Cloudbreak Discovery PLC (LSE:CDL) has been strong all day on the news it had brought in a new partner for its Yak gold project in British Columbia, Canada.
The recent standard market listee is a ‘prospect generator’, which means it will source and transact on mineral properties.
It’s a business model that’s well-known in Canada, but which is less well established in the UK but today’s announcement might be the start of that changing.
Moonbound Mining, a company Cloudbreak said is well known to its management, will spend C$700,000 on the development of the Yak gold project in return for full ownership.
Cloudbreak will retain a 2% net smelter royalty once production starts and receive cash of C$145,000 and 2.7mln shares in Moonbound, which has committed to listing within six months.
Kyler Hardy, Cloudbreak Discovery’s chief executive, said: “Our partnership with Moonbound represents a formalisation of longstanding relationships with the Cloudbreak team.”
Shares rose 16% to 2.15p.
E-Therapeutics gets belated tailwind on lab tests update
E-Therapeutics PLC seems to be getting a delayed tailwind from the announcement yesterday of a new business initiative following successful lab testing of its new lead technology.
“These excellent results show that our proprietary delivery system and siRNA chemistries are competitive relative to peer platforms,” said chief executive Ali Mortazavi.
“This is a material step in the company’s ultimate goal of developing an in-house RNAi pipeline with future scope for early-stage partnering.
e-Therapeutics PLC said it expects to offer “early-stage business development opportunities to potential partners in the coming months” following successful lab testing of its lead technology.
The company uses small interfering RNA, sometimes known as silencing RNA, and couples, or ‘conjugates’ it with a drug technology that ensures it gets to the right cells in the liver.
Shares were up 10% to 39.5p today.
Ince Group and Arden Partners (AIM:ARDN) slip after law firm agrees to buy broker
There are not many big fallers on the market this morning, though two that are in the red are The Ince Group PLC and Arden Partners (AIM:ARDN) after the law firm agreed to take over the stockbroker for roughly GBP10mln.
Ince will pay seven of its shares for every 12 of Arden’s, which based on the previous closing price of 53p per Ince share would value each Arden share at roughly 31p, a premium of 40.5% to their own latest closing share.
Ince chief executive Adrian Biles said the deal “is driven by client need” as companies in the UK and overseas “are telling us that they want to streamline their advisory relationships whilst being able to access the London capital markets”, resulting in the plan to combine lawyers with brokers in the same firm.
This deal was yesterday, but it is an interesting one and Ince shares are down 6% and Arden down 4% today.
Law firms have been allowed to float in the UK since elements of the 2007 Legal Services Act were implemented, with Gordon Dadds being the second to list on AIM, in 2017, before buying Ince in 2018 (advised by Arden) and changing its name the year after.
9.09am: Katoro and Accesso lead early risers
Katoro Gold PLC (AIM:KAT) shares were one of those glittering brightest on Wednesday morning, up 17% to 1.03p as it revealed advisers have been appointed to manage a London flotation for its South African Blyvoor joint venture.
Katoro said it aimed to maintain a 30% interest in the ‘BV Listco’ vehicle, as it is currently known, down from its pre-admission stake of 45% as it looks to recover its GBP1.5mln cash expense invested in the project’s development so far.
The AIM listed gold and nickel exploration and development company said production is expected to begin at Blyvoor within 12 to 18 months from the initial public offering (IPO).
Chief executive Louis Coetzee said: “As a separate standalone entity with a clear corporate strategy, the project has more readily available access to both equity and debt funding opportunities.”
Another early riser was Accesso Technology Group PLC (AIM:ACSO, OTC:LOQPF), which jumped 8% to 920p after giving its revenue guidance another tweak higher following a strong performance in September and October.
The company, which provides, develops and sells queuing technology used at venues such as theme parks, said annual revenues will be “no less” than US$124mln, which is a US$7mln improvement to the forecasts provided less than a month ago.
Cash EBITDA margin for the year are also now expected to exceed 20%, as Accesso said its “profitability continues to improve as the growth in its higher-margin products outpaces those products with lower margins”.
