(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Friday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Naked Wines PLC - online wine retailer - Chair John Walden stepping down in summer of 2021. Senior Independent Director Ian Harding set to takeover. Continues to trade "strongly", total sales in June up 67% year on year, taking first-quarter sales to grow 77% year on year. Company continues to believe it is ideally positioned to be a long-term winner from the inflection in consumer demand for online wine as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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French Connection Group PLC - London-headquartered fashion designer - As expected, given "significantly reduced" footfall, initial sales since reopening on June 15 has been low, although conversion of customers actually in stores has been better than in the prior year. Seeing sales volumes grow week on week. Online sales up 24% year on year in last 15 weeks. Will continue to tightly manage its cost base over the coming months. Based on new liquidity, along with actions being taken to optimise sales, tightly manage costs and preserve cash, company is confident it is well-positioned to navigate an extended period of uncertain consumer demand.
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MP Evans Group PLC - Indonesia-focused crude palm oil producer - Crop and production figures continued to rise during the first half of 2020. Total crops up 34% in six months to June 30 to 549,600 tonnes, with crude palm oil production up 31% to 124,800 tonnes. This is due to increasing yields in the its areas as its palms mature. Palms' yields improve through their early years, and the company has a low average palm age of only a little over seven years. In addition, the MP Evans is harvesting a larger area as plantings on its newer estates begin to harvest. Realised an average price at mill gate of USD541 per tonne, up 17% on the year before. Prices for palm kernels averaged USD298 per tonne, higher than the USD263 per tonne in 2019. After a strong start to the year, the price of crude palm oil fell as the global Covid-19 pandemic took hold to reach a low point of USD510 per tonne in the middle of May. Since then the price has recovered to reach more than USD650 by the middle of July.
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Nucleus Financial Group PLC - wrap platform provider - Assets under administration end June 30 at GBP15.83 billion, versus GBP13.99 billion three months prior and GBP15.33 billion at the same point the year before. The company started 2020 with GBP16.14 billion in assets under administration. Nucleus recorded first half net inflows of GBP433 million, but market movements shed GBP749 million. In the second quarter alone, market movements added GBP1.67 billion despite the overall drop in the first half.
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Hotel Chocolat Group PLC - chocolatier and omni-channel retailer - Expects annual revenue, for period ended June 30, up 3% year on year to GBP136 million. First sales up 14%, but second-half sales down 14%. All UK physical locations were closed for a period of 12 weeks to June 15. This period coincided with Easter and Mother's Day, two of the three largest gifting seasons. Annual digital sales quadrupled in the fourth quarter. Expects underlying pre-tax profit to be in line with expectations. Remains confident in the resilience of the brand, and the potential for growth.
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Safestyle UK PLC - retailer and manufacturer of PVCu replacement windows and doors - Strong rebound in order intake post-lockdown with order intake for the eight weeks from May 25 23% ahead of the same period last year. Consumer demand ahead of expectations after restart. Profitable for the months of January, February and June. Order book carried into second half is 45% higher than at the same point last year. Expects first half revenue down 35% year on year at GBP42.1 million.
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CVS Group PLC - integrated veterinary services provider - Does not intend to issue final dividend. Like-for-like sales growth in 8 months to February 7.9%, with 7.1% growth in Practice unit. Veterinary surgeon vacancy rate maintained at 7.9%. Shut vet practices on March 23, with urgent and emergency veterinary work only in practice. The result of the restrictions was a significant reduction in our revenue streams in our small animal first opinion practices, our specialist referral centres, our associated integrated services and in our equine division. A "strong" first eight months mean CVS expects to report full year revenue "comfortably" ahead of the prior year. Not yet returned to pre Covid-19 working practices, but the majority of practices open and majority of employees have returned to work.
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Anglo Pacific Group PLC - natural resources royalties business based in London - Seen GBP18.5 million to GBP19.0 million in portfolio contributions in first half, down from GBP25.5 million in the second half of 2019 and GBP33.1 million year on year. The decrease is largely due to the recent softening of coal prices as a result of Covid-19, despite earlier resilience. Expects second half of 2020 to "stronger", in light of improved coking coal spot prices, the rally in copper and iron ore, along with the backdrop of a recovery in demand from China.
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Amedeo Air Four Plus Ltd - investment firm focused on acquiring, leasing and then selling aircraft - Confirms that it will not be declaring a dividend for payment in July but is hopeful that the payment of quarterly dividends will recommence in late October and quarterly thereafter.
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Renold PLC - supplier of industrial chains and related power transmission products - Performance during the first quarter has remained in line with internal expectations. Been profitable and cash generative in each month of the first quarter, with order intake reflecting the "challenging" market conditions - which has seen gradual improvements since April. "It is still too early to give specific guidance for the year ahead. However, with the strategic actions and cost saving measures taken to date, the board is confident that the company can manage through the current period of disruption," Renold added.
