Airtel Africa (AAF) shares rose 10.92% to 120.85p after subsidiary receives approval
Airtel, which provides telecommunications and mobile money services across 14 African countries, said its subsidiary SMARTCASH Payment Service Bank Limited “Smartcash” has been granted approval in principle to operate a payment service bank business in Nigeria.
Final approval is subject to the Group satisfying certain standard conditions within six months.
Segun Ogunsanya, CEO, Airtel Africa, said: “We will now work closely with the Central Bank to meet all its conditions to receive the operating licence and commence operations.”
He added, “The final operating licence will enable us to expand our digital financial products and reach the millions of Nigerians that do not have access to traditional financial services.”
Quantum Blockchain (QBT) shares jump 25% to 35p as it advances Bitcoin technology
The company told investors that it is making progress on developing a new Bitcoin-mining technology that is faster and uses less overall energy consumption than current practices.
QBT said it has now completed the development phase of its Field Programmable Gate Arrays prototyping (FPGA) and that it is now moving to develop its ASIC prototype.
It said initial estimates derived from the FPGA performance obtained from its internal testing, would indicate that when the final industrial ASIC prototype design is completed ‘it could outperform the fastest ASIC chip, currently being used to mine Bitcoin by at least 24%.’
President Energy (PPC) shares rose 13.33% to 2.125p as it spuds oil well in Argentina
President Energy unveiled this morning that it has spud its first oil well at Argentina’s Puesto Guardian site and that drilling is expected to take 30 days at a cost of around US$3.5 million.
The energy company also said it expects to complete a farm-out in Paraguay in November.
The first in the sequence of new oil wells at the Dos Puntitas field - well DP-2001 - was spud after having been delayed due to logistical issues on the 1,950 km journey to the well site.
The Company has noted that drilling is expected to take 30 days at a cost of approximately US$3.5 million and mid-case targeted oil production on success is estimated at 40m3/d.
CyanConnode Holdings (CYAN) shared rose 10.95% to 19p as turnover nearly triples
In recent weeks, the group reported that its turnover had nearly tripled in 1H22. The U.K. smart-metering technology company achieved turnover £4.1m, up from £1.5m in 1H21.
In a research note, Hardman & Co acknowledged that CyanConnode’s smart meter intelligent module shipments had continued to accelerate during 1H22 alongside multiple new contracts.
The broker said the potentially immense market opportunity is starting to translate into large orders, rising shipment volumes, exceptionally strong revenue growth and cash inflows.
£3.8m was received from customers in 1H22, resulting in £1.7m net cash at end-September 2021. Hardman’s updated DCF-implied fair equity value for CyanConnode is £89.6 million.