(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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Marlowe PLC - London-based business-critical services and software provider - Reports revenue for the financial year to March 31 up 15% to GBP192.0 million. Current 12-month run rate revenue stands at GBP280 million with 83% recurring in nature. Despite that, the company swings to pretax loss of GBP1.6 million versus GBP500,00 profit the year before as total administrative expenses jump to GBP82.3 million from GBP74.0 million year-on-year. Going forward, Chief Executive Alex Dacre says: "We have made a strong start to the new financial year, with good levels of organic growth, and look forward to delivering further profitable growth. This progress underpins our confidence to continue executing our strategy and to achieve our medium-term targets."
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AFC Energy PLC - Cranleigh, England-based hydrogen power generation technologies provider - Reports current book of over 50 qualified fuel cell deployment enquiries - the majority of which represent multiple order potential. Reports revenue for the six months to April 30 of GBP149,062 versus none generated a year ago. Pretax loss, meanwhile, widens to GBP3.6 million from GBP2.1 million year-on-year due to an increase in administrative expenses.
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Manolete Partners PLC - London-based insolvency litigation financing company - Reports total revenue for the financial year to March 31up by 49% to GBP27.8 million. Pretax profit, however, was down 26% to GBP7.0 million as administrative expenses increase to GBP6.0 million from GBP4.6 million year-on-year. The company proposes final dividend of 1 pence per share. "While we continue to trade profitably, the numbers of new cases have been negatively impacted by the government's temporary measures. As the country moves out of lockdown, we expect the government to end these measures and we anticipate a return to business as normal," says Non-Executive Chair Peter Bertram.
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Oracle Power PLC - London-based coal resource developer - Says it successfully diversified its portfolio of projects, enhancing value for its shareholders by extending its commodity focus and also mitigating single jurisdiction risk. For 2020, Oracle reports loss of GBP1.0 million, narrowed slightly from GBP1.1 million posted for 2019. No revenue was generated in either year.
Separately, the company says it secured an exploration crew that will be on the ground on or around Monday next week at its Jundee East gold project, located in the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia. This comes soon after the highly positive geochemical sampling results from the maiden orientation study were announced. Geochemical soil sampling programme is expected to start late June and will cover most of the 90 square kilometres tenement. This programme will take two weeks, with results expected around 4 weeks after submission to the assay laboratory, Oracle says.
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Joules Group PLC - Market Harborough, England-based clothing and lifestyle brand - Says revenue for the financial year to May 30 increased by 4% to GBP199 million despite the significant challenges impacting the retail sector during the financial year. This performance primarily reflects the strength of the company's digital proposition and increasing active customer numbers, as well as the positive contribution from the acquisition of Garden Trading Co Ltd in February. Pretax profit before exceptional items for the year is anticipated to be in the range of GBP5.5 million to GBP6.5 million, slightly ahead of current market expectations. "As we move into the new financial year, Joules is now a stronger and more diversified business than ever before," says CEO Nick Jones.
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Vertu Motors PLC - Gateshead, England-based car dealership - Reports continuation of the strong trading trends witnessed in March and April. If these trends continue, a strong first half financial performance is anticipated, however, there remain risks in relation to the remainder of the financial year concerning potential Covid-19 disruption and vehicle supply constraints. The company says it now anticipates that its full year adjusted pretax profit will be above current expectations and in the range of GBP28 million and GBP32 million. Vertu Motors says it remains confident in the prospects for the company.
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1Spatial PLC - Cambridge, England-based location data management software provider - Says it continues to make good progress against its growth strategy, winning new customers and delivering on its expanding opportunity. Following a strong period of trading in the final quarter of the prior year, the company says it entered the new year with increased levels of committed revenue and a strengthened financial position. 1Spatial says order levels for new sales in the current year are higher than the year prior as the company continues to focus on growing recurring licence revenue and securing higher levels of committed revenue. "The group has a strong and growing sales pipeline in all regions, both direct and through our valued partners, underpinning the Board's confidence in a successful outcome to the year and exciting future ahead," says Non-Executive Chair Andrew Roberts.
