The following is a round-up of earnings and trading updates by London-listed companies, issued on Wednesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Reach PLC - London-based newspaper, magazine and digital publisher, which owns the Mirror and Express brands - In the six months to June 30 revenue falls 5.2% to £265.0 million from £279.4 million a year prior. But pretax profit multiplies to £32.9 million from £6.7 million. Basic earnings per share increases to 7.8 pence from 1.5p. Dividend is unchanged at 2.88p per share. Both print circulation revenue of £149.9 million, down from £155.4 million, and print advertising revenue down to £32.7 million from £37.0 million, outperformed volume decline, which remains in line with historical trends, Reach says. Chief Executive Jim Mullen says: ‘We are pleased to have delivered further operational progress this year, with our commercial and editorial teams making the most of the strong news agenda’. In addition, says: ‘We are trending slightly ahead of a full year reduction in operating costs of 5-6%. The phasing of cost initiatives and inflation during 2023 and 2024 means that operating profits will be more equally weighted between the first and second half of the year. At the end of the period, we saw elevated levels of advertising spend supported by events such as the European Football Championships. July is trading in line with our expectations.’
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Ferrexpo PLC - producer of iron ore pellets in Ukraine - Reports a 64% rise in revenue to £548.5 million for the first half of 2024, from £334.0 million a year prior. Its pretax profit more than doubles to £75.7 million from £35.4 million. ‘For the first six months of the year, our business demonstrated its resilience from a financial perspective. The strong rebound in production resulted in revenues increasing 64%. We achieved excellent progress managing our controllable costs on a unit basis, however costs did increase overall due to additional mining and maintenance activities, higher energy costs and towards the end of the period a big jump in electricity prices,’ Chief Financial Officer Nikolay Kladiev says. Ferrexpo notes that towards the end of the half year Ukraine mandated that large firms import 80% of their electricity from European neighbours. ‘This policy was established in response to Russian attacks on Ukrainian power generation and transmission infrastructure, estimated to have reduced domestic electricity supply capacity by 50%. It is noticeable that the reduction in available domestic energy has also been affected due to maintenance at several domestic nuclear power plants during this time of year. At the current time, we are sourcing electricity from our European neighbours, however, the costs are higher and indeed quite volatile,’ the CFO adds.
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Tan Delta Systems PLC - Sheffield, England-based provider of oil-quality monitoring and maintenance systems for commercial and industrial equipment - Issues trading update for the six months to June 30. Expects to report first-half revenue of £0.7 million, with gross margin of 61%, generating operating losses of around £0.5 million. Cash remains healthy with £3.6 million at June 30. ‘Increasing levels of trading, together with the substantially increased pipeline of prospects, provide the board confidence to reaffirm market expectations for [2024] including revenue of £2.8 million,’ company says.
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Condor Gold PLC - developing La India gold project in Nicaragua - Reports that there ‘remains substantial interest from gold producers to acquire the company’s assets’. ‘There are currently eleven companies under [non-disclosure agreements], five non-binding offers received and three site visits completed. Whilst discussions have ceased with one gold producer previously referred to, the company is now focused on active discussions with three other gold producers, one of which we consider the preferred bidder,’ Chair Jim Mellon says. ‘Remains confident that a binding agreement can be reached,’ company says.
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Block Energy PLC - Resource exploration and production company focused on Georgia - Production performs above forecast and the average production rate for July was 534 barrels of oil equivalent per day, primarily driven by good performance from Project I wells. Says remains cashflow positive throughout 2024. Says $2.0 million loan facility agreed in February 2023 has been extended for a further 18 months. This further supports the working capital position.
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Minoan Group PLC - developer of hotel resort projects in Crete - In the six months to April 30 pretax loss widens to £601,000 from £286,000. No revenue disclosed, unchanged from last year. Operating expenses increase to £360,000 from £220,000, finance costs rise to £241,000 from £66,000.
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Colefax Group PLC - London-based designer and distributor of furnishing fabrics and wallpapers - In the year April 30, pretax profit decreases by 10% to £7.7 million from £8.5 million mainly due to higher Fabric Division operating costs and a weaker US dollar exchange rate. Sales increase by 2.3% to £107.2 million from £104.8 million, or by 4.8% on a constant currency basis. Earnings per share decrease by 1.6% to 88.3 pence from 89.7p. Fabric division sales fall by 2.1% to £90.5 million from £92.5 million, Decorating arm delivers 42% sales jump to £13.5 million from £9.5 million. Lifts final dividend to 2.9p from 2.8p, making a total for the year of 5.6p, up from 5.4p. ‘Over the last year higher interest rates have reduced housing market activity and we are expecting difficult market conditions in the year ahead and this is reflected in our existing market forecast. The group is well placed to benefit from falling interest rates as this should boost housing market activity but it will take time for this benefit to feed through to home spending,’ company says.
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Electric Guitar PLC - digital marketing and advertising company - Establishes joint venture to build new artificial intelligence-driven products. Agrees to launch Marcomms.ai as a UK joint venture with Exelia Technologies Ltd. Exelia is a Cyprus-based software development business with a specialised team of developers proficient in blockchain, machine learning, data processing and AI. Work on Marcomms.ai’s first product has already begun, and the parties expect to start user acceptance testing with Electric Guitar’s key clients in the autumn. Exelia will fund the initial working capital in relation to data engineering and transformation, data analysis and dashboard creation based on the Global Data Store. Electric Guitar will fund the initial costs in relation to incorporation and administration of the jv, access to the Global Data Store, and the initial productisation and introduction of the minimum viable product to its customers and prospects.
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