AUG.L Share News (AUG)

(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------International Consolidated Airlines, up 3.4%. The British Airways parent said higher passenger revenue offset rising fuel costs and resulted in an increased profit for the first half of 2019. For the six months to June 30, the company recorded pretax profit of EUR921 million, up 20% from EUR770 million, on revenue of EUR6.77 billion and EUR6.18 billion, respectively. First half passenger revenue was EUR6.00 billion versus EUR5.52 billion, while fuel, oil costs and emissions charges increased to EUR1.57 billion from EUR1.33 billion. Operating profit before exceptional items - the company's preferred profit measure - slipped 2.7% year-on-year to EUR1.09 billion from EUR1.12 billion in the interim period. "Despite fuel cost headwinds, we delivered a good performance. At constant currency, fuel unit costs were up 6.3% while passenger unit revenue increased 1.1%, benefiting from the timing of Easter," said IAG Chief Executive Willie Walsh. IAG's capacity, measured in available seat kilometres, rose 5.7% in the first half to 163,431, with increases across all regions. Passenger revenue per available seat kilometre stood at 6.52 cents, up from 6.43 cents. Passenger unit revenue - passenger revenue per available seat kilometre - for 2019 is predicted to be flat at constant currency, after improving in the second half of the year. ----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Royal Bank of Scotland, down 6.5%. The state-backed lender reported rise in first half income following the sale of its stake in Saudi Alawwal Bank, allowing the lender to pay a 12 pence special dividend. But a worrying 2020 outlook was dragging the stock lower. Saudi British Bank in October 2018 finalised an agreement to buy Alawwal Bank for USD5 billion, creating the kingdom's third-largest lender with USD71 billion in assets. The deal was completed in June. RBS held an aggregate 40% equity stake in Alawwal bank. As a result, RBS has declared a 12p special dividend coupled with a 2p ordinary dividend, representing GBP1.7 billion being returned to shareholders. The lender's operating pretax profit for the six months to June end increased 47% to GBP2.69 billion from GBP1.83 billion the year before. Profit attributable to shareholders more than doubled to GBP2.04 billion from GBP888 million. First half total income grew 6.1% to GBP7.12 billion from GBP6.70 billion. Net interest income, however, slipped 7.6% to GBP4.00 billion from GBP4.33 billion. The bank's net interest margin in the first half slipped to 1.83% versus 2.02% the year before. Operating expenses decreased 14% to GBP4.10 billion from GBP4.74 billion. RBS has retained its 2019 outlook provided at the time of 2018 results. It continues to anticipate further GBP1.2 billion of foreign exchange recycling gains in the second half of 2019. For 2020, RBS said: "Given current market conditions, continued economic and political uncertainty and the contraction of the yield curve, it is very unlikely that we will achieve our target return on tangible equity of more than 12% and cost-to-income ratio of less than 50% in 2020. These remain our strategic targets and we believe they are achievable in the medium term." ----------Mondi, down 5.9%. The packaging firm was extending Thursday's losses, after closing down 3.1%. On Thursday, Mondi indicated conditions in the half were increasingly challenging, though hiked its interim dividend after reporting a "strong" performance. For the six months ended June, pretax profit widened 29% to EUR632 million from EUR490 million the year prior. This was as revenue edged 1.1% higher to EUR3.77 billion from EUR3.73 billion the year before. "Mondi delivered a strong performance in the first half of 2019 against a backdrop of increasingly challenging trading conditions," Mondi Chief Executive Officer Peter Oswald said. "Going into the second half of 2019, ongoing macro-economic uncertainties continue to impact on the trading environment," Oswald said. ----------Intertek, down 5.2%. The inspection, product testing and certification company was lower after Kepler Cheuvreux cut the stock to Hold from Reduce. On Thursday, Intertek reported that broad-based organic revenue growth and the contribution from acquisitions led to a rise in first-half earnings. Intertek also said it remains on track to deliver on 2019 targets of good organic revenue growth at constant rates, with moderate margin expansion and strong cash conversion. For the six months to June 30, Intertek recorded pretax profit of GBP206.3 million, up 4.9% from GBP196.6 million in the comparative year-ago period. Revenue increased to GBP1.44 billion from GBP1.35 billion. ----------BT Group, down 3.3%. The telecommunications firm was lower lower following its quarterly earnings. Reported revenue and profit in the first quarter both struggled but were in line with expectations. For the three months ended June, pretax profit narrowed 8.8% to GBP642 million from GBP704 million the year prior. This was after revenue fell 1.6% to GBP5.63 billion from GBP5.72 billion the year before. Net debt rose to GBP17.81 billion from GBP11.23 billion the year prior. Revenue performance was hurt by falls across all of BT's major units, except at broadband infrastructure subsidiary Openreach, which generated a modest 1.0% rise to GBP1.27 billion. AT BT's largest