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(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Wednesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Permanent TSB Group Holdings PLC - Dublin-based personal and small business bank - Pretax loss in six months to June 30 narrows to EUR9 million from EUR57 million a year before. Net interest income in first half slips to EUR152 million from EUR171 million, with total operating income down to EUR167 million from EUR185 million. Credit impairment drops sharply to EUR3 million from EUR75 million year before. Chief Executive Eamonn Crowley says: "The performance in the first half of 2021 has seen the Bank competing very strongly, bringing real innovation to the market, introducing new customer offerings and attracting new customers to the Bank. We saw a strong rebound in activity in the second half of 2020 and have built further on this momentum in the first half of 2021, evident from the significant increase in our new mortgage market share, which now stands at 17.5%." New lending EUR900 million in year to date, with net interest margin at 1.50%, 23 basis point lower from six months earlier.
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Digital 9 Infrastructure PLC - digital infrastructure assets investor managed by Triple Point Investment Management LLP - Enters definitive agreements to deploy over GBP50 million into the development of a new intercontinental fibre system. Thor Johnsen, head of Digital Infrastructure at Triple Point, says: "This investment reaffirms D9's guiding principle: to improve digital infrastructure globally and reduce the digital divide. We continue to make progress on the Company's wider pipeline of investment opportunities and we look forward to providing further updates to the market on these in due course. In addition, we expect this innovative network to unlock further digital infrastructure opportunities."
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Aptitude Software Group PLC - financial management software firm - Pretax profit in six months to June 30 rises to GBP4.7 million from GBP4.5 million. Interim revenue slips 5% year on year to GBP27.6 million from GBP29.1 million. Annual recurring revenue at end of June up 11% year on year at GBP32.2 million from GBP29.1 million. Proposes unchanged interim dividend at 1.8 pence. Chief Executive Jeremy Suddards says: "'The group made continued strategic and operational progress in the first half of 2021 with all key products and regions contributing to a good new business performance, capitalising on the accelerated move to the cloud. Particular success was achieved with the insurance market in both APAC and Europe as a more typical business environment returned in those markets."
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Tufton Oceanic Assets Ltd - London-based maritime assets investor - Agrees to to acquire an Ultramax Bulker, Idaho, for USD21.4 million. "The vessel is being acquired at below depreciated replacement cost and is fuel efficient versus its peer group. The vessel is being acquired with the proceeds of the sale of the Containership Kale announced in early July," company says. It has a fixed rate time charter for 15 to 19 months producing an annual net yield of about 21%. Separately, sells Containership Citra for USD33 million. Company notes realised net IRR will be 47%. Citra was acquired in December 2018 for USD13.1 million.
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Hargreaves Services PLC - engineering services company - Annual pretax profit surges to GBP14.4 million from GBP2.2 million. Revenue in year to May 31 slips to GBP204.8 million from GBP222.2 million. Proposes final dividend of 4.5 pence, unchanged on year before, but proposes additional dividend of 12.0p coming from German joint venture Hargreaves Raw Materials Services GmbH, as its profit from JVs jumped to GBP17.7 million from GBP2.1 million. Chair Roger McDowell says: "The board has established a strong platform and a clear, strategic investment proposition from which to create, deliver and realise shareholder value based on the three pillars of our Services business, Hargreaves Land and the HRMS joint venture in Germany. The group is now delivering good financial returns and the board looks forward to the future with confidence."
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Blackbird PLC - London-based cloud video editing platform - Starts trading on OTCQX Best Market, in the US. "Trading on the US OTC market will have no direct impact on the trading of Blackbird's existing ordinary shares on AIM and no new ordinary shares will be issued as part of the cross-trade," company says. Adds: "The company believes that having its ordinary shares traded on the OTCQX will provide enhanced investor benefits, including easier trading access for investors located in the US, and greater liquidity due to a broader geographic pool of potential investors."
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Good Energy Group PLC - Wiltshire-based renewable electricity supplier - Says GeniePoint and char.gy are the latest charge point operators to join company's Zap-Pay, which allows people to pay for EV charging across networks from within the Zap-Map app. Zap-Map currently has over 200,000 registered users, and over 95% of the UK's public points on its network, with over 75% of the UK's EV drivers having downloaded Zap-Map. Chief Executive Nigel Pocklington says: "Electric vehicle adoption continues to accelerate at record rates and Zap-Map are providing crucial solutions to remove many barriers to adoption for existing and new EV drivers. The successful launch of their premium subscription service is a demonstration of the value that EV drivers place on having such valuable information at their fingertips."
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Amigo Holdings PLC - Bournemouth, England-based provider of guarantor loans - Will not publish results on Thursday after UK Financial Conduct Authority raised issued with company's plans to seek approval for a new scheme of arrangement to deal with current and potential redress creditors. "The FCA and the company continue to correspond in relation to the construction of a scheme which deals adequately with the key points raised in the judgment on the original scheme of Arrangement," company says. FCA confirms it will not authorise a return to lending by Amigo until after the sanctioning of a new scheme, by the High Court. Notes delay in publishing its annual results constitutes a technical breach of one of the covenants for the 7.625% senior secured notes due 2024.
