ASX Runners of the Week: Ovanti, Olympio, Codeifai and Sunrise
This week's Bulls N' Bears Runner of the Week is BNPL fintech Ovanti Limited, which shot out of a cannon on Wednesday by unveiling its new US leader - fintech heavyweight and former Zip Co maestro Peter Maher. The company says the incoming chief executive officer of its US BNPL division is set to spearhead its payments and embedded finance push into the States, as he did with multi-billion ASX blue-chipper Zip Co.
With a resume also boasting senior roles at Capital One and HTLF Bank, Maher is no stranger to forging lucrative partnerships and navigating the regulatory jungle to seek a BNPL prize out of US consumerism. He will look to build on his predecessor at Ovanti and previous ZIP colleague Simon Keast's effort to turbocharge the company's US market expansion with an innovative BNPL product that 'empowers consumers with real-time affordability insights'.
Maher was in charge when Zip skyrocketed to a $6.2 billion valuation in February 2021 after orchestrating a triumphant US invasion. As the company's senior director of high growth, he worked shoulder-to-shoulder with co-founder Larry Diamond to coordinate the company's masterstroke acquisition of QuadPay in 2020 to enter the US.
Merchant deals with giants such as Webjet, Peloton and Amazon soon followed, fuelling Zip's US transaction volume to $2.8 billion in the 2021 financial year.
Riding the wave of COVID stimulus and zero-rate money, Maher helped transform Zip from a local player into a transcontinental titan, setting the stage for Ovanti's push into the $122.3 billion US BNPL market.
The market loved the news, just as it had done with Keast's appointment in October last year. Ovanti's share price shot to 0.8 cents on Wednesday, before the news spread far and wide on Thursday, when it peaked at 1.2c per share. This was a whopping 500 per cent rise on last week's close on nearly $10 million in stock traded.
With Maher at the helm and Ovanti's sights set on cracking the US BNPL jackpot, this plucky fintech's shares might keep zipping along – that's if Maher's vision for AI-driven, consumer-centric payments can couple with his previous proven playbook of expansion at Zip.
OLYMPIO METALS LTD (ASX: OLY)
Up 255% (3.8c – 13.5c)
Bulls N' Bears' second-place Runner of the Week is gold prospector Olympio Metals, which ignited a frenzy on Tuesday when it uncovered visible gold in quartz veining in the company's first drill hole at its recently acquired Bousquet gold project in Quebec, Canada.
The gold specks came within a band of smoky quartz hosting five to seven per cent sulphide mineralisation across a 9-metre zone from 183m downhole at its Paquin prospect.
The company says its drill hole also revealed additional quartz veining, sulphides and alteration stretching down to 286m, with the step-out hole pushing mineralisation west of prior high-grade intercepts, such as a stunning 9m at 16.96 grams per tonne (g/t).
Olympio says three more holes are due to test Paquin's western reach and it expects assays for the current hole by mid-July.
Bousquet sits astride the Cadillac Break, a legendary regional structure teeming with world-class gold deposits, with more than 110 million ounces to its name.
Fortunately for Olympio, its Paquin, Amedee, Decoeur and Johannes prospects are all perched on this fabled fault, suggesting the first hole is not a fluke.
It took a moment for the market to digest the upside of this Canadian explorer in a humming gold environment. The company's share price surged on just $150,000 worth of stock traded on Tuesday before things got humming on Wednesday as it hit a 13.5c high. This was up 255 per cent on last week's close.
Bousquet commands a 10-kilometre stretch of the Cadillac Break just 15km west of the Bousquet Mining Camp, where heavyweights such as Agnico Eagle's 15-million-ounce La Ronde and Iamgold's 2.4-million-ounce Westwood reside.
The company says its Paquin mineralisation echoes the nearby O'Brien project, which has one million ounces of gold and just 15km east. Paquin's visible gold in smoky quartz veins may be a telltale sign of high-grade riches. The company is also touting its infrastructure advantages in difficult-to-navigate Canadian terrain.
Olympio's Dufay gold-copper project, 60km west, adds another 10km of Cadillac Break exposure, with drilling imminent on a high-potential porphyry gold-copper target, giving the company a commanding 20km stake in this golden corridor.
