TRADING UPDATES: Diurnal's Swiss boost; Filta to top forecasts

(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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Diurnal Group PLC - Cardiff, Wales-based pharmaceutical company focused on hormonal diseases - Says Alkindi approved by Swissmedic, health watchdog in Switzerland, as replacement therapy of adrenal insufficiency for infants, children and adolescents. Adrenal insufficiency is when the body's glands do not produce enough cortisol. Diurnal says Swiss partner EffRx Pharmaceuticals expects to launch Alkindi in Switzerland during first half of 2022.

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Filta Group Holdings PLC - Rugby, England-based fryer management services provider - Says third quarter revenue up 63% year-on-year and 10% higher than pre-virus levels. Filta notes boost from growing waste oil collections and also improved oil prices. "The company can also report that trading remained robust in October as revenues set a record monthly high," Filta says. Notes waste oil revenue commands "lower gross margins", though it still expects annual adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to be "slightly ahead of analyst forecasts".

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Zenova Group PLC - Brentwood, England-based fire safety and thermal insulation products provider - Says its Zenova FP fire-resistant paint has been approved for use by the London Borough of Redbridge. This paves way for the paint to be used by contractors in local authority owned buildings. "This news quickly follows Zenova FP becoming a specified product in the London Borough of Enfield, and a relatively short time after Zenova's admission to AIM. We are pleased with the progress we are making in introducing our products to new markets and it is particularly satisfying that local authorities are beginning to recognise the crucial role Zenova FP can play in improving fire safety in local authority owned buildings," Chief Executive Tony Crawley says.

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Idox PLC- Reading, England-based supplier of specialist information management software - Says revenue in year ended October 31 up 8.2% to GBP62.0 million from GBP57.3 million. Says adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation up 12% to GBP19.3 million from GBP17.2 million. "We have had another strong year, reshaping the group to focus on our public sector and engineering software core, alongside delivering an excellent financial and non-financial performance," Chief Executive David Meaden says. "The outlook for the business remains positive and we are now firmly in our 'fly' stage of growth." Plans to declare final payout.

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Craneware PLC - Edinburgh-based provider of software for the US healthcare market - Notes "positive progress" during first four months of new financial year, in line with internal expectations. Previous financial year concluded in June 30, with Craneware posting revenue growth of 5.7% to USD75.6 million, though pretax profit down 32% to USD13.2 million. Craneware says: "Sales activity is high, with initial cross-sale opportunities emerging, as anticipated, across the two customer sets alongside new customer opportunities."

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Tribal Group PLC - Bristol, England-based education software and services firm - Wins GBP3 million deal with University College London, a long-standing customer of SITS:Vision Student Information System. UCL will transition SITS to Tribal:Cloud. In addition, Tribal says it has acquired educational software firm Eveoh's My Timetable platform. The timetabling and integration platform generates GBP300,000 of annual recurring revenue. Tribal says maximum consideration is GBP700,000 over two years. "The platform allows institutions to publish personalised student and staff timetables, via the web or their mobile device and is currently in use at more than forty institutions in Europe and the UK," Tribal says.

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Blackbird PLC - London-based cloud video editing platform - Says Eurovision Sport, part of European Broadcasting Union, picks Blackbird "to drive cloud native video production workflow efficiencies". It is a multi-year deal. "Eurovision Sport is utilising Blackbird for professional, collaborative and scalable cloud native video editing and publishing of sports content. Blackbird has been deployed to enable Eurovision Sport to complement its digital services, providing cloud native editing tools for its members to take advantage of within their media supply chains," Blackbird says.

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Supermarket Income REIT PLC - supermarket property investor - Buys a J Sainsbury PLC supermarket in Swansea, Wales and a Tesco PLC supermarket in Maidstone, Kent. Both acquired from Argo Real Estate Ltd for GBP73.0 million, reflecting combined net initial yield of 4.6%. "These two stores are excellent additions to our growing portfolio of grocery real estate and were funded using the proceeds of our recently oversubscribed equity issue. Both assets have attractive underlying fundamentals and long histories of strong trading performances, providing a combined accretive weighted average unexpired lease term of 21 years," says Ben Green, director of Atrato Capital Ltd, Supermarket Income's investment adviser.

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Literacy Capital PLC - invests in founder-led and owned businesses - Seals investment in Cross Rental Services, a provider of refrigeration, catering and climate control rental equipment. Financial terms undisclosed, Literacy Capital says it acquires "small minority stake".

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Chaarat Gold Holdings Ltd - gold miner in Armenia and mine developer in Kyrgyz Republic - Completes 2021 drilling programme at Tulkubash asset. "The drill holes intersected consistent oxide gold intercepts as expected," Chaarat says. "The exploration drilling campaign has also confirmed two previously identified potential zones of gold mineralisation at Karator and Ishakuldy, located 2 kilometres and 6 kilometres to the northeast of the Tulkubash east area respectively." Chaarat says current mineral resource estimate of Tulkubash in process of being updated following 2021 programme.

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Red Rock Resources PLC - gold explorer in Australia, Kenya and Ivory Coast - In Democratic Republic of Congo, company says legal proceedings have been instituted by local partner Vumilia Pendeza SA. This is in relation to project assets. The duo partner in the Red Rock VUP project. Red Rock has just over a 50% stake. "Red Rock has served an ordonnance de saisie conservatoire (precautionary attachment) order on VUP and taken other measures locally to protect its interests," Red Rock says. "Red Rock is obtaining legal advice in the UK on the remedies available to it through the London courts." Elsewhere, at 80%-owned Red Rock Galaxy project, samples from 29-hole reverse circulation drilling sent to ALS laboratory in South Africa with results awaited. In addition, Red Rock says it is "researching lithium opportunities in the DRC" amid a co-operation with US-based third parties. Separately, Red Rock updates on its gold holdings which include Western license, Kenya, where "significant new target zone" has been spotted. Chair Andrew Bell says: "After reaching highs above USD2,000 an ounce in late Summer 2020, gold has underperformed most other asset classes since." Bell adds: "There are now signs, with the better performance in the last month, that it is breaking this downtrend, in which case it may reach or exceed last year's highs in the next months."

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By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com

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