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Directa Plus PLC - London-based producer and supplier of graphene nanoplatelets - Reports a strong performance in the first four months of 2021 with revenue increasing by almost 50% year-on-year to EUR2.8 million. The company says this strong revenue growth is continuing in the last two months of the current first half and it is trading in line with market expectations. The company says it continues to develop both its production technology and suitable applications for its products. Directa Plus also continues to explore new vertical markets and is in negotiations with additional potential partners.
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Amala Foods PLC - Jersey-based food technology company - Signs a term sheet to extend the GBP540,000 loan term to the first quarter of 2022 and to use the remaining balance of the loan. The company so far has only utilised GBP200,000 of the loan entered into in September 2020. Turning to operations, Amala says key performance indicators remain on target and several plant based products are in the process of completing the research and development phase and will now enter the commercial development phase.
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Ariana Resources PLC - London-based gold exploration and development company - Reports resource drilling results obtained from the Derya area of the Kiziltepe mine. Kiziltepe is part of the Zenit Madencilik San ve Tic AS joint venture with Proccea Construction Co and Ozaltin Holding AS, and is 24% owned by Ariana. The company says drilling programme tests the central and south-eastern extents of the Derya vein system over 670 metres of strike to depths of 130 metres below surface. It confirms high-grade continuity to depths exceeding 100 metres from surface within the central part of the Derya vein. Ariana says further pit optimisation will be undertaken in the coming months to determine the next stage of open-pit development in this area.
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Power Metal Resources PLC - London-based metals exploration and development company - Says A historical data compilation, completed on the recently acquired prospecting licences, has led to the identification of multi-kilometre-scale nickel, arsenic and gold in-soil anomalies on PL127/2019 and PL126/2019. Power Metal says these licences are located in Botswana where the company has an option to acquire a 100% interest in the Tati project. "These findings compel us to move quickly with ground exploration work to validate and confirm the data which, if successful, could mean the Tati Project holds considerable potential for large scale gold and nickel discoveries," says CEO Paul Johnson.
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Mosman Oil & Gas Ltd - London-based metals exploration and development company - Acquires Nadsoilco LLC for a cash consideration of USD1.1 million, which will be paid from existing cash reserves. This gives Mosman a 20% increase in working interest in the Stanley project to 35%-39% from 15%-19%. "This will immediately boost Mosman's production base and cash flow, and provide multiple near-term drilling and development activity," says Chair John Barr.
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TransGlobe Energy Corp - Calgary, Canada-based oil exploration and production company - Says during the current quarter to date, production improved year-on-year due to well optimisation activities in Egypt, the full oil production impact of the SGZ-6X lower Bahariya recompletion, and return to production in Canada. "With our planned operations, rising oil prices and expected ratification, we look to be in for an exciting second half of 2021," says CEO Randall Neely.
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Hurricane Energy PLC - Godalming, England-based oil exploration and production company - Says the sanction hearing of the High Court of Justice of England & Wales in relation to the restructuring plan proposed by the company has concluded. Judgment is reserved and the company says it will announce further updates once the outcome of the hearing is known.
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Condor Gold PLC - Surrey, England-based gold exploration and development company - Selects Hanlon Engineering & Associates of Tucson, Arizona, a subsidiary of GR Engineering Services Ltd as the lead engineer to develop a feasibility study level of design for a new processing plant around Condor's recently acquired new SAG Mill at La India project, Nicaragua. Hanlon will be responsible for the engineering designs, the capital cost and operating costs of the processing plant to a feasibility study level of design.
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Lexington Gold Ltd - Bermuda-based gold exploration and development company - Says all six holes from phase 1 six-hole drilling campaign at the Jones-Keystone-Loflin project intersected gold mineralisation above 100 metres depth and included several broad shallow gold intersections. Lexington notes that, depending on the results of Pivot Mining Consultants' review, a phase 2 drilling campaign can then be designed for Jones-Keystone-Loflin to either enable a maiden resource estimation or expand on any potential maiden resource estimate that can already be determined from the current database. In addition, the company reports completion of soil sampling and rock sampling programme at the Carolina Belle project.