If its maiden holes continue to turn up the goods, Olympio could unearth a game-changing discovery in a world-class region, that would have its current valuation of $10 million looking like an absolute steal.
CODEIFAI LTD (ASX: CDE)
Up 75% (4c – 7c)
Bulls N' Bears Runner of the Week's bronze medal was nabbed by brand solutions technology group Codeifai Limited, which had no news to the market this week. The company's share price went on an absolute tear of unusual trading activity before the party was cut short by a trading halt on Friday pending the announcement of a potential acquisition.
A level of knowledge around the apparent acquisition seems to have pushed the company's share price since early June.
Codeifai released a corporate update after a few days of suspicious trading on June 6 that outlined the two companies in hot pursuit. Trust Codes Global is a New Zealand QR code powerhouse with a serialised platform rivalling Codeifai's ConnectQR, while Credissential Inc's QuantumAI Transfer is a Canadian quantum-secure payment and file transfer platform that could supercharge Codeifai's software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings with BNPL features.
Codeifai recently pivoted to become a brand solutions specialist that develops and sells digital solutions using QR code technology through its SaaS offerings ConnectQR and ProtectCode. The company says its ConnectQR with AI-generated QR codes produce revenue 24/7 and seamlessly integrate with its cloud-based platform.
It has already generated millions of codes and has apparently caught the eyes of global competitors.
Since being hit with a speeding ticket from the ASX constabulary earlier this month, the company has surged 1000 per cent before finally putting an end to one of the worst-kept secret in market history.
SUNRISE ENERGY METALS (ASX: SRL)
Up 65% (73c – 120.5c)
This week's final Runners spot goes to critical minerals developer Sunrise Energy Metals, which sparked a market wildfire this week, surging on Tuesday, following a capital raise to an insider mining magnate last week. Then on Friday, it announced it had run into some high-grade scandium results at its Syerston scandium project in New South Wales.
The inferno was ignited with Monday's news of a $6 million placement at 30c a share, with a 1-for-1 option at 40c, backed by mining titan and co-chairman Robert Friedland's Ivanhoe Capital Holdings. Ivanhoe committed $3 million to the raise with two further cornerstone investors, alongside a $1.5 million share purchase plan (SPP) with no doubt strong uptake.
Some punters may have been kicking themselves for missing the early bird special, given shares hit $1.20 intraday by Friday, up an astonishing 300 per cent above the prescribed SPP price.
The funds are set to supercharge an updated feasibility study and exploration at Syerston, where Friday's assays from 1997 drill pulps unveiled substantial intersections, including 6m running 553 parts per million (ppm) and 18m at 528ppm scandium in shallow laterite soils just begging for cost-efficient mining.
The grades were well above the project's 390ppm scandium average within 60.3 million tonnes for 23,554t contained scandium.
The company says its results confirm Syerston as a global scandium heavyweight. It has a 5000m drilling campaign targeting high-grade zones around a dunite intrusion and a feasibility study update due in the next quarter.
Sunrise says it is perfectly positioned to supply a critical minerals market begging for new feed sources, following China's scandium export curbs on what amounts to about 90 per cent of global supply.
With 99.999 per cent scandium oxide fetching $500,000 per kilogram - that's $500 million per tonne - and demand soaring for aerospace alloys and 5G semiconductors, this critical mineral isn't going to go away. If mid-July assays and offtake talks with alloy and chip makers pan out, Sunrise could be soon on its way to forging Australia's first standalone scandium mine.
