The following is a round-up of earnings for London-listed companies, issued on Tuesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Staffline Group PLC - Nottingham, England-based recruitment and training firm - Swings to pretax loss of £7.9 million in 2023 from £1.9 million profit in 2022. Revenue rises by 1.1% to £938.2 million from £928.1 million, but cost of sales rise slightly faster and administrative expenses increase by 9.2%. Staffline also takes a goodwill impairment of £8.9 million and reorganisation costs of £1.8 million, versus no such costs the year before. Proposes no dividend for 2023, unchanged on 2022, but the company completed two share buybacks last year, worth a total of £5 million. Looking ahead, Staffline says temp working hours are about 5% ahead of a year before in the first 10 weeks of 2024.
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DFS Furniture PLC - Doncaster, England-based sofa retailer - Pretax profit falls to £900,000 in the 26 weeks that ended December 24 from £6.8 million a year before, as revenue declines by 7.2% to £505.1 million from GBPP544.5 million. In response, DFS cuts interim dividend by 27% to 1.1p from 1.5p. Looking ahead, DFS lowers its financial 2024 adjusted pretax profit guidance to between £20 million and £25 million, which would be down from £30.6 million in financial 2023. Revenue is expected to be between £1.00 billion and £1.02 billion, which would be down from £1.09 billion. ‘After a solid start to January, market demand has weakened significantly over the last two months,’ DFS says, noting order volumes are down 16% on a year before. Chief Executive Officer Tim Stacey says: ‘We remain confident in both our long-term growth strategy and the capability to deliver on our objectives. We remain well positioned to improve our profit margins without market recovery and remain confident in delivering our 8% PBT target when the market recovers.’
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Harworth Group PLC - Rotherham, South Yorkshire-based land regenerator - Net asset value rises by 5.8% to £637.7 million as of December 31 from £602.7 million a year before. NAV per share improves by 5.6% to 197.3 pence from 186.8p. EPRA net development value per share improves by 4.4% to 205.1p from 196.5p. Harworth declares 1.022p final dividend, up 10% on a year before, giving a total dividend for 2023 of 1.466p, also up 10%. As a result, total return for 2023 is 5.1%, up from 0.1% in 2022. ‘We remain confident of achieving our strategic ambition of becoming a £1 billion business by the end of 2027,’ says Chief Executive Lynda Shillaw.
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Zotefoams PLC - Croydon, south London-based cellular material technology - Pretax profit improves by 5.0% to £12.8 million in 2023 from £12.2 million in 2022, despite flat revenue of £127.0 million from £127.4 million. Cost of sales falls by more and administrative expenses increase only slightly. Declares a 4.90 pence final dividend, up 6.1% from 4.62p a year before. This gives a total dividend of 7.18p, up 5.6% from 6.80p. Makes ‘positive start’ to 2024, with overall sales ahead on year in the first quarter. Sales of polyolefin foams are down on year, with European customers hurt by weaker industrial demand, partly offset by better market conditions in North America. ‘While we remain mindful of the uncertain economic backdrop, 2024 is expected to be another year of good progress for Zotefoams,’ CEO David Stirling says.
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Eagle Eye Solutions Group PLC - London-based marketing software-as-a-service - Swings to pretax loss of £355,000 in the six months that ended December 31 from £855,000 profit a year before. Revenue rises by 20% to £24.1 million from £20.0 million, but operating expenses increase by 31%, and Eagle Eye takes a depreciation and amortisation charge of £4.3 million, up from £1.9 million a year before. Highlights that annual recurring revenue is up 26% to £35.4 million. Says exited the half-year with a sale pipeline 2.5-times larger than a year before. ‘Trading since the period-end has continued well providing confidence in delivering another year of profitable growth in line with the board’s expectations,’ Eagle Eye says.
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