Randazzo has reportedly agreed to stay on as interim CEO of the company while the MC Mining board looks for his replacement.
The former executive director joined the mining group in November 2019 as a non-executive director, before rising to interim CEO and executive director from February 2021.
Randazzo’s time in the position included the successful stabilisation of MC Mining’s portfolio during a turbulent and challenging time for the firm due to social unrest in South Africa, causing trouble for its operations in the region.
The additional highlights over his tenure included diligent cash management, successful negotiations to extend company debt facilities and vendor payments, alongside the conclusion of a $5.7 million funding package announced by the company on 1 February 2022.
Randazzo also initiated and directed a bankable feasibility study carried out for the group’s Makhado hard coking coal project, and conducted talks with a selection of potential key cornerstone financers for the venture.
“On behalf of the Board I would like to thank Mr Randazzo for his significant contributions as Executive Director,” said MC Mining chairman Khomotso Mosehla.
“Mr Randazzo agreed to serve in this role during a challenging time and has successfully guided MC Mining during difficult business conditions.”
“He has been instrumental in setting the foundation for the Company to complete a funding package for the development of the Makhado Project. The Board is very grateful for his commitment.”
Journeo, a provider of IT services to the transportation industry, has signed a new framework agreement with First Bus UK, based on its SaaS platform and is expected to generate £9m in revenue.
The contract, which is the group’s largest to date and will initially last for three years until March 2025 with the option to extend for another 2 years until March 2027.
For the tracking, video management, and remote condition monitoring of on-vehicle devices, First Bus completed an extensive and successful trial of Journeo’s IoT EDGE car gateway and cloud SaaS portal.
Work on the rollout of the other 3,300 vehicles in their fleet, in addition to the 1,200 that are currently connected, will begin immediately.
Since 2010, Journeo has provided safety and security solutions to First Bus, and under the terms of the agreement, the company will continue to provide the ‘latest high-performance CCTV and safety-critical digital wing mirror systems’, as well as technical design, new technology assessment, and project management services backed up by nationwide technical support.
The total number of vehicles connected and using Journeo’s SaaS platform will exceed 13,000 once the rollout phase is concluded.
The agreement’s contracted revenues were factored into management’s performance expectations for the current fiscal year along with adding to the company’s order book, increasing future revenue visibility.
With a fleet of roughly 5,000 buses, First Bus is the second-largest regional bus operator in the UK, operating around a fifth of local bus services in the deregulated market outside of London.
They have purchased around 2,000 new buses since 2010, which has boosted punctuality, fuel and cost efficiency, and lowered its environmental impact.
First Bus has committed to operating a zero-emission bus fleet by 2035 as a forerunner in the decarbonization future for public transportation and has no plans to purchase any new diesel buses beyond December 2022.
The business currently comprises two divisions, fleet operator solutions and passenger transport infrastructure solutions
Journeo
Journeo collaborates widely with local authorities and global transportation companies, assisting them as their systems converge toward a greener future for smarter cities.
Journeo offers flexible, scalable solutions and services that can interact with existing technology while preparing for future developments thanks to an IoT strategy and open standards, as well as field-proven and reliable engineering.
Using local Wi-Fi or the 4G capacity of the EDGE vehicle gateway, Journeo’s cloud-based SaaS solution gives authorised users verified, high-security access to video and relevant data from any connected car.
Journeo’s machine learning software delivers important in-service performance data for ‘predictive maintenance’ plans, as well as the transfer of vital information in real-time from the vehicle to back-office business systems, making it a secure foundation for linking other vehicle services.
The company has invested over £5 million in R&D over the past four years, allowing it to build and deliver new solutions for the customers’ demands and the challenges of modern public transport.
“We are delighted that First Bus have selected Journeo’s cloud-based video management solution for their entire UK bus fleet. We designed our SaaS solution specifically for the transport sector where secure and scalable communications and open-architecture standards offer a clear path for operators and authorities to connect assets using a range of IoT gateways and sensors to benefit from the data insights that it provides,” commented Russ Singleton, CEO of Journeo.
Journeo shares soared 34% to 142p following the news of its new agreement with First Bus UK on Friday afternoon trade.
Oil and gas company, Oilex received Consent to Operate from the Gujarat Pollution Control Board allowing the company to resume production and gas sales through its Cambay Field in India.
“The re-establishment of production from the Cambay gasfield has occurred soon after the Indian government announced that the price of domestic gas would more than double from $2.9 per mmbtu to $6.1 per mmbtu. This will provide a material benefit to Oilex’s cash flow,” said Roland Wessel, Chief Executive Officer, Oilex.
Invinity Energy Systems shares were up 12.1% to 90.2p in late morning trading on Friday after the energy storage manufacturer celebrated a successful test and validation program by Korean industrial conglomerate Hyosung Heavy Industries.
