EMS) is defined by ISO 14001 as a systematic framework for measuring, managing, and minimising the immediate and long-term environmental impacts of an organization’s goods and operations.

Completing this certification will ensure Invinity’s customers and partners that the company honours its environmental commitments and operates with the least amount of environmental effect feasible.

ISO 45001 is a global standard for occupational health and safety that aims to manage and reduce any health and safety risks linked with Invinity’s activities for all stakeholders. 

ISO 45001 standards, when used in conjunction with regional, national, and industry-specific workplace safety rules, will help Invinity formalise procedures to proactively improve health and safety performance, provide a safe and healthy workplace, and reduce the risk of causing irreversible harm to employees or the company as a whole.

These three certifications demonstrate Invinity’s commitment to not just producing a high-quality product, but also to being a leading supplier in the stationary energy storage sector.

Compliance with these three standards, according to the firm, will speed up Invinity’s commercial development by demonstrating to new customers that Invinity conforms to the highest operational excellence standards without the need for time-consuming and costly due diligence.

Finally, adhering to these ISO standards will aid Invinity’s expansion by laying the solid foundations required to expand and scale the company’s business in a ‘sustainable, responsible, and transparent way’.

Invinity

Invinity was formed in April 2020 by the combination of two industry leaders in the flow battery sector, redT energy plc and Avalon Battery Corporation.

Invinity is active in all major global energy storage markets and has operations all over the world, with over 25 MWh of systems implemented to date across more than 40 sites in 15 countries.

Flow batteries are made by Invinity Energy Systems for large-scale, high-throughput energy storage needs in business, industry, and electrical networks.

Factory-built flow batteries from Invinity run continuously for over 25 years with minimal degradation, making them ideal for the most demanding applications in renewable energy production.

Energy storage systems based on Invinity’s batteries are safe, dependable, and cost-effective, with capacities ranging from under 250 kilowatt-hours to tens of megawatt-hours.

Larry Zulch, Chief Executive Officer, Invinity said, “As Invinity commercialises our long-duration vanadium flow batteries, our focus must progress from simply developing leading technology to superb execution across the entire organisation.”

“We undertook the ISO process determined to meet the highest standards; by obtaining certification in these three major areas, we have demonstrated our ability to achieve them. This is a tremendous accomplishment by our team and I am very proud of the work they have done.”

Invinity Energy Systems’ shares gained 7% to 97.5p following the announcement of multiple ISO certifications being awarded to the company.

The FTSE 250 was down 0.6% to 20,986.8 and the AIM was down 0.4% to 1,055.2 on Tuesday as the breakdown of Russia-Ukraine peace talks and the spiking cost of living dampened investor optimism heading after the easter break.

Spectris shares increased 5.5% to 26,540p after the company reported its divestment of Omega Engineering to Arcline Investment Management, along with its upcoming £300 million share buyback scheme.

“Today’s announcement is yet a further example of our approach to optimising our assets and successfully divesting businesses at multiples higher than the group as a whole,” said Spectris CEO Andrew Heath.

“This disposal, in conjunction with the share buyback programme, delivers clear value for shareholders, whilst also allowing us to take advantage of new growth opportunities for our core businesses, in line with our purpose.”

Harbour Energy shares rose 0.9% to 524.5p after the company reported its exit from the North Falkland Basin, with Navitas scheduled to buy all the shares in Harbour’s indirectly held subsidiary POEPL, via which Harbour holds its rights in the North Falkland Licenses.

JTC shares saw a decline of 6.4% to 758p following the group’s 57.2% drop in operating profits to £9 million compared to £21 million last year.

However, the company noted a pre-tax profits hike of 147.2% to £27.8 million against £11.2 million year-on-year.

The SSP Group fell 5.9% to 230p after Deutsche Bank reduced the stock to a hold from a buy recommendation and cut the firm’s price target to 265p from 333p.

888 shares dipped 3.7% to 210p following Berenberg’s ‘buy’ recommendation, with a price target cut to 500p compared to 545p.

Arrow Exploration Group shares increased 15.3% to 15p after the company reported positive results from its RCE-2 Well, following its spudding on 2 April and its total drilled depth of 9,674 ft from 14 April.

