the times | Tuesday July 28 2020 2GM 39
Business
big pharma on a laboratory at the
University of Cambridge.
Novacyt is headquartered and dual
listed in Paris but the majority of its
operations are in the UK, where it has a
head office and manufacturing site in
Camberley, Surrey. Primerdesign, the
subsidiary it acquired in 2016 for
£12.3 million and which is behind its
test, is based near Southampton.
Novacyt said yesterday that a num-
ber of hospitals were using its new
mobile test system for Covid-19 and it
had begun pilots in several depart-
ments. The test is also being used by
sports teams and the mining industry.
It has also launched a saliva sampling
type that it said would be less uncom-
fortable for patients and is working
with an unnamed partner who has
developed a Covid-19 antibody test,
which it hopes to launch in the fourth
quarter of this year.Cairn Energy is to return $250 million
to shareholders after agreeing a deal to
sell assets in Senegal.
The oil and gas explorer is to receive
$300 million in cash from Lukoil as part
of the deal for a 40 per cent stake in the
Sangomar field, thought to contain the
equivalent of 500 million barrels of oil.
The Russian group will pay up to an
additional $100 million depending on
when the field goes into production and
the oil price at the time.
The transaction, set to complete in
the final quarter of 2020, also involves
Lukoil reimbursing Cairn for capital
spending on Sangomar this year. It
expected to spend over $300 million.
Cairn, based in Edinburgh and listed
in London, has producing assets in the
North Sea and exploration interests in
Mexico, Israel, Suriname and Ivory
Coast. The Moscow-based Lukoil, also
listed in London, has production assets
in Africa and Europe as well as
Novacyt seizes moment
with mobile testing kits
Alex Ralph
An Aim-quoted diagnostics company
whose fortunes have been transformed
by the prompt launch of coronavirus
tests has developed a series of new
products in an attempt to sustain its
rapid growth.
Novacyt said it had launched a
mobile testing kit and a less invasive
saliva sample type. It is also developing
a respiratory testing system to distin-
guish between flu and coronavirus and
has agreed a partnership to produce an
antibody test to detect those who have
had the virus.
It comes after the shares and sales of
the company have soared after it
positioned itself at the forefront of
global efforts to develop polymerase
chain reaction (PCR) tests for Covid-19.
It has agreed multiple supply deals
around the world and partnered withFestival spirit is
in short supply
for Cannes host
Simon Duke Technology Business Editor
Cairn to return $250m after oil sell-off
operating refineries and filling stations.
Analysts at Barclays suggested Cairn’s
$250 million return to shareholders
would be worth 34p per share. They
had expected the company to end this
year $140 million in debt as a result of its
commitment to Sangomar, but the sale
of its entire stake should see it close
2020 without any borrowings and with
cash on its balance sheet.
Cairn’s share of the development and
operating costs over the next few years
would have topped $1 billion.
Simon Thomson, chief executive,
said that Cairn would have greater fi-
nancial flexibility and will continue to
return excess cash to shareholders.
Investors will have to approve the
deal at a general meeting later this year.
Cairn has also suggested it will return
capital to shareholders if a tax dispute
with the Indian government goes in its
favour. It is claiming $1.4 billion with a
verdict expected after the summer.
Shares in Cairn rose by 6.3 per cent
and closed up 7¾p at 132¼p.Greig Cameron Scottish Business Editor
The owner of the Cannes Lions
advertising festival has fallen into the
red after axing the event this year.
Ascential, the specialist business
information group once known as
Emap, reported a pre-tax loss of
£78 million in the first half of the year
after cancelling or delaying exhibitions
including the advertising industry
jamboree and its Money 20/20 events.
Revenues fell by 39 per cent to
£144 million in the period and the com-
pany opted against paying a dividend
after suspending the payouts in March.
Ascential warned that it was not
banking on an “immediate recovery in
underlying trading conditions”.
However, it said that some businesses
would benefit from the accelerating
shift to online shopping.
The FTSE 250 group, which has
developed a toolkit for brands looking
to sell their products on Amazon and
other online retail platforms, said its
digital commerce revenues fell by 21 per
cent in the first half. Shares in Ascential
fell 26¼p, or 8.8 per cent, to 272p.