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Vast Resources PLC - AIM-listed mining firm - Confirms remaining containers of equipment have all arrived on-site at Baita Plai polymetallic mine in Romania. Also confirmed testing of copper & zinc has been finalised and the results are "encouraging". Testing of the lead and molybdenum are ongoing. Will receive the final metallurgical report in August. Underground production will begin week starting July 27. First concentrate will be produced in August in preparation for sale to Mercuria.
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Starwood European Real Estate Finance Ltd - UK and European commercial real estate debt investor - Notes all of the loans in its investment portfolio are paying their interest on time and expects a favourable environment for future investments in the long term. Will continue to pay a dividend of 6.5 pence per share through 2020 and will target to pay 5.5 pence per share thereafter. At June 30, Starwood had 18 investments and commitments of GBP514.7 million.
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Caledonia Mining Corp PLC - exploration and development company focused on Southern Africa - Enters "at the market" sales agreement with Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. Cantor, at its discretion from time to time, is now able to sell up to USD13 million worth of Caledonia shares. Caledonia expects to use the amount of any net proceeds from the sales for investment in the construction of a solar power plant to supply electricity to Blanket Mine in Zimbabwe.
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Ascent Resources PLC - AIM-listed oil and gas exploration and production firm - Formally notified the Government of the Republic of Slovenia of the existence of disputes under the UK-Slovenia bilateral investment treaty and the Energy Charter Treaty. In particular, the Slovenian has been notified of the fact that certain actions which have caused "considerable harm" to the Ascent's' investments in Slovenia - which constitute breaches of the protections established by the BIT and the ECT. Such breaches include the guarantee that the investments would be accorded fair and equitable treatment and Slovenia's guarantee that the management, maintenance, use, enjoyment or disposal of the investments would not be impaired by arbitrary, unreasonable or discriminatory measures. Ascent said it hopes an "amicable solution" can be found.
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Tissue Regenix Group PLC - regenerative medical devices company - Started first phase of its planned manufacturing capacity expansion programme in San Antonio, Texas. The company said the expansion "represents a key element of the group's commercial development plan". The expansion programme will be split into several phases. The first phase is expected to take about six months to complete and will include the development of operational capabilities in the new 21,000 square foot building to house freezers and distribution functions that will free up space for additional sterile packaging clean rooms to be built in the existing facility.
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Integumen PLC - artificial intelligence, clinical research, medical device and life science firm - Subsidiary Labskin launches remote clinical skin trials platform. "By harvesting the microbiome of a human volunteer's skin, transporting it to the Labskin laboratory to be transplanted onto laboratory-grown skin, it creates an exact replica of the human volunteer's skin microflora - without them leaving their home," Integumen explained.
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Danakali Ltd - Australian-headquartered potash company - Further advanced its equity strategy in order to secure the remaining financing needed for Colluli development. Maintained "prudent spending" in the June Quarter with a focus on critical project spend tied to the long-term success of Colluli development.
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Sareum Holdings PLC - specialist drug development company focused on targeted small molecule therapeutics to improve the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases - Gets encouraging results for its small molecule dual tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) and Janus kinase 1 (JAK1) inhibitors in disease model studies of systemic lupus erythematosus by its collaborator, SRI International. "These data from studies using our small molecule TYK2/JAK1 inhibitors add to the body of evidence supporting this novel mechanism of action as a promising approach to treating autoimmune diseases such as SLE," Chief Executive Tim Mitchell said.
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Jangada Mines PLC - resource company focussed on the Pedra Branca project in northeast Brazil - "Delighted" with progress of investee Fodere Titanium. Jangada made a USD100,00 investment in Fodere Titanium, a UK registered clean technology company that is developing environmentally sustainable and highly innovative technology to extract high value metals from the titanium, vanadium, iron and steel industries. Fodere has made significant advances towards establishing its initial small-scale industrial plant in South Africa, which processes vanadium and titanium dioxide tailings, Jangada said,
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Berkeley Energia Ltd - Spain-focused uranium producer - Notes that the Board of the Nuclear Safety Council issued a favourable report for the extension of the validity of the initial authorisation for the uranium concentrate plant as a radioactive facility at the company's Salamanca project. Berkeley has not received any official notification from the NSC, however, saying the outcome was published on the NSC website. The initial authorisation for the uranium concentrate plant as a radioactive facility was granted in September 2015 by the then Spanish Ministry of Industry, Energy & Tourism, with a 5-year validity period. The next step in the process is for the NSC technical team to now finalise its report and submit it to the NSC Board for ratification.
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Thor Mining PLC - exploration and development miner - Notes positive test results for Kapunda ISR copper project. The drilling program was carried out by EnviroCopper, which can earn up to 75% of the rights over metals which may be recovered at Kapunda. Thor holds a 25% interest in EnviroCopper. "Very solid progress being made by EnviroCopper at the Kapunda copper ISR project, continuing to confirm the potential for production of copper using ISR, against a background of rising copper prices," Thor Chief Executive Mick Billing said.
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By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com
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