The following is a round-up of earnings for London-listed companies, issued on Tuesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Loungers PLC - Bristol-based operator of Lounge, Cosy Club and Brightside cafes and bars - Revenue in half-year ended October 1 improves 22% to £149.6 million from £122.3 million a year prior. Pretax profit surges 39% to £3.9 million from £2.8 million. Says continues to trade well in first eight weeks of third-quarter, with like-for-like sales up 7.6% on-year. ‘A further six sites have opened post the 1 October half year end - five Lounges and one Cosy Club. With the consumer remaining robust and continuing evidence of moderating inflationary pressure we are optimistic as we look ahead to the Christmas trading period,’ it adds. Chief Executive Officer Nick Collins says results show it is not ‘all doom and gloom in the UK hospitality sector’.
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Vp PLC - Harrogate, England-based equipment rental company - Revenue in half-year ended September 30 up 2.4% year-on-year to £190.9 million from £186.5 million a year earlier. Vp reports pretax profit of £19.9 million, up 11% from £17.9 million. It lifts its interim payout by 4.5% to 11.5p. ‘The board is confident in the group’s ability to deliver sector-leading returns and anticipates a full year performance broadly in line with market expectations,’ Vp adds.
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JPMorgan Global Core Real Assets Ltd - investment firm focused on real estate assets - Net asset value per share at August 31 half-year end falls to 95.2 pence each, down 6.7% from 102.0p at end of February. Lifts dividend for period by 5.0% to 2.10p from 2.0p. ‘Despite the macro-economic challenges that have caused significant share price volatility across the investment companies sector, from which the company was unfortunately not immune, the company’s underlying portfolio has continued to perform respectably, achieving a 0.7% return at asset level,’ Chair John Scott says.
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Mercia Asset Management PLC - regionally focused specialist asset manager - Assets under management at September 30 half-year end totals £1.46 billion, up from £979.4 million a year earlier and £1.44 billion at the end of its previous financial year. Revenue during half-year improves 23% to £15.0 million from £12.2 million a year prior. However, pretax profit falls 81% to £1.4 million from £7.4 million. Fair value movement in direct investments hurt its bottom line by £1.6 million, compared to £5.6 million boost a year prior. Lifts interim dividend by 6.1% to 0.35p per share, from 0.33p. In addition, it commences a share buyback of up to £5.0 million.
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Keystone Positive Change Investment Trust PLC - invests in companies which make positive social or environmental impact and is managed by Baillie Gifford - Net asset value per share at September 30 year-end rises 6.8% to 237.2p from 222.2p 12 months earlier. Net asset value total return of 7.0% falls short of 11% for MSCI All Country World Index benchmark. ‘While it was encouraging that companies in the portfolio generally outperformed the index in terms of revenue growth, this was offset by the detrimental impact of higher interest rates on the valuation of companies over the period,’ it adds. Lifts final dividend to 0.45p from 0.40p.
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