EARNINGS: Likewise expects FY sales beat; lower costs help Blackbird
The following is a round-up of earnings for London-listed companies, issued on Monday and not separately reported by Alliance News:
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Blackbird PLC - London-based video technology - Pretax loss narrows slightly to £1.5 million in the six months ended June 30 from £1.6 million the year prior, although revenue drops to £531,794 from £576,895. Sales fall arises mainly due to the previously announced deal losses of US Department of State and Univision, partially offset by the non-recurring revenues from the winter games. Bottom line benefits from lower operating costs of £1.4 million versus £1.6 million year-on-year. Post period-end, says annualised recurring revenue for elevate.io is estimated to have grown to £91,000 by the end of September from £40,000 at June 30. Says the Blackbird division continues to operate within expectations, and forecasts it will continue to achieve a positive Ebitda in the second half and the financial year as a whole.
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Huddled Group PLC - Nottingham, England-based e-commerce company - Pretax loss stretches to £3.7 million in the six months ended June 30 from £1.9 million the year prior, as revenue declines to £7.1 million from £9.5 million. Bottom line is hurt by £1.6 million impairment of intangible assets versus nil on-year. Huddled says that following a series of successful trials, it has decided to pivot to being a live commerce business, where it believes there is significant growth potential. Post-period trading has been "encouraging", with live commerce revenue now running at around £100,000 per week at a product margin of around 40%. "It became very clear to us that 'live' selling was a much better way to engage with customers than a traditional static website," the company explains. Intends to launch on eBay Live in the coming weeks, and will be adding more channels on both TikTok and Whatnot throughout October. Notes eBay have now moved into Live Commerce, and with the UK market forecast to exceed £7 billion in revenues by 2028, "this is, we believe, a market we not only want to be in, but a market we can potentially dominate".
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Ferro-Alloy Resources Ltd - developing Balasausqandiq vanadium deposit in southern Kazakhstan - Pretax loss narrows to USD3.2 million in the six months ended June 30 from GB3.5 million the year prior, as revenue falls to USD1.8 million from USD2.5 million. Lower sales reflect a 35% reduction in the volume of raw materials processed by the Balasausqandiq plant during the period due to the unavailability of suitable materials in the market. Cash balance is USD800,000 at June 30 versus USD400,000 the year prior. As of August 31, cash balance is USD500,000. CEO Nick Bridgen says the Balasausqandiq project continues to make good progress, with several key work streams advancing during the first half of the year. He says recent strength in the prices of rare earth elements gives an opportunity to "develop another important by-product which will even further enhance net present value and, importantly, reduce the cash cost attributable to vanadium production even lower, cementing the company's position as by far the lowest cash cost producer of any vanadium producer currently operating or developing projects."
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Metir PLC - York, England-based company focused on water testing services - Reports a widened first-half pretax loss of £543,000 in the six months ended June 30 from £304,000 a year earlier, as revenue falls 60% to £367,000 from £919,000. Reduced revenue reflects lower equipment sales and a temporary interruption to production of the group's QuickChek sulphate-reducing bacteria kits, with the ongoing Middle East conflict delaying the group's continuous toxicity monitoring phase 1 project completion and sales of Microtox reagents in Qatar. Operating expenses rise to £713,000 from £656,000, as Metir adds more technical and commercial resources to drive growth. Gross margin improves to 46.3% from 38.3%. Metir says working capital remains constrained pending a fundraise. Cash balance as of last Friday is £188,000. CEO Bob Moore says while first-half revenue affecting cash flow was below expectations, the group has continued to strengthen the commercial and technology platform from which it expects to drive future growth. Looking ahead, expects full-year revenue in 2026 to be lower than in 2025. "However, the board is determined to complete a fundraise in the short term sufficient to enter 2027 with increasing confidence that the business's latent value will be realised by commercialising our new technologies and building on existing ones," it says.
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Coiled Therapeutics PLC - London-based clinical-stage oncology company - Pretax loss mounts to £3.9 million in the six months ended June 30 from £532,034 the year prior on zero revenue, unchanged. Basic and diluted losses per share are 1.66 pence, improved from LPS of 3.32p. Hurting the bottom line, a £1.3 million research & development impairment compared to £142,956 the year before. Administrative expenses more than double to £831,624 from £347,750, while the firm books £632,161 in relisting and acquisition expenses. The focus for the remainder of 2026 and into 2027 is to generate "safety, pharmacokinetic and efficacy data from the new AO-252 formulation and advance enrolment in the planned ovarian and prostate cancer dose-expansion cohorts," the firm says. Initial safety and pharmacokinetic data are anticipated by the end of 2026, followed by a preliminary efficacy dataset and safety database comprising approximately 50 patients in 2027, it adds. These data sets are expected to inform future registrational planning and support ongoing discussions with potential strategic partners.
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Shaires Holdings Ltd - late-stage technology and AI-focused investor, formerly known as Jade Road Investments Ltd - Pretax loss grows to USD816,000 in the six months ended June 30 from USD438,000 the year prior. Net assets per share at June 30 are USD7.45 versus USD2.01 at the end of 2025. "Our focus now is on building out our investment portfolio to provide shareholders with exposure to the development and adoption of artificial intelligence. We intend to approach this opportunity with careful investment selection, disciplined capital allocation and attention to the risks associated with a rapidly evolving sector. Our objective is to translate the capital entrusted to us into sustainable, long-term shareholder value," the company states.
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Likewise Group PLC - Birmingham, England-based floor coverings distributor - Posts pretax profit of £1.0 million in the six months ended June 30, up from £229,696 the year prior. Revenue increases by 15% to £89.9 million from £77.9 million, and gross margin improves 0.8 percentage points to 32.1%. Interim dividend is raised 20% to 0.165 pence per share. "Trading has been strong during the first half of 2026, and the board remains confident that this positive momentum will continue through the busier Autumn trading period," Likewise says. Notes the sales trajectory has improved in the third quarter, with revenue increasing 29% in the period from July 1 to September 25. Reflecting the strength of trading in the first half and the continued acceleration in the third quarter, Likewise now expects underlying pretax profit in 2026 to be materially ahead of current market expectations at not less than £5.0 million, up from £3.1 million in 2025. Expects to reach the original objective of achieving £200 million of sales revenue in the current year based on current performance.
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