The RCE-2 Well’s casing was finished on 18 April and cementing has been scheduled for 20 April, followed by a production testing programme.

“From the data we have, several of the pay zones are attractive and like the RCE-1 well, we believe more than one pay zone will be productive,” said Arrow Exploration CEO Marshall Abbott.

Empyrean Energy shares rose 10.5% to 11.2p after the firm announced elevated methane levels in its Jade drilling update, supporting the company’s prediction of light oil in the Chinese prospect.

“Drilling operations continue to run smoothly and safely, with progress to date right on schedule,” said Empyrean Energy CEO Tom Kelly.

Sensyne Health shares plummeted following the firm’s proposed delisting from the AIM junior market, pending approval from shareholders at its general meeting on 20 May.

Serabi Gold dropped 13.5% to 51p after its 13% decline in gold production over the first quarter to 7,062 ounces from 8,087 ounces year-on-year had a reported knock-on effect on its full-year production guidance.

“At Palito, the first-quarter production results have been disappointing with 7,062 ounces produced, and while March was a significantly better month with improved grades and production, it was not possible to recover earlier shortfalls in planned production,” said Serabi Gold CEO Mike Hodgson.

Microsaic Systems shares dropped 7.3% to 0.09p following the company’s announcement of a manufacturing services framework and initial contract with Innovenn UK Limited worth £400,000.

The agreement will reportedly see Microsaic refine and miniaturise existing monitoring technology for environmental and human health diagnostics.

“Microsaic’s business model has been transitioned to offer additional services which leverage the considerable depth and breadth of technical design, engineering and delivery expertise within its team,” said Microsaic acting executive chairman Gerard Brandon.

“By offering the skillsets that created the smallest compact mass spectrometer in the world, partner customers such as DeepVerge can outsource their engineering development of existing and new monitoring equipment and concentrate on growing their business.”

FTSE 100 fell 0.4% to 7,586 after a long Easter weekend with pharma and retail shares dragging the index down leaving “little to excite investors” according to Russ Mould, Investment Director, AJ Bell.

Commodity stocks provided some support for the index despite Brent crude falling 1% to $112 a barrel on Tuesday, shaking off concerns of disruption at production facilities in Libya.

Shell and BP shares gained 1.8% to 2,231p and 1.4% to 404p, respectively, as oil remains above the $110 mark.

JPMorgan has also raised Shell and BP’s price target to 2,850p and 500p respectively.

Mining Stocks

Mining and oil shares reaped the benefits of a rotation to shares that will thrive in an inflationary environment.

Mining companies such as Antofagasta, Glencore, Endeavour Mining, Anglo American and Fresnillo shares all gained on the FTSE 100 on Tuesday.

Antofagasta shares lifted 1.4% to 1,700p whilst Ferguson increased 1.5% to 10,170p followed by Glencore gaining 1% to 532p.

Endeavour Mining, Anglo American and Fresnillo shares increased between 0.3%-0.7% to 2,047p, 4,198p, and 806p respectively.

Rolls-Royce shares gained nearly 2% to 95p despite JPMorgan cutting the group’s price target by nearly a half from 140p to 75p.

Rolls-Royce Chairman, Paul Stein told Reuters that the group is likely to receive UK regulatory approval by mid-2024 and generate grid power by 2029, on Tuesday.

Tesco shares were amongst the risers as the supermarket store gained 1.4% to 269p after Berenberg gave it a buy recommendation while reducing the price target to 320p from 327p.

Amongst FTSE 100 losers are Reckitt Benckiser shares which have been tumbling 4% to 5,831p and Intertek Group with shares trading down 3.3% to 4,913p.

Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust lost 3% as US tech stock trading negatively in the pre-market.

ITV shares fell 3% to 74p after Berenberg cuts ITV to a sell recommendation from a hold recommendation with a revised price target cut by half to 64p.

Pharmaceutical Stocks

GlaxoSmithKline dropped 1.5% to 1,746p despite the announcement of the US FDA accepting the company’s application for the review of daprodustat.

Daprodustat is used on patients for the treatment of anaemia of chronic kidney disease.

