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(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Thursday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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R&Q Insurance Holdings Ltd - Hamilton, Bermuda-based non-life specialty insurance - Gross written premiums in 2022 amount to USD1.91 billion, up roughly a quarter from USD1.54 billion. Reports investment hit of USD97.4 million, swinging from gross investment income of USD6.4 million in 2021. Pretax loss widens to USD292.6 million from USD161.9 million. Accredited business alone achieves gross written premiums of USD1.8 billion, up 76% from USD1.0 billion. Pretax operating profit there jumps to USD55.7 million from USD20.6 million. "2022 was, without doubt, an eventful year for R&Q," Chief Executive Officer William Spiegel says. "Accredited continued to grow and reported record results while R&Q Legacy reported a loss but has shown good execution against its transition plan to become a more capital efficient business." Spiegel adds: "Looking ahead, we are confident the outlook is strong for Accredited and R&Q Legacy." In April, R&Q plans to separate its programme management business Accredited. R&Q said that, given Accredited's size, it believes it is best for the unit to go it alone. "Accredited relies on an 'A' credit rating to conduct business and historically relied on the financial strength of the broader group to obtain its credit rating. However, given Accredited's current size and scale, R&Q believes it is in the best interests of R&Q's shareholders for Accredited to stand on its own. Therefore, the board of R&Q is reviewing strategic alternatives to separate Accredited and Legacy Insurance, which will include a legal reorganisation followed by strategic transactions with third parties to achieve this objective," R&Q said at the time. "R&Q expects the separation will set each of Accredited and Legacy Insurance on more favourable footing to deliver profitable growth, each with their own appropriate capital structures."
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Time Finance PLC - finance provider to small & medium businesses - Revenue for year ended May 31 expected to rise 16% to GBP27.4 million, from GBP23.6 million a year prior. Pretax profit surges to GBP4.1 million from GBP1.1 million. Hails "strong visibility of future earnings" as unearned income up 24% to GBP20.7 million at year-end, from GBP16.7 million 12 months prior. Gross lending book up 23% to GBP168.9 million. Time Finance adds: "The significant increase in revenue has been driven primarily by growth in the Invoice Finance division and the 'Hard Asset' subset of the Asset division. Both of these growth areas operate in the larger-ticket, more secured lending space. The performance highlights the effectiveness of the strategic focus on increasing the group's average deal size and, where appropriate, taking greater security on lending."
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Intuitive Investments Group PLC - London-based life sciences investor - Net asset value per share at March 31 half-year end falls 27% to 13.07 pence from 18.00p at end of September. Company says: "Publicly quoted small-cap healthcare companies continue to underperform. We perceive there is a value in the company's portfolio and the opportunity for high returns if these companies are allowed to successfully develop and commercialise their innovative products or services that meet unmet medical needs. However, without the ability to raise capital, a number are destined to struggle regardless of the quality of their products or services." Intuitive says portfolio of unquoted investments "has performed reasonably in comparison".
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Falanx Cyber Security Ltd - Reading, England-based cyber security provider - Expects revenue for year ended March 31 of GBP3.8 million, up around 8.6% from GBP3.5 million from year prior. Organic growth was 9%, Falanx says. "The business has a healthy pipeline of business and has significantly lowered its operating cost base recently and expects to improve its financial performance in the next few months against a backdrop of further sales order growth so far in the first quarter of this financial year," company adds.
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Lexington Gold Ltd - gold explorer with projects in North and South Carolina - Pretax loss in 2022 narrows to USD924,000 from USD1.0 million in 2021. Operating expenses fall 31% to USD708,000 from USD1.0 million. Reports no revenue, unchanged year-on-year. Company says: "2022 was a very successful year for Lexington Gold. The team has delivered on a series of important exploration milestones across the company's existing project portfolio, including the commissioning and release of an updated and increased independent JORC resource estimate for the Loflin deposit, the completion of the latest reverse circulation drilling campaign across both the Carolina Belle and JKL projects and the establishment of a maiden independent JORC mineral resource estimate for the Jones-Keystone side of the JKL project towards the end of the year."
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Mercantile Ports & Logistics Ltd - developer, owner and operator of ports and logistics facilities in India - Revenue in 2022, first full-year of uninterrupted operation for Karanja Port, jumps to GBP4.9 million from GBP1.8 million in 2021. Pretax loss stretches to USD12.1 million from USD6.0 million in 2021. Bottom-line in 2021 had been boosted by USD5.4 million gain from extinguishment of debt.
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Challenger Energy Group PLC - Caribbean and America-focused oil and gas company - Swings to pretax profit of USD6.2 million in 2022, from loss of USD23.7 million in 2021. Net petroleum revenue amounts to USD4.3 million, down 2.2% from USD4.4 million in 2021. Posts other income of USD8.7 million, boosting its bottom line, up markedly from USD256,000. Reports finance income of USD1.7 million, swinging from finance costs of USD5.6 million in 2021.
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By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor
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