(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Tuesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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IG Design Group PLC - consumer gift packaging business - Reports "stronger than expected" start to financial year with first-half revenue up 41% year-on-year at USD434.6 million. Growth was driven by the CSS acquisition, with Covid-19 hitting trading across the group, particularly during the first quarter. Pretax profit in six months to September 30 falls to USD17.1 million from USD20.5 million. Declares interim dividend of 3.0 pence, level year-on-year, reflecting stronger than expected first half. "The outlook is encouraging, although we remain aware of continued global and regional challenges. Thanks to the strength of our performance in this half, together with our strong future pipeline, we are now tracking to deliver a full year performance ahead of market expectations," says Chief Executive Paul Fineman.
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Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas Ltd - oil and gas exploration company with license interests in Guyana and Namibia - Interest income for the six months ended September 30 was down 84% to USD35,656 from GBP228,884 a year prior. Net loss narrowed 92% year-on-year to USD1.5 million from USD18.4 million. Says the company remains "well placed to capitalise on its strategic acreage in both Guyana and Namibia".
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Record PLC - Berkshire, England-based specialist currency manager - Posts a pretax profit for the six months ended September 30 of GBP2.6 million, narrowing 19% from GBP3.2 million a year prior. Cost of sales almost doubled year-on-year to GBP213,000 from GBP119,000. Administrative expenses increase 9.8% to GBP9.0 million from GBP8.2 million a year before. Revenue is up 3.5% year-on-year to GBP11.8 million from GBP11.4 million. Maintains previous year's interim dividend of 1.15 pence per share. Says it will continue with the diversification of its product and service offerings. Says the company's diversification is now starting to "bear fruit".
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Severfield PLC - North Yorkshire-based structural steel in UK and India - Posts a pretax profit for the six months ended September 30 of GBP6.6 million, narrowing 20% from GBP8.2 million a year before. Operating costs increase year-on-year to GBP178.0 million from GBP124.7 million. Says the disruption experience due to Covid-19, both on sites and factories, impacted the company's profitability. Revenue is up 41% to GBP186.0 million from GBP131.7 million a year prior. Maintains previous year's interim dividend of 1.1 pence per share. Says it has a strong order book going forward, which supports trading throughout the second half of the company's financial year and into the 2022 financial year.
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Cardiff Property PLC - Cardiff-based property investor - Says net asset value per share at September 30 stood at GBP24.36, up 6.6% from GBP22.85 a year prior. Pretax profit widens 18% to GBP2.0 million from GBP1.7 million. Declares final dividend of 12.8 pence per share, up 2.4% from 12.5 pence per share, bringing the year's total payout to 17.6 pence, up 2.9% from 17.1 pence. Says activity in both the residential and commercial market has seen an increase over the last few weeks. Says yields in the commercial property market remain attractive as interest rates move lower.
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Eckoh PLC - Hertfordshire-based payments technology firm - Posts a pretax profit for the six months ended September 30 of GBP2.5 million, narrowing from the prior year's GBP2.6 million. Revenue is down 12% to GBP15.8 million from GBP18.0 million a year before. Administrative expenses fell to GBP10.2 million from GBP11.6 million. Says it is well prepared to manage the current challenge "with a highly relevant product portfolio and resilient business model". Admits however that its outlook remains uncertain due to Covid-19.
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Trifast PLC - Uckfield, England-based industrial fastenings firm - Posts a pretax profit for the six months ended September 30 of GBP2.7 million, narrowing 66% from GBP7.9 million a year prior. Revenue drops 21% to GBP81.0 million from GBP103.1 million a year before. Says Covid-19 hurt the business "significantly" and "severely impacted" profitability. Does not propose an interim dividend, versus 1.20 pence per share a year ago, in order to allow the company to appropriately manage its financial position and flexibility in the current uncertain times. Says, in the short term, the outlook for the macroeconomic environment remains uncertain. Says however it has seen recovery in "all key end markets" and has not lost any customers.
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Conygar Investment Co PLC - UK property investment and development - Says net asset value per share at September 30 165.8p versus 178.2p the year before. Revenue for financial year to September 30 falls to GBP1.7 million from GBP1.8 million, and pretax loss narrows to GBP8.2 million from GBP13.9 million. "Since the summer there have been some encouraging signs of activity and the nature of the property market is such that, irrespective of the number of lockdowns the country is subject to, it will not remain quiet for long. Our strong balance sheet, with cash deposits in excess of GBP32 million and no debt, should allow us to pursue opportunities when they arise whilst also further advancing our investment and development portfolio. We will, though, need to raise substantial amounts either as debt, or through joint ventures or asset sales in order to develop the Island Quarter site in Nottingham," company says.
