(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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Secure Trust Bank PLC - Solihull, West Midlands-based retail bank - Sees pick up in third quarter lending following easing of lockdown restrictions in the UK. Retail Finance new business volumes near pre-Covid levels. Motor Finance products demand has been strong during the third quarter ended September 30. Currently trading significantly ahead of 2020 consensus pretax profit of GBP2.2 million. Well placed to navigate the remainder of the year and beyond.
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FRP Advisory Group PLC - London-based business advisory firm specialising in restructuring - Trading to date for the year ending April 30, 2021, remains in line with expectations, despite a significant reduction in the number of formal insolvency appointments. Sees substantial degree of uncertainty around the shape and scale of economic recovery, combined with additional pressure as the Brexit transitional agreement comes to an end in 2020. Medium-term outlook is positive and the company remains confident of making further progress in financial 2021.
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Alumasc Group PLC - Kettering, Northamptonshire-based building products supplier - Starts new financial year to June 30, 2021, strongly with record profits in the first quarter. Current orderbooks robust in general and include a growing list of export projects won in recent months, which are due to be delivered in financial 2021. Each of the three divisions - Building Envelope, Water Management and Housebuilding Products - contributed to the record first quarter performance. Bank borrowings reduced to below GBP1 million from GBP4.3 million at June 30. Remains very conscious of the uncertainties that accompany the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit negotiations.
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Crossword Cybersecurity PLC - London-based technology commercialisation company - Gets accepted onto the UK government's G-Cloud framework version 12. This enables public sector organisations to procure Rizikon Assurance and Consulting via the Digital Marketplace run by Crown Commercial Services.
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Town Centre Securities PLC - Leeds-based property investment, development and car park operator - Says GBP18.6 million cumulative rent and service charge payments have fallen due since March 25. Collected GBP15.2 million and agreed to defer a further GBP900,000, totalling GBP16.1 million, equivalent to 87% of the amounts due. Of the 2.5 million balance remaining, company has agreed concessions over GBP900,000 and continues to work towards a fair and equitable conclusion on the balance of GBP1.6 million. Continues to market further retail and leisure sales in line with strategy to reset and reinvigorate the business.
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Gaming Realms PLC - London-based mobile games developer - Launches Slingo Originals content with betting and gaming operator, Paddy Power Betfair, a division within Flutter Entertainment PLC. Slingo portfolio, including Slingo Centurion, Slingo Extreme, Slingo XXXtreme and Slingo Deal or No Deal, will be distributed through the company's aggregation partner, Relax Gaming.
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Water Intelligence PLC - Palm Springs, California-based water leak detection company - American Leak Detection subsidiary secures national contract from an unnamed US-based insurance company. ALD to provide minimally-invasive water leak detection solutions on behalf of the insurance company. New contract represents the fifth nationwide contract for ALD with a top US insurance company.
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Toople PLC - Letchworth Garden City, England-based telecom services provider - Sells a range of new IP cloud based services to a London based bakery, an existing client, in a 36 month extension to the existing agreement, significantly increasing the value of the contract. Pact includes provision of telecom services to all locations of the client, including broadband, telephony and mobile Wi-Fi, plus high speed broadband and Wi-Fi services to the bakery's headquarters and distribution offices. Will replace standard broadband with superfast fibre-optic broadband in each location, where available.
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Pembridge Resources PLC - Canada-focused mining company - Minto mine in Yukon, Canada, produced 5,707 wet metric tonnes of copper concentrate during the third quarter of 2020, down from 6,820 tonnes in the second quarter. Lower volumes due to the processing of lower grade ore in the third quarter. Expects copper grade to return to previous levels as the development of Copper Keel moves beyond the periphery of the ore body and into solely production ore.
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Kore Potash PLC - owner of Sintoukola potash project in the Republic of Congo - Starts drilling programme on Dougou Extension project consisting of the drilling and analysis of up to five new diamond drill holes. First phase of the DX project's definitive feasibility study is planned for completion in May 2021.
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Empire Metals Ltd - Australia-focused mineral exploration company - Commences 2,300 meter reverse circulation drilling at the Eclipse gold project in Western Australia. Subject to drilling results, a subsequent phase of drilling will be designed to further infill the resources around the Eclipse shaft.
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Alien Metals Ltd - Australia and Mexico focused minerals explorer - Executes earn-in agreement with Capstone Mining Corp over its Donovan 2 copper-gold project in Mexico. Under the agreement, Capstone has the ability to acquire up to an 80% interest in Donovan 2 by sole funding the project up to completion of a prefeasibility study. Initially, Capstone can earn 65% interest in Donovan 2 through a combination of USD290,000 cash payments to Alien Metal and committed exploration expenditure USD3.6 million over three years. Capstone can increase their interest to 75% from 65% by making a further cash payment of USD200,000 and funding the costs associated with a preliminary economic assessment.
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GYG PLC - London-based superyacht painting, supply and maintenance company - Wins major refit contract for a 115 plus metre yacht in Germany with works scheduled to commence in final quarter of 2020 and complete in first half of 2021. Contract includes a number of Refit services including bespoke scaffolding, hardware removal, caulking and complete repainting.
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Air Partner PLC - Gatwick, West Sussex-based aviation services group - Security solutions unit Redline wins new three-year contract with Guernsey airport to carry out cabin baggage screening X-ray threat image recognition training among a number of its staff. Redline currently seeing a good level of demand for its Covid-19 secure threat image recognition training system, which has been designed to finetune X-ray image screeners' ability to detect even the smallest components of viable threats.
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IXICO PLC - London-based data analytics company - Secures new contracts in Huntington's disease clinical trials. New contracts include retrospective analysis of data sets for three natural history studies in Huntington's disease with a new large pharma customer and a multicentre, open-label phase II study in Huntington's disease with an existing large pharma customer. Contracts do not have significant impact on management's expectations of performance for the year ended September 30, but contribute to the company's strong order book.
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EKF Diagnostics Holdings PLC - Cardiff-based point-of-care diagnostics business - Receives initial orders for PrimeStore MTM Covid-19 sample collection devices from two new customers, the Health Service Executive of Ireland and a national health body in England. Orders will be fulfilled from EKF's production facilities in Penarth, south Wales, and Barleben, Germany. Orders will contribute to the expected strong performance for the fourth quarter of 2020.
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By Tapan Panchal; tapanpanchal@alliancenews.com
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