The company traces its roots to the
19th-century local newspaper industry
and was incorporated as East Midlands
Allied Press after the Second World
War. In 1996 it sold its 65 newspaper
titles to Johnston Press for £111 million
and in 2007 sold its consumer maga-
zines and radio businesses to Bauer, the
German publisher, for £1.1 billion.
The Guardian Media Group and
Apax Partners bought the business-to-
business magazine and events group
for about £1 billion the following year.
The company rebranded as Ascential
in 2015 and sold most of its exhibitions
division two years ago but held onto
Cannes Lions and Money 20/20, which
focuses on digital payments.
Duncan Painter, 50, chief executive,
said: “The fluid nature of the worldwide
pandemic and its management makes
it impossible to be precise about the
short-term outlook. We remain ready
to run our market-leading events as
and when restrictions on face-to-face
gatherings are lifted and the economics
of running events are positive.”Ascential is running two Money 20/20
events in Europe and the United States
in September and October with re-
duced attendances.
For future large gatherings, the
company said it would need to be
assured that delegates and sponsors
“have the appetite to travel and attend”.
Revenues at its marketing division,
including Cannes Lions, fell 74 per cent
to £26 million in the first half. Turnover
at its sales wing, which includes Money
20/20 and the Retail Week title and
events, fell 26 per cent to £56 million.
Subscriptions to Retail Week continued
to decline due to the “weak underlying
retail environment”, which had been
exacerbated by the pandemic.
Ascential, which suspended a share
buyback programme in the spring, has
persuaded its banks to waive a covenant
test due at the end of the year and relax
terms for the next credit assessment in
a year’s time. The company said it had
“considerable liquidity headroom” and
had the capacity to “grasp opportuni-
ties” as they arose.
The group said that it would consider
reinstating its dividend payments when
it reports full-year results next spring.Refinery to change hands
Total is selling the Lindsey refinery
in north LIncolnshire to Prax Group
for an undisclosed sum. The French
energy giant said the move is
expected to protect hundreds of
jobs in Immingham.
The London-based Prax has
interests in petroleum trading, oil
storage and more than 150 service
stations. It was co-founded in 2002
by Winston and Arani Soosaipillai, a
couple who have built it into a
business that last year generated
revenues of almost $4 billion.
A deal was struck last year for
Harvest Energy, a Prax subsidiary
which runs service stations, to
secure its fuel from Total, which
made use of the capacity at Lindsey.
There are thought to be about 400
permanent workers at the refinery
and more than 300 contractors.Ascential had to cancel events such as
the Cannes Lions advertising festivalA
rise in staycations
and cost-cutting
have combined to
enable City Pub
Group to trade profitably
in the three weeks since it
started reopening its pubs
(Dominic Walsh writes).
The Aim-listed group
said that its sales in the
period since the easing of
lockdown on July 4 had
reached £1.8 million,
equivalent to 63 per cent
of previous levels on a
like-for-like basis. Thecompany reopened 24 of
its 48 pubs on the first day,
dubbed Super Saturday,
with a further eight
opening over the past
fortnight, taking the total
number trading to 32.
Clive Watson, 59,
executive chairman, said
the group, which held its
annual meeting yesterday,
had seen an “encouraging
performance” since
reopening at a reduced
capacity, with some of its
pubs, including the Hoste,in north Norfolk, doing
well on the back of a big
increase in domestic
tourism. The Hoste has 53
bedrooms and has had
100 per cent occupancy.
Mr Watson said that
while central London was
difficult — “from Covent
Garden to Canary Wharf
is like a ghost town” —
locations “with chimney
pots” like Parsons Green
and Notting Hill were
trading well.
The pub sector veteran,who founded the business
in 2011 and floated it in
2017, said the company
had made big cuts to its
costs, including payroll,
satellite TV, recruitment
and entertainment.
The company’s
workforce has fallen from
1,200 at the start of
lockdown to 600,
including head office
redundancies.
Shares in the group
closed yesterday up 5.8
per cent, or 4p, at 76p.YUI MOK/PA