The following is a round-up of earnings and trading updates by London-listed companies, issued on Thursday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Castillo Copper Ltd - copper exploration company with projects in Australia and Zambia - Pretax loss was A$1.2 million in the six months ended December 31, widened significantly from A$652,672 a year prior. This was primarily due to impairment charges of A$518,361 relating to exploration expenditure. Revenue was A$22,850 for the period, up from A$3,452 in the comparative period in 2022.
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Artemis Resources Ltd - gold, copper and lithium-focused exploration company with projects in Western Australia - Says its pretax loss was A$1.8 million in the six months to December 31, narrowed from A$17.2 million a year prior. The group’s results did not suffer from impairment expenses in the period, unlike the previous first-half in which these reached A$12.5 million. Net fair value loss on financial instruments also dropped to A$540,000 from A$3.1 million. As at December 31, the company had A$4.9 million worth of total assets, down from A$5.6 million at the end of 2022.
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Neometals Ltd - West Perth, Australia-based battery materials producer - Pretax loss was A$21.3 million in the six months to December 31, up from A$13.7 million a year prior. A$3.2 million of this owed to fair value adjustments of non-listed investments, with a further A$3.2 million stemming from impairment expenses on investment in associate, neither of which factored into its previous first-half results. Loss per share widened to A$3.73 from A$2.34. As at December 31, the company had A$22.2 million worth of assets, down from A$27.2 million at June 30.
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Frontier IP Group PLC - Edinburgh-based intellectual property commercialisation specialist - In the six months to December 31, Frontier delivered £1.4 million in pretax profit, swung from a loss of £469,000 in the final six months of 2022. Basic earnings per share rose to 2.67 pence from 0.49 pence over the same comparative period. Services revenue was unchanged at £203,000. Frontier also says that it achieved ‘significant commercial and technical progress across the portfolio’, despite challenging economic conditions. Chief Executive Officer Neil Crabb comments: ‘I was delighted to see us return to profitability during the first half of the year. The improved performance comes in the teeth of the cold gales created by the prevailing market, economic and geopolitical conditions, and reflects the solid progress made across the portfolio during the period and beyond. Alusid, CamGraPhIC, Fieldwork Robotics, Nandi Proteins, Pulsiv and The Vaccine Group are among the companies picking up pace as they stride towards commercial viability and futures replete with success.’
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Vaalco Energy Inc - Houston-based energy company - Delivers $150.1 million in pretax profit in 2023, up from $123.4 million in 2022. Vaalco says it also generated record adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and exploration of $280.4 million, up from $186.6 million a year prior. Vaalco paid out a total of 25 cents per share in dividends for 2023, almost doubled from 13 cents in 2022. Basic earnings per share were 56 cents per share, down from 74 cents. Looking ahead to 2024, the company says it is planning a capital budget of $70 million to $90 million, and is targeting returning over $25 million of free cash flow to shareholders.
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GCP Asset Backed Income Fund Ltd - Jersey-based investment company - Is proposing a wind-down of a company and a realisation of its assets, as well as a potential sale of its entire issued capital. Shareholders will vote on the company’s future at the May 15 annual general meeting, and GCP says that it is recommending they vote ‘for discontinuation of the company in its present form’. The company believes this is the most prudent way of delivering value to shareholders. GCP Chair Alex Ohlsson says: ‘The board thanks shareholders for the constructive feedback provided as part of the shareholder engagement process. The extensive feedback has been invaluable in informing the board’s decision-making process and in formulating proposals for an orderly wind-down of the company.’
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International Personal Finance PLC - Leeds-based financial services company - Says pretax profit was up 8.4% to £83.9 million in 2023 from £77.4 million in 2022, ahead of the company’s previous expectations. Total revenue reached £767.8 million, up from £645.5 million in 2022. IPF has proposed a final dividend of 7.2p per share, up from 6.5p in 2022, bringing its full-year dividend to 10.3p from 9.2p per share. Basic arnings per share fell to 21.5 pence from 25.6 pence. Costs for the year were £227.2 million compared to £203.9 million a year prior. Chief Executive Officer Gerard Ryan says: ‘All of our businesses delivered good growth, with the exception of Poland where we anticipated a shrinkage as we adapt to new regulation and the rollout of our credit card product. We are now serving more than 130,000 customers with this exciting new offering and we continue to adapt and change our Polish business to customer needs and ongoing changes in regulation.’
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MAC Alpha Ltd - acquisition vehicle backed by Marwyn Value Investors Ltd focused on small caps - Pretax loss narrows to £137,174 in the six months to December 31 from £170,297 in the previous first half. At year-end, the company’s cash balance was £391,116, down from £554,446. Losses per share narrowed to 10.55 pence from 24.33 pence. Says it has engaged with several potential management teams over the year, and that ‘desktop due diligence has been conducted on sectoral opportunities in which the prospective management teams have extensive experience.’
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Bowleven PLC - Edinburgh-based Africa-focused oil and gas company - Announces a proposed conditional underwritten open offer to raise proceeds of around £1.6 million, through the issue of shares at a price of 0.1p each. Bowleven says the proceeds will improve its working capital position, and help to fund a portion of the costs associated with the Etinde Permit joint venture, offshore Cameroon, in which the company holds a 25% stake, with the remainder split evenly between The PJSC Lukoil Oil Company and NewAge Ltd.
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