Ovanti catches rocket as ex-Zip boss signs on

Many regular Bulls N’ Bears Runners of the Week readers would remember the not-so-long-ago “heady-days” of the “buy-now-pay-later” sector that hit fever pitch amongst ASX punters in the early 2020’s. Wild share price gains in the sector seemed to be made almost every week across the then-fast-growing market segment.

Think Afterpay, Zip Co, Sezzle, Humm and Latitudepay.

Rollercoaster-type gains and losses were evident during that period, with Afterpay soaring through the $100 a share barrier in October 2020 and Zip Co rising to reach $14.53 before it all went south. Fears of tightening regulation and concerns over continuing bad debts eventually put the frighteners on punters and saw interest in the sector plummet as it tried to achieve financial traction.

All of which is food for thought as we contemplate this week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week….. buy-now-pay-later player Ovanti Ltd.

Ovanti, who is immersed in the digital commerce and buy-now-pay-later space, rocketed more than 800 per cent after revealing the appointment of former Zip Co director and chief financial officer Simon Keats as the company’s new man to steer the junior fintech’s ship.

The new CEO appointment comes with a mandate from the company’s Board to launch its buy-now-pay-later offering in the lucrative U.S market.

Market watchers embraced the news of the experienced fintech executive climbing aboard, with Ovanti’s stock more than just zipping along, hitting a high on Thursday of 1.8c after wallowing around at just 0.3c on Wednesday.

A massive volume of 318.6 million shares changed hands on Thursday – a nice little uptick on the day before which only saw 1.3m shares traded.

The super-charged 500 per cent hike on Thursday was not the end of proceedings either, as the momentum continued into Friday, with another 200 million shares traded forcing the price up to 2.8c, representing a gain over the last two days of 833.33 per cent.

The company, formerly quaintly known as IOUpay, had what could only be described as an annus horribilis in 2023, when it was beset by a series of ugly allegations that assisted the company to fall off a cliff into voluntary administration with its shares suspended at the time by the ASX for more than a year.

Ovanti provides leading Malaysian banks and telcos with access to its fin-tech platforms that enable customers to connect and transact on mobile devices.

Taking second place line honours in Runners this week is ASX-listed Nanoveu, a nanotechnology company that set the market alight after announcing its intention to pick up an unlisted semiconductor technology firm involved in “system-on-chip” semi-conductor technology.

Investors and traders with a techno-bent sent Nanoveu’s shares hurtling past a triple-figure gain, eventually reaching a high of 5.3c on stellar volumes of 55.7 million traded shares, for an impressive return of more than 140 per cent from its 2.2c previous close.

“System on a Chip” is a highly integrated semiconductor that consolidates all the essential components of a computer such as a CPU & GPU, memory, network communications and input/output controls -  all within a single chip. This integration allows devices to perform complex tasks, such as AI acceleration, data processing, 3D graphics rendering and wireless communication, in a much smaller, more power-efficient chip.

^{Caption - African Gold has hit high-grade gold in its latest diamond drill campaign at the company’s Didievi project in the West African nation of Cote d’Ivoire.}

African Gold jumped into third place this week and set a few hearts racing when it revealed an eye-opening drill hit running 65m at 5.6 grams per tonnes gold from a depth of 177m at its Didievi project in the West African nation of Cote d’Ivoire.

The thick intersection was part of the latest group of assays for the remaining five holes in the company’s recent six-hole diamond drilling campaign completed at the Blaffo Guetto prospect within the project.

Results from the first diamond hole were released on October 7 with the highlight being 33m going 2.4g/t gold from 31m. That result sparked interest amongst traders, moving the share price in a positive direction, albeit slowly at first, with a rise from 3.7c to 3.8c at the time.

Incremental increases followed each trading day until the price exploded out of the blocks on Tuesday morning after news of the second batch of assays was released.

From a close of 4.7c when a trading halt was implemented, its shares opened at 7.5c and leapt to an intraday high again of 10.25c, providing an impressive one-day gain of more than 118 per cent.

The price nudged higher on Wednesday to touch 11.25c, for a solid weekly jump of 139.36 per cent.

Further hits reported in the second bunch of assay results include 9m at 1.7g/t gold from 23m and a thick 28m hit going 1.1g/t gold from 77m.

The company’s shares could be classified as something of an enigma amongst the trading fraternity with wide discrepancies in the volume of shares traded.

In the calendar year so far, daily volumes of less than a meagre 10,000 shares traded in a single day have occurred on 15 occasions, yet the company’s shares have managed volumes exceeding 10 million shares in a day five times – go figure !

On Tuesday, volumes were a spectacular 121.8 million shares, with a hearty follow-up on Wednesday of 51.5 million.

Previous stellar gold hits include 10m running 123.7g/t from 66m and 83.3m at 3.3g/t from 166.9m at the site that contains a recently announced maiden resource of 4.93 million tonnes grading 2.9g/t for 452,000 ounces of gold.

James Bay Minerals also excited the market with what management says is a “transformational” acquisition with the purchase and earn-in of the high-grade Independence gold project that sits near the town of Battle Mountain, Nevada in the U.S.

Management believes there is potential for rapid growth of the current resource with recent drilling intersecting an impressive hit outside the existing known mineralised area. A 24.4m hole grading 9.11g/t gold and 25.2g/t silver that included 9.1m running 23.16g/t gold and 49.8g/t silver is the cause for its optimism.

Previous hits of 44.2m going 4.19g/t gold and 10.53g/t silver only bolstered the company’s enthusiasm for the project.

James Bay Minerals has purchased a 51.54 per cent stake in the operation for about AU$2.4 million, with the right to earn up to 100 per cent across the next two years.

Traders with a penchant for gold piled in on Monday to the tune of more than six million shares, sending the price to a 46c high, representing a 130 per cent kick to last Friday’s close.

Just as the book was closing for the week ASX-listed InhaleRx popped up to muscle its way into this week’s Runners of the Week late on Friday.

The $4 million market capped firm has secured debt funding of $38.5 million to fully-fund its planned Phase 1 and 2 clinical trial costs for its range of drug delivery devices and medications designed to treat cancer and panic disorders.  

The move sent the market into overdrive with InhaleRx’s stock rocketing 127 per cent from 2.2c a share to 5c on Friday.

The funding has been secured from Clendon Biotech Capital, a Melbourne based venture capital investor focused on small to mid-size bio-technology companies.

Clendon will also pick up a swag of options in InhaleRx and the debt will be repayable by the company at the end of each project or after the conversion of Clendon’s options.

There are obvious signs of interest creeping back into the junior company space, particularly in mining, tech and the medical world. If the positive sentiment can continue, there may be some considerable gains to be made, paving the way for a cashed-up festive season ahead. 

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au