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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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Open Orphan PLC - London-based pharmaceutical services firm - Announces intention to change name to hVIVO PLC, which will take effect from October 26. The firm takes on the moniker of its clinical research subsidiary, and says name change better reflects its core human challenge and early clinical services business. In the half year ended June 30, says revenue fell to £18.9 million from £23.2 million a year before, but notes ‘strong’ order book for the second half, and is ‘well-capitalised’. Pretax profit shrinks to £453,000 from £1.5 million. ‘In the second half, we expect revenues to grow considerably and profit margins to increase further as a number of significant contracts signed earlier in the year enter the clinic. The board expects to deliver full year revenues in line with guidance, and we look forward to the rest of 2022 and beyond with confidence,’ says Chief Executive Officer Yamin Khan.
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Shield Therapeutics PLC - Newcastle, England-based commercial-stage pharmaceutical company - In the first six months of 2022, pretax loss widens to £11.4 million from £7.6 million a year before. Revenue jumps to $2.0 million from £481,000. Says prescriptions of Accrufer grew 87% in the second quarter from the first, and multiplied in the first half from a year before. ‘ We continue to believe there is tremendous potential to disrupt the iron deficiency market that has lacked innovative new therapies...Based on our interim results and ongoing feedback from target prescribers, we are even more confident today about the potential for Accrufer to become the oral iron treatment of choice,’ says CEO Greg Madison.
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SourceBio International PLC - Nottingham-based laboratory services provider - In the first half of the year, revenue drops 45% year-on-year to £20.5 million from £37.3 million. Notes core revenue - which excludes Infectious Disease Testing and its discontinued Manufacturing revenue - rises to £13.7 million from £7.9 million. Administrative expenses grow to £8.4 million from £4.4 million. Swings to pretax loss of £2.6 million from profit of £9.8 million. Continues to scale down Covid-19 PCR testing operation as demand wanes. ‘Given the current market environment, the Board believes that SourceBio is well positioned to deliver further attractive growth in revenue and margin from these core business units in the second half of 2022. The group is pleased to have strengthened its position in Cellular Pathology with the LDPath acquisition and will continue to seek further strategically attractive acquisition opportunities,’ says Executive Chair Jay LeCoque.
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Duke Royalty Ltd - Guernsey-based royalty finance provider - In the financial year ended June 30, total cash revenue rises 67% to £18.4 million from £11.0 million a year prior. Total income rises to £28.8 million from £21.6 million. Pretax profit grows to £20.4 million from £14.0 million. Total dividend payouts rise 24% to 2.80p. ‘We believe we are in a strong position for growth and will prudently continue to make deployments to deliver higher free cash flow and increase free cash flow per share. As a company, our portfolio metrics are more robust than they have ever been, meaning Duke is well positioned to withstand headwinds better than ever,’ says Chief Executive Officer Neil Johnson.
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Secured Income Fund PLC - specialist secured-lending income investment trust - Net asset value per share at June 30 falls to 20.73 pence, from 36.28p a year prior, with a total return of minus 2.9% in the financial year ended June 30. NAV falls to £10.9 million from £19.1 million. Says £7.6 million of the £8.2 million lost in NAV was due to B share distributions, with the remainder due to a net loss of £600,000. Dividend payments drop to 0.75p per share from 8.50p in the previous financial year. Notes shares have traded at an average discount to NAV of 21% over the year, and closed trading at a 41% discount, compared to a 17% premium the year before. Confident of realising the value of its remaining assets, in line with the winding down of the company announced back in September 2020.
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