City round-up; Nichols; Norcros; LBG; Grainger/Palace Capital;

Shareholders of Nichols, the Vimto drink maker, are toasting the Newton-le-Willows-based group today (July 24) following news of a special shareholder payout, to reflect the robust nature of the business and expectations of its full year profitability exceeding expectations.
Announcing its interim results for the six months to June 30, 2024, the drinks maker’s CEO, Andrew Milne, revealed strong double digit increases in adjusted profit before tax and adjusted earnings per share.
He said: “As a result of our progress, the board’s high levels of confidence in the outlook and the strength of our balance sheet, we are pleased to announce a special dividend of 54.8p per share – which equates to a total of £20m – alongside an 18% increase in the interim dividend to 14.9p per share.
“This reflects a long history of strong cash flow generation and the board’s commitment to delivering attractive shareholder returns.”
During the six month period sales came in at £84m, slightly down on the previous year’s £85.5m result, although pre-tax profits increased 5.8% to £11.8m.
Cash and cash equivalents improved by 25.25 to £70.3m.
The Vimto brand achieved its highest ever UK annual retail sales value of £109m, reflecting increased marketing investment and growth from innovation and distribution gains.
On the global stage, Nichols enjoyed strong in-market execution across the Middle East during the key Ramadan trading period, and began phased can production in Senegal, enabling the group to better serve this key market in West Africa by bringing production closer to the end consumer, with benefits expected to be delivered in the second half of the financial year.
The company said it has begun trading in Q3 positively and in line with management expectations. Reflecting the progress made in the first half and underpinned by the group’s ongoing focus on driving margin improvement, the board now expects to report full year adjusted profit before tax slightly ahead of current market expectations, which are an adjusted profit before tax of £28.8m.
Mr Milne said: “Positive trading momentum in our UK Packaged business reflected further market share gains in squash and carbonates, driven by increased marketing investment, growth from innovation, and distribution gains.
“Our biggest ever UK promotional campaign was launched towards the end of the period, and we are confident this will support the continued growth of the Vimto brand over the summer.
“Whilst mindful of continued pressure on consumer spending, despite levels of inflation stabilising, our diversified business model and the enduring strength of the Vimto brand have enabled us to deliver a strong performance. As a result, we now expect full year profitability to be slightly ahead of current market expectations and we remain confident that Nichols is well placed to deliver its strategic growth ambitions.”
An analysts’ note from Singer Capital this morning said: “H1’24 was a period of considerable progress for Nichols, culminating in 18% PBT growth. There is also good news around announcement of a special dividend – equivalent to a 5.5% yield.
“Positive trading has continued into H2 and management has raised FY PBT expectations. We upgrade FY24 by four per cent and flow this through to FY25/FY26. We also raise our target price from 1320p to 1440p.
“Overall, these results demonstrate that numerous strategic initiatives from the last 18m are beginning to bear fruit and coupled with a benign input inflation environment, EBIT margin/forecast momentum is returning to the equity story. The stock is trading on a FY24 EV/EBITDA of 10.6x falling to 9.5x, which fails to reflect the progress and prospects – Buy.”
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Norcros bathroom
Norcros, the Wilmslow-based bathroom and kitchen supplies group, remains on target following a first quarter trading update, ahead of its annual general meeting later this morning (July 24).
During the 13-week trading period to June 30, the group’s overall trading performance continued to be ‘resilient’, with the board’s expectations for the full year unchanged, it said.
Group revenue for the 13-week period on a constant currency like for like basis was in line with the prior year. Revenue, on a reported basis, was 5.9% lower than the same period last year, reflecting the disposal of Johnson Tiles UK and Norcros Adhesives.
New product development and excellent customer service in the UK and Ireland continued to drive share gains in the mid-premium segment of the market enabling like for like revenue for the 13-week period to be comparable with the prior year, the group revealed.
In South Africa, revenue for the 13-week period on a constant currency basis was similarly in line with the previous year supported by the ongoing recovery in energy supply. The group’s South African business remains in a strong competitive position and is well placed as trading conditions gradually improve.
