Small cap news round-up
AIM-listed Microsaic Systems, the developer of chip-based mass spectrometry instruments, said it increased first-half revenue to £0.47m from £0.23m and announced a plans to raise gross proceeds of up to £5.4m through a placing of ordinary shares to existing and new investors.
The company said it had made “excellent progress in realigning the business strategy” to focus on the pharma market, “where there is a clear opportunity to create integrated products that combine mass spectometry with separation and purification technologies”.
Zinc explorer North River Resources subsidiary's application for a mining licence for its Namibian mining project was further delayed.
North River’s subsidiary NLZM is still currently waiting on the mining application for its Namib project, a restart of a high grade zinc-lead underground mine, from the Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy, following two delays with the government not having provided any revised date or time-frame for a decision.
Guernsey-based emerging markets growth company APG Global admitted its entire share capital on AIM, the London Stock Exchange's junior market, on Friday after previously listing on the Channel Islands Securities Exchange authority (CISE).
The company issued over 78m ordinary shares at 100p per share, which will trade under the ticker APQ.
On 11 August the company listed on CISE with a market capitalisation of £78.1m, which included £60.9m raised by a placing with institutional and other investors.
BlueRock Diamonds is to restart operations at its Kareevlei mine in South Africa after a frustrating few weeks of non-production, with output seen beginning on 29 August.
The company was targeting 20,000 tonnes of volume a month. Initially it would process 30,000-50,000 tonnes of kimberlite stockpiled near the plant.
Mongolian oil explorer Petro Matad reported that the farm-out exit fee received from Royal Dutch Shell’s affiliate contributed to the company’s interim half year profit.
For the six months ended 30 June, the company reported an interim profit of $100,000 in comparison to a $1.74m loss in 2015.
The AIM-listed miner said the profit was due to cash received from BG, which is owned by oil giant Royal Dutch Shell.
AIM-listed IPPlus said it expects to report improved revenue and a modest profit before tax for the full year following better top-line trading.
In a trading update for the year to the end of June, the services company said the full-year result reflects a strong performance by the Ansaback division (incorporating PCI-PAL), which continued to perform in line with the board's expectations, with growth in both revenue and new contract wins.
Energy storage and clear-fuel company ITM Power has inked a fuel contract with Arcola Energy to supply hydrogen at £10/kg.
ITM said the fuel would be supplied from its growing hydrogen refuelling infrastructure, part funded by OLEV, FCH JU and InnovateUK.
Sound Energy has begun a three-phase drill programme of a second well at Tendrara, onshore Morocco.
This followed the success of well TE-6. The latest well, TE-7, was spudded on 25 August.
San Leon Energy has raised about £170.3m, with net proceeds going to complete the OML 18 production agreement. OML 18 is a world-class Nigerian onshore oil and gas asset.
The placing was of about 378.4m shares at premium 45p each.
Tools, equipment and plant hire services company Speedy Hire announced the sale of its large mechanical plant fleet for £14.4m in cash to Ardent Hire Solutions.
As at the end of July, the business had assets with a gross book value of £15.5m. Unaudited financial information for the 12 months ended 31 July shows the fleet generated revenues of about £3.2m and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of approximately £1.9m.