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(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, issued on Thursday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Filta Group Holdings PLC - commercial kitchen cleaning services - Launches new Covid-19 sanitising service FiltaShield, which can assist businesses in preparing to operate again. FiltaShield anti-viral solution, which has been developed for use in restaurants, bars, shops, offices as well as healthcare facilities, is applied to a surface by spraying or fogging, leaving behind a mono-molecular layer that bonds to the surface and protects surfaces for up to 30 days. FiltaShield currently available only in the UK, but will be rolled out in the US and Europe in due course. Difficult to predict the level of take-up of the new service. Teams up with undisclosed technology supplier to supply and manage temperature screening devices for customers, which can screen up to 30 people per second for a fever.
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Mirriad Advertising PLC - advertising software - Seeing encouraging signs from its operations in China. April one of the busiest period since start of Chinese operations . Uptick in activity in China due to improving confidence amongst consumers, brands and advertisers. Saw a steady stream of new clients over the past few weeks.
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Abbey PLC - property development - Limited construction resuming at UK building projects. Production focussed on the early completion of existing work in progress. Construction in Ireland to resume on May 18. Short term outlook dependent on an early easing of the lockdown and a resumption of normal sales activity. Medium term outlook unclear. Completed 490 house sales in year to April 30, down from 579 sales a year ago. Turnover 20% lower than last year. Net cash of EUR70 million.
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Marston's PLC - pubs - Seeks approval from holders of secured class A notes for a limited number of technical waivers and amendments due to the UK government enforced temporary closure of pubs. Sufficient headroom on both bank and securitised facilities, supported by a 93% freehold estate.
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Filtronic PLC - communication products - Launches a range of tower top amplifier systems designed for use in two-way radio networks, particularly for public safety systems such as P25.
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Frontier IP Group PLC - intellectual property - Portfolio company Exscientia inks collaboration with US research centre SRI International to expedite discovery of selective molecules for a high value oncology target. Collaboration will see the two companies implement a new approach to drug discovery by integrating SRI's fully automated synthetic-chemistry system with Exscientia's Centaur Chemist system.
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Impact Healthcare REIT PLC - real estate investment - Received 100% of rent for three months to March-end and 100% of rent due in April. Net asset value at March 31 of 106.98 pence per share vs 106.81p at December 31. Property portfolio valued at GBP345.1 million versus GBP318.8 million. Declares first interim dividend of 1.5725 pence per share. Cash of GBP25 million and undrawn debt facilities of GBP98.9 million.
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PetroTal Corp - oil exploration - Shuts Bretana oil field in Peru on a temporary basis due to Covid-19 pipeline closure and storage capacity limitations. Defers capital expenditure for 2020. Reduces compensation for management and directors by 20%. Has a contingent derivative liability of USD42 million at March 31 due to oil price crash. Actual liability of the oil price difference determination expected to be lower due to the projected improvement in oil prices. In financing discussions for a multi-year settlement of the contingent liability.
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Gulf Marine Services PLC - oil & gas support vessels - Confirms 2020 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation guidance of between USD57 million to USD62 million. Seafox International Ltd's 10 pence per share merger proposal remains undervalued.
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Phimedix PLC - cash shell - Focusing on potential acquisition opportunities in the technology and life sciences sectors due to current environment. No discussions have yet started with any potential targets.
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Reach4Entertainment Enterprises PLC - marketing - Too early to accurately assess the financial impact disruption on 2020 from virus. Furloughs over 50% of staff, curtails all non-essential spend and freezes mergers and acquisitions activity. Senior executives take 30% to 40% pay cut with all bonuses deferred. Non-executive directors waive fees. Cost savings measures, along with permanent cuts in ancillary administration costs, to reduce monthly running costs by 50% and generate annualised savings of GBP12 million. Reduces cash outflow by 76% to GBP500,000 per month by temporarily deferring tax payments. Identifies further opportunities to make additional cost savings.
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MaxCyte Inc - cell and gene therapies - Inks clinical and commercial license agreement with Caribou Biosciences Inc, which gains rights to use MaxCyte's Flow Electroporation technology and ExPERT platform for the advancement of its gene-edited allogeneic T cell therapy programs. MaxCyte to receive undisclosed development and approval milestones and sales-based payments in addition to other licensing fees.
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Independent Oil & Gas PLC - gas production - Awarded an engineering, procurement, construction and installation contract to Subsea 7 SA. Contract will cover the Subsea Umbilicals Risers and Flowlines work on Phase 1 of core project in the UK Southern North Sea.
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Glenveagh Properties PLC - homebuilding - Construction work to resume from May 18. Continued growth in reservations with 570 units sold, signed or reserved. Revenue and gross profit to be heavily weighted towards second half. Continues temporary lay-offs and furlough arrangements where necessary and appropriate. Temporary salary and pension reductions for all employees until the end of June. Land purchases remain on hold and non-essential capital expenditure postponed. Current cash resources and available committed facilities total EUR81 million plus a further EUR125 million of uncommitted facilities.
