Rockpool generates ‘exceptional’ returns following sale of Outright Games

Liam Roche
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Rockpool generates ‘exceptional’ returns following sale of Outright Games

EMK Capital, a UK-based private equity fund, will now take a majority stake in Outright

Rockpool, the UK private equity firm, has confirmed the sale of Outright Games Limited from its portfolio, generating an ‘exceptional’ 12.7x net return to equity investors.

In 2016, Rockpool took a majority stake in Outright, the video game publisher, provided growth capital in the process.

“Since then, the business has grown substantially by following a clearly defined organic growth strategy, with offices in Los Angeles, London and Madrid, and a distribution network covering over 25 countries,” said Rockpool in a statement.

Ben Hutchinson, Investment Manager at Rockpool Investments, said the “the superb management team at Outright have managed to create a break-out, market leading success story.”

“We are very proud to have been part of the first chapter of the Outright Games success story and wish both the Company and EMK every success in the future.”

Terry Malham, Chief Executive of Outright Games added: “When founding Outright Games we looked to bring high quality, licensed family-friendly entertainment which we felt the video game sector was lacking. Rockpool’s initial investment was a key part of our success over the past four years, and we are thankful for their support so far.”

The company’s core focus is on creating high-quality games based on well-known brands or characters, including Paw Patrol, Jumanji, PJ Masks and Peppa Pig, from global entertainment companies such as Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon.

Since inception, Outright has sold over 18 million units and has secured a pipeline of strong intellectual property for launch over the coming years.

Following Rockpool’s exit, EMK Capital, a UK-based private equity fund, will now take a majority stake in the company.

FTSE 100 looks upon summer lull

Liam Roche
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FTSE 100 looks upon summer lull

The FTSE 100 was up, then down, early on Tuesday morning as the index struggled for direction. Having lost 0.12% at the time of writing, “investors weighed a weak session on Wall Street overnight and slowing growth in UK consumer spending,” says AJ Bell financial analyst Danni Hewson.

“With the flood of big companies reporting on both sides of the Atlantic slowing to a trickle and with trading volumes seeing their usual summer lull there is a sleepy feel to the markets at present,” Hewson added.

“However, previous experience suggests it might not take much to jolt investors awake, six years ago an August sell-off in China prompted a sharp correction around the globe.”

Mounting concern that the spread of the Delta variant might set back the Chinese recovery, after it became the first major economy to emerge from the pandemic, is a risk the world will be watching.

FTSE 100 Top Movers

Flutter Entertainment (7.65%), Hargreaves Lansdown (2.23%) and Entain (1.28%) are leading the way on the FTSE 100 during the morning session.

At the bottom end, InterContinental Hotels Group (-2.33%), M&G (-1.93%) and Rolls-Royce (-1.51%) lost the most ground out of the UK’s top 100 companies.

Flutter Entertainment

Flutter Entertainment, the parent company of Paddy Power, Sky Bet and others, announced it had increased its profits for H1 as the company exceeded its expectations.

The FTSE 100 group’s pre-tax profit rose by as much as 221% to £77m. 

Flutter Entertainment’s group revenue nearly doubled to £3.05bn, as the number of monthly users grew by 40%.

Used car sales surge over second quarter

Liam Roche
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Used car sales surge over second quarter

Supply of new models remains low on shortage of semiconductor chips

The UK’s used car market boomed during Q2 of this year, according to numbers released on Tuesday by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

In its second best quarter ever, the market grew by 108.6%.

Over the past three months 2,167.504 used vehicles were sold, an increase of 6.6% compared to the same period in 2019, which came before the pandemic.

There was substantial growth in all three months during the last quarter, with April, May and June up 307.4%, 9.9% and 4.6% respectively.

Car makers from all over the world have been forced to reduce their production levels as a result of the global shortage of semiconductor chips.

At the same time, as restrictions eased, but people remained cautious over using public transport, demand for private vehicles saw a resurgence.

Demand for used electric and hybrid vehicles grew between April and June, however, transactions were still made up mostly by petrol cars.

SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said: “This is welcome news for the used car market as transactions rebounded following nationwide lockdowns which closed retailers.”

“More motorists are turning to used cars as supply shortages continue to affect the new car market, and the increased need for personal mobility with people remaining wary of public transport as they return to work.”

“A buoyant used car market is necessary to maintain strong residual values which, in turn, supports new car transactions. We now need to see a similar rebound in new car sales to accelerate the fleet renewal necessary to deliver immediate and continuous improvements in air quality and carbon emissions.”

Flutter Entertainment share price surges as firm continues US expansion

Liam Roche
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0
Flutter Entertainment share price surges as firm continues US expansion

Flutter Entertainment’s pre-tax profit rose by as much as 221% to £77m

Flutter Entertainment (LON:FLTR), the parent company of Paddy Power, Sky Bet and others, announced it had increased its profits for H1 as the company exceeded its expectations.

The FTSE 100 group’s pre-tax profit rose by as much as 221% to £77m.

