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(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of earnings and trading updates by London-listed companies, issued on Thursday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Somero Enterprises Inc - Fort Myers, Florida-based company, which provides equipment and training for advanced concrete floor placement - Revenue in first six months of 2024 falls 12% on-year to USD51.8 million from USD58.9 million. Pretax profit declines 32% to USD10.6 million from USD15.6 million a year earlier. Somero cuts interim dividend by 10% to USD0.08 per share from USD0.10. "I am pleased with how the company has navigated the challenges presented by the first half of the year. While revenue decline in North America and Australia impacted performance, our focus on operational efficiency and the enduring nature of our long-term growth drivers ensure we are well placed for when conditions improve," Chief Executive Officer Jack Cooney says. Revenue in North America falls 8%. "Looking ahead, the resilience of the non-residential market gives us confidence that, as external challenges subside, our performance will improve. Given our history of successfully navigating challenging market conditions, and our proven ability to swiftly adapt, I am confident that we will emerge from this testing period even stronger," CEO Cooney adds.
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Gem Diamonds Ltd - 70% owner of Letseng diamond mine in Lesotho, southern Africa - Revenue in six months to June 30 rises 8.7% to USD78.0 million from USD71.7 million a year prior. Pretax profit surges to USD9.9 million from USD3.9 million. It recovers 55,873 carats during period, rising from 50,601 carats. Average value of USD1,366 per carat achieved, declining from USD1,373 a year prior. "The global diamond market remains under significant pressure primarily due to the challenging global economic environment. In addition, Russian diamonds are reported to be entering the market despite imposed sanctions, therefore still adding to the overall rough diamond supply. The manufacturing of lab-grown diamonds continues to increase despite the steady decrease in prices, impacting the smaller, commercial rough diamond market. These factors have cumulatively placed severe pressure on rough and polished diamond prices during the period," Gem adds.
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Galantas Gold Corp - Northern-Ireland focused gold mining company - Reports no revenue in first half of 2024, unchanged from a year prior. Net loss narrows to CAD2.2 million, around GBP1.3 million, from CAD2.7 million a year prior.
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Resolute Mining Ltd - Africa-focused gold miner - Revenue in first half of year rises 3.6% to USD341.5 million, from USD329.5 million. Pretax profit, however, falls by a third to USD53.4 million from USD79.8 million. Reports USD5.3 million hit from fair value movements and treasury transactions, compared to USD29.8 million boost a year earlier. Full-year output outlook of 345,000 to 365,000 ounces maintained.
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Serabi Gold PLC - Brazil-focused gold miner - Revenue in six months ended June 30 rises 40% to USD42.7 million from USD30.5 million a year prior. Pretax profit jumps 93% to USD9.9 million from USD5.1 million. "This has been another period of good financial performance," Chief Financial Officer Clive Line says. Gold production in first half rises to 18,010 ounces from 16,524 ounces.
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Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd - oil and gas producer which operates in the Kurdistan region of Iraq - Revenue in six months ended June 30 down 11% to USD71.2 million from USD79.6 million a year prior. Swings to USD1.1 million pretax profit from USD2.5 million loss. "We have safely delivered a solid operational and financial performance in the first half of 2024, with robust local sales combined with sustained capital and cost discipline supporting our return to profitability and free cash flow generation in the period. Cash flow has enabled us to strengthen our balance sheet and restart shareholder distributions, with USD25 million returned to shareholders in 2024 to date," CEO Jon Harris says. "Looking ahead, we continue to engage with government stakeholders to push for an exports restart solution, with significant potential value to be unlocked for Kurdistan, Iraq and the company. In the interim, we remain focused on maximising shareholder value from local sales. To capitalise on continued strong demand, we are pursuing incremental opportunities to optimise production and improve process safety and reliability. We also continue to review the company's capacity for additional dividends or buybacks to build on our track record of shareholder returns."
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File Forge Technology PLC - investment vehicle focusing on investing in file tokens - Pretax profit in six months to May 31 totals GBP223,000, swinging from loss of GBP313,000 a year prior. "The general crypto market has improved dramatically over the last 12 months and the directors firmly believe that the focused thesis on FileCoin will prove to be a fruitful one for shareholders," File Forge says.
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CT Private Equity Trust PLC - Edinburgh-based investment trust for private equity assets - Net asset value per share at June 30 half-year end falls 12% to 694.28p from 702.50p at end of December. On-year, however, NAV per share rises 2.0% from 680.75p. Dividend for first half total 14.02p per share, unmoved on-year. Firm says: "Whilst new fund raising in the private equity sector is currently fairly challenging, there remains a very significant amount of committed but uninvested capital available internationally for the asset class which our investment partners and their peers will carefully deploy over the next few years. The returns from the asset class are expected to improve as the required return from private equity investors has not changed. This is for strong absolute returns well in excess of what listed markets can offer. As the expectations of buyers and sellers of private companies converge capital and expertise will come together with strong management. Their closely aligned interests provide the drive in the private equity investment model and underpins long term value creation."
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NB Distressed Debt Investment Fund Ltd - Guernsey-incorporated closed-ended fund managed by Neuberger Berman; focused on distressed, stressed and special situation credit, with a focus on senior debt backed by hard assets - NAV per share at June 30 half-year end stands at USD0.7743, down 4.1% from USD0.8071 at December 31. "I am disappointed to have to report that the significant realisations we had expected to occur during the first half of this year have not yet materialised. While the reasons for this are varied, such as the European economic environment which has not been favourable for a capital market exit, changes in regulations and extended negotiations on specific investment sales, we are engaged and focused on harvesting the investments and returning capital to our shareholders," Chair John Hallam says.
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By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor
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