City briefs: Getech; Provident Financial; and more
Leeds-based geoscience business, Getech, has won new contracts with mining companies to explore for copper, iron oxide-copper-gold deposits, and other minerals critical to transitioning to zero carbon energy production.
These contracts result from investment made by Getech to expand the application of geoscience and data products, which the Group had originally developed as petroleum solutions.
The total initial value of these new contracts is around £110,000, which adds to the company’s existing revenue from the mining sector.
Getech explains its focus is to use its new critical mineral products to expand revenue generation and where appropriate, explore equity participation in off-grid energy solutions.
Chief executive officer, Dr Jonathan Copus, said: “As we leverage our flagship products and world-leading data to unlock value in new markets, these sales demonstrate the versatility of our foundation products and solutions, and their adaptability in locating and de-risking different commodities across a wide range of geographies.
“Against the current complex geopolitical backdrop, we see our ability to locate and define new geographically-diverse sources of critical minerals as essential to delivering a secure and sustainable energy transition.”
Latest contracts secured by Getech include:
1. A sedimentary copper project in Australia – Getech has signed an agreement with an international mining company to assess the potential for sedimentary copper accumulations in an area of interest in Australia.
2. Multi-mineral project in South America – Agreement struck with a resources company in Asia to undertake an evaluation of a multi-mineral project in South America.
3. Multi-mineral project in North America – The client, a global mining and metals company based in Australia, has licensed Getech’s Globe product, which will be used to carry out genetic analyses for critical minerals projects in North America.
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Provident Financial Group (PFG) has appointed Fiona Anderson as managing director of cards.
She will join Bradford-based PFG in April 2022 and will report to Malcolm Le May, chief executive officer.
Anderson has a wealth of significant experience across credit cards and personal banking.
From 2019 to 2021, she served as head of everyday banking at HSBC and prior to that she held senior positions at Mastercard and Barclaycard including head of growth accounts for Mastercard Worldwide.
Her most recent role was managing director, Global Consumer Solutions UK at Equifax, the consumer credit reporting agency.
Her appointment comes as PFG continues to invest and grow its card offering. She will enhance the existing operational and commercial expertise within Vanquis Bank whilst also complementing the existing credit card experience of the PFG and Vanquis Bank Boards.
Le May said: “Fiona brings to PFG extensive credit card and banking expertise. This, combined with her proven ability to drive growth and profitability across cards and banking operations in several large banking organisations, made her an exemplary candidate for this role.
“I look forward to welcoming her to PFG in April and to working closely with her, and the rest of the team, as we grow the cards business back to its pre-pandemic levels.”
Anderson added: “The cards business has several key competitive advantages, which really attracted me to the role, including its strong capabilities across underwriting and collections, its robust capital and liquidity positions and its fundamental understanding of its customers.”
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Jenny Winter
Animalcare Group has entered into two early-stage agreements with Netherlands-based Orthros Medical, a company focused on the research and early development of VHH antibodies, also known as small single chain antibody fragments.
The deals mean York-headquartered Animalcare secures a global exclusive licence from Orthros Medical for two preclinical VHH candidates, initially addressing osteoarthritis in dogs.
Additionally, the Group is entering into a research and development agreement with Orthros Medical, with the objective of adding further projects to the licence agreement.
Under the terms of the deal, Animalcare will make upfront payments to Orthros Medical totalling €500,000/£416,000 and will fund some early research activities as part of the collaboration.
As the two licensed preclinical candidates progress, Orthros Medical may receive development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments up to a total value of €11m/£9.1m, as well as single digit royalties on net sales of the products.
VHH antibodies offer new opportunities for the research and development of innovative drug treatments for use in human and animal patients.
They are small, relatively easy to engineer, and can be quickly cleared from the system therefore promising a good safety profile.
Jenny Winter, chief executive officer of Animalcare Group, said: “This partnership represents a key building block in our long-term growth strategy.
“We are keen to expand our early-stage pipeline by seeking out innovative technologies to meet evolving customer needs in a fast-growing, competitive market.
“Working with Orthros Medical, we have an exciting opportunity to build our future pain and osteoarthritis portfolio while exploring further potential of Orthros Medical’s VHH technology in animals.”
Robert Jan Lamers, chief executive officer of Orthros Medical, added: “We are excited to combine Orthros Medical’s pre-clinical expertise in research and formulation in VHH products with Animalcare’s development, regulatory and commercial expertise.
“We are confident the partnership will generate multiple opportunities to develop novel and differentiated osteoarthritis products for animals.”
Dr Mike Mitchell from Panmure Gordon noted that Animalcare’s announcement demonstrates its strategy to expand its development pipeline alongside differentiated, innovative platforms and that he was looking forward to the company’s full year results next week.
