Last checked at 
(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Monday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
----------
Begbies Traynor Group PLC - Manchester, England-based business recovery, financial advisory and property services consultancy - Expects revenue for the six months to October 31 to increase by 13%. Adjusted pretax profit is to grow 10%. In prior half-year it reported adjusted pretax profit of GBP9.0 million on revenue of GBP58.5 million. Executive Chair Ric Traynor says: "We have had a good half year with encouraging activity levels across the group, resulting in double digit growth in both revenue and profitability. At the same time, we have continued to invest for future growth, having completed three acquisitions in the financial year to date in line with our strategy to enhance our service offering and regional coverage." It is confident of "delivering market expectations" for full-year, which it places as GBP21.9 million to GBP22.5 million worth of adjusted pretax profit, which would be an improvement from the GBP20.7 million achieved in financial 2023.
----------
McBride PLC - Manchester, England-based manufacturer and supplier of private label and contract manufactured products for the domestic household and professional cleaning and hygiene markets - Says continues to "trade ahead of our expectations in October and the early part of November". It adds: "For the first four months of the current financial year, overall volumes were 8.2% higher compared to prior year." McBride's half-year runs to December 31. "With only four months of the financial year complete, the group remains alert to the possible risk to full year results from world events which could lead to macro-economic instability and potential increased volatility in commodity markets and ultimately into further input cost pressures," it adds.
----------
One Health Group PLC - Sheffield-based medical services provider - Pens two new contracts secured with local NHS trusts. Says provides Barnsley Teaching Hospital with additional Orthopaedic capacity, and Derby & Burton NHS Foundation Trust with both Gynaecology and Orthopaedic capacity. One Health adds: "These additional patients are transferred from the trust's own internal waiting lists and are in addition to the patients One Health receives directly following a GP referral through 'patient choice'."
----------
Ilika PLC - Romsey, England-based solid-state battery technology company - Achieves "key technology development milestone" as part of Goliath pilot. Achieves "D4 development point" which is a design-freeze milestone. Ilika adds: "The D4 development point is an important milestone for the Company, effectively marking the start of Goliath's productization journey, being the essential marker for the P1 prototype. The D4 development point means that a number of key data sets - including energy density and power density have been met while showing that the company is firmly on track to achieve lithium-ion energy parity by the end of the current calendar."
----------
Vinanz Ltd - bitcoin mining company - Teams with Luxor Technology Corp to up Vinanz's "operational efficiencies, mining hashrate, and operating margins on its North American mining fleet". Will use Luxor's Firmware offering. "Luxor Firmware is a type of software that unlocks the capabilities of Bitcoin mining hardware, allowing Bitcoin miners to access advanced settings, monitoring, and management tools that enable Bitcoin mining companies to optimise their ASIC miner fleet. When Bitcoin mining profitability is low, Luxor's Firmware improves mining hardware efficiency to increase margins. When profitability is high, miners can use firmware to increase a machine's hashrate and accelerate return on investment," Vinanz adds.
----------
Schroders Capital Global Innovation Trust PLC - London-based investment trust with a diversified portfolio of global private and public equity companies - Invests CHF900,000, about GBP800,000, in Swiss clinical-stage biopharmaceutical firm Memo Therapeutics AG. Memo develops novel therapeutic antibodies for patients with viral infection and cancer. The funding will support development of its leading antibody AntiBKV, which is designed to neutralise BK virus infection in kidney transplant recipients. The firm participates in wider Series C financing round, which raised CHF25 million and was led by Pureos Bioventures. "Existing investors Swisscanto, Vesalius Biocapital, Adjuvant Capital, Verve Ventures, GF Group, Fresenius Medical Care Ventures, and Red Alpine also joined the round," Schroders Capital Global Innovation says.
----------
Mercia Asset Management PLC - asset manager - Hails "profitable" sale of largest direct investment nDreams Ltd to Aonic AB for GBP30.2million. It had just over a 33% stake in the virtual reality games developer and publisher. The sale price represents an enterprise value of GBP90.3million. Mercia gets GBP26.4 million in cash and GBP3.8 million will be re-invested into Aonic itself. Exit price is an 18% uplift to Mercia's carrying value for nDreams as at March 31.
----------
Power Metal Resources PLC - metals exploration company focused on North America, Africa, and Australia - Says follow-up work confirms "significant uranium mineralisation" at Tait Hill and Soaring Bay assets in Canada. "Added to the results announced in September at Perch River and Badger Lake, so far, four of the nine Athabasca properties we have explored in the 2023 programme have delivered major tangible results," Chief Executive Sean Wade says.
----------
Phoenix Copper Ltd - Base and precious metals explorer in the US state of Idaho - Says term of USD2.0 million loan facility, first announced back in March, has been extended by two weeks until December 8. Phoenix adds: "The company has requested this extension in order to allow sufficient time to conclude discussions with cornerstone investors regarding the company's corporate copper bond issue."
----------
Empire Metals Ltd - resource exploration and development firm with portfolio of interests in Australia and Austria - Samples from Pitfield project in Western Australia confirm strong titanium dioxide mineralisation. Empire adds: "The next phase of drilling, an extensive reverse circulation programme targeting higher grade mineralisation, has now commenced." Says 40 RC holes totalling 6,000 metres currently planned.
----------
By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor
Comments and questions to newsroom@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
