The following is a round-up of earnings and trading updates by London-listed companies, issued last week and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Team PLC - Jersey-based wealth, asset management and complementary financial services company - Revenue in half-year to March 31 jumps to £4.1 million from £1.9 million on-year, but pretax loss widens to £1.0 million from £506,000. Direct cost rises to £1.5 million from £228,000. Total staff costs up to £2.3 million from £1.4 million, and total non staff costs up to £1.3 million from £651,000. Group assets under management/advice up 87% to £916 million from £493 million. Reports ‘stable start’ to second half.
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Duke Capital Ltd - provider of royalty finance to companies in the UK and Europe - Total cash revenue in year ended March 31 up 38% to record £30.3 million from £21.9 million. Recurring cash revenue up 12% to £24.3 million from £21.8 million. Total income, which includes non-cash fair value movements on investments, down 17% to £25.6 million from £31.0 million. Pretax profit falls 40% to £12.3 million from £20.4 million. Annual dividend of 2.80 pence is in line with prior year. ‘With a solid portfolio of opportunities and strengthened liquidity from recent buyouts, we are poised to seize new growth opportunities. Coupled with a clear message for the SME community, we are confident that we are in an ideal position to capitalise on a highly attractive market opportunity and as such, have enlarged our investment team with three new hires during the period,’ Duke Capital says.
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Pristine Capital PLC - eyes acquisition or merger in real estate space - Pretax loss in six months to April 30 eases to £141,246 from £360,481. Administration expenses fall to £125,467 from £360,481. Reports no revenue, unchanged year-on-year. It adds: ‘Our intention is to facilitate a reverse takeover in the real estate sector, by successfully acquiring a distressed commercial property portfolio or a distressed significant single asset. It is only in the last few weeks that we are beginning to see the opportunities that might meet with our criteria. Our initial acquisition is important, as we need to demonstrate that we can show potential returns that will attract external investors. We are investigating every opportunity, and we will keep shareholders informed wherever possible.’
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abrdn Diversified Income & Growth PLC - currently conducting orderly realisation of assets - Net asset value per share at March 31 half-year end decreases 14% to 72.00 pence from 83.60p at end of September. Interim dividends in six months total 1.42p per share, down from 2.84p on-year. It adds: ‘It is the current intention of the board to declare another interim dividend, for the year ended 30 September 2024, to be paid around mid-October 2024. Thereafter, it is likely that dividends will be paid in smaller, less regular amounts principally for the purpose of maintaining the company’s investment trust status while capital will be returned progressively to shareholders in larger, infrequent amounts by the most tax-efficient mechanism available. The board intends to continue to pay a sufficient level of dividend to ensure that the company will not retain more than 15% of its income in an accounting period so as to maintain the company’s investment trust status during the managed wind-down.’
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Schroder UK Mid Cap Fund PLC - mid-cap focused investment trust - Net asset value per share at March 31 half-year end up 6.8% to 660.31 pence from 618.32p. Lifts interim dividend to 6.0p per share from 5.5p. ‘From a valuation perspective the UK stock market represents one of the cheapest regional equity markets in the world, with the UK mid-cap sector looking particularly attractive. We continue to remain optimistic about the outlook for UK Mid-caps and the company’s portfolio holdings which are largely focused upon longer term growth businesses and the portfolio managers proven ability to find attractive investment opportunities,’ Chair Robert Talbut says.
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Dukemount Capital PLC - London-based property management company - Swings to pretax profit of £198,326 in six months to March 31, from loss of £221,666. Posts £237,509 gain from write back of investment cost. No such boost was reported in prior year.
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Essentially Group PLC - London-based investment and holdings company focused on the health and food & beverage sectors - Posts revenue of £1.6 million from period to September 1, 2022 to end of 2023. Pretax loss amounts to £959,728. Essentially Group listed on Aquis in March of last year.
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Keras Resources PLC - mine developer focused on West Africa and the US - Revenue in 2023 totals £916,000, down from £994,000 in 2022. Pretax loss narrows to £440,000 from £997,000. Administrative expenses decline to £842,000 from £1.5 million. ‘2023 began with a challenging start due to an unusually late spring impacting on the timing of the spring planting season in our key markets. In addition, the late and swift snow melt caused a landslide impacting the upper haul road to the mine which required an engineered repair and Forest Service approval prior to the commencement of the summer mining season,’ Chief Executive Officer Graham Stacey says.
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Bradda Head Lithium Ltd - North American-focused lithium explorer provides drill hole geochemical results for its Basin project in Arizona - Pretax loss in year ended February 29 narrows to $1.5 million from $3.9 million. Reports no revenue, unchanged on-year. Aiding its bottom line, it reports foreign exchange gains of $171,416, compared to a loss of $1.4 million. Also reports $2.4 million gain on sale. On Monday of this week, it reported an updated mineral resource expansion at Basin project in Arizona. Reports 20 million tonnes of resource in measured calculation, at 929 parts per million lithium, consisting of 99,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent.
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Challenger Energy Group PLC - Caribbean and Atlantic focused oil and gas company - Net petroleum revenue in 2023 declines 16% to $3.6 million from $4.3 million. Reports pretax loss of $19.5 million, swinging from profit of $6.2 million. Reports impairment of $13.0 million, stretching from $2.2 million. ‘I believe that the outlook for our company over the coming period is as strong as it has ever been,’ CEO Eytan Uliel says. ‘In the next 12 months we will be looking to see a result from efforts to realise value from our assets in Trinidad, and, as noted, we hope to reach a resolution in relation to our licences in The Bahamas in the same timeframe. But, undoubtedly, the key area of focus and value creation for Challenger Energy going forward will be Uruguay.’
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Arc Minerals Ltd - exploration firm targetting copper assets - Swings to pretax profit in 2023 of £7.1 million from loss of £5.7 million in 2022. Posts £10.9 million gain on Handa Group disposal, boosting bottom line. ‘The period ahead promises to be an exciting time for exploration and growth for Arc Minerals. With mobilisation for the exploration field season commencing in Zambia following the end of the rainy season, we eagerly anticipate the commencement of our joint venture core diamond drilling programme, initially targeting two identified prospects,’ it says, looking ahead.
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Cadence Minerals PLC - investment and development company focused on energy transition minerals - Pretax loss in 2023 narrows to £3.0 million from £5.5 million in 2022. Reports no revenue, unchanged from 2022. Unrealised loss on financial investments abates to £3.1 million from £4.6 million. On Monday of this week, it notes ASX listed Evergreen Lithium Ltd has begun drilling at Bynoe project in Australia. ‘The RAB/Aircore drilling will be used to test priority targets and to further progress geochemical studies in higher priority areas obscured by Quaternary and Tertiary cover unit,’ Cadence adds.
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