Open Orphan subsidiary hVIVO reported a £5 million study contract win with a European biotechnology company to test its intravenous antiviral candidate in a study on the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

Open Orphan saw its share price surge 8% to 14.5p in late morning trading on Friday after the announcement.

The company anticipates revenues from the contract to be recognised across 2022 and 2023.

RSV currently affects an estimated 50 million people globally and accounts for four million hospitalisations and 75,000 in-hospital deaths of children under five years old.

The study is expected to break new ground in the medical community’s understanding of the disease, in particular concerning adult patients.

Open Orphan and European biotech have reportedly collaborated in previous clinical work conducted by the Venn Breda team.

“I am pleased to announce this £5m contract to test our client’s antiviral candidate using the hVIVO RSV Human Challenge Study Model,” said Open Orphan CEO Yamin ‘Mo’ Khan.

“RSV is a significant threat to public health, and we are delighted to support this European biotech in the development of its antiviral candidate.”

hVIVO Chief Scientific Officer Dr Andrew Catchpole added, “This contract is a further demonstration of the significant value of human challenge studies.”

“Efficacy data provided by the Company following the completion of the study can lead to entry into Phase II as well as optimisation of a Phase III programme.”

“For Big Pharma as well as smaller biotechs, the substantial time and financial savings compared to typical field-based studies is increasingly making human challenge the trial design of choice for achieving early proof of concept data.”

VinaCapital saw its share price increase 0.1% to 502.7p today after it reported dividends would remain the same following a prior 33% rise in its half-year dividend.

The Vietnam-focused venture capital group noted a NAV per share of $8.4, alongside a share price total return over its interim of $6.3.

The company reported a NAV total return per share of 6.9% in the six months until 31 December 2021.

Vinacapital saw a 33% increase in dividends from 6c to 8c in October 2021, which they paid in December 2021.

The dividend announced in October of 8c has remained at 8c for 2022 and is scheduled for payment on 10 May 2022.

The firm’s board declined to raise the dividend until it ascertained its final year results given the current global uncertainties.

Vinacapital stated that its outlook was positive in light of the current geopolitical state, and reported that the long term fundamentals of Vietnam’s economy seem to provide a solid platform for advancement in 2022.

Everyman Media admissions were held back due to closures as a consequence of the pandemic, however with venues reopening and restrictions easing, the group saw a 67% increase to 2m in admissions, ahead of management expectations for the year ended 30 December 2021.

Everyman Media remained closed for 19 weeks, functioned at a reduced capacity for 9 weeks and functioned at full capacity for 24 weeks during 2021.

Revenue was impacted by ticket prices and spending per head on food and beverage.

Ticket prices saw a 3% decrease from £11.81 to £11.44 in 2021. However, spending per head on food and beverage rose 27% to £8.96 compared to £7.08 in 2020.

The group’s revenue increased 102% from £24.2m to £49m in 2021, despite Covid restrictions impacting the operations of the cinema group.

An impairment reversal of £2.5m helped the 88% decrease in operating loss from £18.8m to £2.1m in 2021.

Everyman Media’s market share increased from 4.46% in 2020 to 4.5% in 2021.

The net debt for the cinema group reduced from £8.7m to £8.4m in 2021, however, liquidity is not a problem for the company as cash generation increased from £0.3m to £4.2m in 2021.

In 2022, the company plans to add 4 new venues to its existing 36 venues in Edinburgh, Plymouth, Marlow, and Egham.

Alex Scrimgeour, Chief Executive Officer, Everyman Media Group PLC said, “Despite more twists and turns than Kenneth Branagh’s “Death on the Nile”, these last two years have conclusively proved our belief that Everyman has an enduring place at the hearts of the communities we serve.”

“Thanks in no small part to our loyal customers, we have achieved remarkable levels of admissions, profitability, market share and customer satisfaction since government-imposed restrictions were lifted.”

“We continue to invest in our venues, our people and enhancing the Everyman proposition. Off the back of a return to quasi business as usual, our outlook is increasingly optimistic, consequently we will be looking to accelerate our openings strategy in the short and medium term.”

Everyman Media Group shares were rising 2.3% to 132p with admission rates exceeding expectations.

