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(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Thursday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Attraqt Group PLC - London-based provider of online search, merchandising and personalisation solutions for e-commerce - Secures almost GBP1 million worth of annual recurring revenue through new contract wins in the third quarter of 2021. Following the native integration with BigCommerce in September, the company says it has seen a number of native integrations go live through this channel. Attraqt expect that its full year performance will be in line with expectations.
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Trifast PLC - Uckfield, England-based manufacturer and distributor of industrial fastenings - Says overall trading since its annual general meeting in July has been in line with expectations at both revenue and profit levels. After a strong rebound in quarter one, the company continues to see solid year-on-year growth into quarter two and expects to report its first half revenue up 30% on GBP81.5 million posted for the six months to September 30, 2020. Going forward, Trifast says, with strong momentum in contracts wins, new order pipeline and general activity levels, it is confident in its outlook, with its full year expectations unchanged.
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Alumasc Group PLC - Kettering, England-based supplier of building and engineering products - Says trading during the first quarter of its current financial year has continued at a "good pace, much as expected". While the pent-up demand from lockdown, present in the prior year, has been absent, Alumasc says demand for its products has remained at a healthy level, with physical considerations such as transport frequently proving to be the restraining factors. However, despite the strength in demand, current trading in the construction industry continues to be "far from normal", the company warns. This is due to the prices of many materials rising sharply, the company says. These cost increases have largely been accepted by customers but discourage some projects from commencing on the new, higher cost base, it notes.
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Luceco PLC - London-based supplier & manufacturer of LED lighting products - Says it is continuing to provide good customer service, despite ongoing supply chain disruption thanks to manufacturing agility and extra inventory cover, supporting market share gains. Revenue growth in the three months to the end of September totals 15% year-on-year and 28% year-on-two-years. Luceco explains that year-on-year growth has slowed against a strong comparative period that was boosted by abnormally high demand after the first wave of Covid lockdowns.
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Water Intelligence PLC - California-based environmental services and technology company - Says it continues to perform strongly and by the end of third quarter of 2021, has surpassed full year 2020 results for revenue, profit and Ebitda. Profit for 2021 is now expected to be at the upper end of consensus analyst estimates. For the nine months to September 30, Water Intelligence posts revenue of USD39.7 million, up 43% year-on-year, while Ebitda grows by 48% year-on-year to USD8.5 million. Pretax profit adjusted for non-cash expenses of share-based payments, amortization and one-time costs was up 42% in nine months to USD6.5 million. "Encouraged by continued strong market demand for our solutions, even during Covid, and our team's execution, we plan to further accelerate our already strong growth plan. We have opportunities for strong organic growth as well as for supplementary acquisition-led growth via our strong corporate development pipeline," says Executive Chair Patrick DeSouza.
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Bushveld Minerals Ltd - South African vanadium producer - Reports production in the three months to September 30 of 1.1 million tonnes of vanadium, an increase of 19% on the second quarter of 2021, underpinned by continued operational stability at Vametco plant located in the North West Province of South Africa. Sales in the quarter of 826,000 tonnes of vanadium were in line with the second quarter's 820,000 tonnes. Meanwhile, production for the first nine months of 2021 totals 2.6 million tonnes of vanadium, 2% lower than a year prior. The company says it is on track to meet 2021 production guidance of between 3.4 million tonnes of vanadium and 3.6 million tonnes.
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Shanta Gold Ltd - miner with operations in Tanzania - Reports operational results for its East African assets, including New Luika gold mine and Singida project in Tanzania, and West Kenya project in Kenya. Shanta says gold production in the three months to September 30 totals 14,194 ounces, broadly flat from 14,201 produced in the second quarter of 2021. The company reports 228,338 tonnes milled in the third quarter, up from 200,511 tonnes milled in the second quarter. Shanta keeps its annual production guidance - which was revised in July - unchanged at between 60,000 - 65,000 ounces.
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Solid State PLC - Redditch, England-based electronic components manufacturer - Reports revenue for the six months to September 30 of GBP39.0 million, up from GBP33.1 million generated a year ago. Adjusted pretax profit for the half year rises to GBP3.3 million from GBP2.6 million year-on-year, reflecting strong underlying trading and the contributions from the Willow and Active Silicon acquisitions made in March 2021. The company expressed confidence in meeting adjusted pretax profit consensus expectations for the year.
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PensionBee Group PLC - London-based company which offers pension calculators and retirement forecasting tools - Says assets under administration more than doubled to GBP2.25 billion as at September 30 from GBP1.08 billion the year prior. Annual run rate revenue also increased significantly to GBP13.9 million from GBP6.7 million year-on-year. PensionBee says it now has registered customer base in excess of 600,000.
