The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Friday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Altus Strategies PLC - Oxfordshire, England-based mining royalty company - Widens pretax loss in the first quarter of 2022 to £2.3 million from £1.3 million in the same period the previous year. Assets dip to £50.3 million from £51.3 million. Chief Executive Steven Poulton says: ‘During the quarter, initial royalty revenue of £343,000 was received from two cash-paying royalties that formed part of the first close of the Newcrest transaction. Revenue comprised £333,000 from the Ballarat gold mine in Victoria and £10,000 from the South Kalgoorlie Operations gold mine in Western Australia relating to production in the final quarter of 2021.’
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BMO Capital & Income Investment Trust PLC - investment trust with portfolio consisting mainly of FTSE All-Share companies - Net assets value total return for the six months ended March 31 stands at negative 1.3%. This underperforms the company’s benchmark index, the FTSE All-Share Index, which returned 4.7% over the same period. Swings to a loss on investments of £10.4 million from a profit of £64.7 million the previous year. Chair Jonathan Cartwright says: ‘Just as the outlook was starting to appear relatively benign, a combination of increasing macro-economic and geopolitical uncertainty was unleashed during the first quarter of calendar 2022. The set-back in our relative performance is clearly unwelcome, but the overall performance of the majority of our investments is encouraging.’
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Associated British Engineering PLC - Cambridge-headquartered engineering services firm - Narrows loss in the six months ended March 31 to £14,000 from £49,000 the previous year. Says it started the process of realising its investments in early 2021. Adds it is now in a position to talk to potential acquisitions. Assets at March 31 fall to £645,000 from £1.1 million at the same time a year prior.
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Baronsmead Venture Trust PLC - venture capital trust investing in UK businesses - Net asset value per share at March 31 stands at 70.4 pence, down from 78.9p at October 1. Swings to a loss on investment of £23.3 million in the six months ended March 31 from a gain on investment of £31.2 million the previous year. Portfolio decreases in value by 5% in the six months ended March 31. Chair Fiona Miller Smith says: ‘Despite the drop in the value of the portfolio over the period, the Manager believes that, in aggregate, the fundamentals of the underlying portfolio companies remain robust and the growth prospects for the majority of investee companies continue to be positive.’ Company declares an interim dividend of 3.0 pence.
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Baronsmead Second Venture Trust PLC - London-based investment firm - Net asset value per share at March 31 stands at 74.2 pence, down from 84.3p at October 1. NAV per share at April 30 rises to 75.1p, driven by slightly firmer quoted market, company says. Swings to a loss on investments of £27.7 million in the six months ended March 31 from a profit of £37.1 million. Portfolio value decreases by 5% in the six months to March 31. Declares an interim dividend of 3.0p. Chair Sarah Fromson says: ‘The macro-economic environment has undoubtedly become more challenging over the past six months. The board and manager are planning for further market volatility, ongoing pressure on companies’ operating margins due to rising costs and weaker consumer demand, together with supply chain disruption and shortages of talent within portfolio companies.’
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Worldwide Healthcare Trust PLC - London-based investor in the global healthcare sector - Net asset value per share at March 31 stood at 3,465.2 pence, down from 3,703.0p at the same time a year prior. Total NAV per share return for the year ended March 31 was negative 5.8%. The previous year the total return was 30.0%. The company’s benchmark index, the MSCI World Health Care Index, produced a total return of 20.4% in the year. Company proposes an increased final dividend of 19.5p per share. The previous year the dividend totalled 15.5p.
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