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(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Tuesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Northbridge Industrial Services PLC - Burton on Trent, England-based industrial services and rental company - Says trading in the second half of 2020 showed "marked improvement" after sharp Covid-19 related downturn in the second quarter. While pandemic continues to influence the business, Northbridge expects profit before tax and exceptional costs to be "modestly ahead" of management's expectation, and slightly ahead of 2019, underpinned by the ongoing recovery in its markets. Sees revenue for 2020 "broadly similar" to 2019. "For the third year in a row, our factory order book for the outright sale of loadbanks started 2021 at a record level, 22% ahead of last year's record high. Rental activity, particularly in Europe, is slower to start, due to the much tighter lockdowns following the winter jump in Covid-19 infections. However, we expect to recover quickly as the vaccine programme is rolled out further," says Northbridge.
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discoverIE Group PLC - Surrey-based customised electronics supplier - Says underlying earnings for financial year to March 31 to be towards the upper end of market expectations. Order intake in the four months to January 31 has been strong, company says, with sales also showing positive momentum. "The recovery through the second half to date and the strong order momentum provides a solid base from which to return to group wide organic sales growth and underpins the expected progress into the next financial year," says discoverIE.
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Tandem Group PLC - sports, leisure and mobility equipment retailer and designer - Says revenue for 2020 around GBP37.1 million as fourth quarter revenue grew 6% year-on-year, recovering some of the reduction in the third quarter. Gross profit margins continued to be stronger and operating expenses fell by 11% in the year. As a result, pretax profit for 2020 is expected to be "materially ahead" of the prior year. Reports "encouraging" start to 2021 and adds that revenue to the end of January was around 75% higher than a year ago.
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BP Marsh & Partners PLC - London-based private equity investor in financial services businesses - Says income for the year to January 31 was 15% lower than the year before. Says this largely due to receiving lower dividend income from the investment portfolio due to Covid-19 though, due to cost mitigation, the company is expecting underlying profit to be at, or above, the prior year's GBP800,000.
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Brickability Group PLC - Berkshire-based construction materials firm - Continues "strong recovery" and says lockdown measures since November have had "little material effect" on trading. "Furthermore, throughout the pandemic the group has maintained rigorous cost control while continuing to make acquisitions and other strategic investments," company says. Expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of at least GBP16 million for the full-year to March 31.
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CAP-XX Ltd - Australia-based supercapacitors and energy management systems manufacturer - Says revenue for six months to December 31 was AUD2.1 million - equivalent to around GBP1.2 million - being up 10% on a year ago, with product sales for the half up 26% at AUD1.7 million. Ebitda loss excluding the amortisation of employee share options is expected to be around AUD1 million versus AUD800,000 a year ago. Adds that CAP-XX is now an approved supplier to a "global smart phone manufacturer", and separately has commenced the formal process to become an accredited supplier to a global automotive tier 1 component supplier.
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Symphony Environmental Technologies PLC - Borehamwood-based developer of additives to make plastic biodegradable - Says revenue increased 19% to GBP9.8 million in 2020, noting that further revenue of GBP700,000 could not be recognised during the year as shipment missed its year end cut-off due to Far East shipment congestion. Otherwise, group revenue would have exceeded GBP10.5 million, an increase of 30% on 2019. Costs increased during the year by approximately GBP250,000 due to a temporary increase in d2w Latin American market and regulatory specialist costs together with EU legal action costs. These short-term discretionary costs will continue into 2021, with market advisory costs expected to fall away during the second half of the year.
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Income & Growth VCT PLC - venture capital trust - Reports net asset value per share of 79.17 pence at December 31, up from 70.06p at the end of September. Company says the increase was largely due to a rise in unrealised portfolio valuations as well as gains on realisations.
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Water Intelligence PLC - Palm Springs, California-based environmental services and technology company - Says pretax profit grew "very strongly", up 78%, to USD4.2 million in 2020, exceeding market expectations. Revenue increased 17% year-on-year, reaching USD37.9 million. "We executed well and, consistent with our track-record over the last five years, delivered very strong results in terms of revenue and profits growth. Our results are ahead of market expectations, despite Covid, which makes a very positive statement regarding shareholder value and our execution," says Executive Chair Patrick DeSouza.
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Nippon Active Value Fund PLC - Japan-focused investment firm - Says Shintaro Matsuki, president of Sakai Ovex Co Ltd, though his special purpose company Sakai Textile Co Ltd, has launched a tender offer at JPY2,850 per share - around GBP19.77 - for Sakai Ovex. Nippon Active Value via its adviser, Rising Sun Management Ltd, had previously recommended a management buyout of Sakai Ovex to be executed at JPY2,350 per share. "The company has now withdrawn this proposal and accepted the new tender offer for its entire holding of 389,800 common shares, representing 6.06% of Sakai Ovex's outstanding equity capital," Nippon Active Value says. The tender offer price is a premium of around 38% over NAVF's average cost of JPY2,059 per share.
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Abingdon Health PLC - developer and manufacturer of rapid tests - Signs collaboration and co-marketing agreement with Abcam PLC. The two intend to establish a collaborative strategic relationship to enable them to identify and maximise opportunities for the provision of their respective products and services, including the wider Abcam reagent portfolio and Abingdon Health's rapid test contract development and manufacturing services. Abcam will be the preferred supplier to Abingdon of gold nanoparticles and custom conjugation reagents and services, for the company's lateral flow assays.
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Sensyne Health PLC - clinical technology company - Says it has signed an exclusive licence and development agreement with Excalibur Healthcare Services Ltd to apply Sensyne's MagnifEye system for use with Excalibur's lateral flow rapid diagnostic tests across a range of indications, including its Covid-19 antigen test currently being marketed in the UK and across Europe. Excalibur will pay Sensyne a royalty each time the system is used to read a lateral flow test with a minimum guaranteed royalty sum of GBP4.8 million payable over the first two years of the agreement.
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By Lucy Heming;Â lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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