The tech engineering firm, Smith Group saw shares fall 1% to 1,501p on early morning trade on Friday despite the company’s reported underlying operating profits increase of 11.1% to £189m, with higher orders in H1 2022.

Smith Group saw a 3.4% increase to £1.19bn in underlying revenue compared to the first half of 2021, with revenues of £1.15bn.

General industrial contributed 40% to the revenues with safety and security contributing 32% followed by energy and aerospace adding 21% and 7% respectively.

Aerospace saw the largest growth in revenues with an increase of 16.7% as demand for Flex-Tek and Smith Interconnect aerospace solutions remained strong.

The 5.7% growth in revenues of general industrial came from ‘original equipment and aftermarket growth’ in chemical processing, pulp & paper, and mining segments for John Crane.

Safety and security lost 3.5% in revenues between H1 of ’21 and ’22 due to the performance of Smiths Detection and Smiths Interconnect’s defence related products.

To add to their growth, Smith focused on product development and launched 9 ‘high-impact’ new products, such as space qualified connectors and a new seal for pipelines during H1 2022.

Smith Group gained £1bn through the disposal of Smith Medical to ICU Medical in January 2022, sooner than expected.

With a strong balance sheet, the group managed to pay repay $400m bonds and capital returns and complete over 25% of the £742m share buyback.

The group reported basic EPS of 30.6p compared to 26p in H1 2021. Smith saw ROCE increase from 10.3% to 14%.

Dividend for Smith Group has increased from 11.7p to 12.3p between H1 of 2021 and 2022.

Paul Keel, Group Chief Executive Officer, Smith Group said, “Our performance in the first half demonstrates the meaningful progress we are making against our strategy.  We accelerated Smiths’ organic revenue growth to +3.4% and converted that into even stronger profit and earnings growth, despite supply chain challenges and cost inflation.” 

“Improvement in the first half centred on the levers we are pulling to accelerate our growth and consistently deliver results, underpinned by our focus on continuous operational excellence and investment in our people and culture.” 

“An important milestone for us was completing the sale of Smiths Medical, ahead of schedule.  This has enabled us to simplify our business, focus on our higher-performing, more strategically-aligned industrial technology core, whilst investing for growth, deleveraging and returning surplus capital to our shareholders. ” 

Helios Towers acquired Airtel Africa’s passive infrastructure company in Malawi for $55 million on Friday.

The passive infrastructure company is a telecommunications tower firm that will continue to develop and operate its own equipment on the towers via separate lease agreements with Helios Towers.

The deal will add 723 sites to Helios Towers‘ portfolio and the two companies telecommunications companies have agreed to a 12-year service agreement on the assets exchanged in the transaction.

Helios Towers is set to pay a consideration of $55 million with a 20% contribution from the Old Mutual Infrastructure Investment Trust Fund.

The investment will amount to a local Malawian shareholding worth 20%, in compliance with local telecommunications infrastructure licence requirements.

The deal is expected to bring in revenues of $23 million and an adjusted EBITDA of $8 million over the initial year of ownership.

Helios Towers reportedly anticipates further growth through 60 committed ‘build to suits’ across the coming three years and colocation lease-up.

Helios Towers saw its share price decline 1.1% to 116p in early morning trading on Friday.

The BP share price is up 18.2% year-to-date and is one of the best performers on the FTSE 100 so far in 2022.

The price of oil has been heavily impacted by scarcity fears since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, moving major oil companies such as BP and Shell to suspend their slate of operations in Russia.

The price of oil also jumped 5% on disruption of the Caspian pipeline (CPC) this week, sending scarcity fears surging on the back of yet another layer of complications for global supplies.

The price of Brent Crude hit $119 per barrel in late afternoon trading on 24 March 2022. High oil prices mean BP are currently enjoying the most elevated prices for their products in many years which is likely to lead to a strong set of results for the quarter.

BP Growth Potential

BP shares look primed for further gains in 2022, with shares way off recent highs and current price-to-earnings ratio of 8 and a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 6.1.

The oil producer reported a swing back to profit of £7.5 billion in 2021, reporting its best results in eight years following a devastating loss of £20.3 billion in 2020.

The company has an extremely generous dividend yield of 4.2%, covered 3x.

