AIM has seen an absolute tsunami of IPOs recently, with two, yes two, flotations in as many weeks, bringing year-to-date IPOs to a walloping nine.
Facetiousness aside, Thursday’s pricing of Applied Nutrition at 140p per share gave the Liverpool-based sports nutrition, health and wellness brand a £350million valuation at debut. Pretty good by 2024’s standards.
‘As a homegrown UK business based in Knowsley, Liverpool, we could not be prouder to be listing on the London Stock Exchange,’ chief executive Thomas Ryder said.
Shares immediately bounced up to 145p before cutting back to 139p on Friday. Cornerstone investor Mohsin Issa of Asda fame will surely be hoping for the best.
The wider junior market was out of luck if it was hoping to share some of the vitamins.
Listing: Thursday’s pricing of Applied Nutrition at 140p per share gave the Liverpool-based sports nutrition, health and wellness brand a £350million valuation at debut
The AIM All-Share Index was dragged 2.1 per cent lower as nervousness mounts over Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeve’s upcoming Autumn Budget.
Scheduled for next Wednesday, there are concerns that the Budget will strip away inheritance tax reliefs baked into AIM stocks.
Although Reeves has not indicated that this is on the agenda, anything is on the table as she attempts to plug a £22billion black hole in Britain’s finances.
Energy and mining stocks bucked the bear trend this week with some noteworthy small-cap risers.
Helix Exploration plc added 27 per cent after informing investors it had successfully re-entered and deepened its Clink #1 well at the Ingomar Dome in the Montana Helium Fairway. Chief executive Bo Sears called it a ‘significant milestone’ for the company.
Deltic Energy plc added a bumper 70 per cent to its valuation after disclosing the success of the Selene exploration well, in the North Sea, whilst at the same time announcing a strategic review that aims to take the company in a new direction.
In the face of potentially higher North Sea windfall taxes, Deltic’s new chief executive Andrew Nunn stated that the board is evaluating opportunities in regions with more favourable oil and gas policies.
Seascape Energy Asia plc, an exploration and production company, floated to the top of the AIM movers list with a 160 per cent gain.
This was in response to the company winning a 28 per cent interest in a ‘Small Field Asset Production Sharing Contract’ in the DEWA Complex Cluster off the coast of Sarawak, Malaysia.
With gold prices hitting record high after record high, Ariana Resources plc‘s 23 per cent rally came as no surprise.
A company update was no small beer either – Ariana said it is targeting at least two million ounces of gold at its Dokwe project in Zimbabwe following a review of the internal exploration data.
So what dragged the AIM index lower?
With a touch of controversy, Kooth plc, which is a platform designed to address digital mental health wellbeing, fell more than 30 per cent.
Reports emerged that Kooth’s multi-hundred-million-dollar contract with the state of California to develop mental health app Soluna was under threat from state budget cuts.
Kooth shot back, saying the report ‘fails to raise any legitimate concerns regarding Kooth, its partners or third parties, and simply seeks to undermine the work done by multiple parties within the State to implement a digital mental health strategy to address the youth mental health crisis in California’.
Plexus fell 26 per cent despite reporting a return to profit in its full-year results. Sales revenue of £12.7million was up more than eightfold from the previous year thanks in large part to a rental contract that increased from £5million originally to nearer £8million.
Ethernity Networks was off 40 per cent after a warrant exercise saw the issuance of 195 million shares at 0.1p each (Ethernity’s share price at the start of the week was more than double that).
In the biotech space, Faron Pharmaceuticals Limited fell 17 per cent after posting a trading update.
Faron said it is in talks with several potential partners to fund the Phase III development of its bexmarilimab drug, but has yet to finalise any agreements.
Finally, recruiter Empresaria Group plc dropped 25 per cent after warning of worsening market conditions, saying permanent recruitment demand generally remains ‘extremely subdued’.
This brings Empresaria in line with its larger-cap counterparts Hays plc and Pagegroup plc, which have suffered from tight hiring conditions in 2024.
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