Marechale Capital shares fall after swinging to first-half loss

Marechale Capital shares fell significantly on Monday morning, after the company revealed a serious drop in revenue and profit for the six months to 31 October.

The AIM-traded company reported revenue for the period of £125.1k, down from £531k in the equivalent period a year earlier.

Its cost of sales reduced by more than two thirds to £44.4k from £153k, but gross profits were down to just £80.7k from £378.1k.

The firm reported an operating loss of £278.3k, swinging from a small profit of £13.6k a year earlier.

On a statutory basis, the loss for the period was £459.8k, compared to a profit of £10.1k in the prior year, with basic and diluted losses per share of 0.007p, down from profits of 0.02p per share.

“Marechale Capital has had a challenging half year since we reported our final results back in July,” said chairman Mark Warde-Norbury.

“The fall in revenues is largely due to delays in a number of the transactions we are involved in, although I am pleased to be able to report that we have recently closed a transaction for a leisure sector client which generated a fee of around £300,000.

“Whilst our deal flow remains strong, it is still taking longer to complete transactions.”

Warde-Norbury said one of Marechale Capital's key strategies was the achievement of growth in net asset value generated from options and investments in client and partner companies.

He said that unfortunately, NUKS and Future Biogas had diminished “significantly” in value recently, resulting in write-downs.

“In light of the above, the board of Marechale Capital continues to consider its options,” Warde-Norbury added.

As at 1037 GMT, shares in Marechale Capital were down 12.69% at 2.27p.