(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Monday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Inland Homes PLC - Beaconsfield, England-based housebuilder - Says London Borough of Hillingdon's application to seek judicial review of decision by Mayor of London to approve development plans has been quashed. Mayor approved plans for 514 homes in Hillingdon Gardens. Hillingdon is a west London borough close to Heathrow Airport. "The dismissal of the judicial review challenge exhausts all options open to the borough to prevent the development of this important brownfield site," Inland says. "The project will deliver 182 new affordable homes alongside significant contributions towards local infrastructure improvements and biodiversity."
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Yooma Wellness Inc - Toronto, Canada-based CBD and cannabis-related wellness products maker - Says UK retailer Boots will stock MYO Plant Nutrition products. "The listing includes MYO's Plant Proteins in 838 stores, branched-chain amino acids and essential amino acids in up to 574 stores, and functional sprays in 522 stores," Yooma adds. "Launching with Boots accelerates the momentum MYO has already seen in 2021, with products now available in Holland & Barrett, Selfridges, Lloyds Pharmacy and Amazon, amongst others."
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DP Poland PLC - franchise holder in Poland for Domino's Pizza - Says like-for-like system sales up 6% in 2021 compared to 2020, with fourth quarter like-for-likes alone up 16% annually and 10% higher quarter-on-quarter. Total system sales up 18% annually in fourth quarter and up 6.3% on pre-virus times,"despite a subdued dine-in market". DP Poland adds: "Notwithstanding the growth in sales, inflationary pressures on food costs (Polish CPI showed 8.6% inflation in December 2021) and increased wages have had a negative impact on profitability." Says will be "negatively impacted and will be behind market expectations for FY21" due to inflationary pressures. "The board is assessing the full impact on profitability for FY21 and the potential impact on the current year and will update the market as soon as known. The recovery of tourism and the elimination of lockdown measures during 2022 are expected to have a positive impact on sales and profitability," company adds.
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Hostmore PLC - operator of Fridays casual dining brand - Says revenue for December was 8.3% below pre-virus level, with Omicron causing an increase in cancellations, but this offset by new reservations and walk-in demand, reflecting the short-term nature of customer decision-making amid uncertainty. Expects Ebitda for year ended January 2 to be "well ahead" of market consensus of GBP18.6 million. "Trading since 3 January 2022 has been more in line with expectations and reflects what is usually a quieter period post the festive season," it adds.
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Brighton Pier Group PLC - London-based company which operates Brighton Marine Palace, Lightwater Valley Theme Park, eight Eclectic bars and eight indoor mini-golf sites - Expects sales of GBP22.7 million in 2021, more than doubled from 2020 and up 31% from 2019. "Strong cash flow generation is expected to enable the group to pay down GBP7.7 million of debt, reducing borrowings 38% by the end of June 2022," Brighton Pier says. "This represents an excellent performance during challenging times, underlining the attractions of a diversified asset base of experiential venues and bars well-positioned to benefit from growth in the UK entertainment sector. Management believe the group is in a strong position to deliver a good result for the year, comfortably in line with market expectations."
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Palace Capital PLC - investor with portfolio of UK regional commercial properties - Buys office building in Maidenhead, Berkshire for GBP10.3 million, reflecting a net initial yield of 6.83%. "The acquisition is in line with Palace Capital's disciplined investment strategy focused on good quality regional towns and city centres that are easily accessible and close to public transport, as well as the amenities that employees are keen to have near their place of work," Palace Capital says.
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Xpediator PLC - Braintree, Essex-based freight management services provider in UK and central and eastern Europe - Unit Delamode International pens 10-year lease for 180,000 square feet storage, fulfilment and distribution warehouse in Roosendaal, Netherlands. Occupation to begin in March next year, once construction of purpose-built asset completes. Xpediator adds: "Xpediator has also agreed to take 6,500 pallet spaces in a partner warehouse for 12 months also in Roosendaal, from March 2022 to meet existing Delamode International Logistics customer demand, with the option to increase to 15,000 pallet spaces. Several of their customers have now concluded in a post Brexit market, that splitting their stock between the UK and mainland Europe is the best course of action to maintain the shortest possible time to bring products to market."
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Vela Technologies PLC - Bingley, West Yorkshire, England-based investment firm focused on technology - Invests GBP750,000 in EnSilica Ltd, a fabless semiconductor design business. Vela invests through convertible loan notes and backing forms part of pre-float fundraise by EnSilica. Notes automatically convert to new EnSilica shares at IPO.
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Surgical Innovations Group PLC - Leeds-based medical instrument manufacturing company - Says sales in second half of year 16% higher than first half. Means annual revenue is roughly GBP9.1 million, 44% above GBP6.3 million in 2020 but 15% below GBP10.7 million in 2019, before onset of pandemic. Expects "small" adjusted pretax loss but positive adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. Both outturns will be in line with market expectations. "Overall group sales in the fourth quarter recovered rapidly to approximately 90% of pre-pandemic levels following the effects of the delta variant of Covid-19, and before the emergence of significant hospitalisation from the Omicron variant wave," Surgical says. In 2020, Surgical reported an adjusted pretax loss of GBP1.6 million and adjusted Ebitda of GBP660,000.
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Aptamer Group PLC - York-based provider of custom services, diagnostics and therapeutics for biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms - Says Optimer binder to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is able to detect Omicron variant. "The Optimer binder capable of detecting all viral variants of concern is currently used as part of Deepverge's clinically validated MicrotoxPD platform for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. In addition, proof-of-concept work by a separate partner in 2021 demonstrated that the binder can function within an antibody-Optimer pair to enable rapid antigen lateral flow tests," Aptamer says.
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Blue Star Capital PLC - esports, payments and technology-focused investor - Says investee SatoshiPay's Chief Executive Meinhard Benn to change role to chair. Alexander Wilke, current chief operating officer, to take on CEO role. "Alexander Wilke is an entrepreneur and operations executive with more than 13 years' industry experience leading technical and business teams focussing on payments, mobile and business intelligence," Blue Star says.
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Oriole Resources PLC - exploration company operating in west Africa - Says reverse circulation programme at Senala gold project in Senegal extends mineralisation at three main anomalies. Results as strong as 5.00 metres grading at 12.5 grammes per tonne of gold delivered. "The successful extension of the known mineralisation within the areas of surface anomalism originally identified by our team in 2016, confirms our belief that this prospect has the potential for significant resource growth, with the possibility of becoming a stand-alone mine target of significant size," CEO Tim Livesey says. JV partner IAMGOLD Corp has option to spend USD8million at asset to earn 70% interest.
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By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com
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