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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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Petra Diamonds Ltd - diamond miner - Reports third quarter revenue of USD106.0 million, up 16% on a year ago as prices recovered to pre-virus levels. Third quarter production 704,498 carats, down from 932,456 carats year-on-year, with group's quarterly revenue increase driven by improved pricing. On a like-for-like basis, realised diamond prices increased around 12% from those achieved in the first half of the financial year. "We are seeing encouraging signs of a recovery in the diamond market, supporting better pricing, reflected in the third quarter revenue numbers. Post completion of the capital restructuring, Petra is in a far stronger position, with a solid platform for future growth and development," says Chief Executive Richard Duffy.
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Zoo Digital Group PLC - London-based provider of cloud-based localisation and digital distribution services - Says full-year revenue expected to be USD39.5 million, up from USD29.8 million a year ago and ahead of guidance for at least USD38 million. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation for year ended March 31 is expected to more than double to USD4.5 million from USD2.1 million. Adds that trading in first weeks of new financial year has been strong. "Looking ahead, we expect new title production to resume and back catalogue migration to continue. Q1 of our new financial year has begun well," says Chief Executive Stuart Green.
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IG Design Group PLC - consumer gift packaging business - Says revenue for financial year ended March 31 rose 40% to USD870 million, driven by full year of trading from CSS Industries Inc. "These results reflect strong growth in the Americas as a result of the CSS acquisition, and a much better than expected performance in International, particularly in Australia and Europe," company says. Like-for-like revenue, stripping out CSS, fell 5%. Says full-year earnings anticipated to be in line with current market expectations and it plans to pay a final dividend in line with market expectations. Expects "significant year on year growth in both revenues and earnings in FY2022, in line with current market expectations." Adds that Greg Hodder has resigned for personal family reasons as a non-executive director, effective April 30, and the board has started a search for his replacement.
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Urban Exposure PLC - provides finance to property developers - Says pretax loss for 2020 GBP26.8 million, swinging from profit of GBP200,000 in 2019. Notes negative income of GBP900,000 - versus gain of GBP11.1 million the year before - recognised due to a reduction in fair values of the group's loan receivables due to changes in market values that occurred largely as a result of the uncertainty created by Covid-19. Given progress made in realising loan portfolio and the ongoing costs of remaining as a quoted company, the board believes it is best to start preparations to appoint liquidators to implement a solvent members' voluntary liquidation and cancel AIM admission. "In September 2020 the board estimated the amount of capital to be returned to shareholders to be in the range 72p to 78p per share. The board has reviewed this estimate and now expects the final distributions to shareholders in respect of the company's outstanding shares to be within a range of 72p to 75p per share," firm says.
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Franchise Brands PLC - Macclesfield-based multi-brand franchise business - Says performed strongly in first quarter of 2021, with adjusted Ebitda growing 24% to record of GBP2 million. Turnover returned to pre-virus levels by the end of the quarter, despite the hospitality sector having not yet reopened. "Our ability to achieve 24% growth in Ebitda underpins the organic growth element of our strategic financial targets of GBP100m in run-rate revenues and adjusted Ebitda of GBP15m by the end of 2023. We continue to seek opportunities to deploy our considerable balance sheet strength to complement our organic growth through earnings enhancing acquisitions," says Executive Chair Stephen Hemsley.
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BlueRock Diamonds PLC - South African-focused diamond miner - Says first quarter tonnes sorted up 16% to 86,005 year-on-year, with carats produced up 40% to 3,507. Carats sold rise 23% to 4,004 at an average price of USD446 per carat, up 37% year-on-year. "We are still targeting production in excess of the bottom end of our existing guidance of 850,000 tonnes for 2021 although, for prudence, we are reducing our published guidance for 2021 of tonnes processed to 750,000 tonnes to 850,000 and carats produced to 30,000 to 39,000. Once the expansion project is complete, annual throughput will be circa 1 million tonnes," says Executive Chair Mike Houston.
