SMALL MOVERS IN CAPITAL CAPITAL: Futura’s breakthroughs in erectile dysfunction fail to captivate investors
It’s rare for a company to take a drug from the clinic to commercial success, but James Barder and his team at Futura Medical have done just that with their fast-acting erectile dysfunction gel, Eroxon.
This week was a decisive week for Futura, as the company posted its first profit, far exceeding expectations.
Analysts have since raised their financial forecasts for the company, buoyed by this success. And the best may be yet to come, as Eroxon approaches its US launch.
Futura Medical’s fast-acting erectile dysfunction gel, Eroxon.
If the company’s choice of partner is anything to go by, Futura could well make a major breakthrough in America.
The company has entered into a partnership with Haleon, a spin-off from GSK and one of the world’s largest consumer healthcare companies.
Eroxon also stands out for being the only ED treatment available over the counter in the US, giving it a significant competitive advantage.
Despite the milestones, Futura’s progress was largely overlooked by the market this week, with shares falling 5% to 36.6p, valuing the company at just over £100m.
However, analysts see much greater potential and are quoting a price/earnings ratio of 125-130p.
In the broader market, the AIM All Share fell one point to 743.68 amid thin trading volumes. Investor interest remained focused on the FTSE 100, which rose 75 points to 8,257.87.
Elsewhere in the small-cap sector, Cara Morocco-focused oil and gas group, appeared to dampen investor expectations after the Anchois-3 pilot hole failed to generate additional funds. The shares fell 49% to 3.37p, a steep fall given that the side road was more of a bonus than crucial to the investment story.
down 43% to 14p, Vector capital has joined a growing list of companies leaving AIM as they struggle with a lack of interest and high listing fees. The company will cease trading on Monday.
Ethernity Networks fell 37% to 0.31p, despite what appeared to be positive announcements. The fall was likely driven by last week’s discounted fundraising round of £540,000 to provide working capital for a US aerospace contract. Despite the sell-off, the milestone payment on the contract suggests the company is in a better position than its share price suggests.
Another case of success masquerading as failure (based on stock price direction and possibly for technical reasons only) was Greatland Gold (down 22% to 5.42p).
On Wednesday, the company announced it is acquiring mining giant Newmont to gain full control of the Havieron gold-copper project, as well as ownership of the nearby Telfer operation.
The $475 million cash and stock deal will create an integrated operation in Western Australia’s Paterson province. The share price jumped slightly as the company tapped the market for equity investments to finance the deal.
Havieron, with a mineral resource of 8.4 million ounces of gold equivalent, is expected to produce 258,000 ounces of the yellow metal per year, while Telfer could produce 426,000 ounces. There is also potential for expansion.
While the decliners made headlines, there were also a few success stories this week.
In the natural resources sector, Orusur Mining saw its share price rise 49.1% to 3.95p after the company announced it would take full ownership of the Anza gold project in Colombia.
The agreement, subject to regulatory approval, includes a 1.5% royalty on net smelter yield (NSR) and a fixed royalty of $75 per ounce for the first 20,000 ounces of gold equivalent produced.
Quantum Blockchain Technologies rose 26% to 0.63p after appointing José Rios as a strategic advisor. Rios, a former Intel executive with 25 years of experience in the tech industry, played a crucial role in Intel’s Blockscale ASIC project for Bitcoin mining and brought valuable expertise to Quantum’s blockchain development efforts.
In the meantime, Blackbird PLC rose 29% to 6.39p after reporting a significant increase in users of its video editing platform, elevate.io, and a reduction in losses in the first half of the year. Users grew from 800 to 1,800 in September following a Google Ads campaign. CEO Ian McDonough highlighted this as a crucial step towards monetising the platform, with new features in the pipeline and a payment gateway expected early next year.
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