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The following is a round-up of earnings and trading updates by London-listed companies, issued on Tuesday and in the past week and not separately reported by Alliance News: ---------- IG Design Group PLC - Buckinghamshire, England-based firm that makes celebration products, including greeting cards, gift wrap, Christmas crackers and partyware - Says earnings for the financial year ending in March 2026 will in line with previous guidance of $270 million to $280 million. This will be well down on $729.3 million in financial 2025 and reflects IG Design’s disposal of its loss-making US business back in May. The financial 2026 results also will include two months of trading losses for DG Americas, transaction costs, and a loss on disposal. As it enters the second half of the financial year, IG Design says a strong order book means its has 91% visibility on full-year revenue. Revenue for the continuing group, consisting of operations in the UK, continental Europe and Australia, will be down about 13% in the half-year that ended September 30, due to softer demand in the UK, the impact of tariffs on UK sales into the US, and about $7 million in expected revenue shifting to the second half of the year, it says. Adjusted operating profit from continuing operations for the six months is expected to be about $5.6 million, representing a 4.3% margin. IG Design had $2 million in net cash on September 30, down from $7.4 million a year before. It continues to look for a new chief executive officer after Paul Bal’s departure in June, and Stewart Gilliland remains interim executive chair. Full interim results are scheduled for December 2. ---------- Ultimate Products PLC - Oldham, England-based owner of homeware brands including Salter and Beldray - Halves annual dividend as pretax profit falls by 44% to £8.0 million in the financial year that ended July 31 from £14.3 million the year before. Revenue declines by 3.4% to £150.1 million from £155.5 million, but cost of sales is unchanged at £115.3 million. Ultimate Products says the decline in revenue is due to a 32% decline in air-fryer sales and a 60% reduction in third-party close out sales. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation is £12.5 million, down from £18.0 million. ‘FY25 was a challenging year for consumer-facing businesses, with ongoing macroeconomic pressures, elevated shipping costs and weak consumer demand weighing on performance,’ says Chief Executive Andrew Gossage. In line with the profit decline, the company declares a final dividend of 2.15 pence, giving a full-year payout of 3.70p, down from 7.38p in financial 2024. Looking ahead, Ultimate Products says current trading is in line with market expectations for financial 2026. It says these are for £9.9 million in adjusted Ebitda on £137.7 million in revenue. The company wants to move its listing to AIM from the London Main Market and will ask for shareholder approval of this at its annual general meeting on December 12. ---------- Diales Group PLC - London-based consultancy for construction and engineering industries - Estimates revenue from continuing operations for the 12 months that ended September 30 fell slightly to £42.6 million from £43.0 million the year before. Underlying operating profit in financial 2025 was in line with guidance of not less than £1.3 million, up from £1.2 million in financial 2024. The company’s cash balance on September 30 is £3.0 million, up from £2.4 million on March 31. ‘Despite significant headwinds in the global economy, I am pleased to report that Diales continues to make good progress,’ says Chief Executive Officer Mark Wheeler. ‘There is a strong pipeline of new business leads across our key markets which signals a good start to [financial 2026]. We anticipate strong demand for our expert services and operational improvements from our ongoing IT investment, to further strengthen shareholder returns.’ ---------- Resolute Mining Ltd - gold miner in Senegal, Mali and Ivory Coast - Produces 59,857 ounces of gold in the third quarter, down from 75,962 in the second quarter. This is due to stockpile processing at the Mako mine in Senegal. Resolute sells 63,483 ounces of gold in the recent quarter at $3,404 per ounce. This compares to 80,797 ounces at $3,261 an ounce in the second quarter. All-in sustaining costs are $2,505 per ounce in the third quarter, up from $1,668 in the second. The increase in per-ounce costs is due to the lower production, combined with increased government royalties on the higher realised sale prices. Looking ahead, Resolute lowers the top end of its 2025 gold production guidance range to 275,000 to 285,000 ounces from 275,000 to 300,000 ounces previously. Resolute raises 2025 guidance for Mako to 98,000 to 102,000 from 80,000 to 90,000, but it lowers guidance for the Syama mine in Mali to 177,000 to 183,000 ounces from 195,000 to 210,000 ounces previously. Capital expenditure for this year is still guided at $109 million to $126 million. ---------- Afarak Group SE - producer of specialist alloys in southern Europe and ferroalloys in South Africa - Reports third-quarter production of speciality alloys is 23,952 tonnes, up 28% from 18,669 tonnes a year before. Within this, 6,039 tonnes comes from processing, up 41% on year, and 17,913 from mining in Turkey, up 24%. In South African mining, production is down 68% to 28,932 tonnes from 90,165 a year before. Afarak says the decline is due to the sale of the Zeerust mine, as well as preparation work conducted at the Vlaakport and Mecklenburg mines. Afarak says chromium ore prices rose in China during the third quarter, while world market prices for high and low carbon ferrochrome are recovering. However, as chrome products are priced in dollars, the weakening of the US currency has hurt bottom-line results, it says, adding that discussions about an export quota from South Africa for chrome ore have recently restarted. Afrarak also says it is commissioning a chrome ore processing plant at its Vlakpoort mine in South Africa. The plant will have a capacity of 10,000 tonnes of concentrate per month and will be mostly powered by an on-site solar array. ---------- Gabelli Merchant Partners PLC - invests in equity and fixed income for total returns and protection of capital - Net asset value per share is $10.50 on June 30, the company’s financial year-end, up 4.6% from $10.04 at the end of financial 2024. NAV total return, including dividends, is 6.5%, improved from 3.1% in financial 2024 and beating the US 3-month Treasury bill index return of 4.3%. Gabelli Merchant paid $0.28 per share in dividends in the recent year, down from $0.48 the year before, but it recently declared an interim dividend of $0.10. ---------- abrdn European Logistics Income PLC - property investor that is in managed wind-down - NAV is 49.3 euro cents per share, €203.2 million in total, on September 30, down from 81.2 cents on June 30. The company says it continues to make progress on its managed wind-down, selling 17 of its original 27 properties so far to generate €320 million in gross sales proceeds. From this, shareholders have received £119.5 million in total, or 29.0 pence per share. Of the remaining 10 properties, 3 sales have been agreed and are expected to be completed early next month. The other 7 are targeted for completion by the first quarter of 2026. ---------- Praetura Growth VCT PLC - venture capital trust investing in high-growth businesses based in the North of the UK - Net asset value per share is 99.33p on July 31, up from 92.88p on January 31 and 97.99p a year before. Praetura said it now has made nine investment since its inception and has £2.6 million in cash available to use, representing 40% of net assets. ‘We remain committed to deploying significant further capital into attractive new opportunities in the months ahead, building on the strong foundations established to date,’ the company said. It also aims to pay an annual dividend equivalent to 4% to 6% of NAV per share, starting from 2027. ---------- Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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