Carr’s Group (CARR); reports strong trading update and announces dividend of 2.35p per share
The final dividend announced for FY18 will be paid on 11 January 2019 to shareholders
The Group’s financial position remains strong, with positive trading in the UK Agriculture business in addition to a strong order book in the UK Manufacturing business. Net debt stood at £23.9m as of 1 December 2018, compared to £15.4m at 1 September 2018.
Read more...Supermarket INC. (SUPR): Interim dividend of 1.419p per ordinary share declared
The ex-dividend date will be 17 January 2019
Supermarket INC. today reported its interim dividend per ordinary shares. The dividend for ordinary shares for the quarter ending 31 December 2018 represents an increase of 3.2% compared with the previous quarterly dividend of 1.375p.
Read more...Dunelm (DNLM); sees improved performance from its back-to-core strategy
Gross margin is up by c.190bps
Dunelm is seeing improved performance from its back-to-core strategy, with 9.0% overall like-for-like sales growth for the second quarter, over twice the 4.2% in the first. Online sales growth of 37.9%, combined with the fact that multichannel revenue, including click and collect and tablet-based selling in-store, is up from 12% to a meaningful 16.5% of total sales, suggests that this is a business embracing online as part of its core offering and is seeing share growth as a result.
Read more...Picton Prop (PCTN); upsizes Lidl into former Homebase unit
Homebase was paying £0.44 million per annum on a lease ending in 2022 but was proposing a 90% reduction in passing rent
Picton completed an agreement to move Lidl from their current 10,000 sqft unit to the 35,500 sqft previously occupied by Homebase. Lidl will continue from its current unit at £0.14 million per annum until certain enabling works are completed. Afterwards, Lidl will take a 20-year lease, with a break after 15 years, at an annual rent of £0.39 million (in line with ERV), subject to five yearly retail price index-based rent reviews capped at 2% per annum.
Read more...Avon Rubber (AVON); secures 7-year $92.7m sole source contract from the US DoD
Deliveries are anticipated to commence in the second half of 2019
Avon Protection has been awarded a $92.7m sole source contract by the US Department of Defense (DoD) to supply the M69 Joint Service Aircrew Mask for Strategic Aircraft, related accessories and engineering support. The contract is for a five-year base period plus two additional one-year optional periods.
Read more...Restaurant Group (RTN); subsidiary Wagamama quarterly report reveals impressive like-for-like sales
Adjusted EBITDA rose year-on-year from £11.1m in Q218 to £13.2m in Q219
Wagamama has issued a quarterly report to bondholders that shows encouraging performance for its second quarter to 11 November. Like-for-like sales growth is an impressive 12.0%, up from 8.5% in Q1. Adjusted EBITDA margin is also up 50bps year-on-year to 16.4%, while EBITDA figures suggest a picture that is not quite as bad as was apparent at the time of the acquisition proposal.
Read more...Nanoco Group (NANO); collaborates with Plessey Semiconductors
The new process enables production of smaller higher-resolution and more energy-efficient microLED displays
Nanoco has partnered with Plessey Semiconductors to shrink the pixel size of ‘monolithic’ microLED displays by 87% using its cadmium-free quantum dot (CFQD) technology.
Read more...Circassia Pharma (CIR): expects significant sales growth opportunities for 2019
The company also plans to launch its product for pulmonary disease Duaklir later in the year subject to statutory approvals.
Circassia reported CCE and short-term deposits of c. £41m at the end of 2018, with net cash outflow for the year expected to be under £20m
Read more...ReNeuron Group (RENE); signs exosome collaboration agreement with US-based biopharmaceutical company
There is an expectation of a product cross-licensing agreement between the parties ahead of pre-clinical and clinical development
ReNeuron Group has signed a collaboration agreement with a US-based biopharmaceutical company to explore its exosome technology platform as a potential delivery vehicle for synthetic oligonucleotides used in gene therapy. Through the agreement, ReNeuron will use its proprietary exosomes and the biopharmaceutical company will provide its expertise in the field of synthetic oligonucleotides to optimise their loading into exosomes.
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FOMC: US Fed merely matches expectations
Only a watching brief on overseas developments risks the dreaded divergence
Taking into account US economic conditions of full unemployment and inflation close to target, the reiteration in yesterday’s FOMC statement of the policy of gradually returning US rates to neutral levels is understandable. Furthermore, lowering the rate trajectory for 2019 from 3 to 2 projected rate hikes also makes sense given the tightening of financial conditions (namely falling equity prices and rising credit spreads) since the summer. However, we believe markets were looking for something stronger than ‘wait and see’ to counter the negative psychology which has led to a very poor December for global equity markets.
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