Economic and Market News for 1 September 2020

Jangada Mines welcomed the release of positive assay results from drilling conducted by 17.7%-owned ValOre Metals at its Pedra Branca platinum group elements project in northeastern Brazil....

Mining group Alien Metals said it had appointed technical director Bill Brodie Good as its chief executive. Good had been a director of the company since July 2019 and heavily involved in its...

Mining investment group Metal Tiger said it had appointed Adrian Bock as its new chief financial officer. Bock was recently CFO of D.light Design, which provided solar power solutions to...

Clean meat sector investor Agronomics said it had tipped €3m into a €15m financing round launched by Finish alternative protein producer Solar Foods. The investment gave Agronomics a 5.35% equity...

Karelian Diamond Resources said it had commenced a fieldwork exploration programme on its Lahtojoki South exploration permit, adjacent to its Lahtojoki diamond deposit in the Kaavi region of...

Power utility SSE said it had agreed to sell its 25.1% stake in the 367 megawatt Walney offshore wind farm to Greencoat UK Wind for £350m. SSE said the sale marked the first stage of a plan stated...

Cognitive assessment software provider Cambridge Cognition said it had won a £2m contract as the cognitive assessment partner for three late phase clinical trials for a pharmaceutical company's...

Oil company San Leon Energy said it had agreed to invest $7.5m by way of a loan to Decklar Petroleum, the Nigerian subsidiary of Toronto-listed Asian Mineral Resources. Decklar was the holder of a...

Property investor Urban Logistics REIT said it could potentially raise equity to help fund an acquisitions pipeline estimated to be worth around £389m. The pipeline comprised 33 assets with a...

Investment management company CIP Merchant Capital said it sold its stake in Circassia, a biopharmaceutical company, for about £3.9m. The sale price resulted in a net profit of £1.1m for the...

Life and pensions Chesnara confirmed that it had received regulatory approval to complete its acquisition of the Dutch insurance portfolio of Belgian-owned Argenta Bank-en Verzekeringsgroep. All...

Hydrogen power generation technologies provider AFC Energy said it had received a contract to sell a 100kW H-PowerTM alkaline fuel cell system to Forschungszentrum Julich. Jülich would use the...

Mining group Panthera Resources said it had completed a planned sale of its interest in the Labola gold project in Burkina Faso to Moydow. However, a sale of the Kalaka gold project in Mali to...

The UK manufacturing purchasing managers' index was nudged down to 55.2, according to a 'final' reading from IHS Markit. The figure was slightly below the 55.3 preliminary 'flash' reading for...

Battery storage fund Gresham House Energy Storage Fund reported flat net asset value total return in the first half of the year, but said it remained on track to double its capacity by the end of...

Image Scan, a provider fo X-ray imaging for the security and industrial markets, said profits would be ahead of current market expectations amid better-than-expected margins. While the year-end...

Mining group Savannah Resources said it had agreed to sell its copper projects in Oman to Sydney-listed Force Commodities. Savannah said it would received 50m Force shares at 1c each, plus...

Telecom group Vodafone said it had agreed to complete a merger with Bharti Airtel of their telecom tower assets in India. Vodafone said it would end up with 28.2% of the combined company, in...

Cruise operator Carnival said its Seabourn fleet cancelled additional voyages for three cruise ships as a part of its pause in global ship operations. Seabourn Ovation, Seabourn Encore, and...

Mineral exploration and development company Kodal Minerals said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Sinohydro, to develop its Bougouni lithium project in southern Mali. Chinese...

Over-50s insurance and travel services provider Saga said it was planning to raise £150m from an equity raising, a large portion of which would include a strategic investment by former chief...

Gold producer Hummingbird Resources said it had completed the acquisition of the Kouroussa gold project, located in Guinea. The company said it was awaiting to be awarded the mining licence for...

Clean technology company Verditek said it had appointed Tim Bowen as its new chief financial office, effective immediately. Bowen was previously CFO of Indian renewable energy group Greenko. He...

Drug delivery system developer N4 Pharma said it had appointed a unit of Dutch group Ardena as a contract development and manufacturing organisation partner for its Nuvec device. The contract,...

Electronics components manufacturer TT Electronics confirmed its involvement in the trial of a non-clinical Covid-19 screening device at Heathrow airport in London. TT Electronics said it had been...

Africa-focused oil company Tower Resources sad it had agreed a six-month loan facility of $0.5m with Shard Merchant Capital and would also raise $0.2m from a share issue. In addition, Tower...

Construction materials group SigmaRoc said it had agreed to acquire the remaining 60% of Welsh quarrying company GDH that it didn't already own for £7.5m. The acquisition agreement followed the...

Music and audio products group Focusrite said it had appointed Sally McKone as its new chief financial officer. McKone was most recently finance and IT director for Precision Engineering, a...

Diamond producer Gem Diamonds said it had recovered a 233 carat type II white diamond from the Letseng mine in Lesotho. 'This follows the recent recovery of a high quality 442 carat Type II...

Real estate portal OnTheMarket said it had appointed Jason Tebb as its new chief executive, effective from 14 December. Tebb was previously chief operating officer of property group Ulitmate...

Homewares retailer Dunelm reported a rise in sales in July and August, owing to pent up demand following pandemic-led store closures. Sales had been strong in the last two months, with total year...

Wealth manger M&G , which was recently spun out of insurer Prudential, said it had completed its planned acquisition of Ascentric's UK wealth management platform from Royal London. The deal,...

Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca reported positive clinical results for its drug to treat patients with chronic kidney disease with and without type-2 diabetes. Results from the phase III...

Music rights investor Hipgnosis Songs Fund said it had acquired the music catalogue of musician, songwriter and producer Nikki Sixx, best known as the founding member of Motley Crue, for an...

Gene and cell therapy group Oxford Biomedica said it had signed an 18-month supply agreement with AstraZeneca for commercial manufacture of a Covid-19 vaccine candidate. The deal was part of a...

Mining company Rio Tinto said it was still targeting first production from Oyu Tolgoi copper project in Mongolia between October 2022 and June 2023. The company reiterated the guidance after...