(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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Cohort PLC - Reading, England-based defence and security technology firm - Updates on first quarter trading ahead of annual general meeting. Achieved record financial results in the year ended April 30, with strong performances in revenue and adjusted operating profit that exceeded market expectations. "We finished the year with a robust cash position and a record closing order book of GBP329.1 million stretching out to 2032, with strong revenue cover for the current financial year," firm adds. Explains following contract wins since the start of the financial year of over GBP90 million, the order book on September 22 stood at GBP370 million, representing consensus revenue cover for the current financial year of 93%. Retains significant cash and banking facilities to fund its currently anticipated commitments and, potentially, to finance future acquisitions. As a result of planned capital expenditure and expansion in working capital, anticipates net cash balance will decrease, but that it will maintain positive net funds at the year end. States expectations for the full year remain unchanged.
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Beowulf Mining PLC - Sweden, Finland and Kosovo-focused mining company -Updates on the development plans for the graphite anode materials plant in GigaVaasa. Plans to advance parallel environmental and technical work streams for the development of the GAMP. Says the environmental impact assessment is underway and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2024. On completion and submission of the EIA, explains the company will initiate work on the environmental permit process. Anticipates that the definitive feasibility study will begin in mid-2024.
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Sabien Technology Group PLC - London-based company focused on green technologies such as plastic-to-oil recycling and CO2 mitigation for commercial and residential boilers - Reviews the value of its investment in Proton Technologies Canada Inc, following the proposed investment in and restructuring of Proton. Concludes that the value of the stake, which is GBP100,000, may require a material impairment provision for the financial year to June 30. Says the level of provision will require agreement with the company's auditors as part of the current audit process.
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Eqtec PLC - thermochemical conversion technology and engineering company - Says Eqtec France SAS have completed a technical and commercial feasibility toward deployment of Eqtec solutions at the site of the former Gardanne power station. Completion of the feasibility represents a critical step toward commencement of development and design work on what is expected to be a waste-to-renewable natural gas facility enabled by Eqtec's advanced syngas technology. Expects initial front-end engineering design work to commence in the coming weeks, for which it expects to bill around EUR250,000 for engineering services. Anticipates that it would lead full, front-end engineering design work, estimated to be worth at least EUR750,000 in fees, with the majority to be invoiced over the first half of 2024.
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Driver Group PLC - Lancashire, England-based professional services consultancy to construction and engineering industries - Announces a trading update for the year ending September 30. Notes, as indicated in June, the start of the second half was slower than expected. Adds the third quarter experienced reductions in the levels of activity, with an improvement seen in the fourth quarter and a number of significant commissions secured in this period which will benefit the financial year. Expects underlying pretax profit in the financial year compared to a pretax loss of GBP1.0m in the year prior. Also expects to report an improvement in the September 2023 year end cash position from GBP5.3 million in March. Progress has been made on cost reductions including the closure of overseas offices, reduction of existing office lease costs and adjustments to headcount in several locations.
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Allergy Therapeutics PLC - West Sussex, England-based commercial biotechnology company - Announces the completion of dosing of healthy volunteers in the first two cohorts in the Phase I Protect trial of its virus-like particle-based peanut allergy vaccine candidate. Explains dosing of the subsequent cohorts will begin now that the approval from the external safety review committee has been received. Further, says the safety review committee has approved the commencement of subcutaneous dose escalation in peanut allergic subjects, marking the start of the early proof of concept phase of the Protect trial. This stage of the trial is expected to begin imminently with the full results expected in 2024.
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DWF Group PLC - Manchester, England-based legal business with operations in North America - Announces that all of the conditions to the acquisition by Inflexion Private Equity Partners relating to anti-trust and regulatory approvals have been received. Explains the deal remains subject to certain other conditions including the court sanctioning the scheme at the sanction hearing. Subject to satisfaction of these conditions, the scheme is expected to become effective on October 3. Confirms that the sanction hearing will go ahead as scheduled on September 29.
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CleanTech Lithium PLC - Chile-focused lithium exploration and development company - Announces results of a recently completed scoping study for the Francisco Basin project. Says these confirm the project's outstanding economics, potential for future resource expansion and strong ESG credentials. Notes this supports the potential for Francisco Basin to become a major supplier of battery grade lithium to European and US markets based on sustainable direct lithium extraction technology. Forecasts a production period of 12 years based on annual production of 20,000 tonnes given Indicated resources. Calculates accumulated net cash flows of USD2.5 billion to be generated over the production period with low operating cost of USD3,641 per tonne of lithium carbonate.
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HealthBeacon PLC - Dublin-based devices and software developer for managing critical and chronic medications -
Reports progress with the roll-out of its technology across key channels. However, the scale and complexity of implementations, and the contracting and planning phases of new launches, are running up to 9 months longer than previously estimated. Cautions annual recurring revenue guidance for December 2023 is around EUR3.2 million versus previous estimates of mid-teens by the end of 2023. Revises ARR guidance to approximately EUR17 million by the end of the fourth quarter. To accelerate its path to profitability and improve cash management company plans reduce monthly cash burn to around EUR0.7 million by the end of 2023 and is currently expected to result in cash break even being achieved by the second quarter 2025. To achieve cash break even and scale at the pace now expected, the company has a gross funding requirement of approximately EUR11 million over the next 18-24 months. Therefore, initiates review of funding options to provide the required resources to deliver the forecasted growth into 2024.
Further, says Chief Executive and Co-Founder Jim Joyce is to step down from his role with immediate effect. Joyce will remain as an adviser to the board, and a non-executive director. Rebecca Shanahan, an independent non-executive director, will assume the role of chief executive on an interim basis.
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By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter
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