Small cap news round-up
Antalya Mining is to buy a 10% stake in Cobre San Rafael, a subsidiary of Explotaciones Gallegas, in order to increase its interest in the Touro copper project in Spain.
The proposed acquisition is part of an earn-in agreement which enables the AIM-listed company to buy up to 80% of Cobre.
Stellar Diamonds
West Africa-focused Stellar Diamonds has conditionally raised about £324,500 by way of a scaled-back placing of 5.9m shares at 5.5p each.
Stellar was also providing qualifying shareholders the opportunity to subscribe for new shares to raise up to about £250,000 at 5.5p each via an open offer.
Tristel
Shares in Tristel were up 10% after reporting a more than threefold increase in its first-half pre-tax profit, with revenue above its targeted range.
"We are progressing satisfactorily with our planned entry into the North American hospital market," said chief executive Paul Swinney.
StatPro Group
StatPro Group has upped its stake in South Africa-based Infovest Consulting (Pty) Ltd to 72.7%, from 51.0%, for about 19.1m rand, or roughly £1.2m.
The increase in shareholding is expected to be earnings enhancing in the current year and the Group will benefit from Infovest's growing revenues and profits," said StatPro.
NAHL Group
NAHL Group, the AIM-listed owner of the National Accident Helpline, saw its shares jump following press reports on the Ministry of Justice's proposed changes to personal injury claims.
As part of the Prisons and Courts Bill unveiled on Thursday, the MoJ has proposed to increase the small claims limit for road traffic accident (RTA) claims to £5,000 and introduce a new small claims threshold of £2,000 for all other personal injury claims. Currently, the small claims limit is £1,000.
Monitise
Digital technology group Monitise has substantially reduced its first-half pre-tax loss, thanks to a hefty drop-off in impairments, and says its transformation programme is nearing completion.
Pre-tax loss was £7.5m, from a loss of £210.5m. This was achieved despite lower revenue and, crucially, lower depreciation, amortisation and impairments of £10.9m, from £179.9m.
BlueRock Diamonds
Shares fell over 8% in BlueRock Diamonds on Monday as the miner said that following an investigation over claims for expenses at its one of its subsidiaries by a former chief executive were “without merit”.
The AIM-listed company said that following legal advice in South Africa it has been advised that based on information currently available to them the “claims are without merit”.
Nostra Terra
Oil and gas explorer Nostra Terra has bought producing assets in the Permian Basin in Texas for £60,000 and has also received $100,000 for the sale of its stake in the Chisholm Trail prospect in Oklahoma.
The Permian Basin assets were bought using the company’s existing cash resources and the leases include a 75% working interest in nine wells across an additional 200 acres in Mitchell County, and 18 future drilling locations.
Empyrean Energy
Oil & gas company Empyrean Energy has received the second and final tranche of funds relating to the sale of its 3% working interest in the Marathon Oil-operated Sugarloaf AMI in Texas.
It had thus received $2.614m, which comprised 50% of the $6.15m held in escrow upon completion of the transaction, less withholding tax of 15%. Sugarloaf AMI was sold to Carrier for $61.5m.
Purplebricks
Shares in online property company Purplebricks are up almost 20% after it raised about £50m at 220p a share to fund its expansion into the US.
It said net proceeds were to enable Purplebricks to launch its business in the US, at first by establishing itself in several key states.
Koovs
Shares in Koovs rose on Thursday as the AIM-listed Indian online fashion retailer said it has launched an athleisure collection called Masaba X Koovs.
The collection designed by Masaba Gupta contains 44 styles for tops, leggings, joggers, hoodies, t-shirts, and shorts and has already sold out.
Edenville Energy
Edenville Energy has secured a coal washing plant and crusher in order to start coal production at its Rukwa project in Tanzania.
The AIM-listed company hopes to complete the purchase of the wash plant and coal crusher soon after its shareholder meeting on 17 March 2017.