Flutter Entertainment’s group revenue nearly doubled to £3.05bn, as the number of monthly users grew by 40%.

Reported revenue and earnings (adjusted EBITDA), rose by 99% and 75%, helped by the company’s acquisition of The Stars Group, the Canadian sports betting and online casino firm.

The Flutter Entertainment share price surged by 7.03% early on Tuesday morning.

“The first half of 2021 exceeded our expectations,” said chief executive Peter Jackson. “Our global sports businesses benefitted from further enhancements to our products and the return to more normalised sporting calendars while we sustained our strong performance in gaming despite the challenging comparatives set last year.”

“The company has continued its expansion in the US at pace,” said Neil Shah, director of research at Edison Group, “with its FanDuel product capturing 45% of the online sportsbook market share”.

“This has led to a revenue growth in the market of 159% to £652m ($906m), with over 2.2 million customers having been acquired since sports betting launched at an average CPA of $291. As a result, Flutter US expects to generate positive EBITDA in 2023, however, this is mainly driven by anticipated future state openings, with Arizona and Connecticut next in line to open up.”

However, Flutter Entertainment’s debt level of £2.682bn, making it more difficult for the company too payout any dividends.

“The company has also continued its commitment to safer gambling during this period as it boosted investment in resources and technology to optimise its controls,” Shah says “In addition, the company has pushed campaigns to promote safer gambling and awareness campaigns to the forefront of its strategy as it remains committed to promoting positive customer engagement. The company has already reported a solid start to the second half of the year. With further expansion across critical markets expected, the next six months look positive for the business and its stakeholders.”

Castillo Copper to test-drill 130m-thick target at Arya Prospect

Liam Roche
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Castillo Copper to test-drill 130m-thick target at Arya Prospect

Castillo Copper (LON:CCZ), the copper-focused metal explorer across Australia and Zambia, confirmed on Tuesday that all logistics are ready for drilling to commence at the prime Arya Prospect in September.

In addition, Castillo’s geophysicist consultant has re-interpreted historical aero-electromagnetic and electromagnetic data, which shows the 130m-thick EGO1 anomaly is shallower than initially estimated and verifies the Arya Prospect is a major target in Mt Isa’s copper-belt of Queensland, Australia.

The Castillo Copper share price is up by 3.14% on Tuesday morning.

Highlights

All key logistics have been finalised to enable work to commence at the prime Arya Prospect during September 2021

  • A re-interpretation of legacy data by Castillo’s geophysicist consultant – which enabled better targeting at the Big One Deposit – provides new insights and re-emphasises Arya Prospect’s merits as a major exploration target in Mt Isa’s copper-belt:
  • Re-processing data from AusAEM Survey, commissioned by Geoscience Australia, shows the EG01 anomaly – interpreted to be 130m thick, 1,500m long & 450m wide – is only around 100-200m deep
  • This is a significant finding, as it highlights EG01 is much shallower than the initial ~430m depth estimate based on analysing data from BHP, which discovered the Arya Prospect in the mid-1990s and recommended it be drill-tested
  • Castillo’s geophysicist had previously re-processed aero-magnetic data generated by Mt Isa Mines in the mid-1990s, which highlighted a significant electro-magnetic anomaly proximal to the Arya Prospect in an otherwise quiet magnetic terrain
  • Reconciling known geochemical surface results (up to 1.84% Cu in rock-chips) with newly interpreted magnetic and AEM results, makes the case for test-drilling the Arya Prospect even more compelling ahead of the campaign kicking-off

Simon Paull, Managing Director of Castillo Copper, commented on his excitement for the company to commence drilling the prime Arya Prospect in September. “This campaign is particularly timely as recent work by our geophysicist consultant has interpreted the sizeable 130m-thick EG01 anomaly to be materially shallower than previously estimated.”

“At less than 200m in depth, as opposed to ~430m originally interpreted, this new insight enhances the exploration potential of the Arya Prospect and makes the case for drilling even more compelling.”

Tip update: 29% Lok’nStore share price increase in 15 weeks

Andrew Hore
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Tip update: 29% Lok’nStore share price increase in 15 weeks

More good news from self-storage sites operator Lok’nStore (LON: LOK) which confirms that core revenues are soaring through a combination of new openings, increasing occupancy and price rises.
Self-storage revenues increased by 21% over the year to July 2021, which is well ahead of forecasts. The first half growth rate was 11%. Over the 12-month period, occupancy rates have increased from 69.6% to 85.8%.
Prices were 8.7% higher by the end of the period, but this will have more of an effect in the new financial year. Prices had dipped in the first half.
There are 13 more sites in the pipeline w...

Director dealings: New name new optimism at Kinovo

Andrew Hore
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Director dealings: New name new optimism at Kinovo

Four directors of Kinovo (LON: KINO) have added to their shareholdings following last month’s annual results announcement. The shares were all acquired at 33.5p each, with a total investment of £135,675.
The buying is ahead of the ex-dividend date of 19 August. The final dividend of 0.5p a share was reinstated at the time of the annual results and is being paid on 22 September.
Chief executive David Bullen and Sangita Shah each acquired 150,000 shares, finance director Clive Lovett 75,000 shares and chief operating officer Lee Venables 30,000 shares.
The four directors own 5.49% of Kinovo with...

