Shares in Revolution Beauty Group PLC came under fresh pressure on Thursday after the group’s auditors raised certain accounting issues with management regarding the ongoing audit which it said could have a material impact on the results for the full year.
Shares more than halved to 8.20p as the group warned material adjustments may be required including in stock, bad debt provisioning and revenue recognition.
Revolution Beauty stressed that any changes would not impact the net debt position previously notified of £21.2mln as at 31 July 2022 and management reiterate they believe that the group's £40mln revolving credit facility provides sufficient liquidity for the future.
On August 2nd the group warned it would report a "small" adjusted underlying loss for the first half of its current trading year
Network International surges on results and buy back plans.
Network International Holdings PLC (LSE:NETW) pleased investors on Thursday reporting a 31.1% improvement in total revenue to $205.03mln in its half-year numbers sending shares up 10.29% to 220p.
The payments company said growth was "broad-based” across all of its regions and business lines, with the Middle East up 22% and Africa growing 21%.
The company also announced plans for a new share buy back programme worth up to $100mln.
Underlying EBITDA rose 26.2% to $76.2mln with a margin of 37.2%, up 190 basis points, which it put down to strong revenue performance and cost control while investing in product capabilities for future growth.
Nandan Mer, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “Our performance in the first half underpins our outlook and guidance for the year ahead, which is reconfirmed.”
“Whilst we remain conscious of rising global macroeconomic and inflationary pressures, we continue to see steady trading in our major markets."
MaxCyte advances after rising guidance
AIM listed MaxCyte led the risers with shares up 6.74% as the commercial cell-engineering company reported strong growth in the second quarter and six months to June 30th and raised its guidance for the full year.
Total revenue of $9.6mln in the second quarter of 2022, was 35% higher than the second quarter of 2021 driven by strong growth in the cell therapy market.
As a result the group raised its 2022 revenue guidance for the core business to approximately 30%.
Doug Doerfler, president and CEO of MaxCyte said: “We are pleased with these strong second quarter 2022 results, with 45% year-over-year core business revenue growth, highlighted by 61% growth in revenues from Cell Therapy customers.”
"Overall, our optimism about the potential for the development programs covered by our existing partners to generate growing revenue in both pre-clinical research and clinical progress remains high.”
Drax falls on FT report
Shares in Drax Group (LSE:DRX) PLC fell 7.40% to 681.25p on Thursday on reports that the UK business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has said the company’s imports of US-made wood pellets to be burnt for energy aren’t sustainable.
According to The Financial Times, Kwarteng said it "doesn’t make sense" and told MPs the government had not fully investigated the sustainability of burning wood pellets, a type of biomass.
He said the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy had discussed biomass with industry but "we haven’t actually questioned some of the premises" of the sustainability of pellets, the FT said.
The FT said Kwarteng made the comments this week in a meeting with a group of cross-party backbench MPs, who raised concerns about the sustainability of wood pellets, which Drax describes as renewable.
Kwarteng was understood to have said: "There’s no point getting [wood pellets] from Louisiana…that isn’t sustainable."
Kwarteng added that shipping pellets from Louisiana - one of Drax’s sourcing regions in the US - has "a huge cost financially and environmentally".
The FT said allies of Kwarteng confirmed he had raised concerns about Drax’s use of pellets imported from the US. But he was said by colleagues to remain fully supportive of the company and the biomass sector, which they said was a vital baseload provider for the UK power network.