Edison Investment Research

Jupiter UK Growth (JUKG); total AUM at £53.8m

The FTSE 250 Index underperformed the more international FTSE 100 Index

Jupiter UK Growth Investment Trust announced its annual financial report for the year ended 30 June 2019. During the year, the company’s share price returned -15.4% and NAV returned -11.9% compared to a total return of 0.6% for the FTSE All-Share Total Return Index. The company’s gearing level was 5%, as of 30 June 2019.

Duke Royalty (DUKE); raises about £20m from new and existing investors

About £3.45m will be available to qualifying shareholders

Duke Royalty has announced a conditional fundraising of up to around £20m at an issue price of 44p per new ordinary share (issue price) from new and existing investors. This represents a discount of 6.4% to the closing mid-price on 3 October 2019.

Hutchison China MediTech (HCM); initiates international Phase I/Ib study

The primary outcome measures of the study are safety and tolerability

Hutchison China MediTech (Chi-Med) has initiated an international Phase I/Ib study of HMPL-523, its novel spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) inhibitor, in patients with relapsed or refractory lymphoma. The first patient was dosed on 26 September 2019 in the US.

Expert System (EXSY); accelerating investment in growth

The share price has performed well since the fund-raising in April

While H119 revenues were slightly below those reported a year ago, Expert System is confident of meeting revenue expectations for the full year, which imply year-on-year growth of 13%.

IQE (IQE); announce successful device and module qualification

Earlier this week, IQE announced the successful device and module qualification for VCSEL epi-wafers for a major Asian OEM. This is good as it demonstrates that 3D sensing technology is being adopted more widely in Android smartphones.

Pan African Resources (PAF); entering harvest mode

Headline earnings for Pan African Resources (PAF) in FY19 were within US$0.14m of our prior expectations, after a 54% increase in gold produced from continuing operations combined with a 27% decline in AISC to result in a 75.3% increase in underlying EBITDA.

Witan Pacific Investment Trust (WPC); NAV total return below the benchmark

The company reported its half-year report for the six months ending 31 July 2019.

Over the six months ending 31 July 2019, Witan Pacific’s NAV total return per share increased 9.4%, which is below the benchmark total return of 10.5%. Share price total return rose 13.8% over the same period. The company’s revenue per share of 4.2p compared with 4.7p over the same period last year.

Allied Minds (ALM); – is this the turning point?

H119 has been a period of real progress for Allied Minds, with strategic funding rounds for Federated Wireless and HawkEye 360 and the $65.6m sale of Allied Minds’ stake in HawkEye 360 to Advance. With the transaction subject to shareholder approval, 50% of the sale proceeds ($32.8m, c 11p/share) are expected to be returned to shareholders in Q419.

Oxford Biomedica (OXB ); investing for future growth

Oxford Biomedica’s (OXB) interim results highlight strong operational and financial momentum to date. The Novo Holdings equity investment (£53.5m) in May has enabled OXB to fully repay the debt facility, effectively strengthening the balance sheet. It is investing ahead of increasing demand for its lentiviral vector manufacturing capacity with the build-out of OxBox.

QinetiQ Group (QQ.); agrees to acquire Manufacturing Techniques

QinetiQ has entered into an agreement to acquire Manufacturing Techniques Inc. (MTEQ) on a cash-free, debt-free basis for $105m to be paid in cash on completion and an earn-out of up to $20m payable in cash and shares dependent on delivering stretching financial targets over three years. The acquisition will enhance QinetiQ’s EPS in the first full financial year.