The following is a round-up of earnings and trading updates by London-listed companies, issued on Tuesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Epwin Group PLC - manufacturer of energy efficient and low maintenance building products and based in Solihull, England - The firm expects underlying operating profit for 2024 to be ‘marginally’ ahead of current market expectations, which it puts at £25.8 million. This would represent at least a 1.2% rise from the £25.5 million achieved in 2023. Revenue is expected to be in line with market expectations, which Epwin puts at £325.8 million. This would be a 5.7% decrease from £345.4 million in 2023. ‘The group has continued to make good progress with its strategy. There have been further improvements in operational leverage and efficiency, as well as bolt-on acquisitions which have expanded our trade counter network and our GRP moulding business. New product development has continued alongside the group’s sustainability initiatives, focusing on production optimisation and efficiency. The successful rollout of the new IT system in our Distribution business is beginning to deliver benefits to the business,’ Epwin says. Epwin releases annual results on April 9.
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Christie Group PLC - London-based provider of professional services for customers in the hospitality, leisure, healthcare, medical, childcare, education and retail sectors - Now expects operating profit for 2024 to be ahead of £1.0 million, the upper part of a range it guided for in a September trading statement. It now expects operating profit, before exceptional items, over £1.4 million for 2024 amid a ‘stronger than anticipated end to the year in its Professional & Financial Services division’. In 2023, it suffered a £632,000 operating loss before non-recurring board changes and restructuring costs. ‘Within its PFS division, the group saw particularly strong second-half performances from its agency and advisory business, Christie & Co and its finance brokerage business, Christie Finance. Christie & Co brokered the sale or purchase of over 1,100 deals in the year across its sectors, while Christie Finance delivered a 40% growth in revenues year-on-year and a more than three-fold growth in profitability, as lending activity into the group’s targeted sectors remained very robust. Second-half operating losses from its international brokerage and advisory operations were also significantly reduced in comparison to H1,’ Christie says. ‘The group began 2025 with its transactional pipelines in its UK operations over 9% higher than the same point a year earlier. The board retains some caution moving into 2025, given uncertainty about the impact of the increased tax burden on our loyal customers and businesses in our sectors, but underlying activity remains encouraging so far.’
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Mission Group PLC - Devon, England based owner of a group of digital marketing and communications agencies - Expects revenue of £88 million for 2024, a rise of around 2% from 2023. It achieved revenue of £86.3 million on a headline continuing basis in 2023, while reported revenue totalled £86.6 million. ‘The group continued to see a resilient trading performance in the second half of the financial year across all segments,’ Mission says. Headline operating profit expected to be between £9.0 million-£9.2 million up roughly 38% on 2023 and in line with market expectations. Interim Chief Executive Officer Mark Lund says: ‘2024 has seen MISSION not only deliver a resilient trading performance but take great strides to strengthen the business for the future, ensuring we are leaner and less complex with a significantly improved balance sheet.’
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Ilika PLC - Romsey, England-based solid-state battery technology company - Pretax loss in six months to October 31 largely unmoved on-year at £2.9 million. Revenue up to £72.7 million from £6.4 million, which turnover, which includes UK grants, declines 26% to £982,100 from £1.3 million. Ilika says ‘significant progress has been made’ with its Stereax miniature solid- state batteries and the larger Goliath cells. Stereax is aimed at medical devices and ‘industrial wireless sensors in specialist environments’ while Goliath is used in electric vehicles and compact cordless appliances.
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4Global PLC - London-based data, services and software company specialising in major sporting events - Launches 4GSportsPulse, a new offering aimed at ‘targeting sports and sports-related brands’. ‘4GSportsPulse combines advanced data analytics with strategic consulting to empower sports brands not only to understand where and how people engage in sports but also how to act on these insights. 4GSportsPulse helps brands uncover growth opportunities, optimise targeted campaigns and drive sales while increasing sports participation - ultimately contributing to a healthier society,’ 4Global adds. 4GSportsPulse sits at the ‘intersection’ of ‘large and rapidly expanding industries’. ‘Spherical Insights reports the global sporting goods market size was valued at $534 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 3.97% to $788 billion in 2033. Concurrently, the global sports sponsorship market was estimated by Statista to be worth $97.35 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 8.68% until 2030, reaching a value of almost $190 billion. The global sports analytics market, meanwhile, was estimated by Grand View Research to be worth $3.52 billion in 2023 and is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 21.5% to $14.41 billion in 2030,’ 4Global adds.