CEO, Thomas Willcocks, said: “We have delivered a resilient performance during the first quarter in markets which have remained challenging.
“Our business has outperformed the market benefiting from both favourable positioning and the ongoing execution of our growth strategy. We continue to make good progress towards our stated medium term targets and the board’s expectations for the full year remain unchanged.”
Norcros operates under seven brands: Triton, Merlyn, Multipanel (Grant Westfield), Vado, Croydex, Abode and Johnson Tiles, and employs around 2,400 people.
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Solly Solomou
LBG Media, the global digital entertainment business expects to report a surge in first half revenue of £42.3m (HY23: £27.2m) representing growth of 55%.
The Manchester-based content group, best known as Lad Bible Group, said the half year to 30 June 2024 was boosted by campaigns around the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament including Euros-themed editions of the hugely popular original series of “Snack Wars” sponsored by Uber Eats.
Key to the revenue growth of its content led campaigns is an ability to foresee changes to new commercial models from major platforms such as Facebook.
While they admitted that a recent implementation of a change to Facebook’s model “created some short-term volatility within Indirect Social revenue”, LBG still expects to make progress towards its ambition of hitting £200m of revenue.
CEO, Solly Solomou commented: “It has been a strong start to the year as the business continues to make good progress along the line of sight to £200m of revenue. Performance in Direct and Web highlight the strength of our diverse revenue model and the operational changes in Australia and New Zealand are delivering planned benefits, with further expansion of our partnership within the Asia Pacific region. We have continued the integration of our US commercial teams to leverage early customer wins by presenting a ‘one stop shop’ for brands wanting to reach a diverse young adult audience. I am extremely excited by the opportunities ahead as our diverse revenue model and strong momentum position us well for continued success.”
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Two Manchester properties have changed hands today (July 24) in deals announced on today’s stock exchange.
Grainger, the UK’s largest listed residential landlord, has acuired The Astley, in the Northern Quarter, in a £31m deal, while Palace Capital announced the disposal of its Boulton House asset, in Manchester, for £8.8m.
Grainger has a c.£3.4bn operational portfolio of approximately 11,153 rental homes and a £1.5bn pipeline of a further 5,000 purpose-built rental homes.
It has acquired The Astley, a 135-home stabilised, fully occupied build-to-rent scheme within its Manchester cluster, from M&G Real Estate, adding to its to existing cluster of c.1,700 rental homes in the region, including Clippers Quay at Salford Quays and The Filaments near Spinningfields.
The acquisition was supported by Grainger’s ongoing accelerated Asset Recycling Programme. The company successfully disposed of an older PRS asset of 80-homes in London for c.£27m, enabling the business to recycle its capital into The Astley, a higher yielding, build to rent asset within one of its strategic cluster locations.
CEO, Helen Gordon, said: “The Astley is an excellent acquisition. A stabilised, income-producing, high quality build to rent asset of 135 homes within our existing Manchester cluster, supported by our ongoing asset recycling programme.
“Today’s acquisition is earnings accretive and reflects the increasing number of opportunities we are seeing in the market to acquire existing build to rent assets.”
Alex Greaves, Head of Global Living at M&G Real Estate, said: “The disposal of the Astley is in line with our ongoing long term strategy, and we are pleased to work with market participants such as Grainger. It is good to see ongoing competition and liquidity in the market for high quality, income producing BTR stock in desirable locations like the Astley.”
CBRE advised M&G Real Estate on the sale.
Meanwhile, following the disposal of its Boulton House investment, Palace Capital executive chairman, Steven Owen, said: “Since the announcement of our annual results in June, we have continued to progress our disposal and return of capital strategy and have recently delivered a successful tender offer to support this process. Since July 2022, we have returned over £43m of cash to shareholders and expect to announce a second tender offer later in the year.
“At an operational level, the company continues to make good progress with its asset management activities and will report further on these in due course.
“Given its strong cash position, the company remains well placed in terms of flexibility and optionality regarding the timing of its disposal programme and other strategic initiatives.”