Friday Takeaway—delving a little deeper into UK small caps
This will delve a little deeper on individual companies and focus on non-house stocks under £200m market capitalisation to raise awareness
*Alphabetically arranged
**Share prices and market capitalisations taken from Alpha Terminal from the current price on the day of publication.
***Top three shareholders are taken from the websites of the companies that we are writing about, unless there is a more up to date TR-1 notification RNS announcement.
Arc Minerals Ltd 0.65p £15.99m* (ARCM.L)
*Source: Alpha Terminal. Priced as of the close on 24 09 2026.
Financial Calendar:
Year End 31 December, Finals reported 26 June, Interims to 30 June, reported 21 September
Three Largest Shareholders:
Nicholas Von Schirnding (Chairman) 5.5%, Karl-Erik von Bahr 3.3%, Vassilios Carellas (Chief Operating Officer) 2.9%
Key Investment Points:
Kalahari Copper Belt, one of the world’s most active copper districts, highly strategic position in a rapidly developing copper district
With interests in the Kalahari copper belt within Botswana (licence area 208.3 km²), and the Western Domes district in Zambia (licence area an even greater 680 km²), Arc has exposure to two globally significant copper systems. Significantly, its ground in Botswana is in the immediate vicinity of a giant copper mine called Khoemacau. This is 55% owned by a Hong Kong-listed business called MMG, with the balance held by CNIC, a Chinese state-owned investment company.
It goes without saying that a good “address” does not automatically guarantee exploration success, but the potential is clear, and the state of affairs in the global copper industry is such that any meaningful discovery would be valued quite highly (given that copper prices are close to all-time highs high and average finding costs are at elevated levels relative to history).
Arc’s project in Botswana is called Virgo. This is 75% owned, and the exploration team is targeting sediment-hosted copper mineralisation along the D’Kar Formation and Ngwako Pan Formation contact – the key mineralised horizon across the Kalahari copper belt. This contact is an obvious target, as it is directly associated with all major deposits in the belt, but Arc’s exploration is also underpinned by extensive datasets, including geophysics, and geochemistry. A maiden drilling programme in 2024 intersected both the target horizon and associated mineralisation, but as drilling to date has only tested a limited portion of the licence, there is clear potential across what can be rightfully described as “largely untested” strike.
In Zambia, progress has been stymied by a legal dispute, but this was resolved on 27 May via a “comprehensive settlement agreement”, which constituted a “full and final” conclusion to all outstanding legal disputes relating to Arc’s Kabompo West project. This covers 680 km² of ground around a prominent geological feature known as the Kabompo dome (a massive, basement-cored structural anticline within the Luflian fold belt). Crucially, this also means that it is close to large producing mines in Zambia such as Sentinel Copper Mine (Africa’s largest copper mine, and 100% owned by the Canadian metals group, First Quantum Minerals Ltd (TSX: FM)); Lumwana (owned by Barrick Mining Corp (OR22.L) and undertaking a $2bn pit expansion); and Kansanshi (the country’s largest open-pit copper mine, where First Quantum Minerals is the majority holder). These mines can be seen in the map below along with Motheo, a large copper mine owned by Sandfire Resources Limited (ASX:SFR), where copper equivalent output hit a record 59.7kt in the Australian company’s last financial year.
Chart 1: Location of Arc’s Projects in Zambia and Botswana
Source: Arc Minerals Ltd
With legal clarification in place, Arc is now using AI to glean additional insights from the Zambian dataset that it has accumulated to date. This dataset includes over 80,000 soil samples and extensive geophysical survey data. To some extent, the results of its data reassessment will inform its own approach to forming a drilling strategy in Zambia, but it is also likely to assist in discussions with “major mining companies” that it has previously referred to.
We note that the Kabompo dome is just of one many such features in the Central African copper belt (which straddles Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo), with structural faulting, and intense heat/pressure associated with the dome’s original “thrust” held to be responsible for the upwards movement of hydrothermal fluids from the earth’s core. It is these mineral-rich fluids that formed the giant deposits still being found today when they collided with host rocks and cooled. The Sentinel mine (shown on the map above) is on the dome’s southeastern flank. As the name of its licence area implies, Arc controls territory on the dome’s Western flank.
