Xpediator acquires in Yorkshire
Xpediator has acquired Yorkshire-based freight business Nidd Transport for £4.6m. The owner is retiring and the purchase price is covered by Nidd's cash and property assets -where there is already an agreement for a sale and leaseback. The deal is earnings enhancing.
The logistics business does not have a significant presence in northern England and there will be cross-selling opportunities with other parts of the business. Nidd also has operations in France, Spain and Portugal.
In the year to April 2020, Nidd made and operating profit of £500,000 on revenues of £11m.
Abcam maintains full year sales
Abcam maintained its full year revenues but sold more of its own products. The life science research tools supplier made a much lower profit in the year to June 2020 due to a combination of additional investment and the impact of COVID-19. Abcam says that it is on course to gain a Nasdaq listing in the final quarter of 2020.
Management consulted major shareholders about the balance between dividends and reinvesting cash generated by the business. The annual dividend is being reduced from 12.13p a share to 3.55p a share – there is no final dividend. Net cash was £80.9m at the end of June.
New Silence Therapeutics boss
Short interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA) therapeutics developer Silence Therapeutics has appointed Mark Rothera as chief executive. He will be based in the New York office. Ian Ross returns to non-executive chairman.
In the first half of 2020, Silence reported a loss of £11m due to higher R&D spending. There was cash in the bank of £50.3m at the end of June 2020.
Silence listed American Depositary Shares (ADSs) on the Nasdaq Capital Market at the beginning of September.
Trading on AIM will continue.
PREVIOUS EDITIONS