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IronRidge Resources Ltd - African-focused minerals exploration company - Reports additional high-grade lithium pegmatite drill intersections, including multiple drill intersections over 2% lithium oxide, at new targets adjacent to the Ewoyaa lithium project. "We have surpassed our previous highest grade intersected to date with over 4.2% Li2O over 1m in hole GRC0269A and can report multiple drill intersections over 2% Li2O at new targets tested," says Chief Executive Vincent Mascolo.
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Anglo-Eastern Plantations PLC - palm oil and rubber producer in Indonesia and Malaysia - Says board compelled to delay the announcement of the 2020 audited results to around mid-May 2021 after virus-driven delays to audit process. Says plantations and mills are operating close to normal despite Malaysia and some parts of Indonesia being in lockdown. For three months to March-end, production of fresh fruit bunches was 281,900 tonnes, up 14% year-on-year due to improved yield from the young palms in North Sumatera and Kalimantan.
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DX Group PLC - Slough-headquartered courier - Adds 300 new vehicles to delivery fleet, taking total fleet to over 900 vehicles. Of the new additions, 65 are bespoke vehicles for carrying irregular dimension and weight freight. "The investment marks the latest step in DX's extensive expenditure programme to support future growth and the ongoing expansion of its network. Investment is focused on sites, technology and equipment," company says.
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Yellow Cake PLC - Jersey-based uranium investor - Says estimated net asset value as at March 31 was GBP2.41 per share, falling to GBP2.28 at April 19. "Our view on the longer term outlook for uranium is unchanged and we believe supply demand and fundamentals continue to support our investment thesis," says Chief Executive Andre Liebenberg.
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City of London Investment Group PLC - specialist asset management company - Says funds under management at March-end USD11.1 billion, up slightly from USD11.0 billion at end of 2020. "Strong investment performance across CLIG's investment strategies was largely a result of good NAV performance," it notes, adding that flows were negative in the period as clients continued to rebalance following "significant equity market gains".
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Maestrano Group PLC - London-based artificial intelligence platform for transport corridor analytics - Appoints Mechanical Testing Inc as a distributor for its Nextcore products in the US. MTI is a New York-based provider of drone services for the construction industry, and the addition means there are now 16 Nextcore distributors internationally. Nextcore provides high accuracy LiDAR from moving drone airframes, processing and delivering rich and usable data directly to surveyors, planners, constructors and maintainers.
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Herald Investment Trust PLC - invests for capital gains from smaller technology, communications and multi-media stocks - Reports "strong start" to 2021, with net asset value per share rising 11% year-to-date as at April 16 after growth of 37% in 2020. "As it has anticipated the end of the pandemic the market has seen some rotation with profit taking from some of last year's strong performers which saw increased demand during lockdown and some of last year's lagging performers catching up," firm says.
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Reabold Resources PLC - Australia-based minerals exploration company - Says cased hole logging programme and vertical seismic profiling operations on the West Newton B-1Z well have been completed. CHLP results confirmed the presence of a good cement bond of the production liner and well bore integrity, and data from the VSP is in Romania being processed. "The next phase of operations will be conducted utilising a service rig and will be comprised of perforation and stimulation of the Kirkham Abbey formation and subsequent flow testing of the well," firm says. Reabold holds a 56% interest in West Newton via its 59% shareholding in Rathlin, which, in turn, has just under a 67% interest in PEDL183. In addition, Reabold has a a 16.7% direct licence interest in PEDL183. Union Jack Oil PLC holds a 16.7% interest in PEDL183. PEDL183 contains the WNA-1, WNA-2 and WNB-1Z hydrocarbon discoveries.
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Marwyn Value Investors Ltd - investment company managed by Marwyn Investment Management LLP - Says the Marwyn Funds have invested a further GBP12 million into each of Marwyn Acquisition Co II Ltd and Marwyn Acquisition Co III Ltd through the issue of A shares to support the execution of each company's strategy. Of each GBP12 million investment, approximately GBP9.2 million is attributable to the ordinary shares of Marwyn Value Investors. "The board also notes today's announcements by MAC II and MAC III that each is actively considering a possible further equity issue of up to GBP200 million which, should either proceed, is expected to consist of redeemable shares and warrants. The issue of these securities is targeted for completion in advance of, and not conditional on, any M&A transaction," company says.
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By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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