Hybridan Comment: Botswana is a known copper district and Arc’s ground is very close to MMG’s (HK:1208) giant Khoemacau mine. An $800m expansion project was given the green light by MMG in February to increase capacity at Khoemacau to 130,000 tonnes per annum (ktpa) of copper concentrate, and roughly 4m ounces (oz pa) of associated silver output. The extent of the copper mineralisation found at Khoemacau can be gauged from the fact that the MMG is also contemplating a further increase to 200kt pa of copper concentrate, and this is after they paid an effective enterprise value of $1.875bn for the mine in 2023.
Arc has a market capitalisation of just £15.99m, and this seems modest when set against the undoubted potential of their licence areas in Botswana and Zambia, but we would be the first to concede that it still has a lot to prove.
On 17 August, it appointed a well-established drilling contractor with significant experience in the Kalahari copper belt to test a variety of “high priority” targets along 14km of the all-important D’Kar-Ngwako Pan Formation contact that we highlighted above. These targets were identified by an extensive IP (Induced Polarisation) survey that covered over 55km of ground.There was no associated update provided in this week’s interim results release from Arc, but we would expect to see the first drill assays released relatively soon.Results from the South Fold area will be particularly interesting to see, and the same applies to a 2km or so area with the codename “Z9” as the planned drill holes have been positioned to target the near surface extents of mineralisation that MMG has intersected at depth on their side of the licence boundary.
With Arc's interim results highlighting 30 June cash held of £1.86m (plus short-term investments of £0.5m and £0.52m of cash at Handa, the subsidiary that they use to manage their Zambia assets), Arc has sufficient funding in place to cover its near-term needs.
Coiled Therapeutics 7.75p £33.08m (COIL.L)
Financial Calendar:
Company admitted to AIM March 2026 via reverse takeover of Roquefort Therapeutics, last year-end December 2025
Three Main Shareholders:
Mr Sridhar Vempati (CEO) 21.46%, Edward Painter 18.70%, Dr Sotirios Stergiopoulos (Exec Chairman) 8.55%.
Key Investment Points:
Experienced senior leadership team with sizeable equity stakes, addressing large cancer targets, bid candidate for large pharma group if efficacy can be proved
Coiled Therapeutics (CT) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company, and its lead programme, AO-252, is a novel TACC3 inhibitor that is currently in Phase 1 clinical trials in the US.
TACC3 (Transforming Acidic Coiled-Coil containing protein 3) is a ‘scaffolding’ protein. Normal cells use it to divide and repair, but in cancer cells it is over-expressed and it becomes central to their survival.
As noted above, CT was admitted to trading on AIM on 27 March 2026. It was established as a standalone entity by its former parent, a US biotech company called A2A Pharmaceuticals. This is a playbook that A2A has pursued with other assets.
CT’s CEO (and leading shareholder) holds a PhD in molecular biology from Ludwig-Maximilians University in Germany, an MBA from Boston University, and an MS degree from Guru Nanak Dev University in India. He also has 20 years of experience in drug discovery and oncology research, with a track record of advancing novel therapeutics from concept to clinical development. The Chairman (the third largest shareholder) is a Member of the American Association for Cancer Research and a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
CT’s lead programme - AO-252 - is currently in an ongoing Phase 1 open-label dose-escalation study, and early clinical signals have shown encouraging anti-tumour activity and a benign safety profile. An announcement early this week on 21 September also highlighted that patients are being enrolled into a study designed to assess a lipid-based ‘softgel’ variant of AO-252. This has been designed to achieve more consistent, dose-proportional absorption compared to the current tablet formulation, and it builds on the 80% clinical benefit rate signal observed in earlier twice-daily tablet dosing.
CT’s management team is also planning to initiate dose expansion cohorts in lead indications such as prostate and ovarian cancer, and other lead indications are likely as AO-252 is more interesting than it may initially seem.
It is differentiated because it selectively inhibits protein interactions occurring at just one of TACC3’s two functional domains – those that cancer cells depend on for their survival. It doesn’t touch the other domain - interactions central to the production of healthy blood cells. Crucially, the net effect is material DNA damage within the cancer cell and leakage of that damaged DNA into the cytoplasm (jelly-like material inside a cell that contains water, salts, protein, and the organelles that carry out many of the cell’s functions). The leaked DNA stimulates dendritic cells (the immune system’s main sentinel cells) and the type of white blood cells that spearhead the body’s own immune response. This helps one to understand why early clinical signals from AO-252 have shown encouraging anti-tumour activity and a benign safety profile. It also helps to explain why it could help in the fight against a whole array of cancers.
