Trader's Cafe with Zak Mir: DeepVerge, Eurasia, Hemogenyx, Open Orphan, Seraphim, Webis

Shares of Eurasia Mining (EUA) ended Friday up 9%, one of the Russian PGM and Battery Metals miner’s better days in the recent past. The boost was provided late in the previous session by ACF Equity Research who noted that EUA is “picking up the pace". It said that EUA’s JV with Rosgeo is attracting senior mining talent and advisors, and that the company is rolling out its operational strategy with vigour. All of this is helped along by the way that Rosgeo values the JV’s in-situ metals at $100bn. Given that EUA’s current market cap is only £600m, there would appear to be plenty to play for as far as holders of the stock are concerned. ACF in the form of a research note last year were one of the drivers of the stock when it was around 4p, causing it to double off the back of a then 57p share price target. ACF’s latest intrinsic price is 72.73p, amounting to an implied £2bn valuation.

One of the more pleasant uses of social media is to celebrate an event, and this is what was in order for Gerard Brandon, CEO of DeepVerge. Having achieved 3 years in the saddle this week, he tweeted out the changes at the company in the interim. Highlights at the clinical research and human testing technology group since 2018 have included the share price rising from 6p to 31p, head count up from 5 to 60, and revenue guidance of £274,000 three years ago to £10m for 2021. A share price target of 94p from Turner Pope earlier in the week was also a decent boost for the bull cause.

A company which has also seen transformational change in the recent past is pharma services group Open Orphan (ORPH), and like DeepVerge (DVRG), the bulk of the credit has to go to the person at the top. In the case of ORPH we have seen Executive Chairman Cathal Friel act as a force of nature, in particular, hitting all the timelines and milestones set, all within a strategy which has played out like clockwork. Shares of Open Orphan closed up nearly 7% on Friday, with the icing on the fundamental cake here in the recent past being mentioned in lights by Pfizer in terms of its hVIVO division. Pfizer cited the successful Phase 2a human challenge trial as a key highlight within its 2Q21 results, with the RSV Adult Vaccine as part of its “First in Class Science Update. Earlier this year Arden Partners noted that there is currently no specific treatment on the market for RSV and hVIVO is “currently the only company worldwide” that can facilitate challenge studies for the virus.”

Although American legislation is quite happy to give its citizens the right to shoot each other on a regular basis, on most other aspects of life, it remains decidedly squeamish / uptight. This includes the pursuit of online sports betting, something which in this country went mainstream years ago. The last we heard from pool wagering specialist Webis (WEB) was in May when it announced that its Advanced Deposit Wagering business, WatchandWager.com received a one-year ADW license approval from the West Virginia Racing Commission. The spectator sport as far as Webis over the recent past has been to see how different States in the US finally bow to the inevitable, and get with opening up this particular line of business. Given that the last we heard from Webis was at the end of May, it may be that the 8% share price rise on Friday was due to some in the market anticipating fresh newsflow sooner rather than later.

One of the characteristics of the post-pandemic market is that good news can take a while to sink in, whereas anything negative is priced in immediately. The former may be the case at biopharmaceutical group Hemogenyx (HEMO). At the beginning of June the company announced US Approval and the issuance of a CDX Antibody Patent. This is highly significant as gaining IP is always key in cementing the valuation of a group. Given that the previous month HEMO announced the termination of a somewhat unpopular CLN, it may be that the latest price rise of nearly 20% is a sign not only that the churn has been taken up, but that we may soon be treated to fresh fundamental offerings of substance such as the CDX patent.

A notable feature of 2021 as far as the mainstream media is its rush to highlight those IPOs that have not performed well, such as Deliveroo (ROO) a.k.a. “Floperoo”, but remain notoriously tight lipped on the frequent occasions they have excelled. Part of the explanation may be the notoriously left-wing, anti-money attitudes of many in the journalistic profession, rather begging the question as to why they chose to report on this area at all. In the case of Seraphim Space Investment (SSIT) we saw the shares hitting a new high on Friday, at just under 114p, amounting to a healthy double digit percentage paper profit for those who took part in the IPO only recently. With a market cap of nearly £200m, the closed ended space tech investment group should have plenty of cash in the kitty to catch the zeitgeist of this part of the market, championed by the likes of Bezos and Branson.