SMALL CAP MOVERS: Private equity interest pumps Glantus shares

Something big was cooking at AIM-listed minnow Glantus Holdings this week.

Investors in the provider of accounts payable automation and analytics solutions saw their shares nearly double between Monday’s opening bell to Wednesday’s early trades.

Pretty good for a small cap that posted a grim earnings report the week prior.

A regulatory announcement posted at 10.40am on Wednesday, just as shares were pumping, provided an answer as to why: Glantus officially confirmed take-private discussions with private equity firm Accel-KKR for a possible cash offer for Glantus’ entire share capital.

The talks are just that for the moment. No official announcement has been made, but Accel-KKR now has until 16 August to make a formal offer.

For now, Glantus’ shares remain 175 per cent higher week on week, carving out a market capitalisation of £11.2million.

If only Glantus’ surge in market value reflected the wider junior market.

The AIM All-Share Index fell 1.8 per cent to 740 this week, essentially matching last week’s underwhelming performance.

Equities in general suffered a few macro headwinds across the past five trading sessions.

Thursday was a brutal day in particular, mainly due to higher interest rate forecasts emerging from financial analysts in the UK.

There was also feedthrough from hot US jobs data, which caused a headache for the US equities markets.

Blue chips witnessed a greater sell-off than the lower end of the market, with FTSE 100 closing the week a painful 3.5 per cent lower, compared to AIM’s 1.8 per cent.

Despite the sluggish week, there were some decent upside stories among the junior market constituents.

Not least i(x) Net Zero, whose shares spiked up as much as 90 per cent higher in Thursday’s early deals as its investee WasteFuel Global, which is developing bio-methanol from agricultural waste, landed a $10million (£7.8million) investment from none other than BP. i(x) closed the week 92 per cent higher at 26p.

Micro-cap life sciences company Aptamer Group had a rollercoaster. The producer of Optimer binders rose close to 25 per cent on Friday after it announced it has won several contracts worth a total of £507,000.

However, this was after plunging 40 per cent on Monday after announcing that it is urgently seeking additional funding to ensure the company’s survival as a going concern.

In the creative segment, Zinc Media climbed 6 per cent throughout the week after the TV, brand and audio production group released an upbeat trading statement on Wednesday.

The company said total revenues were £31million in the first half, already eclipsing the entire 2022 financial year.

Shares in digital mental wellbeing firm Kooth shot up after securing a £148million contract to serve all 13-to-25-year-olds in California.

The London-based company plans to hire more than 200 staff in the next year to support its expanding US infrastructure.

In the energy sector, Petro Matad shot up nearly 60 per cent in Thursday’s early deals as the explorer landed a new permit from the authorities in Mongolia. Come Friday, shares were still 30 per cent in the green.

On the downside, Quadrise fell 40 per cent on Friday, though this was due to an open offer to raise at least £1million ahead of expected first commercial revenues from its lead projects.

Quadrise said it is keeping a focus on its key projects in Morocco, Utah and with Mediterranean Shipping ‘as the most efficient use of our financial resources and provide the fastest and most material pathways to commercialisation’.

Zanaga Iron Ore Company’s shares dropped nearly 40 per cent this week on what looked like a fairly benign funding package designed to limit dilution.

Shard Merchant Capital said it will try to sell 36 million Zanaga shares in three tranches, returning 95 per centof the proceeds. At today’s prices, the mine developer would receive £3.7million. In turn, the additional stock would increase Zanaga’s equity base by just 5.9 per cent.

Vast Resources also fell on news of a funding package, in this instance a £1.7million deal for the placing of 486 million shares at 0.35p apiece.

Vast said it will use the cash for working capital and for its current “corporate obligations”.

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This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk