As we have seen with the election of President Trump, and the fallout following a recent major hack, Twitter is an increasingly important part of our lives – like it or loathe it. Indeed, it could be described as a rather Marmite brand. The same may be said of serial stock market entrepreneur David Lenigas, someone who over the past decade or so in the junior and major London markets has to some not so much Marmite, but Pantomime Villain. The evidence for the latter rather than the former has come from a Tweet from the qualified mining engineer, with a “first class Mine Manager’s Certificate”, whose current day job is as Chairman of NQ Minerals (AQSE:NQMI), a Tasmania focused Gold and base metal producer with significant assets and sizeable production.
The tweet “I am going to float Lenigas PLC. Love it or hate it. Don’t care. The world needs a new RAB Capital style investor.”
RAB Capital
For those who are not fully conversant with RAB Capital, it describes itself as “a private company that invests in a wide range of assets based on fundamental analysis… RAB currently targets investments in small companies, both listed and private, and real estate development opportunities.”
This focus on small companies is clearly a hook for Lenigas. But the nub of what is looking to do may come from his following Tweet: “So much to do to rescue a lot of great PLCs out there that can’t raise money because a lot of the brokers have gone bust or shut down. Sad. The UK needs to lead the world on resources investments as it always has.”
A Call To Arms
So, this is something of a call to arms in terms of shaking up the way the City works in the small caps space – there have hardly been any IPO’s so far this year in London, largely because it is almost impossible to get any pre-IPO funding. To paraphrase the words of John Lennon at the launch of Apple Records, “It was set up so that people do not have to get down on their knees in somebody’s office, probably yours,” to raise cash for their business.
The Year Of The Shell
Lenigas has suggested (via Twitter) that he would start this investment vehicle with £10m – assuring us that he has already had pledges to more than match this figure. In fact, it may be the case that he gets backing for much more than this figure. The zeitgeist is very much of initiating / saving small business and this of course runs to listed PLC’s. 2020 to date really has been the Year of The Shell, as well as pharma and tech booming as an antidote to Covid-19 woes.
Greatland Gold / Pires Investments
Indeed, Lenigas already has exposure to one of the best mining minnow growth stories being invested in Greatland Gold (GGP) – a multibagger riser, with the tech space represented by Pires Investments (PIRI) another strong riser this year, in which fellow entrepreneur Chris Akers has been stake building heavily.
As far as what happens with Lenigas PLC is concerned, there is little doubt that the brand has value – £10m and counting. But perhaps the real excitement will be to find out what it invests in, and what type of risk taking it is prepared to take to give UK companies in the resources space the shot in the arm they need to gain exposure to what is shaping up to be a new boom period.
Perhaps the best indication of how this will all play out is when we find out who Lenigas PLC’s backers are, and how much cash they are bringing to the table.
Disclaimer
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