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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Predator Oil & Gas Holdings PLC - operator of Guercif petroleum agreement onshore Morocco and developer of onshore fields in Trinidad - Buys Challenger Energy’s 84% interest in Cory Moruga, based onshore in the south-west of Trinidad, for $9.0 million. Predator fully buys Challenger’s wholly-owned subsidiary T-Rex Resources Trinidad Ltd, which holds the license.
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Bens Creek Group PLC - London-based mining company focused in North America - Pretax loss in the half-year to September 30 widens sharply to £10.9 million from £605,700 a year prior. Revenue increases to $17.4 million from none. Firm says it produces 99,900 tonnes of ‘clean metallurgical coal’ in the period. Says 19,230 clean tonnes of coal were held in inventory. Adds that it delivered its first sales by train in June. Looking ahead, Bens Creek is confident of future performance and its ability to provide a shareholder dividend.
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Capital For Colleagues PLC - Wiltshire, England-based investment vehicle focused on employee-owned businesses - Net asset value at August 31 rises 6.9% to 74.49 pence per share from 69.71p a year ago. Meanwhile, in the year to August 31, pretax profit falls to £1.4 million from £2.3 million a year prior. Revenue increases slightly to £492,000 from £435,000. ‘We saw a noteworthy increase in dividend income from investee companies as our portfolio matures. Five companies in the portfolio paid a dividend compared to four in the prior year and we received dividends totalling £141,000 during the year under review, an increase of 78% on the prior year,’ the company says.
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EDX Medical Group PLC - London-based developer of diagnostics products to help predict disease risk - In the six months to September 30, operating pretax loss widens to £193,660 from £124,187 a year ago. Looking ahead, Chair Jason Holt says: ‘Post the reporting period, the reverse takeover of EDX Medical Ltd and the creation of the enlarged group was completed. The directors of the company resigned, and a new board consisting of Christopher Evans, Jason Holt, Michael Hudson, Chief Executive Officer of EDX Medical and Trevor Jones were appointed on 14 November 2022 in succession. EDX Medical has the ambition to build a substantial, high growth international business by focusing on the development, validation, registration and commercialisation of innovative diagnostic tests developed in its own laboratories, in-licensed or acquired from collaborators and the establishment of strategic partnerships with key technology providers and channel distribution partners.’
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Focusrite PLC - Buckinghamshire, England based music and audio products company - Buys Oxford-based audio software plug-in designer Sonnox Ltd for £9.1 million. Says that Sonnix reported an annual pretax profit of £900,000 in its financial year that ended on March 31, amid a revenue of £2.4 million.
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Hermes Pacific Investments PLC - makes quoted or unquoted investments in South East Asia - Net assets at September 30 fall to £3.46 million from £3.52 million a year ago. Says financial performance is in line with expectations. ‘We continue to manage our costs effectively whilst keeping its spending to a minimum. There was no material change in the value of the company’s existing investments from that as at 31 March 2022,’ Hermes Pacific says.
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Majedie Investments PLC - London-based investment trust - Notes ‘painful’ previous twelve months as total return turns to negative 25% in the financial year to September 30, from positive 37% a year prior. Annual income from investments falls to £3.9 million from £6.1 million. Total dividend for financial year 2022 falls to 10.4p per share from 11.4p. NAV total return of 25% underperformed against its benchmarks, FTSE All-Share Index which fell by 4.0%, and the MSCI All Country Index, which fell by 4.2%. Majedie says: ‘The previous twelve months have been painful for investors, as all asset classes with the exception of commodities have fallen. The realisation that inflation was not transitory and that authorities were behind the curve caused central banks, led by the US, to raise interest rates aggressively. This was exacerbated by the Ukraine conflict which put significant pressure on commodity prices. After a decade of ultra-loose monetary policy following the financial crisis and Covid, the change in policy was a shock for investors. Bond rates rose significantly and equity markets sold off and there was significant rotation away from growth stocks.’ Looking ahead, the trust notes there are signs of inflation and commodity prices peaking and Covid supply side shocks easing.
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Tavistock Investments PLC - Bracknell, England-based investment manager - In the six months to September 30, swings to pretax loss of £805,000 from a profit of £35.5 million a year ago, when it had reported a gain of $35.8 million from a sale of a subsidiary. Revenue grows 16% to £17.3 million from £17.0 million.
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Thor Explorations Ltd - Vancouver-based mineral explorer with assets in west Africa - Notes ‘significant’ gold mineralisation at Makosa deposit at Douta gold project in Senegal. Finds up to 11.7 grams of gold per tonne. President & Chief Executive Officer Segun Lawson says: ‘The wide zones of near-surface oxide mineralisation combined with solid higher-grade zones at depth provide the encouragement and impetus to propel the next phase of advancing this very exciting project in the new year.’
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Upland Resources Ltd - London-based oil and gas company - Provides updates on SK334 joint technical Study activity in Sarawak, Malaysia. Says time and resources spent in adding value to the workstream ‘have potential to generate significant returns for shareholders.’
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