The following is a round-up of earnings by London-listed companies, issued on Tuesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Aptitude Software Group PLC - London-based finance transformation and automation software - Pretax profit falls to £3.2 million in 2022 from £6.2 million in 2021. Revenue climbs to £74.4 million from £59.3 million. Operating costs however increase to £70.7 million from £52.9 million. ‘The group’s capabilities in Poland provides the group with continuing cost advantages, however, wage inflation has been significantly higher in this territory than elsewhere within the group given both the competitiveness of the employment market for technologists in Poland as well as the country’s underlying inflation. To help address these pressures, the group has invested in both local senior management and in the people and talent team to support a number of initiatives to optimise recruitment and retention,’ firm explains. Declares an unchanged final dividend of 3.60 pence per share, maintains total dividend at 5.40p. Expects 2023 to be in line with own expectations.
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Brand Architekts Group PLC - London-based challenger brand business in beauty sector - Pretax loss in the first half to December 31 widens to £1.8 million from £1.1 million a year prior. Revenue grows to £10.6 million from £7.4 million. Commercial and administrative costs increase 65% to £5.5 million from £3.3 million. Cost of sales rise 31% to £6.5 million from £5.0 million. ‘Despite the challenging headwinds, we believe we are beginning to see the benefits of the team’s hard work over the past eighteen months, in particular with regards to new distribution gains,’ company says, adding that the ‘self-tanning season’ is about to start, from which it seeks to profit.
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Crystal Amber Fund Ltd - London-listed activist investor - Net asset value per share at December 31 falls 9.2% to 130.05 pence from 143.19p a year prior. Total return is positive 4.4%, reflecting total dividend payments of 20 pence per share during the six months. Looking ahead, expects that Hurricane Energy PLC will be successfully sold. Hurricane is the owner and operator of Lancaster field offshore Shetland, in which Crystal Amber Fund is an investor.
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EPE Special Opportunities Ltd - investor focused on small and medium sized companies - Net asset value per share at January 31 falls 28% to 328.41 pence from 455.66p a year prior, citing inflation and an uncertain market outlook. Looking ahead, anticipates challenging environment to complete further acquisitions or disposals within portfolio in near term.
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NIOX Group PLC - Oxford-based developer of medical devices for asthma diagnosis and management - Swings to 2022 pretax profit of £10.5 million from a loss of £2.1 million in 2021. Revenue climbs to £31.3 million from £27.9 million. Notes ‘other’ income of £8.3 million, surging from £900,000. Executive Chair Ian Johnson says: ‘2022 was a significant year for the group with the business substantially right-sized and the implementation of a distributor-led sales strategy well underway. These initiatives gave rise to a much-reduced cost base and generated scalable revenue growth.’ Niox says that the business made a positive start to 2023, with the board anticipating ‘solid progress’, despite a mixed macroeconomic outlook.
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ScS Group PLC - Sunderland, England-based upholstered furniture and flooring retailer - Pretax loss in the first half to January 28 widens markedly to £6.3 million from £3.6 million a year prior. Revenue climbs 2.6% to £147.9 million from £144.2 million. Cost of sales increase 4.5% to £80.0 million from £76.6 million, while administrative costs widen 4.8% to £62.7 million from £59.8 million. ‘The increase in costs was driven by the inflationary cost pressures on salaries, fuel, utilities and other property related costs,’ company explains. Says like-for-like order intake growth is 5.7% in the 7 weeks to last week Saturday. Meanwhile, one year like-for-like order intake for the 33 weeks of financial year 2023 is down 2.8%. Looking ahead, ScS says it is on track for an annual underlying pretax profit in line with market expectations, which it says is £7.7 million, down 53% from £16.4 million in financial 2022. Looking ahead, company is optimistic despite a challenging macroeconomic environment.
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