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News.com.au
18 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Lithium customers are still jostling for offtake, suggesting long term outlook is strong
Lithium prices are tumbling but customers involved in the EV supply chain are more focused on lithium grade and purity Lithium-ion batteries require battery-grade lithium with a purity of 99.5% or higher Juniors like Green Technology Metals and Cosmos Exploration continue to demonstrate the strength of their projects despite challenging market conditions While ASX lithium prices fall and retail investors flee, the world's battery makers are quietly locking in supply deals, with expected demand of three million tonnes by 2030 having the potential to make today's prices look like a bargain. To put the current lithium 'crash' in perspective, at US$8800 per tonne, today's prices are still nearly double the $4450/t lithium was fetching in 2012. And despite an apparent flood of material, customers are still eager to lock up future supplies, worried the market could flip on its head as demand soars. Pursuit Minerals (ASX:PUR) managing director Aaron Revelle told Stockhead, its partners involved in the EV supply chain are less concerned about the depressed market and more focused on who can deliver the ultra-pure product that tomorrow's batteries demand. Revelle said Chinese buyers, who dominate global lithium demand, are hunting for lithium chloride to refine into battery-grade material of 99.5% purity or better, which is where ASX juniors like Pursuit are separating themselves from the pack. Pursuit's Rio Grande project in Brazil has already demonstrated it can deliver 99.5% lithium carbonate, putting the asset in the premium tier offtakers are actually chasing. That's great news for future producers in the South American brine space. 'Chinese buyers are going into the South American salars which have a history of producing the higher-grade material, especially from the more established projects like Olaroz or Pheonix in Argentina,' Revelle said. 'These mines are producing 99.5% lithium carbonate and the companies that own them are upgrading the product to the 99.95% battery grade." Proven quality By remaining active even with prices at a low ebb, Pursuit is ensuring Rio Grande is ready to feed a high quality product into the flobal market. 'When you look at Rio Grande, the attraction is that it's already proven it can produce 99.5% technical grade lithium carbonate. It has a long life, it's low cost, robust and has over a million tonnes of resource with potential upside,' he said. 'You can't find projects like ours anymore where we have what we call tier-1 chemistry profile where the brine is 450-500mg/l Li, one of our drill holes had an intercept of 620mg/l Li which is getting towards the higher end of the lithium content. 'And there's still plenty of upside at our project because we were originally going to drill around six to eight holes and we've only drilled two of that program.' Pursuit is now transitioning to the next phase of development and commercialisation at the asset, after dispatching lithium carbonate samples to multiple prospective offtake and strategic partners earlier this month. Initial pilot plant production at the company's 250tpa pilot plant in Salta churned out 15kg of lithium carbonate at 98.9% purity, validating everything from their Rio Grande brine quality to their processing tech. Lithium's wild ride Revelle believes the long-term fundamentals for lithium are intact. And, he is no stranger to the lithium rollercoaster. The seasoned operator has weathered three or four price cycles since founding Argentinian-lithium focused company Centaur Resources in 2018, which sold to Arena Minerals for a tidy $23m in 2020. Two years later, with no further work done and when lithium prices caught fire, Arena was acquired by Lithium Americas Corp for US$227m. 'That's the sort of environment you'll see,' he said. 'What history has shown us is that lithium is immature – prices go up, supply comes online, price drops, then a couple years later demand catches up and more supply is needed, price spikes and it repeats the cycle. 'We're seeing surging EV sales where it's estimated to hit 7 million units globally in the first five month of 2025, that's quite significant – that's a 28% year on year growth rate,' he said. 'When you're looking at the horizon, in the next five years lithium demand is to reach 3-4x, and it's not a question of will it happen, but when it will happen. 'We'll probably see another couple of cycles before it stabilises but there's definitely another spike coming and with added project scarcity, there'll be more economies of scale introduced with more M&A to take place, and more consolidation in Argentina.' Lithium players still inking deals Plenty of other companies have also managed to attract potential partners, enter offtake deals and agreements despite the market carnage, showing interest in the metal remains strong. Argosy Minerals (ASX:AGY) has struck a spot sales contract with a Hong Kong chemical company for 60 metric tonnes of premium battery-grade lithium carbonate (>99.5% purity) from its 77.5%-owned Rincon project in Argentina's Salta province. The company is developing the 12,000tpa project with engineering and feasibility works currently underway to achieve a final investment decision. Rincon holds a total resource of 731,801t of LiCO3 with a weighted mean average lithium concentration of 329mg/L, which includes an indicated resource of 640,330t LiCO3 with a weighted mean average lithium