GSK described the FDA review acceptance as a major milestone after winning regulatory submission acceptance by the European Medicines Agency and the approval of Duvroq, the same drug under a different name, in Japan.

AstraZeneca announced the “priority review” from the FDA for lung cancer antibody drug conjugate Enhertu on Tuesday morning.

Enhertu is developed jointly with Tokyo-based Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca to focus on tumours with mutations of the growth-promoting protein HER2. The conjugate showed a 54.9% tumour response rate.

AstraZeneca shares were trading down 1% to 10,437p despite the news of the priority review of Enhertu.

Pearson shares decreased 1% to 764p after the education publisher announced that its decade old online learning partnership with Arizona State University will come to an end in 2023.

Pearson said the contract expiration will have a minor earnings impact in 2022 and 2023, and that its financial projection for 2022 has not changed.

Prudential shares dropped 1% to 1,057p despite SocGen raising Prudential’s recommendation to buy from hold as it increased its price target to 1,375p from 1,450p.

Growth Forecasts

In other news, the World Bank has cut its growth forecast for 2022 from 4.1% to 3.2% due to increased commodity price pressures as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war.

The pandemic is making a comeback in China with increasing covid cases and city wide lockdowns which has led to March retail sales performing below expectations. However, Q1 2022 GDP growth was 4.8% ahead of expectations for the country.

The IMF’s latest economic forecasts are due at 2pm today which is likely to cause turmoil in the markets.

JTC shares were down 2.9% to 787p in early morning trading on Tuesday, following the fund management services firm’s pre-tax profit climb of 147.2% to £27.8 million from £11.2 million.

The company reported a 28.2% increase in revenue to £147.5 million compared to £115.1 million last year as a result of strong net organic growth of 9.6% and inorganic growth of 18.6%.

JTC saw its EBITDA fall 23.8% to £26.6 million against £34.9 million, along with an EBITDA margin decline of 12.3% to 18% compared to 30.3% in 2021.

The group reported a 57.2% drop in operating profit to £9 million from £21 million, and its earnings per share saw a hike of 127.2% to 20.4p against 9p.

The company highlighted the continued integration of its seven acquisitions in 2021, and confirmed a net organic revenue growth of 8-10% per year in its medium-term guidance for 2022.

“2021 saw JTC execute on its inorganic growth strategy with seven high quality acquisitions completed in the year – the most we have ever achieved in a single calendar year,” said JTC CEO Nigel Le Quesne.

“The quality businesses in Segue, SALI and EFS, also supported our strategic push into the US.”

“Looking ahead, while much of the focus will be on improving and integrating what we have, we also remain of the view that the sector is primed for consolidation and that our proven approach to identifying, securing and integrating high quality acquisitions is a key part of creating long-term value for JTC and our stakeholders.”

The company announced a dividend per share of 7.6p compared to 6.7p, representing a 0.9p increase for 2021.

The E-commerce company, Ascential has signed an agreement to acquire Sellics which is a media execution service provider to challenger brands trading on Amazon, on Tuesday.

Sellics will be incorporated with Ascential’s Digital Commerce business unit’s challenger brand expert Perpetua, leveraging its scaled platform to greatly increase penetration of the European market for this fast-growing customer category.

Sellics’ objective is to make Amazon Advertising for eCommerce firms easier and more time-consuming while also enhancing their advertising performance and growing their business.

The group accomplishes this by combining a cutting-edge software platform for ad optimization and automation with market-leading actionable analytics and competitive information, as well as experienced advertising services.

Through a suite of software tools, the media execution service provider offers challenger companies who sell on Amazon in the US and Europe a mix of advertising spend optimization, campaign automation, and profit analytics.

Sellics’ headquarter is in Berlin and has 90 employees. The company is run by its co-founders Franz Jordan who is the CEO, Josef Vataman the CTO, and CMO Thomas Ropel.

“Sellics’ strong presence in the European challenger market and engineering expertise will accelerate Perpetua’s growth outside its existing US operations, while Perpetua itself will provide exciting growth opportunities for the Sellics’ customer base through its advanced product set,” said Duncan Painter, CEO, Ascential.

Ascential shares lost nearly 1% to 335p after the company announced the acquisition of Sellics.