SMALL CAP MOVERS: Versarien rises as advanced materials group sheds non-core assets
Small-cap advanced materials engineering group Versarien had a week worth celebrating with a host of new international licensing deals announced to the public.
Firstly, Versarien announced the sale of its South Korean factory and equipment to MCK Tech for £604,000, in addition to an exclusive licensing agreement for five patents.
The move is part of Versarien’s strategy to divest non-core assets, including the Korean factory acquired from Hanwha Aerospace in 2020.
The transaction also includes an exclusive license for MCK Tech to use Versarien’s patents in Korea, with payments set at 4.5 percent of sales revenue from products using these patents.
One of Versarien’s companies is Manchester University spin-out 2-DTech. It makes graphene, which is extracted from graphite and consists of pure carbon
Then came the announcement of a five-year licensing agreement with Brazilian multinational Montana.
Montana was granted use of Versarien’s Graphinks branded items, such as dispersions and formulas, for its own products.
The market celebrated, with Versarien shares rising 58 percent throughout the week.
There was less to celebrate in the broader stock market, although there wasn’t much to report either, with the AIM All-Share Index largely flat at 739 at the end of the week.
However, mid-week trading was brisk, with markets revaluing expectations about when the Bank of England will make its first rate cut after an ONS labor market report showed weakening in several areas, including a weaker wage growth.
On the blue chip front, the FTSE 100 hit a three-month high on Wednesday on the back of this data. Although it pulled back a bit in the second half of the week, footsie managed to close over a percent higher.
Immupharma was a top riser in the biotech space. The developer of peptide-based therapies has announced it will participate in the BIO-Europe Spring meeting, touted as a “first partner event” designed to provide biotech companies with the opportunity to present to and connect with investors, together with the global biopharmaceutical community. ‘.
Capital metals led the mining sector, rising 40 percent after Sheffield Resources acquired a 10 percent stake in the mineral sands company as part of a £1.25 million investment at a huge premium.
In the technical room Smartspace software agreed and recommended the terms of a takeover by Sign in Solutions to its shareholders as it was valued at £28.35 million. The shares added 30 percent.
A business update from the supercapacitor manufacturer CAP-XX received a leading response, as the board warned of an urgent need for funding or administration.
“In this case, it is unknown how much value, if any, would be returned to shareholders,” the group admitted. It’s no surprise that shares fell 85 percent.
Speaking of fundraising, communications company LoopUp Group made some worrying comments about the state of small-cap financing on the London Stock Exchange.
The group announced plans to delist AIM to tap private markets for capital. LoopUp’s board unanimously concluded that ‘this proposal to delist and conduct a private fundraising is in the best interests of the group and of our shareholders as a whole’.
Like CAP-XX, LoopUp has some urgent financing needs. According to a trading update, cash flow at the end of the year was £845,000, but the company has a £6 million loan from Bank of Ireland that is due to be repaid in September.
In response, LoopUp shares fell 70 percent.
Blue Star Capital suffered a major shock to the system when his stakes in Dynasty Gaming & Media and Googly Media were revalued at less than £450,000 after combining the two.
Blue Star had made these investments at a combined valuation of approximately £5.45 million. Blue Star shares fell almost 50% after this significant valuation drop.
Shares in second-hand electronics people musicMagpie were also at stake after the announcement of the annual results.
To be honest, it was a music playlist; Although sales fell by 6 percent, tight margin control saw pre-tax profits rise by 15 percent to £7.5 million. For the year until November.
But there was also the matter of debts which increased from £7.9 million to £13.1 million during that period. Shares ultimately took the bearish route, falling 19 percent on Friday.