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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Arbuthnot Banking Group PLC - London-based merchant bank - Arbuthnot’s pretax profit in 2024 falls 26% to £35.1 million from £47.1 million in 2023. Operating income from banking activities falls 3.1% to £154.0 million from £159.0 million. Net interest income alone is down 7.9% to £125.9 million from £136.6 million. Factoring in leasing activities, total operating income edged up 0.3% to £179.5 million from £178.9 million. Operating expenses rise 6.6% to £139.8 million from £131.1 million, keeping lid on profit. ‘As the interest rate environment normalised and deposit costs caught up with loan pricing, Arbuthnot delivered a creditable performance,’ Chair Henry Angest says. ‘We are confident that the continued delivery of our strategic plan will enable Arbuthnot to take advantage of all opportunities to develop the business over the medium term.’ Arbuthnot declares a final dividend of 29p per share, up 7.4% from 27p a year prior. Together with an interim dividend and special dividend, its annual payout is 50% higher at 69p per share from 46p.
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Empresaria Group PLC - Crawley, England-based specialist staffing company - Swings to pretax loss of £5.2 million for 2024, from profit of £100,000 in 2023. Revenue declines 1.6% to £246.2 million from £250.3 million. ‘Despite ongoing market challenge in 2024, we have responded positively and are pleased to have delivered relatively resilient year-on-year performance. While market conditions are expected to remain challenging in 2025, we are focussed on delivering improved performance in the current environment,’ Chief Executive Officer Rhona Driggs says. ‘As we announced in February 2025, we are taking decisive steps to accelerate our strategy and position the business for long-term success. Concentrating on our core sectors in the UK and the US and Offshore services will streamline our operations, reduce complexity and strengthen our financial position as we sell our non-core assets.’ Empresaria decided against an annual dividend, after a 1.0p final payout for 2023.
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Tribal Group PLC - Bristol, England-based educational software and services provider - Pretax profit in 2024 declines 12% to £5.9 million from £6.6 million in 2023. Revenue, however, improves 5.0% to £90.0 million from £85.8 million. Hurting profit, administrative expenses climb 5.0% to £36.6 million from £34.9 million. Exceptional items increase 68% to £5.6 million. These include a £3.0 million hit from an Nanyang Technological University settlement and associated costs. In May of last year, Tribal reached a settlement agreement with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Without admission of liability, Tribal has agreed to pay to NTU £3.1 million in full and final settlement. Tribal declared a 0.65p per share final dividend. It did not declare a final dividend in its 2023 results but deferred its decision on the size due to uncertainty surrounding the NTU matter. It declared an interim dividend in August of 0.65p, after the NTU settlement was finalised. Tribal says trading to date in 2025 is in line with board expectations.
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Microlise Group PLC - Nottingham, England-based provider of transport technology solutions to fleet operators - Swings to pretax loss of £2.3 million for 2024, from £2.5 million profit in 2023. Revenue, however, rises 11% to £79.5 million from £71.7 million. Hurting its bottom line, Microlise reports £1.5 million of customer credits for services downtime from cyber incident, as well as £2.4 million in costs of other customer claims from the event. Microlise in October reported a ‘large portion’ of its services were hurt by a cuber incident. It said in November that most services were back online, and reiterated that no customer systems data was compromised. Microlise announced a 1.24p per share final dividend. It had also paid an interim dividend for 2025 of 0.57p. A final dividend of 1.725p per share for 2023 had been its maiden payout. ‘With a strong pipeline, growing international footprint, and improving market conditions the company is confident in the group’s prospects for 2025,’ it says, looking ahead.
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Versarien PLC - Gloucestershire, England-based advanced materials engineering group - Pretax loss in year to September 30 narrows to £4.4 million from £14.3 million. Revenue, however, declines 8.1% to £5.0 million from £5.4 million. Operating expenses reduce 63% to £5.6 million from £15.0 million.
