The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Thursday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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4Global PLC - London-based data, services and software for sporting events and the promotion of physical activity - Says revenue in second half of year ended March 31 has been ‘strong’. Expects to report revenue of £5.6 million, up from £3.6 million a year ago. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation expected to be in line with market expectations. Says revenue generation profile has been weighted to the second half of the financial year. ‘While both Services and Technology divisions both performed in the year being reported, the directors are specifically pleased to report Technology revenues continue to grow as the company continues to focus on increasing its recurring revenue as a percentage of total revenue,’ 4Global adds. In December, the company reported first half revenue of £1.4 million, up 10% from £1.3 million a year ago.
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Cornerstone FS PLC - cloud-based payment provider - Completes sale of Avila House Ltd to Aspire Commerce Ltd following approval from the Financial Conduct Authority. Says it has now received £300,000 in cash in consideration for Avila. Also confirms that it began generating revenue under its 12-month software licencing agreement with Aspire in January. Chief Executive James Hickman says: ‘We are pleased to have completed this sale and to realise value from the disposal of a subsidiary that could no longer contribute to our business. This deal is particularly strong as we are also generating revenue from licencing our platform to the buyer. The proceeds will be used to bolster our existing cash resources as we continue to drive our business forward.’
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Avacta Group PLC - life sciences company, developing targeted oncology drugs and diagnostics - Says the first patient has been dosed in the US under its investigational new drug application in its phase 1 multi-centre trial evaluating the safety and tolerability of AVA6000. Says AVA6000 is a novel tumour targeted form of doxorubicin. CEO Alastair Smith says: ‘The US trial sites in New York and Seattle will play a key role, along with other sites in the UK and US, in this multi-centre trial both in the dose escalation phase and in the dose expansion phase which we expect to begin in the second half of the year.’
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Volex PLC - Basingstoke, England-based electronic components maker - Secures ‘major new contract’ with North American-based automotive manufacturer to supply advanced electric vehicle power products from its manufacturing facility in Tijuana, Mexico. Expects the annualised revenues arising from this contract to exceed $30 million, with full production anticipated to commence during 2024. ‘This contract win follows Volex’s decision to invest in doubling the capacity of its Tijuana site, supporting customers who want to simplify their supply chains and secure reliable manufacturing services closer to their production locations,’ Volex says.
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Pressure Technologies PLC - Sheffield, England-based group of specialist precision engineering businesses - Says auditor Grant Thornton K LLP requires more time to finalise its audit report due to resource constraints. The audit is for Pressure’s accounts for the financial year ended October 1, 2022. The company will therefore not be in a position to publish its audited results by the end of April. Now expects to publish results in mid-May. Expects no change to revenue and operating profit. The company’s shares were suspended on April 3 and will remain suspended until the results are published. Back in March, Pressure said an accounting treatment it has applied since financial year 2019 for long-term defence contracts within its Chesterfield Special Cylinders unit is not in compliance with IFRS15, ‘which requires that all costs incurred in the period relating to the contract should be immediately expensed’.
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Cohort PLC - Reading, England-based technology company with five businesses serving defence and security sectors - Says wholly owned subsidiary MASS Consultants Ltd has been awarded an extension to the Joint Command & Staff Training contract for UK Strategic Command for a further one year, until July 2025. This contract has a value in over £6 million. ‘Together with other recent contract wins across the group, this contract further underpins our order book and enhances the visibility of future revenues,’ says CEO Andy Thomis.
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Downing Renewables & Infrastructure Trust PLC - investor in solar parks, wind farms and hydroelectric assets - Buys portfolio of operational solar PV assets located in the UK for £12.6 million. Says the 13.0 megawatt peak portfolio of two ground-mounted sites and approximately 1,600 commercial and residential installations benefits from high levels of feed-in tariffs and renewable obligation certificate subsidies. Following this acquisition, the Company has deployed substantially all of its remaining cash and expects to draw on its £40 million revolving credit facility to make future acquisitions.
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Engage XR Holdings PLC - Waterford, Ireland-based virtual reality software and technology group - Reports its trading in the first quarter of 2023 has been in-line with its expectations, noting ‘strong’ revenue growth in the period of 40% against the prior year. Also says period saw ‘good growth’ in Engage XR’s pipeline of opportunities. CEO David Whelan says: ‘After a strong 2022 in terms of revenue growth, we are delighted that this has continued into the current financial year, where we have had an excellent start to 2023. Engage Link is attracting huge interest, and the Fatboy Slim concert was both well reviewed and acted as an incredible demonstration of what can be achieved in Engage Link. We are adding more functionality all the time and have already developed and demonstrated the integration of artificial intelligence into the platform working with Chat GPT and other Open AI protocols. We expect to have AI client offerings later this year, which will completely transform how users communicate, interact and build within the metaverse.’
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Tower Resources PLC - Africa-focused oil and gas company - provides an update on the activities of its Thali production sharing contract in the Rio Del Rey sedimentary basin, offshore Cameroon. Says it has applied for a one-year extension of the initial exploration period of the production sharing contract. Says discussions continue with rig owners and operators, with the aim to secure rig availability in the third and fourth quarter of this year to drill at NJOM-3. Discussion for a $7 million term loan is ongoing. Also is discussing asset-level financing with ‘several parties’. Chair & CEO Jeremy Asher says: ‘We are very pleased with the progress that we are making on the Thali PSC and the NJOM-3 well, and we believe that we are close to having a final schedule for this well, which will be transformational for the company.’
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International Personal Finance PLC - Leeds, England-based company which offers small, unsecured cash loans - Says all its divisions have started the year well, with the company trading ahead of its internal plans at the end of the first quarter. Delivers customer lending growth of 15% in the first quarter of 2023 against the year prior. Customer receivables end the first quarter at £883 million, up 15% year-on-year at constant exchange rates. CEO Gerard Ryan says: ‘We have delivered strong year-on-year lending and receivables growth and, despite the macroeconomic landscape, we have not seen any discernible impact of the cost-of-living crisis on customer repayment performance across the group.’ Expects to deliver good lending growth and results ahead of its original plans for the year as a whole.
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