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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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Naked Wines PLC - Norwich-based online wine seller - Says revenue for year ended April 3 expected to be in line with guidance at GBP350 million, flat on a reported basis. Adjusted earnings before interest and tax to be between GBP15 and GBP18 million, "at the top end or slightly above the guided range". Pretax profit to land between GBP2 million and GBP5 million, in line with consensus. "FY23 has been a challenging year but we have made significant strategic progress with a foundation for sustainable profitable growth. Our pivot to profit is on track, delivering profitability at the top end of our guidance. Our cost control actions have resulted in selling, general and administrative expenses at the low end of our expectation, while destocking continues as planned. I'd like to thank the Naked team and our community of winemakers for their continued support," Chief Executive Nick Devlin says. "We enter FY24 as a significantly larger and substantially more profitable business than we were pre-pandemic."
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Hotel Chocolat Group PLC - Hertfordshire, England-based chocolate maker - Warns sales for year ended July 2 to be "slightly lower than market expectations". Hotel Chocolat says Easter sales weaker than expected due to "some range gaps which could not be addressed this year due to transition year efficiency focus". Expects breakeven underlying pretax profit, which would be weaker than GBP40.8 million achieved in financial 2022. Confident going forward, however. Says "overhead efficiencies" of GBP5 million achieved on annualised basis. Chief Executive Officer Angus Thirlwell says: "During this financial year, Hotel Chocolat has taken effective action to overcome the growing pains of rapid growth and scaling GBP200 million in revenues. We are now well set up for the next stage of growth both in the UK and overseas key markets. Getting through these barriers to growth are a real test of culture and, I am unceasingly impressed by the strength of the Hotel Chocolat culture, as we remodelled our way through FY23."
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Synectics PLC - Sheffield, England-based advanced security and surveillance provider - Says trading in first quarter in line with expectations, leaves forecasts for the year unchanged. Says Systems division tops expectations but Security arm makes slow start. "Activity in the oil & gas sector has been particularly strong," company adds. "The current pipeline of oil & gas opportunities extends well into 2024, and the company has already begun gearing up supply chain and production capacity in line with expected increased demand later in this year and beyond." In gaming sector, interest and activity levels continue to increase but some projects and orders still seeing delays.
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Quixant PLC - Cambridge-based technology products provider for gaming and broadcast industries - Makes "good start to the financial year" as demand continues to be strong. First quarter revenue rises on-year, shaking off "challenging global supply chain". "Whilst we remain mindful of recession and inflation risk, the healthy trading year to date and strong order book give us confidence that we will achieve full year market expectations for both revenue and profit," Chair Francis Small says. In addition, company will put name change to Nexteq PLC to shareholders. Name reflects "company's evolution from a niche vertical supplier to a diversified business platform supplying multiple products into a range of industries".
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EnSilica PLC - semiconductor designer and supplier - Trades "strongly" in second half of year ending May 31. Expects to exceed market expectations for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation by about 30%. Revenue to be in line with market view of GBP19.8 million. Market Ebitda consensus is GBP1.2 million. "This strong performance is primarily a result of improved margin, underpinned by a combination of effective deployment of EnSilica's highly skilled engineering resource and leveraging the group's established IP chip library to support existing design projects," it says.
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Seplat Energy PLC - oil and gas assets in Nigeria - Revenue in three months ended March 31 rise 37% on-year to USD331.0 million from USD241.8 million a year prior. Puts this down to "higher production volumes". Pretax profit improves 3.2% to USD86.1 million from USD83.4 million. Lifts yearly dividend target by 20% to 12 US cents.
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Literacy Capital PLC - investment trust focused on opportunities to invest for the long-term in growing private UK businesses - Net asset value per share at March 31 first-quarter ended improves to 467.3 pence, from 420.6p at end of fourth quarter. "Literacy Capital entered 2023 with the portfolio in excellent condition. We are optimistic that this will continue as the year progresses," says Richard Pindar, CEO of Literacy Capital's investment manager.
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By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor
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