SMALL CAP MOVERS: IQGeo Group

IQGeo Group plc had one thing to have fun this week: Its first money flow-positive 12 months, as introduced in a Monday buying and selling replace.

The software program provider to the telecoms and networking sectors put in a great exhibiting throughout, with profitable acquisitions and a loyal shopper base contributing to a 66 per cent improve in complete revenues to £44million, with gross revenue margins hitting 60 per cent.

IQGeo stated it expects to report exit annual recurring revenues (ARR) of £21.1million, a close to 50 per cent improve on a relentless foreign money foundation, whereas sustaining a internet retention charge of round 132 per cent for its increasing buyer base, which now contains top-tier telecoms and utility operators.

Cavendish analysts attributed IQGeo’s sturdy efficiency to the group’s ‘wonderful execution of the land and increase technique’ below chief government Richard Petti and chief monetary officer Haywood Chapman, Little marvel then, that shares ran up 20 per cent all through the week.

Technology: IQGeo Group is a software program provider to the telecoms and networking sectors 

If solely the broader market was as cheery.

The AIM All-Share Index fell 1.4 per cent to 739.4p over the five-day buying and selling interval, little question influenced by a shock upside to Wednesday’s inflation learn.

Year-on-year inflation unexpectedly rose to 4 per cent in December 2023 from a virtually two-year low of three.9 per cent in November, surpassing forecasts of three.8 per cent.

It was the primary improve within the inflation charge in ten months, with the most important upward contribution coming from alcohol and tobacco.

Blue chips fared worse than the junior market although, with the FTSE 100 Index flailing 1.8 per cent to 7,488 by Friday.

Strategic Minerals plc was the week’s largest AIM riser.

Shares jumped almost 80 per cent after the most important buyer of its Cobre tailings operation in New Mexico returned with a brand new order for 30,000 tonnes of iron ore.

The (unnamed) buyer halted provides in 2023, knocking a giant gap in SML’s deliveries for the 12 months simply ended, however this contract is 50 per cent greater than something it ordered beforehand and can enhance money flows this 12 months.

Furthermore, SML added it’s in dialogue with a brand new shopper about one other similar-sized take care of particulars to comply with later if an settlement is reached.

A rally on uranium costs (at present at 16-year highs) got here as music to Thor Energy plc’s ears, as did its latest exploration programme in Colorado, the place drilling on the Wedding Bell and Radium Mountain tasks has yielded high-grade uranium outcomes.

Thor Energy’s shares flew 53 per cent larger this week consequently.

EQTEC plc, an rising participant within the on-topic sustainable aviation gas business, was additionally among the many prime risers this week.

Investors have been impressed by its new three way partnership with CompactGTL, a specialist within the manufacturing and use of artificial fuels from gases.

EQTEC’s enterprise with CompactGTL will concentrate on an built-in, waste-to-liquid gas resolution based mostly on EQTEC syngas know-how and CompactGTL’s gas-to-liquid conversion know-how.

Speaking up cutting-edge applied sciences, e-Therapeutics plc stated it has made ‘exceptional progress’ in growing RNAi drug targets utilizing synthetic intelligence (AI) – and doing so in opposition to a tricky monetary backdrop for the sector and the broader economic system.

Looking forward, e-Therapeutics is actively searching for potential partnerships and getting ready for additional medical trials of its promising drug candidates. Shares have been up 24 per cent in response to the promising developments.

Top risers within the heavy industries noticed Harvest Minerals Ltd up 27 per cent, Mosman Oil & Gas Ltd up 24 per cent and Great Western Mining Corp plc up 21 per cent.

Among the most important fallers was Big Technologies plc, which tumbled 37 per cent because it warned revenues from a prisoner tagging contact with a serious buyer in Colombia are coming to an finish.

Versarien was despatched 51 per cent decrease, although this was a technical markdown following a £400,000 share placement.

Bango plc was additionally among the many largest fallers, though maybe undeservedly so: After all, the subscription-based know-how group posted a 62 per cent improve in revenues to $46.1million (£36.3million) as a bunch of latest contracts began to contribute.

Bango signed 9 new long-term contracts for its Digital Vending Machine (DVM), catapulting its telco annual recurring income (ARR) to $8.8million by December 2023, a 76 per cent leap from the earlier 12 months.

Yet underlying earnings got here barely beneath City consensus, and shares have been punished 40 per cent consequently.

Nonetheless, Bango’s administration expects sustained income development within the 12 months forward, with chief government Paul Larbey citing ‘important alternative for the Bango DVM (Digital Vending Machine) to turn out to be adopted because the common normal by retailers to distribute their subscription merchandise by means of oblique channels, akin to telcos’.