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(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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PCI-PAL PLC - London-based call centre software provider - Declares "excellent start" to financial year 2022, performing well across key metrics. Reports revenue continuing to grow strongly in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and North America, as expected. New contract sales have been particularly strong throughout the four-month period since the start of the financial year, with a number of new deals and existing customer extensions signed, the software firm explains. Annual contract value signed in the year to date is currently GBP1.2 million. "I am extremely pleased with the company's strong sales performance in the first four months of the year in both the EMEA and North America. We are clearly benefitting from the long-standing commitment we have made to our technology approach," comments Chief Executive James Barham.
Separately, reports it has filed its defence and counterclaim to the UK Court in response to patent infringement claims. The original civil claim was made by Guildford-based competitor Semafone Ltd.
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HSS Hire Group PLC - Manchester-based equipment rental firm - Strikes an upbeat mood in a statement after successfully refinancing the company. HSS enters into a new term loan facility of GBP70 million and a revolving credit facility of GBP25 million to refinance existing corporate debt. The move reduces the firm's ongoing annual interest charge to around GBP3.0 million from GBP16.3 million last year, driving a "significant increase" in earnings per share.
Also notes trading since end of September continues to be strong and management now expects full year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation and Ebita to be slightly ahead of market expectations. "This new refinancing package is another significant development for HSS, adding to the very positive strategic and operational progress that we have delivered over the last few years," says Chief Executive Steve Ashmore. "With a much stronger financial platform and continued trading momentum across our business, HSS is now well positioned to deliver our next exciting phase of growth."
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Ferro-Alloy Resources Ltd - vanadium miner with operations in Kazakhstan - Makes first commercial sale of ferro-molybdenum and completes testing of the production of ferro-vanadium. The company is now recovering around 4.5 tonnes per month of ferro-molybdenum as a by-product from its recovery of vanadium from bought-in concentrates and this is expected to grow as throughput of the plant increases. Testing of the production of ferro-vanadium has been successfully completed, the firms states, allowing the company to choose in future whether to sell its vanadium production as vanadium pentoxide or ferro-vanadium, depending on which is the most profitable.
Chief Executive Nick Bridgen comments: "These are two important steps towards maximising the value we get from our exiting operation, and further demonstrates our growing technical expertise. With vanadium prices at a relatively high and stable level, and with our growing production, our existing operations now fulfil their objective of providing cash flows to support our feasibility study and ongoing development of the Balasausqandiq deposit."
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Town Centre Securities PLC - property investment and car parking operator - Posts modest like-for-like increase in valuation of property portfolio, up 0.3% on June 30 from a year before. Rent collection is a key element of this and in the last quarter returned to pre-pandemic levels, whilst the amounts outstanding with no agreement with tenants for the entire Covid-19 period has "significantly reduced". Also notes hotel and car park businesses are both showing "strong recoveries".
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Grafton Group PLC - Dublin-based building materials distributor and DIY retailer - Sets out new medium term financial return targets of 10% operating margin and 13% return on capital employed. In addition, outlines capital allocation strategy, including medium term financial leverage target of one to two times net debt to lease adjusted Ebitda. This leverage target translates into capital available for acquisitions over the next few years in the range of GBP750 million to GBP1.25 billion once the proceeds from the disposal of the GB traditional merchanting business have been received. Targets a slightly lower range of 2 to 3 times dividend cover going forward.
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Tintra PLC - Windsor, Berkshire-based investment and advisor formerly known as St James House - Sells remaining 10% stake in Astro Kings football business, based in Nottingham. Nineteen Twelve Executive Director James Rose buys stake after exercising a contractual right to the purchase for GBP10 after Tintra decided it did not wish to participate in refurbishment of the NTH soccer pitches that is due to be undertaken in the summer of 2022, for which the group's costs would have been GBP50,000.
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Victoria PLC - Worcestershire-headquartered flooring firm - Buys mid-market manufacturer and exporter of ceramic tiles Graniser. Victoria will pay EUR8.4 million for the Izmir, Turkey-based firm, which will be funded from the group's cash balance. Chief Executive Philippe Hamers states: "Victoria's ceramic tiles business continues to go from strength to strength. The low-cost manufacturing environment that Graniser offers will give Victoria the ability to leverage its manufacturing expertise and brand strength to further drive operating margins."
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Anpario PLC - Nottingham, England-based manufacturer of animal feed additives - Commits to spend GBP274,000 to install solar panels at its Nottinghamshire head office and plant. The move is aimed at reducing the firm's carbon emissions to meet its net-zero emissions target, it outlines. The solar panel installation will commence in December 2021, with harnessed energy to power the plant from early 2022. Anpario expects that the installation will generate one third of current onsite annual energy consumption, equating to a 43% reduction in carbon emissions.
"The initiative follows significant investment in recent years implementing bulk supply, automation and packaging solutions to reduce energy consumption, the impact of transportation and to minimise waste," Anpario says in a statement.
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Karelian Diamond Resources PLC - Dublin-based diamond explorer - Reports results from its stream sediment sampling programme focused in Northern Ireland. Notes "highly anomalous amounts of chromite and forsterite olivine encountered" with significant implications for additional targets in Karelian's Northern Ireland licence. The sampling programme was being carried out in relation to the reported discovery of a diamond in the Colebrooke River, Karelian explains, and previous reported recovery of chromite minerals which can be associated with the presence of diamondiferous kimberlites. Results prove the presence of chromite in all samples, the company states.
"These exciting results heighten the prospectivity of the company's exploration programme in Northern Ireland and add an additional dimension to the company's exploration interests," says Chair Richard Conroy.
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By Will Paige; willpaige@alliancenews.com
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