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Savannah Resources PLC - London-based mineral resource development company - Joins the newly created Portuguese Association for the battery cluster as a founding member and has been elected to the association's board. The cluster has been created to maximise Portugal's potential across the entire battery value chain and complement its strategically important lithium resources and its focus on becoming a European leader of lithium production. "Thanks to Mina do Barroso, Savannah can provide a responsibly managed and long-term source of lithium raw material which can act as the foundation for the creation of an in-country lithium value chain," says CEO David Archer.
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Mineral & Financial Investments Ltd - Cayman Islands-based investment company - Reports an updated mineral resources estimate at its 75% owned Lagoa Salgada Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide project's Venda Nova deposit. The resource update incorporates the results from a recently completed three-hole drill program. The new resource will be used for the preliminary economic assessment that is currently underway.
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Wameja Ltd - Millers Point, Australia-based software firm - Subscribes for a further EUR1.4 million of shares in HomeSend Scrl. The equity contribution is part of a EUR4.0 million capital raise with Mastercard Inc contributing the balance in proportion to its interest in HomeSend. The funds from the capital raise are to be used to support the operational expenses of the HomeSend 2021 business plan and its minimum equity requirements for the second quarter of 2021.
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Asimilar Group PLC - London-based investment firm - Makes a further investment in Magic Media Works Ltd, as part of a GBP13 million fund raise by Magic Media, to progress its rollout of the ROXi music entertainment experience on its Console, Smart TV and Pay TV platforms. Asimilar says it is participating in the fundraise by Magic Media, pursuant to its pre-emption rights, and investing a further GBP693,564 in loan notes. Accordingly, Asimilar's total investment in this funding round by ROXi is GBP991,768.
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Belluscura PLC - London-based oxygen enrichment technology developer - Signs its first US distribution agreement for its X-PLO2R portable oxygen concentrator portfolio. This is the first stage in establishing US-wide distribution coverage as part of the company's commercialisation strategy. "We look forward to commercial launch in the third quarter of 2021 and we anticipate signing a number of additional distribution agreements in the very near future," says CEO Robert Rauker.
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Maestrano Group PLC - London-based cloud-based open platform - Secures the first paid project with Union Pacific Railroad, the second largest class 1 railroad in the US. Maestrano's specialist rail analytics subsidiary Cordel Technology Inc entered the North American market in May 2020, commencing the process of establishing relationships and credibility with railroad companies and engineering service providers. "It has been a core focus for Cordel over the past year and we have moved from the proving to the early revenue stage. Whilst this has taken longer than expected, we are now positioned for a significant growth opportunity," says CEO Nick Smith.
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Tiziana Life Sciences PLC - London-based biotechnology company - Agrees with FHI Clinical, a clinical contract research organization, to conduct a phase 2 proof-of-concept study in Brazil to evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of intranasal foralumab in hospitalised patients with Covid-19 and pulmonary inflammation. In this clinical trial, foralumab will be delivered into the nose through a metered-dose nasal atomisation device.
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PureTech Health PLC - Massachusetts, US-based biotechnology company - Says its founded entity Karuna reported data from its completed phase 1b trial evaluating the safety and tolerability of KarXT in healthy elderly volunteers. Based on results from the phase 1b trial in healthy elderly volunteers, Karuna plans to initiate a phase 2 trial evaluating KarXT in dementia-related psychosis in the first half of 2022. As of April 30, PureTech's percentage ownership of Karuna was 8.2%. PureTech Health has a right to royalty payments as a percentage of net sales from Karuna.
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tinyBuild Inc - Washington, US-based publisher of indie games - Says 'Secret Neighbor' topped the charts on the Apple Inc app store, after a successful launch on the PS4 in April 2021. 'Secret Neighbor had over 300,000 downloads on iOS last weekend. "Secret Neighbor was one of our first spin-offs of the Hello Neighbor franchise and it is great to see the fanbase growing on new platforms," says CEO Alex Nichiporchik.
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Sopheon PLC - Minnesota, US-based enterprise software firm - Receives authority to operate for the Naval Sea Systems Command. NAVSEA's military and civilian personnel engineer, build, buy and maintain the Navy's ships and submarines.
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By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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