Centamin shares jumped 8.73% to 134.43p following positive analyst forecast
In recent weeks, Analysts at US investment bank Jefferies upgraded LSE and Toronto-listed Centamin's 2021 earnings forecast by 10% to $390.3m on the back of its planned reset of Sukari in Egypt to a 500,000 ounce per annum gold mine, Mining Journal said in a report.
Jeffries said Centamin’s shares offer exposure as "a world-class gold asset, sector-leading dividends and opportunity for operational led re-rating", granting the stock as ‘buy’ with a target price of 170p. UBS analysts followed suit with a ‘buy’ rating and a 150p target price.
Shares in the mining company have almost halved over 2020 after it flagged stability issues on the west wall at Sukari in September, forcing it to lower guidance by 15% to 450,000oz.
However, Centamin’s multi-year revival plan for Sukari, noted last month, outlined hopes that it will return it to a 500,000ozpa producer by 2024, by slashing costs and raising capex.
"With a clean balance sheet [no debt, $345 million cash and liquid assets at September 2020] Centamin is able to retain very strong shareholder returns as the commitment to pay at least $105 million in dividend in 2021 puts it on a 5.6% yield," Jefferies' analysts said.
IDE Group Holdings shares skyrocket 203.23%% to 2.35p with contract win
Shares in IDE Group Holdings soared during early morning trading after the cloud and IT managed services provider signed a significant new contract with an existing customer.
The London-listed group said the existing partner, whose name remains undisclosed, has now committed to procure services from IDE to a value of £22.5m over the next three years with the opportunity to extend for up to another two years if the commitment is not met.
IDE said the contract - which adds £22.5m to the existing c.£5m per annum of revenue - was awarded ‘based on the excellent service provided by IDE’ to the partner over the years ‘with a commitment from IDE to reduce the cost of services across the partner's customer base.’
Andy Parker, Non-Executive Chairman of IDE said the contract win “further enhances” IDE’s existing relationship and is a testament to the “excellent services” provided by IDE.
Braveheart Investment Group shares jumped 39.29% to 39p as it anticipates first results from COVID-19 test
Late last month, the AIM-listed investment group said its investee company Paraytec’s work to develop a COVID-19 test alongside the University of Sheffield was “proceeding at pace”.
Paraytec uses acquired purified SARS-CoV2 virus to optimise the lower limit and speed of detection, with the aim of detecting the virus in asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic patients.
Ethical approval was previously obtained from the Sheffield Hospitals Trust to test up to 500 clinical samples, which the group said will be verified using the gold standard PCR approach to unambiguously demonstrate the performance characteristics of the COVID-19 test.
The first results of this work are expected by the end of January 2021. Meanwhile, at the time, Paraytec also confirmed that its virus capture technology will now be applied to the development of both the optical measurement system and a lateral flow device.
Remote Monitored Systems shares rose 34.89% to 1.875p with board changes
Shares in RMS have increased by over 8% since last Wednesday when it unveiled a number of changes to its board that it says are expected to be completed within a few weeks.
The AIM-listed company said it intends to appoint Alex Vergopoulos as an Executive Director of RMS with responsibility for Pharm 2 Farm Limited ("P2F"), of which he is a director.
RMS said Mr Vergopoulos will provide ‘greater oversight of deliverables and performance targets in respect of P2F. The Board is also proceeding with the appointment, as planned, of two new independent non-executive directors, who have now been identified.
With the appointment of the new non-executive directors, one of whom is expected to become the Chairman of the Company, Paul Ryan will step down from the Board as a result. The Board further announced that Trevor Brown will assume the role of non-executive director.
Network International Holdings shares fell 7.41% to 302.5p following research over Wirecard links
Last month, the group noted a recent report published by research group ShadowFall Research concerning its planned acquisition of payment solutions provider DPO Group.
ShadowFall, whose aim is to uncover unethical practices in equity markets, recently published a paper on the $288m DPO deal which Network International announced in July.
In response to the published research, the Times wrote that Matthew Earl, a former City analyst who runs ShadowFall Research, and Fraser Perring, a former social worker who is behind Viceroy Research, were “both betting against the shares of Network International.”
DPO is an Africa-focused business but was “birthed by the ‘back-room boys’ to Wirecard UK & Ireland”.one of Germany’s biggest companies by value which collapsed earlier this year.
“We are aware that questions have been raised and we instructed Freshfields to assist us with regard to the acquisition ahead of completion. We have not found any evidence to date of wrongdoing by DPO or the sellers and can confirm that no Wirecard directors, past or present, have ever been involved in the management of DPO,” said NETW in response.