Ormonde Mining drops after dispute over issuing shares for deal

10.28am: Mining group adjourns annual meeting

Ormonde Mining PLC (LON.ORM) has seen its shares subside after it adjourned its annual meeting after failing to get the support of its largest shareholder for two resolutions relating to issuing new shares.

The dispute causes a problem since Ormonde had planned to use new shares as part payment for what it calls a transformation deal, to acquire a stake of up to 80% in two licences for copper and polymetallic projects in the Republic of the Congo.

It said: “Ormonde has come to the decision to dissolve the AGM as a result of being unable to obtain the support of the Company’s largest shareholder for Resolutions 6 and 7. Resolution 6 would have allowed the Company to issue shares to third parties as consideration for a transaction. Both resolutions are routine annual resolutions for listed companies and similar resolutions have been approved by Ormonde shareholders over recent years.”

The terms of the deal had been under discussion for months and are largely agreed, said the company. “While the transaction could be completed as an all-cash transaction without any shareholder approvals, the company believes the optimal formula is a milestone-based mix of cash and Ormonde shares as consideration for the acquisition, as do the counterparties, demonstrating their confidence in the prospects for the licences and their desire to participate in the value accretion potential for the company. In addition, the board would prefer to retain as much cash in treasury as possible to be put into value-enhancing and on-the-ground activities in the Republic of the Congo.”

It is now working to find a successful resolution but warned: “There can be no certainty that a deal will be concluded.”

Ormonde’s shares are down 22.92% or 0.55p at 1.85p. The latest listings show veteran investor Thomas Anderson as a major shareholder with 21.96%.

9.05am: First London cannabis-sector company climbs again

Another day, another surge in a medical cannabis stock.

MGC Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:MXC) (LON:MXC) (OTCMKTS:MGCLF) has jumped 50.94% or 2.43p to 7.2p after it signed an exclusive supply and distribution agreement with Swiss PharmaCan AG, for the sale and distribution of its food supplement ArtemiC products.

The deal marks the first sales of ArtemiC as a food grade product and provides MGC Pharma direct access to the large and rapidly growing markets that are still reporting high numbers of COVID-19 cases.  It follows a successful clinical trial on 50 COVID-19 patients, to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the anti-inflammatory product, ArtemiC Rescue in December 2020.

MGC was the first cannabis-sector company to float on London’s main market when it joined less than two weeks ago at just 1.475p a share, although it has been listed on the Australian market since 2016.

Making a similar share price leap is Scirocco Energy PLC (LON.SCIR), up 0.48p or 50% to 1.43p. In a strategy update the company said its planned move into the low-carbon market – including renewable energy and energy storage – had lead it to identify some near-term investment opportunities.

It said: “[The] target acquisitions under review are consistent with the company’s goal of acquiring cash generative investments within the European energy market whilst broadening the target market and improving risk/reward….

“Based on the pipeline of opportunities within its new area of focus, the board is targeting an enterprise value invested asset base of £150mln, capable of generating cash flow of circa £20mln per annum, within five years.”

At the current share price the company’s market capitalisation is around £10m.

Proactive news headlines

ANGLE PLC (LON:AGL) has highlighted new research published by the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany which it said has demonstrated the ability of its Parsortix liquid biopsy system to harvest circulating tumour cells (CTCs) with a mesenchymal phenotype, which can be used to detect the metastatic biomarker cysteine-rich angiogenetic inducer 61 (Cyr61) in breast cancer patients.

Supermarket Income REIT PLC (LON:SUPR), the grocery property investment trust, has bought another slew of properties on which supermarket giant Sainsbury’s trades. The company, through its 50%-owned joint venture (JV) with the British Airways pension scheme, has doubled its its ownership of the property portfolio to 51%. The JV paid £115mln for the properties.

Ariana Resources PLC (LON:AAU) told investors it has unearthed new high grade veins across the Arzu North area of the Kiziltepe gold-silver mine in Turkey.

Empire Metals Limited (LON:EEE) has reported the second phase of reverse circulation drilling at the Eclipse gold project in Western Australia saw a total of 4,589 metres of drilling in 44 drill holes confirmed the existence of a number of parallel veins in addition to the main Eclipse vein.

Oriole Resources PLC (LON:ORR) said an independent desktop remote sensing study has identified gold targets at its 90%-owned district-scale licence package in central Cameroon. The AIM-listed company said the study covered the entire 3,592 square kilometre area, with an initial 12 priority gold targets identified for follow-up.

