Results round-up

Online grocery retailer Ocado posted its preliminary results for the year to 27 November 2016 on Tuesday, with gross retail sales improving 13.6% to £1.27bn over the year.

The FTSE 250 company’s revenue was also improved, up 14.8% to £1.27bn, while EBITDA was up 3.3% at £84.3m.

Its profit before tax and exceptional items finished the year 21.8% firmer at £14.5m, while profit after tax was a marginal performer, adding 1.7% to £12m.

Ocado retained a strong bank balance at year-end, with cash and cash equivalents of £50.9m - up from £45.8m - although net debt widened to £164.9m from £127m at the end of 2015.

External net debt was significantly wider at £56.2m, compared to £7.5m a year earlier.

“We are pleased to announce results today which reflect robust trading in our core business and shows continued progress against our strategic objectives in what has been a challenging retail environment,” said CEO Tim Steiner.

“Over the course of the last year, we grew our active customer base by almost 14%, with growth in average orders per week approaching 18%, testament to the strength of our customer proposition, market position and technology.”

Oxford Biodynamics posted its maiden final results for the year to 30 September on Tuesday, with revenue rising to £1.1m compared to £0.7m in the prior year.

The AIM-traded firm said during the period, it contracted with three of the top ten global pharmaceutical companies, as well as a number of the “world's leading” medical and government institutions.

It said significant progress had been made towards its strategic aim of becoming the industry standard for epigenetic biomarker discovery.

The company also completed its IPO on AIM successfully post-period, raising gross proceeds of £20m.

“2016 was a transformational year for OBD,” said CEO Christian Hoyer Milla.

“We continued to make considerable progress towards our strategic aim of becoming the industry standard for epigenetic biomarker discovery, and also achieved a significant milestone with the successful completion of our IPO.”