Hyosung announced a successful comprehensive test of Invinity’s 200 kWh energy storage system, which the group purchased in 2020, and validated the project as an adequate addition to its international portfolio of energy assets.
The MOU was signed at a ceremony in Seoul and was attended by Hyosung President and CEO Takeshi Yokota, Executive President Sung Hoon Ahn and Invinity CEO Larry Zulch.
The MOU detailed Hyosung’s intent to act as the exclusive representative for Invinity’s VS3 products across Korea, with the addition of non-exclusive rights to sell the company’s products in Hyosung’s other international markets.
Invinity said that the MOU specifically targets large-scale public procurement tenders, and also anticipates the possibility of Hyosung manufacturing components of Invinity’s VS3 products.
Invinity commented that Korea was an attractive market for the company’s expansion, due to its high per capita energy use, alongside its constrained grid infrastructure and strong government support for renewable and energy storage projects.
The group added that the rising level of lithium-ion battery fires in storage sites across Korea had opened an attractive market opportunity for non-flammable and durable technologies such as Invinity’s vanadium flow batteries.
The parties are currently on track to develop a concrete agreement based on the terms of the MOU.
“Hyosung’s deep global expertise in large-scale electrical infrastructure complements Invinity’s focus on providing the best alternative to lithium batteries for stationary energy storage,” said Invinity CEO Larry Zulch.
“We are thrilled to be developing a close relationship with Hyosung that has the potential to span supply, support, and even manufacturing in South Korea and other markets around the world.”
“This new relationship supports our corporate strategy of building exclusive relationships with strong partners in important markets where we do not currently have a presence.”
Renalytix shares were down 1% to 2.5p in late morning trading on Friday after the company reported the completion of its $30 million financing package.
The firm announced that the net proceeds of its fundraise would be put towards general working capital purposes and to support company growth.
The financing was comprised of an $8.8 million equity subscription and a subscription for convertible bonds with an aggregate principal amount of $21.2 million, which were announced on 31 March this year.
The kidney disease diagnostics group announced that the equity fundraise consisted of subscriptions for 2,221,794 Ordinary Shares and 103,447 American Depositary Shares (ADS) for a price of approximately 276p per ordinary share and 725c per ADS.
The reported gross proceeds amounted to a total of $26.8 million for the company.
The Australian Government imposed a ban on all exports of aluminium ores and alumina to Russia in a wave of sanctions against the country to protest its invasion of neighbouring state Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
“Rio Tinto has taken on 100% of the capacity and governance of Queensland Alumina Limited until further notice,” said a spokesperson for Rio Tinto.
Rio Tinto holds an 80% stake in QAL, alongside Russian aluminium producer Rusal, which owns the other 20% of the company.
Rusal was founded by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who maintains an interest in the group through Rusal’s parent company EN+ Group, which is listed in London.
Rusal has not released a comment on Rio Tinto’s update at the time of writing.
Rio Tinto shares were up 0.2% to 118.9 AUD in late morning trading on Friday.
CMC Markets shares spiked 9% to 263.3p in early morning trading after the firm’s trading update for the past quarter revealed results at the high end of company projections.
CMC announced an expected FY 2022 net operating income of £280 million, hitting a record performance outside the Covid-19 pandemic.
The financial services company said it currently anticipates a gross leveraged client income of £288, representing a 14% year-on-year decline compared to its £335 million intake in 2021.
CMC also highlighted a projected leveraged trading revenue of £230 million at a 34% year-on-year fall against £349 million in 2021, alongside a 12% lowered non-leveraged trading revenue of £48 million compared to £55 million in 2021.
The company’s operating costs are currently expected to hit £173 million against £168 million in 2021, apparently reflecting higher personnel costs in the course of reaching strategic objectives.
The group cautioned that its expenses were set to climb higher on its scheduled growth in marketing expenses, along with a ramped up investment in personnel.
The firm’s notable updates included its initial internal launch of CMC Invest, the company’s UK non-leveraged platform for its British staff. CMC noted that the platform was scheduled to roll out to the wider market over the upcoming quarter.
An additional investment platform is set for launch in Singapore this year, and CMC confirmed that it was currently eyeing two other jurisdictions to launch from in the next year in an effort to expand the company’s international presence.
“I am delighted to report another year of strong performance both strategically and financially,” said CMC Markets CEO Lord Cruddas.
“Outside of the pandemic year (Financial year ending March 2021), this is a record net operating income result for the company. The performance reflects the ongoing success of our B2B technology partnerships and focus across our leveraged and non-leveraged businesses.”
“This business continues to change as we look to utilise our technology to enter new markets and expand our non-leveraged offering. I look forward to updating investors as the strategy expands over both the short and long-term.”
The owner of The Cocktail Club, the Adventure Bar Group and the Barrio Familia group of bars, Nightcap said it will open The Cocktail Club in Birmingham later this year.
Nightcap will open a flagship location at 31 Temple Street, Birmingham, B2 5DB, following the successful openings of The Cocktail Club venues in Reading and Bristol in recent months.
