The following is a round-up of earnings for London-listed companies, issued on Thursday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Zenith Energy Ltd - oil & gas company focused on assets in Africa and Italy - Swings to a pretax profit of C$5.7 million, or £3.1 million, during the six months that ended September 30, from a loss of C$9.1 million the year before. This is due to administrative expenses reducing to C$277,000 from C$8.1 million. Revenue falls 42% to C$911,00 from C$1.4 million, while production costs decrease 14% to C$472,000 from C$544,000. The firm also on Thursday was awarded $9.7 million by the arbitral tribunal at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, as part of its arbitration against the national oil company of the Republic of Tunisia, Enterprise Tunisienne d’Activites Petrolieres. This was a result of ETAP’s failure to comply with contractual obligations to pay for oil produced and sold by Zenith subsidiary Ecumed Petroleum Zaris Ltd. Zenith will undergo two further arbitrations in 2025, ICC-2 and ICSID, for claims of $130 million and $503 million respectively.
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Amedeo Air Four Plus Ltd - investment company that buys, leases and sells aircraft - Swings to a pretax loss of £3.2 million during the six months that ended September 30, from a profit of £23.0 million last year. US dollar-based rental income falls 1.6% to £72.6 million from £73.8 million the year before, while British sterling-based rental income drops 0.6% to £17.3 million from £17.4 million. Chair Robin Hallam says: ‘We continue to look for opportunities to take advantage of the buoyant aircraft market to lock in value for shareholders. With our small market cap this cannot be at any cost and cannot benefit third parties more than our investors. We see very positive news from Thailand as to the likely emergence of Thai Airways from bankruptcy, we are less than 2 years away now from the first A380 lease expiry at which point our cash flow starts to reduce. Well before the Thai leases on our A350s enter their extended phase in 2029, the new rent must be negotiated and the aircraft either refinanced or disposed of. This all points to 2025 being a busy year!’
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Insig AI PLC - London-based data science and machine learning firm - Narrows it pretax loss to £1.4 million during the six months to September 30, from £1.7 million last year. This was due to administrative expenses reducing 38% to £1.5 million from £2.2 million, and cost of sales falling to nothing from £384,916. Revenue, however, sank to £165,780 from £882,478 as last year’s figure included income from the group’s Sport in Schools business that was sold in November 2023. Chief Executive Officer Richard Bernstein says: ‘I am pleased to report that since the period end, we have seen year-on-year revenue growth, a dramatic increase in our sales pipeline, broadening engagement with regulators and incoming requests for proposals to meet business needs as a result of a strategic business development shift. Alongside structural tailwinds within the markets we address, we can look forward to 2025 with confidence.’
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Kropz PLC - African phosphate producer and developer - Pretax loss widens to $22.0 million during the six months that ended September 30, from a loss of $629,000 last year. This is due primarily to its swing to a fair value loss of $2.6 million as a result of derivative liability, from a $12.1 million gain the year before. Revenue fell 23% to $14.1 million from $17.8 million, while cost of sales increased 18% to $20.6 million from $17.2 million. Operating expenses rose 31% to $2.6 million from $1.9 million. ‘Challenges at Elandsfontein relating to the nature and excessive amount of slimes material encountered in the ore deposit continues limiting throughput,’ Kropz says. ‘Management believes that most of the issues related to the high slimes content ore will be addressed through the recently installed centrifuge unit and additional modifications to the processing circuit. The project has yielded positive results from the initial commissioning. The centrifuge unit has, however, suffered an early setback after it was commissioned due to machinery failure, within its warranty period.’ Kropz does not expect the unit to be operational until the first quarter of 2025.
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Jaywing PLC - Sheffield-based data-driven advertising and marketing agency - Widens its pretax loss for the six months that ended September 30 to £2.5 million from £1.7 million the year before. Revenue fell 16% to £9.5 million from £11.1 million, while operating expenses reduced 8.0% to £10.8 million from £11.7 million. Finance costs increased 25% to £1.1 million from £859,000. Executive Chair David Beck says: ‘We expect the impact of our focus on costs will begin to be felt in the second half of the financial year, when combined with recent new business wins in our Australian business in particular, we anticipate a materially improved second half performance. The UK market remains challenging against a backdrop of sluggish UK economic growth, and wider geopolitical uncertainties contributing to business confidence being slow to recover, although there is a healthy pipeline of opportunities in both Agency and Consulting for the second half of the year.’
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Eckoh PLC - London-based provider of secure payment and customer contact products - Pretax profit for the six months that ended September 30 was £840,000, falling 56% from £1.5 million the year before. Revenue sank 11% to £16.8 million from £18.8 million, due to the group’s ongoing reduction of one-off revenue and transition to cloud delivery. Cost of sales reduced 36% to £2.3 million from £3.3 million and administrative expenses decreased 1.4% to £13.8 million from £14.0 million. CEO Nik Philpot says: ‘Our global commercial strategy to focus on North America where we see the greatest opportunity for growth, is progressing well. North America now accounts for over half of group revenue and the pipeline remains strong, but the backdrop remains challenging as larger enterprise opportunities continue to have more complex and longer sales cycles that are harder to predict from a timing perspective.’ Eckoh is set for a takeover by certain funds managed by Bridgepoint Advisers II early next year, at an enterprise value of around £161.8 million, subject to shareholder approval at a general meeting in a January.
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