| The Early Morning News - Thursday 24 September 2020

24th Sep '20 by HollandSmith

12 comments 808 reads

Good morning! Below covers todays regulatory and potentially price-sensitive announcements.

Company	Announcement
£5680m - Smiths (LON:SMIN) - Industrial Conglomerates	Smiths Group plc FY2020 Annual Results - The Group delivered a robust overall performance for the year. Underlying revenue for continuing operations was down (1)%, comprising +3% in the first half and (4)% in the second half. In a period of unprecedented global disruption, the Group's overall performance reflects its resilience founded on its market-leading positions and a high proportion of aftermarket revenues. Reported revenue increased +2% to £2,548m (FY2019: £2,498m). This included +£15m of favourable foreign exchange translation and +£61m from the acquisition of United Flexible.Underlying headline operating profit was down (13)% driven by lower volumes in the second half as well as additional costs to support business continuity and uninterrupted customer service during the pandemic. Central costs were flat year-on-year at £(51)m.Reported headline operating profit decreased (23)% to £327m (FY2019: £427m). This included +£2m of favourable foreign exchange translation, +£9m contribution from the United Flexible acquisition
£1530m - Pets at Home (LON:PETS) - Household (Retail)	Trading Update - highlighted that the last eight weeks of the Quarter had seen sales momentum returning across all areas of the business, reflecting normalisation of shopping habits amongst customers as well as the re-instatement of services and permitted procedures across our Retail and Veterinary operations. This momentum has continued across both our Retail and Veterinary operations during Q2 FY21, delivering double-digit LFL growth in customer sales into and through the eight weeks to 10 September 2020.
£1310m - Avon Rubber (LON:AVON) - Industrial (Machinery)	U.S. Army next-gen ballistic helmet contract award - The contract will follow on from the existing low-rate initial production contract for the Integrated Head Protection System which comes to an end in 2021. "I am delighted that Avon Protection will continue to provide the U.S. Army with the Integrated Head Protection System.This contract award demonstrates our ongoing focus on technological excellence and commitment to developing the next generation of life critical personal protection systems.This further strengthens our medium-term outlook and represents further momentum in our leading ballistic helmet portfolio."
£1310m - Avon Rubber (LON:AVON) - Industrial (Machinery)	Acquisition update -
£1020m…

Unlock with Email

Unlock with Google

Already have an account?
Login here

HollandSmith

24th Sep '20

Just testing out how this looks on a full page and not crammed into the comments. But whilst you’re here, a thumbs up on the article would be nice and feel free to comment on any of the announcements which are not covered in the small caps report. Thanks!

Are these going to be 3 strong movers today?

Avacta (LON:AVCT) -Dr Alastair Smith, Chief Executive of Avacta Group commented: "I am very pleased to learn of the promising evaluation of the Affimer reagents in Integumen's sensor systems. Once detailed validation of the sensors has been carried out using SARS-COV-2 virus samples at the University of Aberdeen, and we have reviewed those data, Avacta will provide a further update to the market."

Open Orphan (LON:ORPH) - The Company confirms that it is in advanced negotiation with the UK Government and other partners for a Coronavirus challenge study in the UK. While negotiations continue, it is expected that in the event that a contract is agreed revenue will be in excess of £7 million, being the approximate anticipated revenue for a Coronavirus challenge study as indicated by the Company on 22 May 2020. However, there can be no certainty that these discussions will lead to a new contract until final negotiations are concluded. The Company will update the market in due course as appropriate.

Venture Life (LON:VLG) - Revenues increased 80% to £16.9 million (H1 2019: £9.4 million) - Gross profit increased 97% to £6.9 million (H1 2019: £3.5 million) - Adjusted EBITDA increased 368% to £3.5 million (H1 2019: £0.7 million) implying an EBITDA margin of 21% - Profit before tax, amortisation and exceptional items increased nine-fold to £2.7 million (H1 2019: £0.3 million)

Antehelion

an excellent idea, thanks for this!

I wish modern 'responsive' designs on websites didn't mean only using under half the screen real-estate and leaving half the page 'white' though. (this is Stockopedia's fault not yours).

@Stocko, please can you reduce the massive width of the 'Author' column - this is crazy for pages such as forum content where people are trying to read text / comments.

Thank you! I cant decide if its any larger displayed in a main article than in the comments. :)

Bluesky Ventura

Thanks for this,

much better than having to scroll through comment.

BSV

Watchdog

Thanks very much for setting up this page. The content is most helpful. Your new setup also allows much more space for the narrative. If Stockopedia could do some tweaking you would have a whole page-width rather than just two thirds!

I have raised with @Stocko via the green button; I've suggested a user-configurable layout/column-widths option which should allow each of us to format the page to suit our own preferences. I can't imagine it will be enacted in the near future though unfortunately, even if they agree.

FREng

Thanks, HS, this is excellent. Will you put a link to the page in the comments below the SCVR each day, to make it really easy to read your daily news alongside SCVR?

(As a personal aside - do you have a brilliant relative who works for a Government laboratory?)

intuitive6191

In my view the standalone post looks much better than when posted as a comment in another thread. Clearly a lot of hard work and effort is going into this report.

MichaelFBS

Could not agree more. Why not a single line across the top? Or a button to hide the div?

Great page though am in two minds as to whether better stand alone or with comments on SCVR.

Stand alone is another page to remember to look at but much easier to read.

25th Sep '20

Is there an Early Morning News for 25th September too?

The Early Morning News - Thursday 24 September 2020

Unlock the rest of this article with a 14 day trial

About the Author

HollandSmith

12 comments

Unlock the metrics for all these stocks and more...

Unlock the metrics for all these stocks and more...