concentration of 327mg/L. In December last year, Cosmos Exploration (ASX:C1X) signed an exclusive option agreement to acquire EAU Lithium, a private lithium development company part owned by Vulcan Energy Resources (ASX:VUL) with a technology-testing agreement with Bolivian state-owned company Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB). This agreement enables EAU to test lithium brines from Salar de Coipasa, Salar de Empexa and Salar de Pastos Grandes salars – some of the largest salars in the country. The Bolivian Government, through YLB, is seeking to unlock its vast lithium resources to drive economic growth and establish Bolivia as a global leader in the lithium supply chain. Previous extraction attempts using chemicals plus solar evaporation-based methods have faced challenges due to the high magnesium content in the salars. By partnering with EAU lithium and using Vulcan's DLE tech, YLB aims to overcome these technical hurdles and capitalise on rising global lithium demand while reducing environmental impacts. So far, five cubic metres of brine samples have been shipped from Bolivia's lithium salars to Germany for testing. Up in Canada, Green Technology Metals' (ASX:GT1) hard rock lithium assets in Ontario are on the doorstep of North America's EV sector. Leading South Korean battery materials group EcoPro is a major shareholder, while GT1 has already locked in a lithium offtake agreement with LG Energy Solutions (also a shareholder) for 25% of its spodumene concentrate production from the Seymour lithium project for five years. First production at Seymour, home to a 10.3Mt at 1.03% Li20 resource, is targeted for 2026, with DFS work currently underway. It is GT1's flagship project and plays a central role in the Eastern Hub strategy, which involves developing multiple satellite sites to supply long-term feedstock for a planned concentrator at the site. Meanwhile, GT1's Western Hub, slated for operation in 2029, centres around the Root Bay deposit and will serve as additional feed for a proposed lithium conversion facility. An updated preliminary economic assessment reinforced the Root lithium project as a viable, standalone project delivering an increase in NPV at the Root lithium project to US$668m, after tax IRR of 53.5% and a payback period of three years. At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Pursuit Minerals, Cosmos Exploration and Green Technology Metals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.
West Australian
3 hours ago
- West Australian
Sarah Wells: Is buy now, pay later a credit score monster or a money-mover?
Buy now, pay later has become a financial mainstay, particularly among younger Australians. Platforms like Afterpay, Zip and Klarna have made it easy to spread the cost of purchases, effectively becoming the modern Laybuy. But with new regulations now treating BNPL as a form of credit, many younger consumers are wondering: 'Is BNPL wrecking my credit score? Or could it help build a stronger financial history?' As with most money tools — credit cards, home loans, and even overdrafts — it's how you use it and what you use it for that makes all the difference. Here's what you need to know about how BNPL now affects your credit report, and whether it can help (or hurt) your future borrowing power. Until recently, BNPL sat in a regulatory grey zone. It didn't technically count as 'credit', so your BNPL use often didn't appear on your credit report at all — unless you missed payments and ended up in collections. And even then the inquiry did, but not your behaviour. That's now changed. New rules brought in by the Albanese Government mean BNPL providers must conduct credit checks, assess suitability, and report repayment behaviour just like other credit products, and must also hold an Australian Credit Licence. In other words: BNPL will now start showing up on your credit report — both the accounts you open, and how you manage your repayments. If you use BNPL well — paying on time, keeping balances low, and not juggling too many accounts — it could help build a positive repayment history, or comprehensive credit report. This is especially useful for those who may have chosen to avoid credit cards, car loans, or are not yet at the mortgage stage and seem to lack debt contributing to their credit profile. But all that glitters is not gold, so think carefully about planning and budgeting, because should you miss payments or over-commit, it could drag down your credit score. Mainstream lenders may also view excessive use of BNPL (lots of accounts or frequent borrowing) as a sign of financial stress. BNPL can absolutely help you build a credit profile and repayment history — if it's used within your means — but unfortunately these products target those who may not be financially fit. Think of it like a set of financial training wheels: useful for practising good repayment habits, but not to be relied upon forever. And make sure you're going to use, appreciate or value what you add to your cart. Responsible use of BNPL is only one piece of the puzzle. Consistent saving, cash flow management, establishing an emergency fund through good budgeting, and using credit products wisely will make a bigger impact long-term. When it comes to finance, friends are assets, but foes are a liability, so keep your wits about you with BNPL and you'll reap the financial rewards. Sarah Wells is a Perth money and finance commentator
Herald Sun
13 hours ago
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Peter Stevens dealerships close in Geelong, Ringwood
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