This new ground-floor location is 4,600 square feet, divided into three bar areas, with a 2:00 a.m. licence Monday through Sunday and a capacity of 450 people.
The Cocktail Club will be the group’s third brand to open in Birmingham, following the Tonight Josephine brand and its enormous outdoor venue, Luna Springs, along with the Adventure Bar Group’s Tonight Josephine brand.
This is The Cocktail Club’s sixth new lease since Nightcap purchased it last year, bringing the total number of locations to sixteen.
Across all of its brands, Nightcap now has 31 sites in its portfolio, with another 25 ‘under offer’ or in legal negotiations, and continues to experience favourable market circumstances for site purchases across the country.
Sarah Willingham, Nightcap CEO said, “From the outset we felt that The Cocktail Club format had the opportunity to successfully operate larger sites.”
“Both Reading and Bristol exceeded our maturity net sales targets within their first three months of operation and we are confident that Birmingham will continue that trajectory with an even larger site.”
“We are continuing our expansion programme as scheduled and just as with the prime areas of London and Cardiff, we are excited to open multiple formats within prime areas of Birmingham, which is one of our main target cities for all of our brands.”
The first agreement is to develop first-in-class cell immunotherapy for cancer patients using commercially available natural killer cells and CARNK cell products with a US-based clinical-stage bio-pharmacy company.
Based on this agreement, Oncimmune will use its unique high-throughput biomarker detection platform, SeroTag, to identify autoantibodies that can predict positive resistance whilst potentially addressing patient clinical response and engineered cell therapy in the haematology and oncology indications of solid tumours.
This new deal illustrates the company’s ImmunoINSIGHTS technology platform’s enormous potential in the engineered cellular treatment market.
The second agreement was made with a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in the United States that is developing a proprietary technology that utilises the immune system’s strength to battle cancer by leveraging their proprietary technology to ‘discover, develop, and commercialise transformative oncology treatments’.
The autoantibodies in patients treated with a virus-like substance that boosts anti-tumour T cells will be explored in this effort.
The project’s goal is to demonstrate how this medication affects the immune system by profiling patients over time.
“We are pleased to announce a further two contracts with our ImmunoINSIGHTS platform which demonstrates the progress that our Commercial team are making from our new US office in Boston,” stated Dr Adam M Hill, CEO, Oncimmune.
“We are particularly excited by the signing of our first contract within the allogenic and CAR-NK market segment which we believe could open up a new opportunity for our services in the engineered cellular therapy space.”
“Unlocking the utility of the ImmunoINSIGHTS platform in these cutting-edge therapies promises to substantially improve clinical outcomes for cancer patients.”
The BHP Group announced an update to its merger with Australian gas company Woodside on Friday, which included an explanatory memorandum and notice of a meeting for the Woodside shareholder vote on 19 May 2022.
Woodside also released the independent expert’s Report, which had drawn the conclusion that the merger was in the best interests of Woodside shareholders, short of a superior proposal.
The BHP Group confirmed that the merger’s completion was on track for 1 June 2022, pending approval by Woodside shareholders.
The company added that BHP would receive 914.8 million newly issued Woodside shares upon the transaction’s completion, and decide a fully franked in specie dividend of Woodside shares to BHP shareholders.
BHP said that company shareholders would be entitled to one Woodside share for each 5.5 BHP shares held on the Record Date.
According to the energy firm, Woodside’s current share price of 25,550c and BHP’s implied value of $23.4 billion would bring an in specie dividend of $4.62, with $1.98 in franking credits set for distribution per BHP share and a total of $10 billion in franking credits.
Woodside is reportedly set to retain its primary listing on the ASX, and is aiming for a standard listing on the LSE, alongside a sponsored Level 3 ADR program on the NYSE once the merger has been closed.
The disclosure release also said that a share sale facility would be in place for eligible BHP shareholders who decide to participate and for shareholders who are also not eligible to receive Woodside shares.
Woodside’s explanatory memorandum for shareholders advocated for the beneficial outcomes of the pending merger with BHP, including an anticipated $400 million in pre-tax synergies per year upon completion of the deal.
“Woodside Shareholders are being asked to consider this transformative opportunity and approve the Merger and the associated issue of New Woodside Shares,” said Woodside chairman Richard Goyder.
“After carefully considering all aspects, benefits and risks of the Merger and the Independent Expert Report, the Woodside Board unanimously recommends that Woodside Shareholders vote in favour of the Merger Resolution at the Meeting.”
“This is a significant decision for Woodside’s long-term future. The case for the proposed Merger is compelling, bringing together the best of both organisations to create a global independent energy company with the scale, diversity and resilience to create value for shareholders and increased ability to navigate the energy transition.”
Woodside shares were down 1.5% to 32.4 AUD and BHP shares were up 1.7% to 51.9 AUD in early morning trading on Friday, following the announcement.
