Industrial investment company CEPS (LON: CEPS) improved interim pre-tax profit from £977,000 to £1.23m. All three businesses made an improved profit contribution. CEPS is keen to recommence paying dividends, but share buy backs are currently the favoured option once revenue reserves are built up. The share price jumped 32.4% to 24.5p.
Oil and gas company Zephyr Energy (LON: ZPHR) says the production test on the State 36-2R LNW-CC well in the Paradox Basin in Utah. Peak production rates were 2,100 barrels of oil equivalent/day, which is high for an onshore US well. Options are being considered. The share price improved 13.2% to 4.3p.
Daniel Holliday has increased his shareholding in eEnergy Group (LON: EAAS) to 6.2%. The share price rose 3.25% to 6.35p.
Canaccord Genuity has reduced its stake in womenswear retailer Sosandar (LON: SOS) from 5.15% to 2.36%. Schroders raised its stake from 8.18% to 12.2%. The share price increased 2.63% to 9.75p.
FALLERS
Next Fifteen Group (LON: NFG) subsidiary Mach49’s largest customer has not renewed its three-year contract. This was expected to contribute more than £80m to 2025-26 revenues to the marketing services group, That is one-eighth of the previously forecast revenues for that year. It will also hit the second half of the year to January 2025. There is general weakness in spending by technology customers. Full year pre-tax profit will be well below expectations. The interim figures will be published on 17 September. The share price dived 49.2% to 420.75p, which is the lowest level since 2020.
It is taking longer than anticipated Invinity Energy Systems (LON: IES) even though the long duration energy storage market is growing. More time is required to develop the Mistral next-gen product to reduce costs. There is uncertainty about the timing of the recognition of revenues. The 2024 revenues were expected to be £36.3m, but it is likely to be lower. Jonathan Marren is replacing Larry Zulch as chief executive. There was £49.2m in the bank at the end of June 2024. The share price slumped 39.7% to 11.75p.
Galileo Resources (LON: GLR) says the mine design and optimisation model for the 75%-owned Luansobe copper project in Zambia is being calculated to enable talks with potential partners. Optimisation scenarios for open pit mining include extending pit depth to 220 metres using a 0.25% copper cut-off for open pit production of 70,000 tonnes or reducing pit depth to 160 metres using a 0.5% cut-off for production of 40,000 tonnes of copper. There is potential to add to the resource. The share price dipped 9.52% to 0.95p.
Agricultural products supplier Camellia (LON: CAM) says trading conditions eased slightly in the first half of 2024, but they are still difficult. Revenues improved 7% to £105.1m and the loss was reduced from £15.1m to £9.7m. There is no interim dividend. The loss from tea fell, while nuts and fruits profit more than trebled to £3.2m. The engineering business returned to profit. Net cash is £24.1m and there is an investment portfolio worth £37.6m. The full year loss should be between £10m and £12m. The share price slipped 4.27% to 4260p.