unit, Consumer, revenue fell 0.8% to GBP2.55 billion, Enterprise revenue declined 4.5% to GBP1.52 billion and the Global division's revenue shrank 5.4% to GBP1.09 billion. ----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Capita, up 2.4%. The outsourcer was higher following CFRA raising the stock to Hold from Sell. On Thursday, Capita ended 17% higher despite a sharp fall in interim profit, as it met annual targets amid an ongoing transformation programme. Capita recorded pretax profit of GBP31.2 million for the six months ended June 30, down from GBP42.3 million in the year ago period. The decrease in profit was attributed to structurally challenged contracts in local government and life insurance. A number of contract losses including Prudential and Marsh in specialist services and Home Office escorting in government services also contributed to the decline in earnings. Despite that, Capita retained its annual guidance and said it remains on track to record pretax profit of between GBP265 million and GBP295 million for 2019 and cost savings of GBP175 million by end 2019. ----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Premier Oil, down 6.7%. The oil producer was down after Barclays cut the stock to Equal Weight from Overweight. ----------Essentra, down 3.2%. The plastic and fibre products maker held its interim dividend steady on despite revenue falling, whilst profit jumped amid gains from recent asset sales. For the six months ended June, pretax profit more than doubled to GBP53.1 million from GBP20.8 million the year prior. This was despite revenue falling 1.3% to GBP506.6 million from GBP513.1 million the year before. Profit performance was primarily helped by a GBP18.8 million exceptional gain related to the sale of some of its businesses, leading to a total GBP22.9 million in one-off gains for the period. Conversely, in the year-prior period, exceptional items amounted to a GBP6.3 million drag on profit. Essentra proposed a 6.3 pence per share interim dividend, unchanged on the year prior. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Provexis, up 17%. The food ingredients retailer signed a collaboration agreement with Chinese dietary supplement firm By-Health Co Ltd for the launch of Fruitflow-based products in China. The agreement has been structured on an open-ended framework basis, which will allow both companies to conduct several different projects over an unspecified period of time, to be at By-Health sole expense. Projects conducted under the agreement will be focused on specific areas of commercial focus for By-Health, with the first project to concentrate on the use of Fruitflow with nitrates in exercise. The nitrates project is expected to provide gross income to Provexis in excess of GBP55,000, and will now affect the company's ownership of existing intellectual property for the nitrates formulation. Project work is to be managed and conducted by Provexis mainly in the UK, and supported by outsourced research partners that will be appointed by the company.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Augean, down 10%. The company announced it will "vehemently challenge" a GBP4.6 million penalty issued by the UK taxman following claims the waste management firm had not paid enough in landfill taxes. HM Revenue & Customs issued a notice that it intended to slap Augean South Ltd - a subsidiary of Augean - with a GBP4.6 million fine for the period covering early June 2013 to late May 2018. The tax authority expects to formally issue the penalty on August 30. In 2018, Augean as a whole generated a GBP10.6 million pretax profit on revenue of GBP79.7 million the year prior. HMRC has argued that Augean had failed to pay the correct amount in landfill taxes over a prolonged period of time. In April, Augean was issued with a demand for GBP34.7 million in taxes and a further GBP2.9 million demand in late July. At the time, Augean warned it could also face penalties from HMRC related to the reported tax issues. On Friday, Augean said it will "vehemently challenge and appeal" the intended penalty with the tax tribunal due in 2020. "The group continues to believe, based on legal advice, that it has paid the correct amount of landfill tax and that HMRC's assessments and intended penalty are incorrect," Augean said in a statement. "No financial provision will be made for HMRC's assessments or the intended penalty based on legal advice received."----------Lamprell, down 10%. The fabrication, engineering, and contracting firm narrowed its revenue guidance due to delays, slashing the top end of guidance by USD50 million and said financial performance is not expected to improve. The company now expects to post revenue of between USD275 million and USD350 million "due to the delays with a number of awards". Lamprell had previously guided for USD250 million to USD400 million of revenue for 2019. In 2018, the company's revenue was USD234.1 million. It also said it is not expecting an improved year-on-year financial business performance for 2019, both due to delays with contract awards as well as "the retention of capability to execute the expected pipeline of new business." The company's bid pipeline currently sits at USD6.3 billion. It said proposal activity was "high" but new awards remain at a slow pace. It is targeting opportunities which are set to "come to fruition later in 2019 and 2020".----------