CentralNic Group PLC (AIM:CNIC) jumped 13% to 128p after the internet company told investors it expects to hit the upper guidance end of market expectations for the year.
For the first half of the year, revenues were up 92% to US$335mln, while underlying earnings rose 85% to US$38mln.
"CentralNic has enjoyed a strong first half of the year with year-on-year organic growth now reaching a record 62%, a further improvement over the 53% reported for the twelve-month period ending 31 March 2022,” said chief executive Ben Crawford
Separately, the company also announced it has agreed to pay an additional US$1.1mln for KeyDrive.
"The acquisition of KeyDrive has been a catalyst for the accelerated expansion of the CentralNic Group and forms the core of our online presence segment,” Crawford added.
12.45pm: Northern Bear slips over short-term headwinds
Northern Bear PLC (AIM:NTBR) slipped 9% to 52p after the release of its preliminary results, with investors latching onto the outlook despite the positive numbers.
According to its statement, the availability and price inflation for construction materials have hit the construction market.
As a result of this, Northern Bear expects this to have some impact on its results and that the “situation could provide a short-term headwind to operations until industry supply and demand revert to more typical levels.”
Despite this, for the year ending 31 March 202, revenue is expected to climb to £61mln from £49mln, while profit almost doubled to £2.6mln.
11.24am: Direct Line tumbles after profit warning
Insurer Direct Line Insurance Group PLC (LSE:DLG) tumbled 13% after becoming the second motor insurer to issue a profit warning in a matter of weeks.
The company said that soaring inflation was hitting the prices of used cars and car parts, which in turn was pushing the cost of claims up.
As a result, claims costs were rising 10%, higher than expected and greater than the rate of increase in premiums.
Direct Line’s operating ratio, which measures claims and costs as a proportion of premiums will be between 96% and 98%, worse than the 93% and 95% originally forecasted.
Further to that, it also announced it has cancelled its £100mln share buyback, but that it was confident it will be able to continue to deliver on its dividend.
10.12am: Ondo InsurTech up after penning Admiral deal
Ondo InsurTech PLC (LSE:ONDO) surged 25% to 6.9p after penning a deal with Admiral for its LeakBot product.
Ondo, which is a claims prevention technology provider, said it in a statement that Admiral has become the first mainstream insurer to launch LeakBot in the UK.
It said the 20,000 Admiral customers to receive the LeakBot will be used to “scope out opportunity for a larger scale roll out across the Admiral book”, of which there are 1.3mln customers.
“We now have the evidence that we can significantly reduce claims costs for insurers and we look forward to working with the team at Admiral to apply our proven model to a wider customer base,” said Craig Foster, chief executive of Ondo InsurTech.
Great Western Mining Corporation climbed 2% to 0.14p after completing a 10-hole drilling programme at the OMCO Mine area of the Olympic Gold project in Mineral County, Nevada.
Following a three-hole drill project at the nearby Trafalgar Hill prospect, reverse circulation drilling began in the area of the former OMCO Mine, which produced gold at grades of between 25 and 30 grams per tonne and silver at 30 grams per tonne until the 1940s.
The drilling totalled 1,339 metres in the OMCO Mine area and assay results are pending.