The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Thursday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Redcentric PLC - Harrogate, North Yorkshire-based IT managed services - In the year ended March 31, revenue edges up 2.1% to £93.3 million from £91.4 million, as pretax profit drops to £5.5 million from £11.3 million, mostly down to the sale of assets relating to the EDF contract, it says. Dividends for year are 3.6 pence for the year, unchanged year-on-year. ‘During this period, five acquisitions were completed which have transformed the Company. The Piksel, 7 Elements and Sungard consultancy business acquisitions have all added significant capability in the high market growth areas of hyper-cloud and cyber security. The Sungard DC and 4D acquisitions bring considerable additional scale with a clear path to significantly increased scale over the next two years...Our focus will now switch to fully integrating the recently acquired businesses and exploiting the meaningful cross-sell opportunities and synergies that these acquisitions bring to Redcentric,’ CEO Peter Brotherton says.
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DWF Group PLC - Manchester, England-based legal business - Revenue in the year ended April 30 rises 3.8% to £416.1 million from £400.9 million year-on-year, as the firm swings to pretax profit of £22.3 million from loss of £30.6 million. Dividends increase to 4.75p from 4.50p. Notes trading in the new financial year is strong, with continued momentum in line with financial 2022. ‘Despite the prospect of challenging macro-economic conditions, we remain confident in our medium-term guidance. This confidence is supported by the defensive nature of the group’s revenue being weighted towards litigation and the recurring revenue base in Insurance, which has always protected the group both from artificial peaks in growth and hedges against a slowdown in transactional activity,’ says Chief Executive Officer Nigel Knowles.
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SDI Group PLC - Cambridge-based medical technology firm - Revenue in the year ended April 30 increases 42% to £49.7 million from £35.1 million a year prior, as pretax profit surges 77% to £9.9 million from £5.6 million. On an adjusted basis, pretax profit rose 60% to £11.8 million from £7.4 million. Notes profit is ahead of previously upgraded market expectations. Expects to deliver adjusted pretax profit ‘not less’ than £11.0 million in the current financial year. Decides against paying dividend. ‘The key growth drivers within our business remain organic growth and growth through acquisition. The group is in a very strong financial position and has the resources and flexibility to support these key drivers. While mindful of the potential for further macro-economic turbulence and despite a challenging external environment, FY2023 has begun well,’ says Chair Ken Ford.
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Triple Point Income VCT PLC - renewable energy investor - Net asset value per share for C shares plummets to 7.75p from 83.30p the year before, as NAV per D share drops to 8.67p from 59.59p, and to 76.76p from 94.59p for E shares, following a substantial part disposal of its hydroelectric power portfolio. Total net pretax profit falls to £181,000 from £442,000. Plans to wind down and cancel C and D shares, with residual cash to be returned to shareholders, and focus on optimising E share value. Will consolidate its investment in Shenvval for the E class shares. Dividends paid rise for C, D, E shares to 147.750p, 116.75p, 32.50p respectively, from 73.50p, 70.00p, and 11.50p.
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Herald Investment Trust PLC - London-based investment firm - Net asset value per share drops to 2,037.1p at June 30, down 25% from 2,719.3p at December-end, underperforming benchmark Numis Smaller Companies Plus AIM (ex investment companies) index return of negative 22%. Swings to pretax loss of £440.5 million from profit of £207.5 million a year prior. ‘The eighteen month performance is more resilient than it first appears, since the price/earnings ratio of the profitable stocks within the portfolio has fallen from around 31 times to around 17 times (Bloomberg) over this period such that the shares are on average 45% cheaper on this valuation basis. When viewed in this 18 month period context, the limited NAV decline demonstrates that profits grew strongly for the majority of the company’s investee companies, despite the challenges of Covid, supply chain issues, a tight labour market, and other rising input prices,’ says Chair Tom Black. Declares no dividend, unchanged year-on-year.
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Seed Innovations Ltd - Guernsey-based wellness and life sciences company - Net asset value at March 31 was 9.62p per share, down year-on-year from 11.72p, as the firm swings to a net loss of £2.0 million from a profit of £443,000. Proposes no final dividend, unchanged from the prior year. ‘The current inflation shock, combined with geopolitical concerns and central banks raising rates, have impacted investor sentiment, with investors looking particularly at growth stocks valuations more sceptically and some moving away from their riskiest positions, particularly in the technology market. This in turn has impacted valuations across many small cap sectors and which we expect may take some further time to recover,’ says Chief Executive Officer Ed McDermott.
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