We start this month’s round-up with news of a bid at just shy of a 50% premium for oil and gas exploration company I3 Energy (I3E:AIM) from US-listed Gran Tierra Energy (GTE:NYSEAMERICAN).
The US firm, which has a market cap of $260 million, is paying roughly $225 million or £174 million for the UK company through a combination of cash and shares.
I3 Energy operates in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, which is one of the priority areas Gran Tierra had earmarked for expansion due to the high quality of the assets in place and access to infrastructure.
The deal will create ‘a more diverse international energy company operating across the Americas in regions with substantial oil and gas production, well-established regulatory regimes, stable contracts, access to markets and attractive fiscal terms’ according to Gran Tierra.
From an energy firm about to end its life as a quoted company to one just starting out on its journey, nano-cap EnergyPathways (EPP:AIM) reported it had submitted a gas storage licence application for its MESH (Marram Energy Storage Hub) project in the Irish Sea.
The ‘energy transition’ firm, which only came to market in December 2023, has ambitions to create a new energy storage facility to provide ‘a secure and dependable supply of natural gas and green hydrogen for the UK market for at least 20 years’.
The MESH facility off the Lancashire coast has the capacity to store some 50 billion cubic feet of gas, around the same as the Rough facility in the North Sea, which is currently the UK’s largest, and enough to heat 2.2 million average UK homes over winter.
LIGHTING UP
There was a double helping of positive news from futuristic-sounding Light Science Technologies (LST:AIM), which won new contracts from an agriculture producer and a customer in the sports entertainment sector.
The Ashbourne, Derbyshire-based micro-cap signed one contract to provide its nurturGROW lighting solution over a 0.5 hectare aeroponic glasshouse in Germany designed to grow leafy greens from the start of 2025.
The company’s Controlled Environment Agriculture division, which includes the nurturGROW system, generated sales of close to £0.5 million in the eight months to the end of July and has a quoted pipeline of over £40 million.
The second contract, for £134,000, takes orders for its Contract Electronics Manufacturing division from the sports entertainment sector to £400,000 this year with the prospect of more orders to come as the customer rolls out more venues in the US.
MICROSOFT TIE-UP EXCITES
Meanwhile, cybersecurity software firm Intercede Group (IGP:AIM) announced it had signed a strategic agreement with tech behemoth Microsoft (MSFT:NASDAQ).
The Lutterworth-based firm, which has a market cap of £100 million against Microsoft’s $3 trillion, will combine its expertise in credential management systems with the Seattle-based giant’s Entra ID to allow administrators to create and register FIDO passkeys on behalf of users.
The deal will enable companies to comply with US federal government security legislation at the highest levels of assurance and is a major coup for Intercede, whose shares leapt 18p or 10% to a 10-year high of 191p on the news.
Continuing in a positive vein, clinical diagnostic firm LungLife AI (LLAI:AIM) shared positive news from the US regarding its LungLB test designed to provide early detection of lung cancer via blood samples.
In January 2023, Medicare established a price of around $2,000 per LungLB test, and this month the California-based micro-cap said it had won ‘a local coverage determination’ for risk-testing of indeterminate lung nodules from the Medicare Administrative Contractor, meaning it can apply for coverage to receive payment from Medicare from the end of September.
TESTING THE WATERS
There was also a positive development for testing and monitoring firm Tan Delta Systems (TAND:AIM), which signed a £200,000 deal with a global engine OEM (original equipment maker) to produce a real-time sensor to measure the condition and degradation of coolants and other fluids.
Tan Delta expects to have the product ready for live trials by the end of this year and is eying potential revenue of £2 million over the next five years.
Unfortunately, that’s where the good news for small-cap investors ends this month as we finish with Sheffield-based linear generator technology firm Libertine Holdings (LIB:AIM).
In June, the firm ended its formal sale process as no bidders had come forward, but it said it had received two offers of investment worth £1 million each, which would provide enough funds to keep the company ticking over until June next year when it hoped to break even.
Ahead of the investment, a firm called Reliant FZC offered to provide a bridging loan of £220,000 in two tranches, but last week Libertine reported it had received no outside funding and only had enough cash to continue operating until the end of this month.
After that, the company ‘may not be able to meet its liabilities as they fall due and it may enter into administration or another form of insolvency procedure, under which the timing or level of return, if any, to shareholders would be uncertain’.
Disclaimer: The author (Ian Conway) owns shares in Tan Delta Systems.
These articles are provided by Shares magazine which is published by AJ Bell Media, a part of AJ Bell. Shares is not written by AJ Bell.
Shares is provided for your general information and use and is not a personal recommendation to invest. It is not intended to be relied upon by you in making or not making any investment decisions. The investments referred to in these articles will not be suitable for all investors. If in doubt please seek appropriate independent financial advice.
Investors acting on the information in these articles do so at their own risk and AJ Bell Media and its staff do not accept liability for losses suffered by investors as a result of their investment decisions.
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