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Troy Income & Growth Trust PLC - invests predominantly in UK equities - Says net asset value per share total return minus 9.1% for financial year to September 30, while FTSE All-Share Index total return minus 16.6%. This reflects "the very difficult environment for UK equities, which have suffered from both protracted uncertainty surrounding the Brexit negotiations and the impact of the Covid-19 crisis since February of this year", the company notes. As previously flagged, company intends to set a "new and reduced dividend rate" for the year to September 2021. A quarterly rate of 0.49p is planned, which implies 1.96p for 2021 financial year. This compares to 2.78p for the 2020 financial year.
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Appreciate Group PLC - Liverpool-based multi-retailer - Reports revenue for the half-year to September 30 of GBP27.4 million, down 18% from GBP33.2 million the year before. Billings decline 18% to GBP98.8 million, though the firm noted that they recovered from a 64% fall in April at the height of the lockdown. Pretax loss widens to GBP6.2 million from GBP1.3 million. Says billings continued to show "significant" month-on-month improvement, and are running close to levels seen last year. Reisntates dividend, declaring interim payout of 0.4p.
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CML Microsystems PLC - radio frequency semiconductor maker - Revenue for six months to September-end edged down to GBP12.9 million from GBP13.1 million a year before and pretax profit down at GBP771,000 from GBP907,000. CML says revenue fall largely a result of Covid-19 pandemic. Maintains dividend at 2.0p per share. "The timing of the resumption to a normalised trading environment remains difficult to predict, although activity within Storage is encouraging and order intake from Communications customers in the last weeks of the half was promising," says Chris Gurry, managing director of CML Microsystems.
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Ten Lifestyle Group PLC - lifestyle and travel service platform - Says revenue for financial year to August 31 GBP46.4 million, down from GBP49.1 million the year before. Pretax loss slims to GBP5.9 million from GBP7.3 million. Until the Covid-19 pandemic eases, firm expects net revenue will continue to be reduced due to lower demand for its core services in dinig, travel and live entertainment. "We continue to develop our pipeline of opportunities and it is possible that some new Small and Medium contracts could be launched in the first half of 2021. We do not expect to launch any new larger contracts until the effects of COVID-19 on the wider economy have eased due to the conservative planning that is characteristic of our larger target clients," says Ten Lifestyle.
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Treatt PLC - food ingredients manufacturer based in Suffolk - Revenue in financial to September 30 falls 3.3% to GBP109.0 million, though pretax profit rises to GBP13.7 million from GBP12.5 million. Cost of sales falls 8.2% to GBP77.1 million. Total dividend for year up 9.1% at 6.00 pence. Remains "optimistic" for coming year. "Building on the excellent fundamentals of our business and broad added-value product offering, we have made a strong start to our new financial year ending 30 September 2021 and the Group continues to perform in line with the Board's expectations," says Treatt.
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Intercede Group PLC - cybersecurity software firm with offices in Reston, US state of Virginia and Lutterworth, Leicestershire - Revenue for six months to September-end rises to GBP4.8 million from GBP4.4 million a year before, with firm swinging to pretax profit of GBP3,000 from loss of GBP263,000 a year before. Says fundamentals "remain very much intact" and year-on-year growth is still anticipated in the current financial year. "Whilst the nature of Intercede's business and customer profile is such that the precise timing of orders is difficult to predict, the current sales pipeline and levels of bid activity continue to support management's revenue and profitability targets," says Intercede.
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JPMorgan European Investment Trust PLC - continental European companies investor - Says total net asset return in six months to September 30 was 23.9% for its Growth shares, outperforming its benchmark, the MSCI Europe ex UK index, by 4.4 percentage points. For Income shares, total return on net assets was 17.2%, underperforming its benchmark by 2.3 percentage points. The Income portfolio was "hampered by the continuing poor performance of the Income style following the market's initial shock reaction to both dividend cuts and deferral's made by companies following the Covid-19 pandemic."
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Mining Minerals & Metals PLC - acquisition vehicle looking for assets in natural resources sector - Reports pretax loss of GBP147,379 for half-year to July 31, widening from GBP12,207 a year ago. Firm says it has reviewed a "number" of opportunities in the mining and oil & gas sectors and, while there have not been any satisfactory opportunities so far, the directors have been "encouraged by the breadth of potential acquisition candidates". The company listed on the London Main Market in March.
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By Greg Roxburgh; gregroxburgh@alliancenews.com and Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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