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Welcome to taking stock on.... Thursday 27th July 2023

Taking Stock: Is a look at today's top business news & investment views plus we cover the winners, losers, the most read company news & the most followed. Today this includes:

RISERS

  - Agreement with Liontown to Explore for Lithium

Mila Resources, the post-discovery gold exploration accelerator is pleased to announce that, together with the other owners of the Kathleen Valley licence, it has entered into an option agreement with LBM Limited, a subsidiary of Liontown Resources Limited, granting Liontown the option to explore for lithium on the Kathleen Valley Licence Area in Western Australia.

Overview

· Liontown, the ASX lithium developer with a market capitalisation of ~A$6.0 billion, expects to bring its proximal Kathleen Valley Lithium Project into production in mid 2024, for which it has offtake arrangements in place with LG, Ford and Tesla.

· Under the proposed transaction, Liontown will fund all lithium exploration activities, mining costs and associated Heritage Surveys.

· Mila, TPE and NGM will maintain ownership over the gold and other minerals on the Licence Area.

· Following initial exploration, Liontown will have the option to acquire the right to extract lithium from the Licence Area ("Lithium Rights").

· Liontown has the option to acquire up to 80% of the Lithium Rights from Mila and TPE for a total consideration of up to A$2,200,000 through a phased investment programme.

· By agreement with TPE and NGM, Mila currently has a 50% interest, in the Lithium Rights, representing 10% of the Lithium Rights following full exercise by Liontown of its option.

FALLERS

  - Half Year Trading Update and Notice of Result

Trading and operations update

The Group expects to report H1 revenue of £74.0m, a decline of 5.4% on H1 2022, which is in line with our forecasts and reflects the challenging trading conditions of the first half of the year.

The combination of inflation, which has continued to remain higher than economist forecasters expected, and consequential higher interest rates, have put even greater pressure on our customers' disposable incomes, weakened consumer confidence and increased the cost of providing our market leading finance products.

Outlook

The challenging market conditions have worsened over the last 5 weeks into July and have adversely impacted order intake volumes which the Board forecasts will be an ongoing trend to the extent the Group's full year performance is now expected to be materially below current market expectations. 

The Board continues to forecast an underlying profit before taxation for H2, now expected to be c.£0.5m.  This performance level represents ongoing delivery of monthly profitability established at the end of H1 into H2.  The Board also remains confident that the Group will continue to deliver market share growth for the remainder of the year.

The net cash position at the end of the year is still expected to be positive.  The Group also remains fully compliant with its borrowing facility arrangements and the full £7.5m facility continues to be accessible.

MOST FOLLOWED

MOST READ RNS

  - Half Year Trading Update

Financial highlights

· Group revenue for H1 2023 expected to be £3.3m of which £0.5m relates to COVID-19 (H1 2022: £16.5m of which £13.0m relates to COVID-19).

· Revenue for non-COVID-19 portfolio of £2.8m representing 85% of total revenues (H1 2022: £3.5m). As previously signalled, H1 2022 is a high comparator particularly in instrumentation sales linked to COVID sales.

· Non-COVID revenue continues to build with Q2 showing 3% growth over Q1 and 10% growth over Q4 2022.

· Opex in H1 2023 is expected to be in the region of £7.1m, a reduction of c.13% vs H2 2022, reflecting restructuring plans implemented in Q4 2022.

· Cash position at 30 June 2023 was £81.7m (H2 2022: £87.0m) and the Group remains debt free.

DHSC dispute

On 25 April 2022, the Company was notified that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) had issued a claim against Primer Design Ltd and Novacyt S.A. for £134.6m in relation to the contract dispute announced by the Company on 9 April 2021 regarding its second supply contract with the DHSC, announced on 29 September 2020.

On 15 June 2022, Novacyt and Primer Design Ltd filed a defence of the claim received on 25 April 2022 and Primer Design Ltd made a counterclaim of £81.5m against the DHSC.

On 30 January 2023 the UK High Court notified Novacyt that the hearing of the case between Primer Design Ltd / Novacyt and the DHSC has been listed to commence on 10 June 2024 and is expected to last 16 days.

RNS WORTH READING

  - Trading Update

The Board is pleased to announce the Group generated revenue of £33.1 million and Adjusted EBITDA of £4.7 million.

Revenue up 50% to £33.1 million (FY 2022: £22.0 million)

o Energy Services revenue £19.5 million, up 86%, Adj EBITDA £2.3 million, up 137%

o Energy Management revenue £13.6 million, up 17%, Adj EBITDA £4.4 million, up 19%

Adj EBITDA(1) up 55% to £4.7 million (FY 2022: £3.0 million)

Adj PBT(2) up 34% to £2.7 million (FY 2022: £2.0 million)

PBT £1.1 million (FY 2022 Loss Before Tax: £(2.2) million)

CHARTS

Top Business Stories

British Gas: Anger as energy bill change leads to record profits

There has been an angry reaction to British Gas reporting record half-year profits as millions of households continue to struggle to pay for energy costs.

British Gas reported profits of £969m after price cap rises allowed it to make more money from household bills.

Regulator Ofgem said the bumper profits were a "one-off" due to the changes.

About half of the profit - £500m - was due to changes to the price cap made by the energy regulator. By comparison, British Gas reported a profit of £98m in the same period the year before.

Fed raises interest rates to highest in 22 years

The US central bank has raised interest rates to the highest level in 22 years as it fights to stabilise prices in the world's largest economy.

The decision lifted the Federal Reserve's influential benchmark rate to a range of 5.25% to 5.5%.

It marked the eleventh increase since early 2022, when the Fed started raising borrowing costs to try to cool the economy and ease price inflation.

In the US, some analysts said the Fed had done enough.

Inflation in the US was 3% in June. That was down from a peak of more than 9% last year, when prices were rising at the fastest pace in four decades.

Wednesday's decision came ahead of central bank meetings in Europe and Japan.

In the UK, where inflation was 7.9%, the Bank of England is widely expected to raise its key rate at its next meeting on 3 August from the current 5%.

UFO hearings: whistleblower David Grusch says ‘non-human biologics’ found at alleged crash sites – as it happened

The US government conducted a “multi-decade” program which collected, and attempted to reverse-engineer, crashed UFOs, a former American intelligence official told a remarkable congressional hearing on Wednesday.

David Grusch, who led analysis of unexplained anomalous phenomena (UAP) within a US Department of Defense agency until 2023, told the House oversight committee in Washington that “non-human” beings had been found, as the issue of alien life received its highest-profile airing to date.