TRADING UPDATES: Focusrite sales soar; Gaming Realms in Slingo boost

Tue, 27th Apr 2021 11:32

(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of earnings by London-listed companies, issued on Tuesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:

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Focusrite PLC - High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire-based music and audio products - Revenue in six months ended February 28 jumps 91% year-on-year to GBP95.3 million from GBP49.9 million. Pretax profit surges to GBP23.6 million from GBP2.7 million a year earlier. "For the first half of the financial year, Focusrite, Novation and ADAM Audio products continued to see high demand for home-based amateur and professional audio recording solutions. This resulted in revenue for the period being slightly ahead of our revised expectations," Chief Executive Officer Tim Carroll says. Ups interim payout to 1.5 pence per share from 1.3p. Also says it has acquired California-based Sequential LLC for USD24 million. Focusrite pays an initial USD20 million to buy the synthesizer company and notes remaining USD4 million is subject to performance-related conditions.

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Gaming Realms PLC - London-based mobile games developer - Revenue in 2020 rises 66% to GBP11.4 million from GBP6.9 million. Pretax loss narrows to GBP1.6 million from GBP4.7 million. Gaming Realms notes it "launched with 26 new partners for Slingo Originals content, including 888casino.com, DraftKings, Paddy Power Betfair and Sky Betting & Gaming". Says first-quarter licensing revenue up 60% annually to GBP2.1 million. Adds: "The company expects to be granted a supplier licence in Pennsylvania and launch in the first half of the year. With 9 new partners secured to date in 2021, together with the recent launch of Slingo Starburst in collaboration with NetEnt, the board has every confidence in the strategy being pursued and in the group's prospects for the year ahead. The company is trading marginally ahead of board expectations."

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Property Franchise Group PLC - UK-based lettings and estate agency franchising firm - Says revenue in 2020 rises 1.0% to GBP11.5 million from GBP11.4 million. Pretax profit climbs 20% to GBP4.8 million from GBP4.0 million. Dividend rises to 8.7p per share from 2.6p in 2019, though Property Franchise notes it did not pay a final dividend for 2019, before reinstating payouts in 2020. "Trading in the current year has begun well. The primary areas of growth and focus for us in the year ahead will be the increase in franchisees, residential sales activity, portfolio acquisitions, growing our financial services' revenues, improving our digital support channels and integrating Hunters into the group," Property Franchise says. Also notes it has signed five-year pact with LSL Property Services PLC. Deal will see LSL offer "mortgage and protection advice services" to all Property Franchise franchisees. LSL adds: "This agreement underlines the opportunity for further growth of its Financial Services businesses, leveraging LSL's existing leading positions in the mortgage advice market. This contract will enhance the Financial Services division profit after an initial 12-18 month investment period requiring one-off transition and integration costs.

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Anexo Group PLC - Liverpool-based legal services provider - Revenue in 2020 rises 11% to GBP86.8 million from GBP78.5 million. Pretax profit falls 31% to GBP15.5 million from GBP22.4 million. Administrative expenses before share based payments were 37% higher at GBP42.6 million from GBP31.0 million. "Both our business divisions have remained fully operational throughout the 2020 and into 2021 and the group has demonstrated considerable resilience. Ongoing investment into our advocacy practice is forming a solid foundation for our strategy of building this into a major contributor to future revenues," Executive Chair Alan Sellers said.

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REA Holdings PLC - oil palms in East Kalimantan, Indonesia - Revenue in 2020 rises 11% to USD139.1 million from USD125.0 million in 2019. Pretax loss narrows to USD23.3 million from USD43.7 million. "2020 was a year of two halves. While operationally, satisfactory crop yields were achieved, the sharp fall in the market prices of [crude palm oil] and [crude palm kernel oil] immediately following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic had a significant negative impact on results for the first half. As prices steadily recovered through the second half, there was a corresponding improvement in financial performance," REA says. "CPO prices are expected to remain firm at or around current levels with growth in global demand for vegetable oils outstripping the growth in supply." Also notes that financing options, including equity raise, being mulled to "strengthen the balance sheet".

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Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd - oil and gas explorer focused on Australia, South Africa and Hungary - Revenue in 2020 unchanged at nominal USD5,000. Pretax loss widens to USD1.8 million from USD1.7 million. Loss widens as fair-value gain on outstanding warrant reduces to USD110,000 from USD369,000.

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Rambler Metals & Mining PLC - Ming copper-gold mine in Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada - Revenue in 2020 falls 34% to USD24.3 million from USD37.1 million in 2019. Pretax loss narrows to USD11.8 million from USD13.5 million. Reports USD593,000 gain in fair value of forward contract, compared to USD1.3 million loss in 2019. Gold output falls 42% to 2,819 ounces, copper production down 29% to 3,769 tonnes.

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Egdon Resources PLC - UK-focused oil & gas exploration and production - Revenue in six months ended January 31 falls 37% to GBP424,000 from GBP675,000 a year earlier. Pretax loss narrows to GBP1.0 million from GBP3.2 million. Total cost of sales trimmed down to GBP998,000 from GBP3.3 million. Output during period was 92 barrels of oil equivalent per day, in line with guidance.

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ValiRx PLC - clinical stage drug development company - Pretax loss in 2020 narrows to GBP1.5 million from GBP2.7 million. Other operating income reduced to GBP11,077 from GBP146,517, but research and development costs decline 77% to GBP230,115 from GBP984,457. "We are looking forward to 2021 and are confident in the outlook for ValiRx," Chief Executive Officer Suzy Dilly says.

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Inspiration Healthcare Group PLC - West Sussex-based medical technology company - Revenue more than doubles to GBP37.0 million in financial year that ended January 31 from GBP17.8 million. Pretax profit jumps to GBP3.1 million from GBP1.1 million. Declares 0.6p worth of dividends for 2020, having made no payouts for 2019. "Our current financial year has started well and in line with our expectations with a strong order book across the group. However, this year will not be without bumps in the road as we expect there will be issues with Covid-19 in the world economy for a while," Inspiration says. "At this early stage in our financial year, with the vast majority of our products serving a critical area we remain confident that we will continue with our plans for significant future growth and our expectations remain unchanged."

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Baillie Gifford China Growth Trust PLC - aims for long-term capital growth by investing in Chinese companies - Net asset value at January 31 year-end up 36% year-on-year to 492.66 pence per share from 363.49p. Net asset value total return was 38%, compared to 22% from benchmark. Dividend maintained at 7.15p per share.

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Fidelity Asian Values PLC - provides equity exposure to Asian businesses considered mispriced - Net asset value per share at January 31, end of first half, up 20% to 437.08 pence, from 364.39p at the end of July. "In Asia, there was an expectation that investors would rotate out of growth stocks and into value names in the last quarter of 2020 in the hope that value would benefit from an economic recovery. However, this trend has not played out to the extent we expected and stock selection was the key driver of the company's relative performance," Fidelity says.

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Dunedin Income Growth Investment Trust PLC - Edinburgh-based UK and overseas companies investor - Net asset value total return of negative 0.3% in financial year ended January 31 topped by benchmark's 22% hike. Net asset value per share falls 4.6% annually to 302.56p from 317.04p. Ups payout by 0.8% to 12.80p per share from 12.70p.

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By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com