(Alliance News) - London's FTSE 100 is called to open ever-so-slightly higher on Wednesday, with eyes remaining on events in the Middle East, and focus also on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's testimony before the Senate. Read More
(Alliance News) - The governor of the Bank of England has said the unpredictability of world events including tariffs and conflict in the Middle East makes it hard to determine the outlook for the UK economy. Read More
(Alliance News) - Welcome to the Alliance News UK service (ISSN 2515-9453), consisting of the Alliance News UK Professional and its family of financial newswires serving investors and their professional advisers. Read More
Tortilla Mexican Grill PLC - London-based fast-casual Mexican restaurant group - Enters into a new, enlarged funding facility with Santander UK PLC, part of Banco Santander SA. Under this, Tortilla Mexican agrees a new GBP12.5 million senior facility agreement, replacing the existing GBP10.0 million facility which was due to mature on September 14, 2026. "This enhanced facility will strengthen the group's balance sheet and provide additional flexibility to support UK growth through targeted investment in technology and brand marketing. It will also enable the refurbishment and rebranding of the sites acquired in France last year, which will relaunch under the Tortilla brand," the company says. Company guidance for leverage remains unchanged. In addition, says Chief Financial Officer Maria Denny plans to step down as of the end of September. The board has initiated a formal search process to identify a successor. In the interim, Josie Whelan, currently head of commercial finance, will be appointed non-board interim CFO. Read More
Panther Metals PLC - Canada-focused mineral deposits exploration company - Announces the purchase of one bitcoin, following the conversion of warrants. This forms part of strategy to provide an investment hedge between fiat currency-priced critical mineral and precious metal-focused assets and digital cryptocurrency. "In an era defined by volatility and transformation, our company stands uniquely positioned - not only as a resource-backed business with tangible physical assets, but now also as a strategic bridge into Bitcoin and the digital financial ecosystem," company says. Read More
Tandem Group PLC - Birmingham, England-based developer of sports, leisure and mobility products - At Tuesday's annual general meeting, Chair Steve Grant says Tandem remains on track to meet market expectations for the financial year ending December 31. At May 31, notes sales are ahead 15% year-on-year. Favourable weather provides a "welcome boost for our seasonally dependent products." But adds: "we continue to operate in what remains a challenging environment shaped by ongoing inflationary pressures, rising employment costs and fluctuating consumer confidence." Despite this, feels well positioned for the remainder of the current year and beyond. Toys, Sports, and Leisure division are currently tracking 6% behind the same period last year but Bikes division sales are up 52%. Golf sales are down 6% year-on-year but Home and Garden division sees sales increase of 14%. Read More
TPXimpact Holdings PLC - London-based technology-enabled services company - Pretax loss from continuing operations narrows to GBP10.0 million in the financial year to March 31 from GBP24.8 million a year prior. Revenue falls to GBP77.3 million from GBP84.3 million but bottom line benefits from drop in administrative expenses to GBP31.3 million from GBP44.4 million. Reports GBP19 million of new business won in the first two months of financial 2026, including two contracts with the UK government announced in May. In addition, flags a strong pipeline of opportunities despite the comprehensive spending review not concluding until June 11. "While our financial results reflect the impact of contract delays and spending reviews, we have taken decisive steps to protect profitability and create a more efficient, sustainable business," says Chief Executive Bjorn Conway. TPXimpact says financial 2026 outlook is unchanged, management is focused on protecting and growing profits and targets an adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation range of GBP6 to GBP7 million. In financial 2025, adjusted Ebitda reaches GBP5.6 million, up from GBP4.6 million a year prior. Management also expects net debt to reduce, targeting a year-end range of GBP7 to GBP8 million, down from GBP8.5 million at March 31. Read More
Petards Group PLC - Guildford, England-based security, communication and surveillance systems developer - Receives an order, worth GBP360,000 over two years, for the renewal of software as a service licenses for its rail focussed software applications. The order is from a leading supplier to the UK rail industry, and renews the customer's licenses for RTS Solutions's work, resource and asset management SaaS applications for a further two years. Further smaller supplementary orders for licenses and other work are expected to follow. Chair Raschid Abdullah says: "We are delighted to have secured this license renewal from such an important customer and the award adds to RTS's order book and provides it with a strong core of recurring revenues for the current and following years." Read More
Blue Star Capital PLC - investing company focused on esports and blockchain - Pretax loss narrows to GBP107,630 in the six months to March 31 from GBP191,824 a year prior. No revenue as per a year ago but bottom line benefits from drop in administrative expenses to GBP64,739 from GBP109,578. In addition, the prior year is hurt by GBP82,605 adverse fair value movement in financial instruments. Cash position at March 31 is GBP30,209 versus GBP39,909 a year ago. Reports "encouraging progress since the start of 2025." As per announcement earlier in June, says closely monitoring investments directly related to companies connected with Bitcoin, including, exploring the possibility of initiating a Bitcoin treasury reserve and such related opportunities. This strategy, which the board believes fits within the company's existing investing policy, would see the company complementing investments with long-term treasury reserve assets as their adoption becomes more common place, as seen particularly in the US. Stresses it is continuing to undertake the appropriate due diligence, legal and regulatory reviews necessary to ensure any activity undertaken in this area is compliant. Read More
Alien Metals Ltd - Australia-focused minerals explorer and developer - Pretax loss narrows to USD1.6 million in 2024 from USD3.7 million in 2023. Administration expenses fall to USD1.4 million from USD2.7 million, other losses drop to USD77,000 from USD1.2 million. Alien's core focus remains the Hancock iron ore project. It says significant work has been done in moving this project towards production. Further work remains to be done in optimising the development pathway and the funding structure. "We continue to review potential joint venture interest in the project," Alien Metals says. In addition, the company says Elizabeth Hill and Munni Munni will benefit from strategic joint venture partnerships, while it has laid the groundwork for significant 2025 field programs at Brockman and Vivash Gorge. Read More
(Alliance News) - Quantum Blockchain Technologies PLC on Tuesday reported a narrowed annual loss as it made progress on its artificial intelligence-led Bitcoin mining tools and prepared to commercialise its software. Read More
(Alliance News) - Stocks in London closed higher on Tuesday, amid a fragile ceasefire between Iran and Israel, although early blue-chip gains were pegged back as oil majors and gold miners fell back. Read More
(Alliance News) - Carnival PLC & Corp shares jumped on Tuesday as it reported its highest-ever second quarter operating results, and said it expects to continue to take its results higher over time. Read More
(Alliance News) - Keir Starmer faces a showdown with Labour rebels after vowing to press ahead with welfare reforms despite a brewing revolt over planned cuts to disability benefits. Read More
(Alliance News) - Keir Starmer said Labour would stick to its commitment not to raise taxes to reach a new defence and security spending pledge of 5% of GDP by 2035. Read More