SMALL CAP MOVERS: ITM Power slumps; Big Technologies climbs

London’s junior market contains more than three dozen companies large enough to enter the FTSE 250 index, if they made the move to the main market.

There were contrasting fortunes this week for several of this group of AIM’s top class, as well as for some fallen gentry with still-famous names.

ITM strengththe hydrogen electrolysis specialist who was one of AIM’s largest companies earlier this year saw its shares plummet after advising on lower revenues and bigger losses than the market had anticipated.

Revenue forecast was about 41 percent below City consensus, and managed EBITDA losses were 20 percent worse, Berenberg analysts said, warning that “significant downsides remain” because of what they think are potentially optimistic numbers in terms of contract delivery. .

Boss Graham Cooley has agreed to “step aside” after 13 years in the role, the company said, although he will remain in an advisory role.

But the biggest drop of the week was joulewhich falls into the latter category, shrinking to a market cap of less than £10 million after Next walked away from the talks.

The blue-chip retail giant had discussed whether to take up to 25 percent of the shares in the troubled fashion and homeware brand.

Shares in Joules have plunged more than 90 percent in the past year, although it said it is still talking about potentially selling its shares through Next’s online platform and will also continue to work on its own turnaround plan.

Another of the fallen shopkeepers on the market, maternal carehad a better week, with the stock up more than 61 percent to make up for some of its losses this year thanks to more encouraging results.

It reported improved international sales – excluding its Russian business, it was forced to close earlier this year, as well as successful negotiations to ease debt and reduce the pension plan deficit.

Fevertree Drinksanother elite of AIM, was also impressed with the results, pushing shares up more than 14 percent on the day while maintaining its outlook for the year.

Over the course of the week, however, shares in the mixermaker fell 1.4 percent as investors focused on external pressures facing the beverage industry, including the higher ocean freight costs highlighted by the company, as well as other inflation-related headwinds.

Others in the beverage sector have been hit harder, with naked wines tumble after it announced plans for a financial and operational review.

This was accompanied by the departure of a non-executive director, Pratham Ravi, the representative of 10 percent shareholder Punch Card Capital, after less than three weeks.

The next day, however, the online wine retailer said it has appointed Rowan Gormley, the former chief executive officer and a 2.9 percent shareholder, as an unpaid adviser to the board of directors for two to three months while it works on its strategy.

The revised plans will be announced next month along with a more detailed trading update, it said.

Other falls included Trackwise designswhich slipped 52 percent lower after it said it will need additional cash as its main UK electric vehicle manufacturing customer expects lower production volumes this year.

The printed circuit products specialist said it is now reviewing “a number of options” to attract funding and exploring longer-term strategic investment partnerships to capitalize on its “very important” pipeline.

Overall, the AIM index fell more than 2 percent to 862.54 points, much better than the 0.9 percent drop in the FTSE 100.

But there were plenty of good news stories for voters big and small.

Big Technologies, which allow people to monitor technology remotely, has reported rising profits

Major technologieswhich, like Fevertree, is big enough to be in the FTSE 250, rose 27 percent in the week following the release of its half-year results.

You may not have heard too much about this newcomer, but it’s one of the unannounced stars among the often disappointing ‘class of 2021’ IPOs.

The maker of the remote people-monitoring technology for children and criminals, which launched in July last year and did not employ an outside public relations consultant, reported a 14 percent improvement in pre-tax profits to £10,000. 8.8 million while sales were up 38 percent, helped by winning an offender surveillance contract with the New Zealand Department of Corrections.

Founder and chief executive Sara Murray, best known as the founder of Confused.com, said there were strong market drivers and the board was “convinced to achieve further growth in the second half of 2022 and beyond.”

Topper in terms of price gains was Tertiary minerals after it delighted the market with the news that it has signed a partnership with Canadian-listed First Quantum Minerals in connection with two of its copper exploration projects in Zambia.

The agreement “will boost Zambian exploration of Tertiary in these two key license areas,” said Executive Chairman Patrick Cheetham.

Elsewhere in the mining space, Oriole Resources also rose as it reported “extremely exciting” results from the latest drilling in its 90-percent-owned Bibemi gold project in Cameroon.

With technical developments Transense Technologies rolled 26 percent higher after signing a space deal with Meggitt, the former Footsie defense contractor who was gobbled up this month by even bigger US giant Parker-Hannifin.

Under the deal, the pair will work on potential market opportunities for Surface Acoustic Wave technology in the aerospace sector, with the aim of the AIM company licensing to Meggitt by the end of next year.