London’s junior market saw a flurry of fundraisings this week, with several companies securing significant investments to drive their growth plans. Helix Exploration led the charge, raising £16million to expand its helium footprint in Oklahoma, with a separate retail offer set to add up to £1.6million more.
The company’s shares still slipped around 21 per cent over the week, but backers are clearly playing the long game. Ilika and Medpal AI each bagged £5-million, though for very different ends. Ilika will use its cash to push the commercial phase of its solid-state batteries, which power everything from medical devices to electric vehicles.
Medpal, off 17 per cent, wants to fund an acquisition plus stock and patient acquisition ahead of the UK launch of the first oral GLP-1 weight-loss pill, oral Wegovy. For all three, it is short-term pain for shareholders in return for longer-term gain.
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This trend shows AIM doing exactly what it is meant to do: handing growth companies a source of capital. In contrast, Oracle Power scraped together £500,000, ostensibly to bankroll exploration of its Australian gold project. The shares fell 23 per cent.
Huddled Group was the biggest faller, down 50 per cent this week, after the AIM-listed online retailer took a major haircut to complete a £1.2million share subscription. Meanwhile, the AIM All-Share enjoyed a second week in the green, gaining 1.2 per cent to sit at 778 on Friday.
The FTSE 100 was up 1.4 per cent. Oxford Biodynamics fell 33 per cent this week after what was, on the face of it, a flurry of good news. Trading is in line with expectations, a new CEO has been appointed who has a stellar reputation, and the company bagged a US contract sales partnership.
However, the devil was buried in the full-year results, and it speaks to anxiety around the company’s cash position. While it has extended the runway beyond next month, OXB did say it is in discussions to refill the coffers. That was enough for traders to take fright and mark down the stock savagely.
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The week’s biggest riser was Empyrean Energy, up 33 per cent, as investors kept chasing the stock higher on progress at the Mako gas field in Indonesia. On June 22, the project operator signed a deal covering engineering, procurement, construction and transport, pushing the $320million development into its execution phase.
Empyrean holds an 8.5% stake in Mako. Celsius Resources shares rose 27% after it agreed to sell its 95% stake in Namibia’s Opuwo cobalt-copper project to a Chinalco unit for US$15 million, or about A$21.7million. The proceeds will fund its Philippine copper-gold pivot, subject to arbitration and shareholder approval.
tinyBuild, the video games publisher and developer, jumped 22 per cent after CEO Alex Nichiporchik splashed his cash to buy 200,000 shares. Executives know their business better than anyone. When they buy with their own money, it signals genuine confidence that the shares are undervalued and prospects are improving.
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EMV Capital has moved to make its investment case easier to grasp, a shift management hopes will help narrow the gap between its share price and the value of the assets it owns. The deep tech and life sciences investor said this week it would deconsolidate two holdings, Glycotest and ProAxsis, after fundraisings cut its stake in each below 50 per cent.
From 30 June, both count as associates rather than subsidiaries. Chief executive Ilian Iliev said the change makes the group easier to understand. With both firms out of the consolidated accounts, the results will more clearly reflect EMV’s core venture capital and fund management operations. That should give shareholders, analysts and co-investors a cleaner read on the underlying value.
The shares trade at more than a 50 per cent discount to last published NAV. As the market continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how these companies perform in the long term. For now, investors seem to be backing growth and innovation, and it will be worth watching how this trend plays out.
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