The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Tuesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Argentex Group PLC - international provider of foreign exchange services for institutions, corporates and high-net-worth private individuals - Anticipates 2024 revenue of around £50.3 million, up 0.8% from the £49.9 million it had reported for 2023. This easily beats the company’s previous own expectation of revenue in the mid £40 millions for 2024. ‘The group continues to make good progress across its core areas of strategic focus, in particular diversifying its revenue streams through entering additional geographies and launching new products and services. Notwithstanding this continued investment into its strategic pillars the board is confident that it will meet the original low single digit earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation margin expectation for the year,’ Argentex says.
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ASA International Group PLC - Weybridge, Surrey-based microfinance lender - Expects net profit to have jumped to $24 million in 2024, citing ‘strong’ operational growth, from $8.8 million in 2023, despite the continued negative impact of the need for hyperinflation accounting in Ghana and Sierra Leone in 2024. Looking forward, Interim Chief Executive Officer Rob Keijsers says: ‘We expect to see growing demand for loans and ever greater productivity across the organisation as we drive efficiency in the branch network and therefore reduce our cost-income ratio. From a digital transformation standpoint, we will build on the successes of 2024 by continuing the roll-out of the core banking system and digital platform to Tanzania and Ghana.’
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Cooks Coffee Co Ltd - Auckland, New Zealand-based coffee chain - In the 13 weeks to December 31, celebrates overall growth in the UK and Ireland of 32% year-on-year, with growth of around 37% in the UK and 24% in Ireland. The results cover the company’s Esquires branded franchised coffee focused systemwide stores in the UK and Ireland. In the nine months to the end of 2024, group store sales jumped 26% to £25.5 million, with UK store sales up 34% at £17.7 million, and Ireland store sales up 12% at £7.8 million. Looking ahead, Chief Executive Officer Aiden Keegan is optimistic: ‘The company expects that it will continue to grow the number of Esquires outlets operating in UK & Ireland by the end of March 2025 and we expect to have more than 100 stores operating by the end of 2025. Given the strong trading momentum in the business, we remain confident about the future prospects of the group and view the future with optimism.’
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Petra Diamonds Ltd - South Africa and Tanzania-focused diamond miner - Revenue falls 22% to $146 million in the six months to December 31, from $188 million a year prior. Diamonds sold decline 22% to 1.3 million carats from around 1.7 million. Chief Executive Officer Richard Duffy says: ‘We remain committed to our target of sustainable net cash generation from FY 2025 and have commenced additional cash generation and savings initiatives, as announced in our tender 3 results. A multi-stream restructuring plan has been initiated, which includes fixed and variable labour cost reductions, non-labour cost reductions, capital optimisation and additional revenue generation initiatives. The restructuring plan will form the basis of re-engaging with our lenders to execute on refinancing our debt in 2025. Further details will be provided at our interim results in February 2025.’
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Vaalco Energy Inc - Canada and Africa-focused hydrocarbon explorer - Announces 2024 sales volumes of 24,100 to 24,600 working interest barrels of oil equivalent per day, up at least 0.6% from 23,946 boepd in 2023. Further, 2024 sales volumes were 19,400 to 19,800 net revenue interest, up at least 3.7% from 18,710 net revenue interest in 2023. CEO George Maxwell says: ‘As we look forward to 2025, we are excited about the major projects that we have planned which are expected to deliver a step-change in organic growth across our portfolio in the coming years. I am proud of what we have accomplished over the past several years and believe that we are well-positioned to take Vaalco to another level with the opportunities we plan to pursue. We remain focused on maximizing value and generating strong operational cash flow to fund our numerous organic opportunities moving forward, all while continuing to return capital to our shareholders through the quarterly dividend policy.’
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