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Sure Ventures PLC - venture capital fund backing early-stage artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, and internet of things companies - Sure Ventures believes its investment in the Sure Valley Ventures Enterprise Fund puts it at the ‘sweet spot’ of a UK artificial intelligence strategy. Sure Ventures noted the UK government set out an AI action plan last week Monday. ‘The action plan was clear and sets out to secure the UK’s future with homegrown AI. It also highlighted how quickly AI has advanced, in such a short space of time. A small number of companies at the frontier of AI are set to have a disproportionate amount of global influence. The statement went on to say that the UK has a window of opportunity to secure and strengthen the countries global leadership in AI. This will help protect economic security and help us be a part of the exponential growth of global AI,’ Sure Ventures adds. ‘The government is committed to building a cutting-edge, secure, and sustainable AI infrastructure. It wants to take forward the recommendations to expand its sovereign compute capacity. Computing needs could grow by at least 20x by 2030. This expansion is critical if the UK is to keep pace.’ Sure Ventures believes a number of investee firms can ‘can assist the adoption and transformation of the UK’s technological AI infrastructure’. It notes its Stylus, or Learncycle Ltd, investee is aimed at using AI to reduce teacher workloads, assisting with marking. Purple Transform Ltd uses AI to ‘address data overload and enhance safety and security in large infrastructures like rail networks’, Sure Ventures touts. In addition, Sure Ventures highlights Phinixt Robotics Ltd, which aims to automate warehouses. Mindflair PLC notes the Sure Ventures announcement. It owns just under 24% of Sure Ventures and adds that Sure Ventures has a just shy of a 26% stake in Sure Valley Ventures. Mindflair and Sure Ventures are also both invested in SVV Enterprise Fund. They each have a roughly 6% interest in that fund.
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abrdn Diversified Income & Growth PLC - conducting an orderly realisation of its assets and had previously looked to invest in a ‘globally diversified multi-asset portfolio’ - Net asset value per share at September 30 financial year end falls 40% to 67.48 pence from 112.70p 12 months earlier. Dividends per share in respect to 2024 total 3.37p, down from 7.33p in 2023. The prior year included a 1.65p special dividend. ‘The focus of the board and investment manager is on seeking realisation of portfolio investments in a manner that maximises value to shareholders and to return capital to shareholders in the most timely and efficient way possible,’ abrdn Diversified Income & Growth says. Shareholders had approved a managed wind-down of the company last February.
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SIMEC Atlantis Energy Ltd - developer of sustainable energy projects - Receives final £1.3 million payment under deal with EL (Uskmouth) Ltd for a battery energy storage system at Uskmouth, Wales. In December 2023, SAE announced it had agreed to sell its freehold land to EL, a subsidiary of FPC Electric Land Ltd, for £9.8 million. The land is being used for a 460 megawatt hour battery energy storage system, and is a small proportion of SAE’s land at the Uskmouth site that is available for energy storage development. ‘The development, sale and land agreement has delivered vital revenue for SAE, which has been key to enabling the development of a significant portfolio of Battery projects at the USEP and near its site in Mey, Scotland,’ SAE says. The final payment was received on Monday. The first payment of £5.0 million had landed in March of last year, with the second of £2.0 million following in May. A penultimate payment of £1.5 million was received in November.
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New Frontier Minerals Ltd - minerals exploration company in Australia with exposure to copper, heavy rare earth minerals and uranium - Strikes deal with Sydney-listed Austral Resources Ltd with view of working together in copper space. The duo will look to ‘formalise a strategic alliance leveraging the two groups Mt Isa copper belt assets’, New Frontier says. Mt Isa copper belt is located in Queensland, Australia. ‘The combined footprint, complemented by AR1’s copper processing plant, provides a compelling integrated scalable asset base that delivers significant exploration and mining potential,’ New Frontier adds. ‘This is a win-win alliance as it provides NFM impetus to expedite developing the NWQ copper project with a clear path to production, while AR1 potentially secures a new source of copper ore to process.’
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Rome Resources PLC - DR Congo-focused tin explorer - Laboratory results from drilling at Mont Agoma tin asset confirm ‘significant widths of tin mineralisation’. ‘Encouragingly, increased tin grades and visible cassiterite (tin mineral) was noted within the deeper intersection in MADD017 supporting the company’s zonation model in which tin mineralisation increases at depths closer to the granitic source,’ Rome adds. The firm will concentrate drilling on ‘evaluating how the mineralisation develops’ with depths roughly 100 metres below the current intercepts. CEO Paul Barrett says: ‘The results from these last two holes significantly increases our confidence in finding high-grade tin mineralisation as new drilling moves to deeper levels, and we look forward to updating the market as the drilling programme continues to progress.’’
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