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Dekel Agri-Vision PLC - palm oil - Operations at Ayenouan project in Ivory Coast including Fresh Fruit Bunches purchasing, logistics and milling operations continued with relatively minimal disruption in April. Reports 1.9% rise in FFB processing to 26,556 tonnes. Crude palm oil production up 9.6% at CPO 6,143 tonnes, but sales down 14% at 5,106 tonnes.
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Microsaic Systems PLC - spectrometry instruments - facing unprecedented challenges from virus outbreak. Cutting non-payroll expenditure to essential items only. Implements a temporary 20% reduction in pay for all employees and directors. Furloughs a small number of employees. Difficult to have forward visibility on the potential demand for Microsaic's products for the current financial year.
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Vertu Motors PLC - car dealer - Builds order bank of 825 retail vehicles and 749 commercial orders since March 25. Internet sales enquiries for April 37% of last year's levels. Furloughs around 80% of staff. Executive directors waive 30% of their basic salary and pension contribution. Non-executive directors takes corresponding reduction in fees. Senior managers waive 20% of their basic salary and pension contribution. Adjusted net debt, excluding used vehicle stocking loans, GBP2.8m at February 29.
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TheWorks.co.uk PLC - gifts and toys retailing - Reports significant increase in sales, both in stores and online, prior to store closures, with overall like-for-like sales up 81% in the week to March 22. Overall LFL sales in the year to March 22 up 0.7%. Revenue for 52-week period to April 26 up 3.5% year-on-year. Lowers capital expenditure to GBP3 million from GBP9 million. In talks with landlords to reduce rents. Furloughs vast majority of staff. Chief Executive and directors take pay cuts. Net debt at April 26 GBP7.9 million. Has access to a GBP25 million revolving credit facility. Outlook cautious due to uncertain trading conditions.
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Origo Partners PLC - investor - Unable to conclude dispose remaining assets and placing the company in liquidation due to virus disruption.
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Best of the Best PLC - competition organiser - Revenue and profit for the year ended April 30 to be ahead of current market expectations. Performance, particularly in second half, remained strong.
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Hansard Global PLC - long-term savings - Assets under administration suffers in line with the global stock market sell-off and were GBP953.5 million at March 31, down 12% from GBP1.09 billion at December 31. New business for third quarter to March-end GBP38.4 million in Present Value of New Business Premiums terms, up 13% year-on-year. Virus has had a limited impact on new business in third quarter. Expects fourth quarter to be more challenging. Business well positioned to manage through economic and operational difficulties.
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Morgan Sindall Group PLC - construction and regeneration - Trading and activity impacted significantly across all divisions due to virus outbreak. Performed well in the first 10 weeks of the financial year. Currently 80% of construction sites operational, but impacted by lower levels of productivity. Infrastructure unit able to maintain a reasonable level of activity. Property Services, activities limited to 'emergency' repairs. Unable to reinstate financial guidance. Furloughs 1,700 employees. Directors and senior managers take 20% pay cut. Liquidity of GBP354 million as at May 5.
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Rambler Metals & Mining PLC - copper and gold mining - Enters short-term financing agreement with CE Mining III Rambler Ltd. Loan bears interest at a rate of 10% per annum and matures on the later of either June 22 or upon completion of the ongoing fundraising.
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Anglo African Oil & Gas PLC - exploration - Knows no reason for the recent rise in share price. Shares closed down 10% at 0.63 pence each.
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Katoro Gold PLC - gold and nickel exploration - Scoping study estimates unlevered project net present value of USD131 million, a 25% internal rate of return and a return on investment of 260% for Blyvoor gold project in South Africa. Mine life of 25 years building to a production capacity of 500,000 tons per month and 35,000 ounces of gold production per annum. Overall production of 661,171 ounces of gold over the 25 years, generating revenue of USD992 million. Power Metal Resources PLC notes scoping study.
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Atalaya Mining PLC - miner - Junta de AndalucÃa has issued a favorable resolution which validates the Unified Environmental Declaration granted to the company on March 27 in relation to Proyecto Riotinto in Spain. Resolution ends the legal process in relation to the judgement made by the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Andalucia in connection with the environmental declaration.
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Enteq Upstream PLC - oilfield equipment - Secures USD1.0 million contract from a new customer for operations in China. Contract for Enteq's core Measurement While Drilling technology in combination with a product jointly developed with and supplied by a technology partner. Order will be delivered to the customer during the summer of 2020.
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Eddie Stobart Logistics PLC - cash shell - Continuing to explore opportunities to raise additional funds to permit the company to become an 'investing company' and remain quoted on AIM market. Required to raise a minimum of GBP6 million in cash via an equity fundraising to become an investing company. Directors believe that substantially more will need to be raised to support an ongoing investing policy. If funds cannot be raised, it is likely that the company's shares will be cancelled from trading on AIM market.
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By Tapan Panchal; tapanpanchal@alliancenews.com
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