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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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Castings PLC - Brownhills, England-based iron casting and machining company - Says turnover for the financial year to March 31 decreased to GBP115 million from GBP139 million the year before, with a reduction in pretax profit before exceptional items to GBP4.4 million from GBP12.7 million. Castings notes that during the second half of the financial year, demand continued to increase to pre-Covid output levels. However, production was hampered by more employees needing to self-isolate as UK Covid cases increased. The company notes, however, that it is now back to full production, but its customers are still seeing shortages of semi-conductors and other materials. Castings proposes the payment of a final dividend of 11.69 pence per share. This, together with the interim dividend, gives a total dividend for the year of 15.26p per share, up from 14.88p paid the year ago.
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Severfield PLC - York, England-based steel company - Says revenue for the financial year to March 31 was up 11% year-on-year to GBP363.3 million, but pretax profit fell to GBP21.1 million from GBP25.8 million. The company explained that its profit took a hit from Covid pandemic, with share of results from joint ventures and associates resulting in a loss of GBP344,000 versus GBP2.4 million profit in financial 2020. Total dividend of 2.9p per share includes proposed final dividend of 1.8p per share, both unchanged year-on-year. "We have an established platform for further operational and strategic progress in the year ahead and with the current order book levels and pipeline activity, have the capacity to deliver enhanced shareholder returns in the future," notes CEO Alan Dunsmore.
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Time Finance PLC - Bath, England-headquartered funding solutions provider - Renews focus on its core products, its organic growth, and aims to become an alternative multi-product independent small and medium size enterprises funder, helping UK businesses recover and grow post-Covid. Turning to operations, Time Finance says the financial year to May 31 was profitable, with the company continuing to demonstrate the resilience and diversification of its lending book, further strengthening its balance sheet and improving liquidity. As a result, Time Finance says it expects pretax profit before exceptional items and share-based payments to be flat year-on-year, at GBP3.0 million. Net tangible assets as at May 31 are seen at GBP28.3 million, up from GBP26.5 million the year prior but net lending book is seen at GBP98.8 million, lower than GBP107.7 million the year before.
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Motorpoint Group PLC - Derby, England-based omnichannel vehicle retailer - Says it has plans to increase its rate of growth, with the aim of at least doubling revenue to over GBP2 billion in the medium term, with an improved margin and strong cash generation. The announcement comes after the company's revenue for the financial year to March 31 declined by 29% to GBP721.4 million amid the COVID-19 pandemic and UK government imposed lockdowns. Motorpoint says 69% of units were sold online during the year, with over 47,000 units sold overall, down from 52,000 units the year prior. The company says its pretax profit fell to GBP9.7 million from GBP18.8 million year-on-year.
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FireAngel Safety Technology Group PLC - Coventry, England-based developer and supplier of home safety products - Reports a good start to 2021 and says trading has continued to be on track as the UK eases out of the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. The company anticipates its first half of 2021 performance to be in line with expectations as demand for its products and services continues. "FireAngel's compelling proposition to protect and save lives with innovative, cutting-edge home safety technology remains strong and the group is well positioned for future growth," says Executive Chair John Conoley.
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Elixirr International PLC - London-based consultancy firm - Says trading in the five months ended May 31 has been strong with revenue increasing by more than 75% compared with the same period in 2020. The company says it now expects revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization for 2021 to be towards the upper end of the previous guidance. Elixirr has previously guided for revenue between GBP44 million and GBP47 million with an adjusted Ebitda margin of 29%.
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Tullow Oil PLC - London-based oil and gas exploration company - Says production to the end of May averaged 62,000 barrels of oil per day, in line with expectations and reflecting the completion of the sale of Equatorial Guinea interests on March 31. Tullow says, in Ghana, its operational improvement plan is delivering results with 98% average uptime year-to-date, as it started a multi-year drilling campaign. In 2021, the company says it is planning to drill four wells in total, consisting of two Jubilee production wells, one Jubilee water injector well and one TEN gas injector well. Meanwhie, in Kenya, the company says licence extensions were granted for blocks 10BB & 13T until end of 2021.
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Filta Group Holdings PLC - Rugby, England-based fryer management services provider - Continues to experience an increasing level of demand for its services in all of its operating territories. In the US, there has been a faster than anticipated reopening of the hospitality and leisure sectors, with strong growth during the first part of the year and expectations for further growth as Filta's larger customers open up during the third quarter. Although the reopening of the sector has been more cautious in the UK than in the US, there is some momentum building, Filta says. Europe continues to lag both the US and the UK in terms of both the vaccine delivery and the reopening of business but the company says it has, nonetheless, continued to develop new business opportunities.
