Reinsurer Lancashire Holdings Ltd (AIM:LRE, OTC:LCSHF) took a tumble as it posted its natural catastrophe and large loss estimates following a spate of storms and hurricanes.
Lancashire has exposure to a number of recent natural catastrophe events, including hurricane Ida and the European storms Bernd, Volker and Xero, which it estimates will lead to aggregate net ultimate losses in a range of US$165 million to US$185 million.
In addition, Lancashire has reported exposure to large loss events within its political violence portfolio related to the unrest in South Africa during July 2021. The aggregate estimated ultimate net losses for these events are expected to be about US$40 million.
Shares in Lancashire slid 7.5% to 512.5p.
2.05pm: Building products supplier Alumasc warns of disruption in the construction sector
The Alumasc Group PLC fell 6.3% to 222.5p after it warned “current trading in the construction industry, and industry more generally, continues to be far from normal”.
“The board does not expect the macroeconomic challenges to alleviate in the short term but has confidence in the group’s resilience and agility and the strength of its product and service offering. Accordingly, it remains confident of another strong year and trading continues in line with the board’s expectations,” said the company chairman, John McCall.
The building products supplier said most customers have generally accepted increased costs being passed on to them but “discourage certain projects from commencing on the new, higher cost base”.
1.00pm: Tekmar the latest to complain of supply shortages
Tekmar Group PLC (AIM:TGP), a provider of technology and services for the global offshore energy markets, slumped 16% to 40.5p following a trading update.
The dislocation to global trade flows has affected Tekmar’s operations including challenges with shipping goods for delivery, supply chain constraints and cost control pressures, the company said.
These headwinds affected Tekmar’s financial performance, particularly through cost pressure and reduced volume, such that the company expects to report revenue of GBP46 million and an adjusted EBITDA loss in the region of GBP1.2 million for the 18 months to 30 September 2021.
11.55am: Bens Creek aglow after signing first offtake agreement
Of all the mining commodities, coal is the one that dare not speak its name but they seem to be keen on it in the USA, as evidenced by this morning’s announcement from Bens Creek Group PLC (AIM:BEN).
The owner of a metallurgical coal mine in North America has entered into its first offtake agreement for its washed Hi-Vol-B metallurgical coal with Integrity Coal Sales.
The agreement is for about 22,000 US short tons of product per month for an initial twelve-month period starting from January 2022 until December 2022. This agreement covers roughly 50% of the anticipated production volumes of the group’s proposed annual production under the existing mine plan.
10.55am: Market gives thumbs-up (eventually) to Bushveld Minerals update
The market did not initially know what to make of the third-quarter update from Bushveld Minerals, marking the shares down in early deals but now they are flourishing at 11.5p, up 5.0%.
The vanadium producer and energy storage solutions provider said it is on track to meet full-year vanadium production guidance.
Group production of vanadium in the third quarter rose 19% quarter-on-quarter to 1,056 tonnes, underpinned by continued operational stability at the group’s Vametco project.
10.00am: Renishaw experiences strong revenue growth in all regions
Renishaw PLC (LSE:RSW), the company that put itself up for sale recently and found no takers, jumped 8.8% to 5,050p on the back of strong results.
READ Renishaw enters sale process as founders want to offload their stake
The provider of manufacturing technologies, analytical instruments and medical devices said revenue rose by 35% to GBP157.8mln in the three months to the end of September from the same period of 2020.
“We have experienced strong revenue growth in all our regions following an improvement to global macroeconomic conditions over the last year,” the company told investors.
9.05am: Watery theme
The early movers have a decidedly aquatic feel to them, featuring Water Intelligence (AIM:WATR) PLC and Modern Water, the latter a subsidiary of DeepVerge PLC (AIM:DVRG).
Water Intelligence (AIM:WATR), the leak detection company, rose 7.1% to 1,210p after it said it continued to perform strongly in the third quarter.
Profit for the whole of 2021 is now expected to be at the upper end of consensus analyst estimates. Moreover, the corporate development pipeline for the fourth quarter and 2022 remains strong, the company said.
DeepVerge advanced 8.9% to 24.5p after its Modern Water division bagged GBP2.2mln of new orders.
The orders are for newly enhanced monitoring equipment with upgraded software and are being shipped to the UK, India and China to meet customer and partner obligations for delivery in the current financial year.
The shipments include upgraded Microtox toxicity monitoring, new models of the Microtox PD range for SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogen monitoring as well as Microsaic mass spectrometer equipment to monitor forever chemicals and contaminants of emerging concern.