Tirupati Graphite PLC (LON:TGR) said the next stage of its exploration and drilling programme has started across its primary flake graphite projects in Madagascar. 

Helium One Global Ltd (LON:HE1) is counting down to the start of a seismic exploration programme at the Rukwa project in Tanzania.

Scirocco Energy PLC (LON:SCIR) has expanded the scope of its investment strategy which, in March 2019, set out to participate in opportunities for long-term, sustainable value in European energy market.

TomCo Energy PLC (LON:TOM) said it will decide when to restart the TurboShale field testing programme in the second quarter this year.

FastForward Innovations Limited (LON:FFWD) saw its shares advance rapidly after it drew attention to an announcement from investee company Little Green Pharma after it announced a deal to supply medicinal cannabis oil products to enrolled patients in a study by the University of Sydney on the changes to the quality of life of patients with a chronic disease who are prescribed medicinal cannabis.

Panthera Resources PLC (LON:PAT) has engaged law firm Fasken to advise it on a potential dispute with the Republic of India over continued delays to the granting of a prospecting licence for the Bhukia project.

Inspiration Healthcare Group PLC (LON:IHC) said it has achieved a record turnover in the year to January 31.

Brunner Investment Trust PLC (LON:BUT) outperformed its benchmark comparison index in the year to the end of November. It also proposed an increased in the full-year dividend for the 49th year in succession, maintaining its status as a “dividend hero”.

Primary Health Properties PLC (LON:PHP) has reported a strong increase in earnings over 2020 as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic increased demand for its assets as healthcare providers came under strain.

Eurasia Mining PLC (LON:EUA) last night notified investors of the death of Gary Christopher Fitzgerald, a long standing non-executive director.

Sirius Real Estate Limited (LON:SRE) has appointed Kremena Wissel to the newly created executive role of Chief Marketing and Impact Officer with specific responsibility for ESG.

Canadian Overseas Petroleum Ltd (LON:COPL) said a US$65mln senior credit facility has been approved by the lender, described as a ‘US based global investment firm’.

Woodbois Limited (LON:WBI) said it has received a request from Rhino Ventures for the conversion, on a one-to-one basis, of 100,000,000 of its 951,365,095 non-voting ordinary shares into voting ordinary shares after Rhino Ventures disposed of 100,000,000 ordinary shares in the timber company, under an agreement from August 2020. Paul Dolan, chairman and CEO of Woodbois, said: “As a result of these transactions we are pleased to be able to increase our voting ordinary share capital by approximately 7% by converting over 10% of the non-voting ordinary shares. We are grateful for the long-term support of Rhino who will continue to own over 21% of the voting ordinary shares and 100% of the non-voting ordinary shares and we welcome our resulting new shareholder.”

Silence Therapeutics PLC (LON:SLN NASDAQ:SLN) president and CEO Mark Rothera will present a company update at the virtual 2021 SVB Leerink Global Healthcare Conference on Friday, February 26 at 2.20pm (9.20am EST). A live webcast of the presentation can be accessed via the investors section of the company’s website at www.silence-therapeucs.com and an archived replay of the webcast will be made available afterwards.

Franchise Brands PLC (LON:FRAN) executive chairman Stephen Hemsley and chief financial officer Chris Dent will provide a live presentation relating to the company’s final results for 2020 via the Investor Meet Company platform on 9 March 2021 at 11am. Questions can be submitted pre-event or at any time during the live presentation.
https://www.investormeetcompany.com/franchise-brands-plc/register-investor

AdEPT Technology Group PLC (LON:ADT) will on 9 March hold two identical virtual capital markets day presentations. The company said the objective will be to provide “greater context to the AdEPT story and demonstrating the company’s strategy in action”. Available to all existing and potential shareholders, the morning event is intended for institutional investors and the afternoon event is intended for retail investors, which will be on the Investor Meet Company platform, where registration is available here: https://www.investormeetcompany.com/adept-technology-group-plc/register-investor.

Alliance Pharma PLC (LON:APH) will announce its results for 2020 on Tuesday 23 March. A conference call for analysts will be held at 10.30am, with a recorded webcast of the analyst conference call, including investor presentation slides, to be made available during the afternoon at this link: https://webcasting.buchanan.uk.com/broadcast/60180f8da6bfbf43d06ac2ea. The recorded webcast  also be made available at the investor section of Alliance’s website, https://www.alliancepharmaceuticals.com/investors/.

Story by ProactiveInvestors