The following is a round-up of earnings for London-listed companies, issued on Tuesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
----------
Samuel Heath & Sons PLC - Birmingham-based shower and bathroom accessory manufacturer - Pretax profit grows 1.4% during the six months that ended September 30 to £439,000 from £433,000 the year before, as cost of sales reduce by 4.8% to £4.1 million from £4.3 million and selling & distribution costs decrease 5.1% to £1.9 million from £2.0 million. The expense improvement reflects ‘labour savings and lower utility costs, as well as lower advertising and trade show costs’. Revenue, however, falls 3.9% to £7.5 million from £7.8 million last year, due to a final delivery within a ‘large London contract’ boosting the prior year’s results. The group declares an interim dividend of 4.5 pence per share, unchanged year-on-year. Chair Anthony Buttanshaw says: ‘Concerns about the UK government’s budget, combined with anticipation of the US election result, contributed to a marked slowdown in order intake, which has been evident in the market for several months. With both major events now concluded, we are hopeful that projects that have been on hold will now resume, though this may take several months to reach us in the form of confirmed orders.’
----------
Shearwater Group PLC - London-headquartered cybersecurity services provider - Widens its pretax loss to £2.1 million from £1.4 million the year before during the six months that ended September 30, due to foreign exchange gains last year. Revenue rose 7.3% to £11.3 million from £10.5 million last year, driven by growth in its services business, while cost of sales was up 19% at £8.8 million from £7.3 million. Total operating costs increased 2.2% to £4.6 million from £4.5 million. Chief Executive Officer Phil Higgins says: ‘We have achieved significant multi-year wins across our services division, strengthened relationships with global blue-chip clients and enhanced our products across our software business. This momentum has continues into the second half, as highlighted by the contract wins post period-end.’ The group has secured a $12.8 million contract in its second half, which will span five years with an unnamed ‘leading global mobile telecommunications company’. It expects around $3.5 million in revenue to fall within the current financial year.
----------
Sosandar PLC - Chesire, England-based online women’s fashion brand - Narrows its pretax loss to £659,000 during the six months that ended September 30, from £1.3 million the year before. The group is transitioning away from promotional sales, which resulted in cost of sales reducing 48% to £6.1 million from £9.9 million, and administrative expenses decreasing 22% to £10.7 million from £13.3 million. Revenue also falls 31% to £16.2 million from £22.2 million last year as a result. Co-Chief Executive Officers Ali Hall and Julie Lavington say: ‘Trading in the second half of the financial year to date has been encouraging, across all our channels, as we head into peak season.’ Sosandar says second-half trading is in line with full-year market expectations, citing a company-compiled consensus of £40.5 million in revenue, which would be a 13% fall from £46.3 million last year, and pretax profit of £1.0 million, compared to a loss of GPB332,000 the year before.
----------
essensys PLC - London-based provider of software and cloud services for the flexible workspace industry - Pretax loss narrows to £5.5 million during its financial year that ended July 31, from £15.5 million the year before. This is primarily due to administrative expenses decreasing 31% to £19.1 million from £26.2 million last year; restructuring expenses reducing to £207,000 from £2.6 million, and the group’s expected credit loss provision falling to £308,000 from £1.0 million. Turnover falls 4.4% to £24.2 million from £25.3 million, and its adjusted loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation narrows to £900,000 from £6.3 million. Chief Executive Officer Mark Furness says: ‘This is a robust outcome in market conditions which continue to be challenging, with delays to sales cycles and lower capex budgets constraining the activity of our customers. We remain on track to deliver positive Ebitda in financial 2025.’
----------
Mercia Asset Management PLC - alternative asset manager focused on regional UK small and medium enterprises - Pretax profit grew 53% during the six months that ended September 30 to £2.4 million from £1.4 million last year, while revenue rose 18% to £17.9 million from £15.0 million. Assets under management were £1.84 billion at September 30, up 23% year-on-year from £1.46 billion, while net assets per share were 43.4 pence on September 30, down 4.3% from 45.3p last year. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increases 28% to £3.7 million from £2.8 million. Chief Executive Officer Mark Payton says: ‘Mercia has delivered another strong first half performance, with our higher funds under management driving revenue and Ebitda growth. I am pleased to say that none of the tax changes announced in the government’s Autumn Budget will curtail Mercia’s growth ambitions.’ Mercia declares an interim dividend of 0.37 pence, up 5.6% year-on-year from 0.35p.
----------
Value & Indexed Property Income Trust PLC - investor in UK commercial property - Net asset value per share on September 30 was 210.2 pence, down 0.6% from 211.4p on March 31. It swings to a pretax profit of £7.7 million during the six months that ended September 30, from a loss of £4.6 million the year before. This is primarily due to its swing to unrealised gains of £939,000 on held-at-fair-value investments, from a losses of £7.4 million last year. Value & Indexed declares an interim dividend of 6.8p, up 6.1% year-on-year from 6.4p.
----------
Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
