Economic and Market News for 11 November 2019

Caner and neurological-condition focused Evgen Pharma said a trial of a treatment for subarachnoid haemorrhage, a type of stroke, had failed to achieve its primary goal. The primary aim of the...

Events group Arena Events said it had agreed to a new £2m debt facility, having recently been awarded a number of new contracts across its US, UK and Middle East and Africa divisions. The projects...

InfraStrata said it would raise £6.0m from a share issue to fund the acquisition of troubled Irish shipyard Harland & Wolff from administrators. New shares in the company would be issued at...

Animal pharmaceuticals company Eco Animal Health warned of a lower first-half profit and a full-year result potentially significantly below market forecasts. The company blamed the downgrade on an...

IronRidge Resources said it had discovered a magnetic anomaly at the Zaranou gold license in Ivory Coast. The 2.8km long anomaly was centralised within the zone of most intensive hard-rock...

Greatland Gold said it had commenced drilling activities at the Derby North prospect within the its Warrentinna gold project in Tasmania, Australia. Greatland had previously conducted limited...

African mine project investor Armadale Capital said the mine design for the Mahenge Liandu graphite project in Tanzania was now being finalised following a site visit by the project engineer. The...

Bacanora Lithium said it had sent representative samples from its Sonora project in Mexico to Chinese partner Ganfeng Lithium, ahead of attempting to source additional funding for the project....

Commodities trading services provider Brady said it had entered into a £1.25m uncommitted secured loan agreement with takeover suitor Hanover Active Equity Fund II. Bradly last month announced...

Agronomics confirmed that plans to raise up to £20m through an equity placing. The company said it intended to price the placing shares at 5.5p, but stressed that it had the right to increase or...

Surface coating technology maker Hardide said it had been granted a patent by the UK intellectual property office covering a water droplet erosion resistant coating for turbine blades and other...

Mereo BioPharma said a clinical trial for its treatment for bone disorder osteogenesis imperfecta failed to achieve its primary endpoint of increasing bone density in the wrist. The company,...

Abcam said it had agreed to acquire Expedeon's proteomics and immunology business for €120m in an effort to expand expanding offerings into the fast-growing conjugation segment. The acquisition...

GetBusy said it had entered into a major reseller and integration agreement with TaxCalc to provide customers with integrated software products. Acorah Software Products, which traded under the...

Aquatic health company Benchmark said it had appointed Septima Maguire as chief financial officer with effect from 18 December 2019. Mark Plampin would remain CFO of the group until 18 December...

Oilex said the closing date for submission of bids for partner Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation's 55% participating interest in the Cambay production sharing contract in India had been...

CloudCall said it had teamed up with Mercury xRM's recruitment customer relationship manager to deliver a unified communications offering to their users. The integration would bring together...

Mineral exploration and development company Beowulf reiterated the reasons for the approval of its Kallak North Iron ore project to the Swedish government. The company said that while law firms...

UK gross domestic product grew by 0.3% in the third quarter of 2019, according to a preliminary estimate from the Office for National Statistics. The market had been expecting growth of 0.4%....

Legal and professional services group Ince confirmed that annual performance was in line with market expectations, with performance likely to be second-half weighted. Traditionally, the group had...

Solo Oil said it had agreed to a 2020 work programme in Tanzania with joint venture partner Aminex concerning the Ruvuma production sharing contract. The partners had agreed to a budget for 2020...

Just Eat said shareholders should reject a takeover bid from Prosus on the basis that it undervalued the company. The food-delivery company continued to recommend a rival bid from Takeaway.com....

Thor Mining said it had recorded positive preliminary results from a second round of drilling at the Bonya project's White Violet deposit in Australia. The prospect was adjacent to the company's...

Electrocomponents said Lindsley Ruth, chief executive, was set to take a temporary leave of absence from the business to receive treatment for a medical condition. Ruth was expected to return to...

Two Shields Investments said it completed its investment of £0.4m in WeShop, boosting its holding in the online shopping community company to around 7.6%. 'As a market, social commerce is really...

Regenerative medical devices company Tissue Regenix said it was in talks with loan provider MidCap Financial Trust after assessing that it would likely breach on one of loan's terms. The terms of...

Oriole Resources said it had received rebates of around £105k from UK tax authorities in relation to R&D tax relief claims. The claims were in respect of geoscientific advances sought by the...

Rare and orphan drug consulting services platform company Open Orphan said it had signed a preferred partner agreement with Ipsen. The agreement selected Venn Life Sciences, part of Open Orphan,...

BHP said its petroleum business was set to deliver 'strong' returns through the 2020s thanks to a foundation of quality assets, and attractive growth options. The company outlined a scenario in...

Motif Bio said a subsidiary had reached agreement with its former clinical research organisation to settle all obligations without further payment. The pact would result in the reversal of a...

Reabold Resources and Union Jack Oil welcomed positive study results indicating a larger resource base at the West Newton prospect in England. The project's operator, Rathlin Energy, had...

AstraZeneca said pooled analyses had shown that its drug used to treat patients with anaemia from chronic kidney disease had met its primary goal with no increased cardiovascular risk. The pooled...

Fertilizer group Sirius Minerals said it had put together a new two-stage development plan for its flagship project in Yorkshire after its original effort ran into funding difficulties. The...

Online property group Rightmove said finance director Robyn Perriss was standing down. Her departure date would be agreed in due course, but was expected to be during the second quarter of 2020....

Ireland-focused property investor Yew Grove REIT said it had agreed to sell one of its non-core industrial assets, on Heather Road, Sandyford, to an international investor for €1.1m. The sale...