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Diaceutics PLC - Belfast, Northern Ireland-based diagnostic commercialisation company - Reports continued positive progress with the uptake of the DXRX software-as-a-service platform of over 40% of sales pipeline generation for the second quarter. The company also reports 16% increase in average sales prices per project for Pharma clients in 2021, when compared to the 2020 average contracted price. "We continue to make excellent progress in the roll out of the DXRX platform, our innovative diagnostic commercialisation platform for precision medicine," says CEO Peter Keeling. "In just a few months post launch, we have built the foundations for platform adoption at scale, achieving key expansion milestones such as lab onboarding and are confident that we are on the path towards becoming a strategically embedded platform provider to the pharma industry."
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Zephyr Energy PLC - London-based oil and gas company - Reports progress on its non-operated assets in the Williston Basin, North Dakota, US and on its flagship project in the Paradox Basin, Utah, US. At Williston Basin, Zephyr says the S-Bar wells have been placed into production, ahead of forecast schedule, and the Feehan wells are expected to be placed into production within the next month. At Paradox Basin, preparations continue ahead of the drilling of the State 16-2LN CC lateral appraisal well which is scheduled to spud in July and which will target the company's first production from the Paradox project. Zephyr says final permitting is expected shortly and vendor negotiations are expected to be finalised in the coming weeks.
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Castillo Copper Ltd - base metal explorer focused on Australia and Zambia - Says drilling campaign is now underway at the core Mt Oxide project, across three key prospects. Castillo notes that work has begun on 26 drill-holes for 2,828 metres, with the focus on intersecting new targets off the 1,200 meters strike event to extend known copper mineralisation. "Over the next few months the board's core focus is to maximise exploration efforts across our flagship Mt Oxide project," says Managing Director Simon Paull.
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Cora Gold Ltd - West African focused gold company - Reports the fifth set of drill results, and first from zone A, from its drilling campaign, which commenced in March at its Sanankoro gold project in Southern Mali. The company plans to have drilled up to a total 35,000 metres by end of July, with a dual focus on targeting resource growth as well as infill drilling to convert existing inferred resources to indicated. "The first set of results in this drill campaign at Zone A have followed on strongly from Selin and confirmed more holes of good widths and grade in oxide ore," says CEO Bert Monro. "While we await further results from this target over the coming weeks, three rigs are now drilling back at Selin for the follow-up deeper phase 2 programme and a fourth rotary air blast rig owned by Cora is completing sterilisation drilling on potential process plant and tailings storage facility sites."
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W Resources PLC - tungsten, tin and gold mining company with assets in Spain and Portugal - Completes the construction of a new water dam at the La Parrilla mine in Spain in order to resolve the issue of the high water levels. Dewatering of the mine pit is now underway and once water levels are reduced, W Resources says it will be able to safely regain access to high-grade ore areas. The final phase of the project to provide a permanent solution to the water issues at La Parrilla, comprising of a second dam, is currently at the design stage and is expected to be completed in the final quarter of 2021.
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Chesterfield Resources PLC - London-based company focused on discovery and development of copper deposits - Exercises the right to acquire a number of new mineral licenses to more than double the size of its Adeline copper exploration project, in Labrador, Canada. The licences will be acquired when the company completes the acquisition of the project, expected in coming weeks. The total licence area of the Adeline project will now be extended to nearly 300 square kilometres, in one continuous block. The company also announces the commencement of exploration programmes on the project. "Since we announced the acquisition of the large-scale Adeline project four weeks ago, the company has wasted no time in getting to work. Not only will we now be acquiring claims to more than double the licence area, we have also embarked on a large-scale data analytics programme, and have commissioned a detailed field survey to start within weeks," says Executive Chair Martin French.
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Empire Metals Ltd - London-based resource exploration and development company - Starts exploration activities covering the four exploration licences which comprise the Central Menzies gold project, including verification of historical reverse circulation drilling and the acquisition of airborne geophysical survey data. "We have now commenced our exploration campaign for the Central Menzies gold project and are currently compiling a robust geological database, utilising both historical reports and the results from the recent reverse circulation drilling programme carried out by the owner of the tenements, Mel Dalla-Costa," says Managing Director Shaun Bunn.
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By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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