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Good Afternoon and welcome to HotCopper Highlights for Week 48, I’m Jon Davidson. In this segment we go over some of the most hotly watched company announcements, and the most discussed companies through the week, chosen by you, users of Australia’s #1 finance website.
Listen to the HotCopper podcast for in-depth discussions and insights on all the biggest headlines from throughout the week. On Spotify, Apple, and more.
Let’s get into it starting with the most viewed.
I’m getting a bit tired of talking about Droneshied, but it’s one of the most popular HotCopper topics right now, and so I’d be remiss not to cover it. The company hit back at media reports this week, including the HotCopper Wire Podcast if my hunch is right, regarding claims fibre optic drones, which Droneshield’s tech can’t jam, are the mainstream drone weapon being used in the war now. Droneshield asserts this isn’t true; but all one has to do is go onto Instagram to find a lot of combat footage suggesting otherwise.
Meanwhile, Bouganville Copper caught eyes when it issued a rather confusing update on discussions around restarting its Panguna Copper Project in Papua New Guinea. An Indian company Bougainville Copper was in talks with earlier this year, we learnt this week, stopped contacting the company a few months ago. But now they’ve gone to what is effectively the project area’s local government, inking an MOU with them instead, and Bouganville Copper sunk 50% as it suggested it might now be left out of the Paguna redevelopment talks – which is about as uncertain as it gets.
And as for the most discussed stocks,
Invictus Energy wins pole position in that category after it revealed further details about a much awaited deal tied to the Qatari royal family, who appear interested in developing the company’s Zimbabwe gas field. All things said, Invictus is looking at a pathway for that royal family to own 50% of the company. And seeing as investors in that cohort were offered shares at 9.5c earlier this year in a raising, some users were concerned that could be the final price offered in the takeover, which, not all users liked too much. But Qatar, per the company’s fresh AGM, are now putting the pressure on Zimbabwe’s government to speed up approvals, which could be worth a lot. Time will tell.
Elsewhere, Monash IVF generated some chatter intraweek after it knocked back a takeover offer from a combination of heritage ASX investment firm Soul Patts, alongside Genesis Capital, a private equity firm. Monash is the company that earlier this year bungled an embryo transplant, effectively meaning one woman gave birth to somebody else’s baby. Much news coverage followed, making Monash similar to G8 Education when it comes to companies’ share prices brought down by outrage this year. But it can’t be denied the Soul Patts-Genesis takeover offer comes at an opportunistic time, if not generally being a bit vulture-like. Monash shares have since climbed above the offer price, and were trading at $1 right before the embryo scandal – suggesting a takeover offer north of that sum may, or may not, make shareholders feel differently.
That’s HotCopper Highlights for this week, I’m Jon Davidson, have a great weekend and we’ll see you on Monday.
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