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Secure Trust Bank PLC - Solihull, England-based savings accounts and lending services provider - Reports total new business lending up by 20% to GBP368.4 million in the quarter ended September 30 when compared to the second quarter of 2021 and up 59% compared to the third quarter of 2020. The core net loan book grew by 3.3% quarter-on-quarter to GBP2.40 billion and 7.0% year-on-year. The improvements reflects growth in Consumer businesses of 3.0% and Business Finance of 3.6%, underlining the ongoing positive momentum across the company, it says. Customer deposits were 1.3% higher at the end of the quarter, at GBP1.96 billion.
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Secured Income Fund PLC - UK-based investment firm - Reports net asset value as at June 30 of 36.28 pence a share, down sharply from 86.37p posted a year ago. The company declares a dividend for the year of 8.50p per share, up from 7.00p paid a year before. Secured Income Fund explains that, during its financial year, there has been a significant increase in the IFRS 9 provision across the direct loans. A large part of this was due to the marked deterioration of the expected cash flows of the film financings portfolio and the changed operating practices across the film industry as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The company also says it took the decision to increase the provision against a US Health Care Services Co following the sale of its core business assets which reduced the NAV further. During the year, the company says its shares traded at an average discount to NAV of 8.7%.
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Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos Trust PLC - company mainly invests in smaller Asian quoted firms - Maintains dividend at 11.5p per share for the year ended August 31. NAV as at the end of September stands at 1,264.54p, up from 992.14p posted a year earlier. The trust reports share price as at September 30 of 1,090.00p, representing a 14% discount to NAV.
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Edge Performance VCT PLC - London-based venture capital trust - Reports NAV per H share of 134.35p as at August 31 versus 136.62p posted at the end of February. NAV per I share, meanwhile, dropped to 3.43p from 11.82p. The trust paid a dividend of 20.00p per H share and 8.50p per I share. The company says it plans to close the I share class to reactivate its H share buy-back facility.
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Croma Security Solutions Group PLC - Whiteley, England-based operator of four security companies - Reports a 13% uplift in Ebitda to GBP2.0 million in the financial year to June 30. Revenue comes in at GBP32.5 million, slightly above the prior year's GBP32.3 million. The company also reports an increase in pretax profit to GBP1.2 million from GBP87,000 year-on-year. Croma increase total dividend for the year by 2.6% to 2.0p from 1.95p, reflecting confidence in the outlook for all of its businesses.
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Europa Oil & Gas Holdings PLC - exploration and production company focussed on Morocco and Ireland - Reports pretax loss for the financial year that ended on July 31 of GBP718,000, narrowed from GBP5.4 million loss posted the year before. Revenue, meanwhile, rises to GBP1.4 million from GBP1.2 million year-on-year. In financial 2020, the company recorded GBP4.0 million on exploration write-off versus just GBP12,000 in its most recent financial year. "With much activity expected across our existing portfolio as well as our continued evaluation of a number of potential late-stage appraisal/development ventures, I look forward to updating the market on developments in the months ahead," notes CEO Simon Oddie.
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Global Petroleum Ltd - oil & gas upstream exploration company focused on Africa and the Mediterranean - Reports widened pretax loss for the financial year that ended on June 30 of USD3.9 million compared to USD1.5 million loss recorded the year ago. This is due to a USD2.4 million exploration written off versus no such cost the year prior. Going forward, the company says it will continue to explore all strategic alternatives in order to maximise shareholder value.
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Golden Prospect Precious Metals Ltd - Guernsey-based investment company - Reports a decline in NAV per share as at June 30 to 54.61p from 65.38p recorded at the end of 2020. The company notes that over the first six months of 2021 gold price fell by 6.4% in sterling terms, hurting its NAV. Sentiment shifted negatively for the sector, the company notes, as concerns grew regarding the tapering of US government bond purchases, used by the US Federal Reserve to suppress long-term interest rates.
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Renalytix PLC - London-based diagnostics company - Reports widened pretax loss of USD35.8 million for the financial year that ended on June 30 versus USD10.6 million loss posted the year prior, as administrative expenses grow to USD33.3 million from USD11.1 million year-on-year. The company posts revenue of USD1.5 million versus none the year before. Turning to operations, Renalytix says it continues to execute on a number of key operational items including growing its employee base, developing products, adding laboratory services capacity and generating additional utility and validation data.
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By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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