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Northamber PLC - London-based distributor of audio-visual and information technology equipment - Pretax loss in half-year to December 31 widens to £598,000 from £413,000 a year earlier. Revenue, however, improves 10% to £32.2 million from £29.2 million. Administrative costs increase 53% to £2.7 million, hurting Northamer’s bottom-line. ‘Whilst challenging market conditions remain in the UK, our continued focus on investing for the future means we are confident that when markets return to expected growth levels we should be well positioned to drive significant profitable and sustainable growth,’ it says. Northamber maintains its interim dividend at 0.3p per share.
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Town Centre Securities PLC - property investor, car park and hotel operator - Net asset value per share at December 31 half-year end amounts to 284 pence, unmoved from its June 30 financial year end, but down 3.4% from 294p 12 months earlier. Town Centre maintains its interim dividend at 2.5p per share. ‘The maintenance of the interim dividend at 2.5p reflects the resilience of the underlying earnings of our core business and also the strengthening of the balance sheet following the asset sales completed over the last three years - this dividend represents 59% of EPRA earnings,’ it adds. Gross revenue rises 3.2% on-year to £16.6 million from £16.1 million. Town Centre swings to a pretax profit of £2.8 million, from a loss of £9.7 million year prior. A ‘resilient trading performance has continued’ in the second half.
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VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund Ltd - investor in Vietnamese companies - Net asset value per share in six months to December 31 rises 2.7% to $7.63 per share from $7.43 at end of June. ‘Vietnam remains a vibrant economy in which to invest. The government has recently increased its GDP growth target for 2025 to 8%, supported by an increase in spending on infrastructure. However, this move is balanced by a likely decline in exports to the US following a bumper year in 2024. This might be exacerbated if additional tariffs were to be imposed on Vietnam by the new US administration,’ the firm says. ‘The key to the performance of the stock market and to the company, however, will be the confidence of the domestic consumer. Our investment manager expects consumer confidence to recover in 2025 which we hope will support performance in the coming year.’ In December, it paid a half-yearly dividend of 7.25 cents per share, up 3.6% from 7.0 cents a year prior. It has declared another 7.25 cents dividend, also up 3.6% from 7.0 cents, to be paid in May.
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India Capital Growth Fund Ltd - invests in companies based in India - Net asset value per share at the end of 2024 improves 16% to 209.01 pence from 180.11p at the end of 2023. ‘India’s economic growth in 2024 has been reflected in its vibrant and fast-growing corporate sector, which continued to expand and diversify over the year. This, in turn, has supported stock markets, which delivered another strong year of returns,’ India Capital says. Chair Elisabeth Scott says the Indian equities have seen ‘considerable turbulence’ so far in 2025. Small and mid cap stocks are ‘taking the greatest hit’. ‘All eyes, of course, are on the United States and on the prospect of trade tariffs, which are likely to affect Indian exporters.’ Scott says.
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Gunsynd PLC - investor in companies and projects in the natural resource sector - Pretax loss in six months to January 31 narrows to £357,000 from £621,000 a year prior. Loss on financial investments amounts to £49,000, trimmed from £369,000 a year prior. Gunsynd says: ‘We maintain a level of diversification in our portfolio but are mainly concentrated in natural resources, particularly in North America and are unlikely to change this in the near future. Equity prices for junior resources stocks again remain depressed in the period. Although not yet reflected in equity prices, commodity prices, particularly gold and copper, have exhibited signs of recent strength. If the recent weakness of the USD persists, these commodity prices may signal a long-overdue uptick in the shares prices of junior natural resources companies.’
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Henderson High Income Trust PLC - investing in dividend-paying UK companies - Net asset value per share at end of 2024 advances 3.0% to 174.72 pence from 169.58p at end of 2023. Dividend for the year rises 2.4% to 10.60p per share from 10.35p. NAV total return of 9.4% beats benchmark’s 7.9%. The benchmark is a composite of 80% of the FTSE All-Share Index (total return) and 20% of the ICE BofA Sterling Non-Gilts Index. The firm adds: ‘Whilst the backdrop remains challenging, there is some good news for UK listed companies which retain healthy balance sheets and many are buying back their own shares, highlighting the relatively attractive valuation of UK companies versus their overseas peers. It is also important to remember that quoted UK companies derive a substantial proportion of their earnings from overseas activities providing good protection against the risk of weaker UK activity.’
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