finnCap flying as the good times roll in the City
Good times in the City, as evidenced by finnCap raising profits guidance. Meanwhile, the IPOs are starting to come thick and fast.
It has been a good week for flotation news in the City and a good few months for broker finnCap Group PLC (LON:FCAP), which has been trading materially ahead of expectations.
The City firm said its capital markets business recorded its highest level of quarterly deal fees in the October-December quarter – the third quarter of its fiscal year – and continued to enjoy good growth in sales and trading revenue.
The board now expects total income for the year to top £43mln, which would be almost two-thirds higher than in the previous fiscal year.
The shares were up 19% on the week, helped also by the chief executive and chairman buying more shares after the trading update.
City firms are clearly “in a good moment” as foreign football managers are fond of saying and sentiment in the Square Mile would have been boosted by confirmation of more high-profile flotations on their way.
Flotations big and smaller
Car seller Cazoo and Russian retailer Fix Price were the big beasts to announce initial public offerings while in the small-cap world we had ready meals delivery firm Parsley Box and Cyprus-focused Caerus Mineral Resources revving up on the starting grid.
Parsley Box said it intends to give its customers the chance to become shareholders in the initial public offering, which is expected to take place later this month or in early April.
Parsley Box will list on AIM while Caerus said it plans to list on the main market on March 19.
The intention to float follows its acquisition, announced on Friday, of New Cyprus Copper, a company with a number of copper-gold exploration licences in Cyprus.
Elsewhere in the resources sector, Chariot Oil & Gas Limited (LON:CHAR) trundled 22% higher in a week in which it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Moroccan authorities committing to supporting the development of the Anchois Gas Development project.
Petroneft Resources PLC (LON:PTR) was another energy stock winner, rising 33% on the week after it completed its fracking programme of wells on the Sibkrayevskoye and the Lineynoye fields in the Tomsk Oblast, in the Russian Federation.
Initial results from the wells were said to be very encouraging, leading to production increases and opening the door to potential further developments.
Away from the world of mineral resources, investors clambered onto the Futura Medical PLC (LON:FUM) bandwagon after the drug delivery company that focuses on sexual health received a cash injection from a fund managed by Atlantis Investment Management.
Atlantis has agreed to provide £2mln in return for convertible loan notes that can be converted into shares at 20p a pop. Futura shares were up 40% this week at 20.25p.
It also entered into a licensing agreement with a special purpose vehicle owned by Co-High Investment Management for the rights to exclusively develop and commercialise Futura’s topical, gel-based erectile dysfunction treatment MED3000, in China and South East Asia.
Co-High will provide funding currently estimated to be up to £4 million for development and regulatory approval of MED3000 in the region and Futura will be entitled to 50% of regional profits from the commercialisation of MED3000.
Meanwhile, MyHealthChecked PLC (LON:MHC), the personalised healthcare company, was obliged to put out a statement after its shares rose on the back of speculation over the weekend that a significant potential contract is in the pipeline.
The company said it is engaged in commercial discussions with a number of parties for the supply of COVID-19 testing kits, but no contracts have been signed to date.
That did not stop the shares from soaring 62% this week.
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