Speculation over possible Virgin IPO heats up

Liam Roche
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0
Speculation over possible Virgin IPO heats up

Virgin held talks with City investors over the weekend

Reports are circulating that Virgin Atlantic is in talks with institutional investors over the possibility of a float on the London Stock Exchange.

Having first launched in 1984, Virgin Atlantic could be set to earn £160m as it positions itself for an IPO.

At present, the airline is 51% owned by Richard Branston’s Virgin Group, while the remainder is held by Delta Airlines.

Sky reported that Virgin held talks with City investors over the weekend which were well received.

If discussions go smoothly then shares could be put up for sale as early as the autumn.

“Richard Branson isn’t known for making small conservative moves, said Laura Hoy, Equity Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, so speculation about a Virgin Atlantic offering on the London Stock Exchange shouldn’t be shocking. Like all its peers, the airline’s been battered by the pandemic—posting a £659m loss last year.”

Therefore Virgin Atlantic could do with some additional cash to support its balance sheet.

“This is a bit of a strange time to be selling airline shares, though. The sector has been beaten down and pandemic-related uncertainty still lingers. That’s particularly true for long-haul airlines that will be last to see traffic recover. British Airways owner IAG noted that it doesn’t expect to see passenger numbers rise to pre-pandemic levels until 2023 at the earliest,” Hoy added.

A question mark remains over the outlook for the air travel industry. Fully vaccinated Americans are able to travel to Britain without needing to quarantine, however, Brits cannot do the same in the opposite direction.

“The pitch to investors will clearly be the timing of the return to normalised demand and business traffic, with this challenged by concerns over the longevity of government-imposed restrictions,” analysts at Goodbody said in a note. “That debate will be central if the listing is launched as early as the autumn.”

Another Richard Brnason company, Virgin Galactic, put ticket sales for its space flights at a starting price of $450,000 a seat recently.

It follows the news that the company completed its first fully crewed flight to the edge of space last month.

Zephyr Energy share price following completion of Paradox Basin Well

Liam Roche
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0
Zephyr Energy share price following completion of Paradox Basin Well

Zephyr Energy Share Price

The Zephyr Energy share price (LON:ZPHR) jumped by 10.18% on Monday as the company provided an update from the Paradox basin, Utah. It is the latest spike in what has been a volatile past two months for the oil and gas exploration company.

However, over the past six months, the performance of the Zephyr Energy share price has been outstanding, adding 181.86%. While there is still further information to come from the drilling results, today’s news will be well received by investors in the Zephyr Energy share price.

Successful Results

Having finished its drilling operations at the State 16-2LN-CC well at the Paradox Basin, Zephyr Energy said it successfully located the primary Cane Creek reservoir target.

The AIM-listed company also encountered a number of secondary targets.

Some 4,555 ft of Cane Creek reservoir was penetrated including the lateral part of the well, the energy company confirmed.

Initial results also show hydrocarbon charge across the entirety of the Cane Creek reservoir.

“We hit the Cane Creek reservoir target with success and stayed within that reservoir across the entire lateral portion of the well,” said chief executive Colin Harrington. “Now that we’ve set production casing, we have an excellent well bore from which to complete the well and test production from the Cane Creek reservoir – and the log data gathered during drilling operations will help determine the optimal method by which to do so.”

“The evaluation of the logs is underway, and we will keep our shareholders informed in the coming days when the output from that analysis is finalised and the method for completing the well is selected.”

Bitcoin price surges amid controversial US Infrastructure Bill

Liam Roche
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0
Bitcoin price surges amid controversial US Infrastructure Bill

The amendment would specifically pose a threat to Ethereum

The bitcoin price has reached its highest point in nearly three months as the cryptocurrency staged recovery over the past few weeks.

At the time of writing, the price of bitcoin is at £32,968, having been close to £21,000 just three weeks ago.

Other cryptos have joined bitcoin in making a come back, including Ether, which has added nearly £1,000 since 20 July, bringing its market value at the time of writing to £2,243.

The resurgence of bitcoin, and the crypto market more broadly, comes despite the Infrastructure Bill being put forward to the US Senate.

Critics have suggested that the bill would stifle innovation in the crypto space.

Senators worked through the weekend, putting back their summer holidays, to find a compromise on crypto and other disputed amendments.

The amendment would specifically pose a threat to ethereum, the blockchain that supports much of the growing world of decentralised finance.

Balajis Srinivasan, serial entrepreneur and the former chief technology officer of Coinbase, described the bill as “a backdoor Bitcoin ban”, adding that “compliance is impossible”.

“Their intent is to criminalize full nodes, lightning nodes, and most Bitcoin wallets.”

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