Yellow Cake (LSE:YCA), the specialist that holds physical uranium (U3O8) for the long term, in Monday's quarterly update, highlighted it had increased inventory to 23.11m lb and elected to purchase a further 1.16m lb from JSC National Atomic Company Kazatomprom for US$100.0m, targeting about 24.37m lb after expected delivery in the second half of 2026.
On 17 February Yellow Cake completed an oversubscribed placing of about 13m shares that raised gross proceeds of about £80.6m (about US$110m), which underpins the company's 2026 purchasing activity.
During the quarter, Yellow Cake took delivery of 1.33m lb from Kazatomprom on 16 March in settlement of its exercised 2025 option (1.33m lb at US$75.08/lb for US$100.0m funded by a September 2025 placing), purchased 100,000 lb in the spot market delivered at Orano on 20 March, and bought a further 100,000 lb delivered on 20 April.
The fair value of Yellow Cake's uranium holdings rose 9.7% over the quarter to US$1,940.4m from US$1,768.2m, estimated net asset value per share increased 5.0% to £6.33, and the company reports a proforma NAV on 24 April of £6.34 per share (US$2,167.9m) based on 24.37m lb at US$86.45/lb adjusted for the US$100.0m Kazatomprom commitment and US$8.5m paid for the April 100,000 lb.
"Our oversubscribed US$110 million placing and the exercise of our Kazatomprom option have grown our holdings to 23.1 million pounds, with committed purchases expected to increase holdings to approximately 24.4 million pounds," Andre Liebenberg, CEO, said.
All U3O8 to which Yellow Cake has title and has paid for is held at the Cameco storage facility in Canada and the Orano storage facility in France, and delivery of the 1.16m lb from Kazatomprom is expected in the second half of 2026.
