Lunchtime small cap wrap: who’s celebrating and who’s commiserating

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Here are the key ASX small cap winners and losers at lunchtime Friday.

The ASX Small Ords index was down 20 points at 2817.1 by 1pm AEST.

GOING UP

Insurance and utlity comparison website iSelect (ASX:ISU) put on 30 per cent today after confirming it was a takeover target.

iSelect plummeted to an all-time low in April after its CEO resigned following an earnings downgrade of almost two-thirds of previous forecasts.

Today iSelect confirmed speculation that it had “in recent weeks received several unsolicited and non-binding proposals from both listed and unlisted parties in relation to mergers”.

Earlier this week it emerged that IHA Group — which is reportedly linked to rival comparison site Compare the Market — had bought a 12.2 per cent stake in iSelect.

“The board is currently reviewing these approaches and assessing their merit. Shareholders should note
that there is no certainty that a transaction will result from these preliminary proposals.”

The stock jumped by a third to an intraday high of 83c this morning — still below its value before the downgrade.

Shares in bid target Sino Energy (ASX:SEH) surged in share market trading again Friday morning, as investors took heart that a takeover bid unveiled Thursday from Lone Star may be the first of several.

In a self-described “opportunistic” bid, Lone Star has indicated it will offer 25c a share for Sino Energy, which has an interest in valuable gas acreage in China.

The bid has the support of Sino Energy’s board.

But investors are betting rival bidders will come forward as they pushed Sino Energy shares moved ahead another 3 per cent to 24.25c in active trading again Friday morning, drifting back from the high of 25.5c.

Shares in ReadCloud (ASX:RCL) raced ahead another 11 per cent to 39c, adding to a similar rise Thursday, on the back of an investor presentation.

At the meeting, it reinforced its strong growth prospects, reaffirming it is on track to exceed $2 million in revenue in fiscal 2018, while chasing $7.5 million in revenue and 100,000 users for fiscal 2019, which will see key performance targets reached.

Litigation funder JustKapital (ASX:JKL) put on 12 per cent to 7.7c after settling two cases.

The settlements were confidential and subject to approval by the federal court.

JustKapital expects a profit of $2.5 million from the cases — which were part of a litigation portfolio acquired a year ago.

CEO Diane Jones said she remained committed to exiting litigation funding and would focus instead on the core business of providing “alternative financing solutions” to small and medium businesses.

Here’s a snapshot of the best performing ASX small caps at 12.15pm AEST Friday:

GOING DOWN

Profit-takers pushed Compumedics (ASX:CMP) shares down 8 per cent after its big jump yesterday.

Compumedics soared 75 per cent on Thursday after announcing a $133 million deal to distribute its Somfit “sleep tracker” device in China.

The shares were fetching 66.5c just before 1pm AEST Friday — still more than 50 per cent up on the pre-announcement price.

Here’s a snapshot of the worst performing ASX small caps at 12.15pm AEST Friday:

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