Hybridan Comment: There’s a lot that still needs to be proven, and p.74 of the 2025 Annual Report shows that deferred consideration shares would be issued to A2A if CT’s market capitalisation rises to thresholds of £60m, £90m, and £120m respectively, but setting that against AO-252’s significant potential, we still believe that Coiled Therapeutics is one to watch!
Upland Resources Ltd 2.96p £51.11m (UPL.L)
Financial Calendar:
Year End 31 December, Finals reported 28 April, Interims to 30 June, reported 30 September 2025
Three Largest Shareholders:
Mr N B Zakaria 8.65%, Datuk Bolhassan Di (Chairman and CEO) 6.25%, Lost Soldier Oil & Gas LLC 5.79%.
Key Investment Points:
Interesting US exposure, SE Asia potential, connected Chairman
Upland Resources is a UK-listed upstream oil and gas Company. It has a strategic partnership with a US business called Lost Soldier Oil & Gas, and this is underpinned by a cross-shareholding, and a US$100m funding commitment by Lost Soldier for a variety of potential projects that Upland has in Southeast Asia.
Earlier this week, on 21 September, Upland drew attention to the fact that Lost Soldier had ‘spudded’ a third well (codenamed GMF-5) on a potentially large gas field in the Wild Mustang ‘Federal Unit’ in Wyoming. Drilling and well operations are expected to take approximately 60 days, with results released thereafter. Wild Mustang is termed a ‘Federal Unit’ as the Bureau of Land Management in the US organises multiple separate federal energy leases into a single ‘unit’, so that they can be managed, drilled, and operated together as a single entity rather than as disparate/fragmented properties.
GMF-5 marks the start of the second phase of development work at Wild Mustang, and following the two holes drilled as part of the phase one programme. Lost Soldier suggested that they were targeting potential resources of up to 5-6 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas across multiple stacked natural gas formations. The GMF-5 well will be drilled down to approximately 19,000 feet, and it will target a new over-pressured zone beneath formations identified from the first two wells in phase one. In oil terms, 5 Tcf of gas would represent 833m barrels – a sizable prize for any small exploration company.
Lost Soldier holds almost 5.8% of Upland. In turn, Upland has invested approximately US$4.3m in Lost Soldier (which is private, and not listed). It also holds a further US$9.5m of options in Class C units issued by Lost Soldier. These expire on 31st December 2030. The Class C units carry a royalty interest on all production from the Wild Mustang Federal Unit leases, with no exposure to well costs or operating liabilities. Therefore, any additional volumes discovered through the phase two programme would benefit Upland at no further cost. This is subject to commercial production, but Lost Soldier clearly believes that there will be gas produced, as they are currently constructing a 5.3-mile, 8-inch connector pipeline to connect the Wild Mustang wells to a nearby, high-capacity 20-inch transmission line.
Developments in the US could have positive ramifications for Upland’s share price, but followers of the business will also be hoping for news that a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) has been awarded to the Company in SE Asia. Upland stated this week that various asset-level developments in the region are “progressing towards key milestones”.
The first deal could be in Aceh, Indonesia. On 26 February, Upland announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for participation in Block MY1 and Block MY2 in Aceh. This was in collaboration with PEMA, the local government-owned energy and mineral investment authority. It suggested at the time that the MOU would be followed by a binding ‘Heads of Agreement’ on a direct award PSC, so it is possible that a related update will be released soon.
Upland has also been working on potential projects in Brunei, and it has partnered with Petroleum Sarawak Berhad, the state-owned petroleum company of Sarawak, to undertake a joint technical study on the hydrocarbon potential of an onshore block called ‘SK334’. The petroleum potential of onshore Sarawak has not had much focus to date, but it is held to be geologically similar to the systems that underpin producing onshore and offshore fields in Brunei.
Hybridan Comment: A PSC in SE Asia may seem like a pipedream for a small UK-listed business, but it is important to appreciate the credentials of Upland’s Chairman and CEO, Datuk Bolhassan Di.
A graduate of the School of Engineering at Sheffield University, began his career in 1979 at Sarawak Shell Berhad (a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell). This gave him experience in project planning, design, construction, and start-up experience in offshore projects. These included the F6A project in Sarawak waters (the largest offshore gas project in the region). Crucially, he was also an elected member of the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly from 1987 to 2011, and Chairman of the Miri Port Authority in Sarawak, from 1987 to 1997.
Datuk Bolhassan Di is backed by an experienced team, and followers of Upland will be hoping that assiduous technical preparation is rewarded through a PSC.
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