Nature Group Swings To Interim Profit But Cancels Trading On AIM (ALLISS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Nature Group PLC on Thursday said its shares will be cancelled on Friday despite a swing to profit in the first half of 2018.

The waste treatment solutions provider's shares were suspended from trading on AIM in March whilst it was seeking to clarify its financial position.

Nature Group said it was in negotiations with DNB Bank in regards to the deferment of the repayment of its lease and debt financing facilities, but has not yet managed to finalise a deal securing the future of the company.

In the six months to the end of June, Nature Group swung to a pretax profit of GBP228,336 compared to GBP1.8 million reported a year earlier,as it managed to cut its administrative expenses to GBP749,992 from GBP3.0 million.

Meanwhile, revenue reduced to GBP5.3 million year-on-year from GBP5.4 million.

The company said its Oil & Gas unit continued to struggle during the period, as required services under existing contracts were temporarily demobilized or delayed, and new contracts failed to materialize.

In the Maritime division, the operations in the Rotterdam harbour has been continuing to show good operational progress since mid-2017, contributing to the company's earnings growth.

Nature Group's operations in Houston, US, improved, however remained loss-making for the first half of 2018. The company explained that the development of the US operations is severely hampered by the lack of investing capacity. Nature Group said it is in active discussions with its joint venture partner on the strategic options.