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musicMagpie PLC - Stockport-based electronics reseller - Sinks to pretax loss in six months to May 31 of GBP17.7 million from GBP2.6 million profit a year before. Revenue improves to GBP72.8 million from GBP71.1 million. Total operating expenses rise sharply to GBP40.5 million from GBP15.6 million. Chief Executive Steve Oliver says: "This has been a landmark period for musicMagpie, and we are very pleased with the performance of the business as it has adapted quickly to life as a public company. We are seeing strong and growing demand for our unique circular economy model, as consumers continue to realise the benefits of buying and renting refurbished consumer technology products. We are now seeing more people than ever before looking to recycle their old gadgets whilst freeing up cash and decluttering their lives in the process. These trends, combined with the launch of our exciting new mobile phone rental subscription service, mean that we continue to have a high degree of confidence in the future prospects of musicMagpie."
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Block Energy PLC - oil and gas production and development in Georgia - Well WR-B1 has successfully reached the 9 feet casing point, having drilled ahead from the kick-off point earlier in the month. The casing has been installed and cemented in place at the top of the Middle Eocene reservoir. The reservoir was encountered within two metres of the depth prognosed using the data from the company's 3D-seismic survey. Company will now commence drilling the horizontal 8 and a feet reservoir section of the well. The well is expected to reach total depth in August, and is hoping to target 2.1 MMboe of recoverable oil and gas.
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Power Metal Resources PLC - London-based exploration & development firm - Exercises option to acquire a 100% interest in two gold-nickel exploration licences located within the Tati Greenstone Belt located near Francistown, Botswana, through its local wholly owned operating subsidiary Power Metal Resources Botswana Pty Ltd. Chief Executive Paul Johnson says: "The company's due diligence review of historic data identified numerous multi kilometre-scale nickel, arsenic and gold anomalies, which are now the subject of an ongoing Phase I exploration programme which includes detailed geochemical sampling, mapping and prospecting. This transaction brings Power Metal to four project interests in Botswana, demonstrating our commitment to this secure and supportive jurisdiction therefore exposing our shareholders to tremendous upside across a highly attractive portfolio."
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Challenger Energy Group PLC - Caribbean and Atlantic margin focused oil & gas company - First stage of production testing at Saffron-2 well, with well bore clean-up operations underway. Drilling rig has been fully demobilised, to be replaced at site by a Challenger Energy workover rig along with production tanks and major production equipment. Following inspection and subsequent formal approval of both the well completion and production facilities by the Ministry of Energy & Energy Industries, about 130 feet of potential reservoir sands in the Lower Cruse sections of the well was perforated, to enable production testing from these zones to commence. Chief Executive Eytan Uliel says: "The objective of the Safffron-2 well is to understand the production potential from the various reservoir units identified by both the Saffron-1 and Saffron-2 wells, starting with the Lower Cruse intervals."
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Predator Oil & Gas Holdings PLC - operator in Trinidad, Morocco and Ireland - Planning for MOU-4 well in Morocco is underway after MOU-1 drilling programme. Notes, in Trinidad, opportunities have been identified to potentially realise investment made to date in C02 EOR through consolidation with in-country producers expressing an interest in C02 EOR services provided by Predator Oil & Gas Trinidad Ltd.
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Grafenia PLC - Manchester-based printing business - Annual pretax loss narrows to GBP2.3 million from GBP3.6 million the year before. Revenue in year to March 31 drops to GBP9.7 million from GBP15.6 million. Staff costs drops to GBP3.7 million from GBP5.7 million. Chief Executive Peter Gunning says: "We made significant steps reducing our overheads last year. Despite spending more of the second half of the year locked down than unlocked, we almost achieved Ebitda breakeven. Our new financial year started in April. Trading has improved and the first quarter finished ahead of last year. July started well and should be our best month since September 2020. The roads are busier. With our new cost base, modest increases in revenue will improve profitability. And that gives us confidence of getting closer to reaching our mid-term objective of 10% to 15% Ebitda on a monthly run-rate during the current financial year."
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Pembridge Resources PLC - holds investment in Minto Explorations Ltd, which operates Minto copper-gold-silver mine in Yukon, Canada - First drilling starts on Minto North area, as planned. This is the first part of a planned 27-hole drill programme. A total of 13,220 metres of drilling is planned for 2021, and the final results from this programme are expected in early 2022. Chief Executive & Chair Gati Al-Jebouri says: "This is an exciting time for the Minto mine as it restarts exploration on the Minto Claims especially when you consider no exploration drilling has been done on our property for almost a decade. We are optimistic that the results will show further scope to extend the life of the mine."
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Star Phoenix Group Ltd - oilfield services in Trinidad and oil and gas interest in Indonesia - Terminates consultancy agreement with Fire Phoenix Ltd.
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By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com
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