BP announced a dividend per ordinary share of 21.6c in 2021, amounting to a decline compared to the company’s 26c payout in 2020. The impact of the pandemic meant payouts were curtailed, but investors should look forward to increased dividends going forward.

BP is reportedly set to increase its dividend 4% year-on-year and buy back $4 billion worth of shares until 2025, based on projected prices of $60 per barrel of oil.

The current climate will most likely see the group flush with a surplus of adequate finances to meet its payment goal.

BP Analyst Consensus

The price of Brent Crude is currently at $119 per barrel, and some analysts predict the commodity might exceed heights of $200 over the coming year.

“I don’t think given the way things are going, this is a temporary problem,” Standard Chartered head of oil and gas Alok Sinha commented at a recent Financial Times summit.

“You now have to deal with this as a long term issue which means you need to find alternative supply growth.”

RCMA Group Chairman Doug King weighed in with an estimated price of $250 by the close of 2022.

“This is not transitory. This is going to be a Crude supply shock,” said King.

The spike in Crude oil prices is anything but bad news for BP shares, as the company will benefit from rising scarcity.

“Brent Crude oil at $122 per barrel is going to be a tough one for businesses to stomach as energy costs go through the roof,” says Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“It isn’t all bad news as a higher oil price is good for BP and Shell on the UK stock market.”

Rosneft Stake

BP took a hit when it sold off its 19.75% stake in Rosneft on 27 February 2022, which the company owned since 2013 and was valued at $14 billion.

However, the the BP share price quickly rebounded, and the sale of its stake in the Russian-owned operation does not appear to have left any lasting damage on its stock in the long run.

The Lloyds share price are is up 4% to 49.55p so far in 2022 having enjoyed a higher interest rate environment, but also facing potential headwinds from a cost of living crisis.

Lloyds shares (LON:LLOY) have had a volatile 2022 so far with shares trading in a range from intraday highs of ~56p to 38p.

This has been the result of expectations around interest rates, actual interest rate changes, and the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine.

Nonetheless, Lloyds posted a very respectable set of results for 2021 which showed the bank was benefitting from a growing mortgage business and were enjoying a higher interest rate environment.

In the latest financials, the banking group made a comeback with underlying profits of £8bn in 2021, compared to £2bn.

Lloyds enjoyed a £1.2bn reversal from unnecessary impairment charges provisioned to mitigate default risks on loans because of the pandemic. This was a significant driver of Lloyd’s higher profitability.

In addition, Net Interest Margin rose to 2.54%, up from 2.52% in 2020. This may not sound a great deal, but this 2 basis point increase will help Lloyds bottomline.

Earlier this month, the Bank of England further increased the rates by 0.25% to 0.75%. This means Lloyds are likely to see additional growth to their Net Interest Margin in 2022.

Early this year, Sophie Lund-Yates, Equity Analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown said, “Lloyds has the UK’s biggest branch network, meaning it’s a bread-and-butter current account and lending house.”

“That makes recent interest rate hikes especially welcome, as does the better-than-expected macroeconomic backdrop in the wake of Covid.”

Lloyds was one of the first to increase its mortgage rates following the interest rate hike.

After years of recovery from the financial crisis, Lloyd’s investors will be pleased the bank has started to place more emphasis on a diversified source of income with its wealth management and its real estate venture, Citra Living.

Lloyds Valuation

With a Lloyds share price at 49p, the banking group has a market cap of £34bn.

The company’s forward P/E ratio is 8x and in line with peers in the industry, meaning it is difficult to make argument for multiple expansion in line with peers. Rather, one would expect earnings growth across the sector to ‘lift all boats’.

Lloyds real attraction comes from their dividend and the ability to increase this dividend in the future.

Lloyds has a dividend cover of 3.9x and a yield of 4% highlighting the company’s strong financial position which may lead to a rise in future dividends.

Lund-Yates highlighted the potential for further returns to shareholders through dividends, or even a buybacks:

“It’s [Lloyds] sitting on an unimaginably big pile of excess capital. The top slice of which is coming back to shareholders via buybacks.”

This creates a situation where investors should look to the potential for higher Lloyds dividends as the main driver of Lloyds share price in 2022.