With the result of the pandemic being furlough, unemployment or as a best case scenario, work from home, one of the few miracles for many is the opportunity that the stock market offers. It therefore seems curious that there are still some who still chose to undermine attempts by retail investors to earn an alternative income in such troubled times, by slurs, jibes and shock jock clickbait antics. Nevertheless, it would appear that the Year of the SPAC is alive and kicking for now, with new names stepping up onto the podium of the stock exchange leaderboard to be analysed.
First up was Marechale Capital (MAC), a corporate finance firm providing strategic, M&A and advisory services. Here news of a placing, subscription and Issue of equity in which serial entrepreneur Chris Akers has taken a 9.9% understandably lit a fire under the share price. It spiked as much as 150% to close at 3.5p, versus the placing price of 1.25p. Of Akers’ existing investments, it was tech investment vehicle All Active (AAA) which was the main beneficiary, putting on another 6%.
Indeed, MAC being on the map seemed to have a positive read across, not only to other stocks where Mr Akers is an investor, but also to the burgeoning number of SPACs on the junior market. For instance, Mustang Energy (MUST) which is focused on targets in the energy / natural resources space, galloped ahead by 31%.
There was also a surge later in the session at cash Conduity Capital (CCAP), where investors are hoping for a reverse takeover to take place in the next few months. Here Nicholas “Pires” Lee is a NED. To complete a trio of situations with micro market caps, deals expected, or just the “next multi bagger”, was Sabien Technology (SNT) as SPAC / speculative fever hit the market, driving it up 35%.
Keeping it real was Galileo Resources (GLR), with the sale of 9 Kalahari Copper Belt Licences for $3 million to Sandfire Resources and a S$1.5 million subscription into Galileo by Sandfire. Perhaps even better was the detail that the subscription was at 2.68p, a 25% premium to the recent average Galileo share price. In addition, Galileo is set to receive a one-off success payment for the first ore reserve which exceeds 200,000 tonnes of contained copper in the range of US$10 million to US$80 million.
One of the highlights of the recent past on the London market, apart from SPACmania, has been the run of strong performing IPOs. Continuing in this vein has been graphite / graphene specialist Tirupati Graphite (TGR). Here the shares were up 10% in the wake of last week’s well received announcement regarding progress being made in the development of it graphene and technology centre, an initiative set to capture a significant part of a $1bn graphene market.
In the pharma space, there was a positive reaction to a new investor presentation released by Tiziana Life Sciences (TILS). After a weak start, the shares rallied to close up 4% as its updated deck received the thumbs up.
Finally, one of the signs that we are genuinely in a bull run for micro caps, not one meriting the cold water treatment, is the way that many recent placings have seen shares rise sharply from the placing price, or never even trade close to it. In the case of Tertiary Minerals (TYM) investors saw a £450,000 fund raise at 0.26p result in an end of day close of 0.335p. A13% share price rise greeted the news, as the company said it would use the cash to develop its portfolio.
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