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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De La Rue PLC - Basingstoke, England-based provider of authentication software and currency printing services - Revenue falls 10% to £145.1 million in the six months to September 28 from £161.5 million a year prior. Currency revenue is down 16%, but Authentication revenue rises 4.4%. De La Rue’s pretax loss narrows to £6.5 million from £16.8 million. Interest expense roughly halves to £6.9 million from £12.2 million. In addition, it posts a reduction in exceptional items to £5.5 million from £10.8 million. The chunkiest exceptional item this time stemmed from divesture costs of £4.5 million. Site relocation and restructuring costs, however, total £900,000, falling on-year from £7.9 million. Revenue is hurt by a ‘number of deliveries’ on the Currency arm moving into the second-half of the year. Looking ahead, notes continued activity building in Currency and solid performance from Authentication. This underpins a reiteration of full year guidance for financial 2025 adjusted operating profit of mid-to-high £20 millions. In financial 2026, conversion of Currency order book into sales will accelerate to produce strong double-digit growth in Currency earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation before central costs.
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Van Elle Holdings PLC - Nottinghamshire, England-based ground engineering contractor - Expects to report revenue fall of 4.4% to £65 million in the six months that ended October 31 from £68 million a year prior. ‘Market conditions have continued to be challenging across all sectors. Workload has been subdued in Rail, as the sector transitions from CP6 into CP7, and Highways continues to experience project delays,’ Van Elle says. CP7 is UK Network Rail’s control period 7, which sets out planned work and expenditure on mainline railway infrastructure. Van Elle continues: ‘The impact of the building safety act has caused delays to start dates of taller residential schemes however encouragingly the new build housing sector has continued to recover, with a strong pipeline of work planned for delivery throughout the second half of the financial year.’ Order book as at end-October is £41.6 million, up from £35.1 million at end-April. The order book excludes framework agreements and preferred bidder positions. Continues to expect results for the full year in line with market consensus, and anticipates profitability being second half weighted. Company compiled consensus for financial underlying pretax profit is £6.0 million.
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Montanaro European Smaller Companies Trust PLC - Edinburgh-headquartered investment trust - Net asset value rises 19% to 165.2 pence per share as at September 30 from 138.5p a year prior, or by just 0.1% from 165.1p as at end-March. Revenue per share climbs 14% to 1.56p in the six months to end-September from 1.37p. Dividend rises 33% to 0.3p per share from 0.225p. ‘If SmallCap is entering a new, multi-year cycle of outperformance, MESCT stands to benefit. The companies in your portfolio continue to deliver high returns on equity, far in excess of their cost of capital, and they have strong balance sheets. Moreover, consensus expectations suggest they will grow their earnings at double digit rates in 2025. Their continued progress and the constant oversight by Montanaro mean we look forward to the future with confidence,’ company states.
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NWF Group PLC - Cheshire, England-based specialist distributor - Says trading in the half-year to November 30 is in line with board expectations, delivering ‘encouraging’ year-on-year growth in headline operating profit. As expected, headline pretax is lower than the prior year, NWF says, reflecting the increased IFRS16 interest arising from the acquisition and fit out of the Lymedale warehouse. Headline pretax profit was £3.4 million in the six months to November 30, 2023. Cash generation focus remains strong and the group retains a robust financial position. In Fuels, volumes are in line with the prior year, but with improved margins and the benefit of a lower cost base. In Food, the business continues to progress its customer pipeline which is delivering additional volume. In Feeds, volumes are ahead of the prior year, reflecting an increase in the overall market following the wet summer and autumn and an increasing milk price supporting feed demand. ‘Supported by a very strong financial position, we remain confident in our growth potential and prospects,’ says Chris Belsham, chief executive.
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Dewhurst Group PLC - London-based supplier of components to the lift, transport and keypad industries - Pretax profit rises 6.2% to £8.6 million in the financial year to September 30 from £8.1 million a year prior. Revenue also improves, by 11%, to £64.4 million from £58.0 million. Says sales performance improved at all divisions and at almost all companies. Transport and Highways grew 7%, Lift division improves 10%. UK continues growth of last year and the Australian businesses also contribute growth this year, bouncing back after a decline the previous year. This was offset by a small decline in North America, after strong growth the previous year. Says sales in new financial year ‘slightly up on last year and in line with our expectations’. Thinks growth outlook in UK has worsened since October budget, cautions tariffs on elevator products imported into the US from Canada likely to be ‘detrimental’ although ‘it is too early to assess the scale of the impact’.
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Molten Ventures VCT PLC - London based investment company - Net asset value falls 13% to 43.2 pence as at September 30 from 49.9p a year prior and by 10% from 48.2p at the end of March, 2024. Pretax loss narrows to £6.9 million in the six months to September 30 from £8.1 million a year prior. Notes dividends totalling 2.5p per share paid in April and September. But, says due to a lack of available reserves for the accounting period ending March 31 2025 ‘no further dividends are proposed for this period.’ Explains ‘significant additional reserves’ will become available after April 1 2025 and the board intends to resume dividend payments once reserves are accessible under the VCT rules. Feels the market is ‘improving but cyclical’.
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Pollen Street Group Ltd - London-based asset manager - Says trading in third quarter to September 30 continues strong first-half performance, with ongoing fundraising and capital deployment driving assets under management growth. Total AUM reach £5.0 billion as of September 30, up 19% from £4.2 billion a year prior. Fee-paying AUM stands at £3.5 billion as fundraising ‘continued steadily across the platform but with most capital being raised in Q4.’ Says: ‘The medium-term growth prospects for private markets are promising, and Pollen Street is confident in its long-term strategic opportunities, leveraging its expertise in financial services and delivering sustained value to clients and shareholders.’
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4Global PLC - London-based data, services and software company specialising in major sporting events - Pretax loss widens slightly to £1.1 million in the six months to September 30 from £1.0 million a year prior. Revenue decreases 5.6% to £1.7 million from £1.8 million. Within this, core UK revenue rises 6%, international revenue is flat, including a 61% drop in the Middle East. Explains further payments relating to the significant debtor position in the Middle East were received during the half-year. However the payment plan is currently behind schedule. An additional provision will be considered if payments are not received as expected. Strong sales pipeline underpins confidence in meeting full year market expectations. Mindful of ‘macroeconomic challenges and the potential for elongated sales cycles’.
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Carr’s Group PLC - Carlisle, England-based agriculture and engineering company - Pretax loss stretches to £6.5 million in the financial year that ended August 31 from £772,000. Hurting its bottom line, Carr’s books £2.1 million worth of restructuring and closure costs, more than trebling from £607,000. Pension past service costs total £2.9 million, against none the year prior. In addition, a property, plant and equipment and right-of-use assets impairment of £2.0 million is booked, against none the year prior. Revenue, meanwhile, rises 2.7% to £148.0 million from £144.1 million. Its adjusted pretax profit is up 14% to £8.5 million from £7.5 million. ‘The immediate prospects for the Agriculture Division have been enhanced by the arrival of a new leadership team and remedial actions taken on under-performing businesses during FY24. The long-term outlook for the division remains attractive with our focus now on our range of existing products, further development of that portfolio and entrance into new geographies. Any benefit from reduced drought areas and the US beef cycle turning will further complement these opportunities,’ Carr’s adds. Further, expresses confidence that the sale of the Engineering Division will drive ‘optimal shareholder value and expect strong trading in recent years to continue up to sale completion’. Plans to sell the operation were announced in April.
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