Strong growth in core underpins FY expectations

EKF has reported a strong H1, with revenues of £37.5m and double-digit growth in underlying non-Covid related business. Management reports it is trading in line with expectations for the full year and we make no change to our profit forecasts at this stage. New growth initiatives are proceeding to plan and should lead to accelerated core growth from FY23 onwards. We continue to see substantial upside on successful execution with the shares trading on an FY23 P/E of 13.1x and an EV/EBITDA of just

Kromek - FY 2022 results

Kromek reported full-year results to 30 April that were in line with the trading update of 16 May. Record visibility over our FY 2023 revenue forecast of £18m (c.53% of which is already contracted and 37% “Awarded not Contracted”, with the balance from its normal monthly run rate) is a great start for FY 2023 on which the company can build further. We are leaving forecasts unchanged for the moment, despite additional contract wins, and expect to introduce FY 2024 forecasts at the time of its int

Kromek - Fundraise – £1.7m convertible loan note

Kromek announced a £1.7m fundraise by way of the issue of convertible loan notes (8% coupon, 18-month conversion period at 15p per share), which will allow the company to minimise any potential supply-chain disruption to the delivery of contracts during the year. We make only minor changes to forecasts to reflect the additional interest (c.£0.1m) accrued, with adjusted pre-tax loss increasing to £5.0m. We leave our target valuation of £118m (27p) unchanged, with near-term catalysts (e.g. a secon

Morning Note – 3 August 2022

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 21-07-2022

Dish of the day Joiners: No joiners today. Leavers: No leavers today. What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen? Unigel Group, intends to join the Aquis Growth Market. Unigel Group is a pioneer in the field of thixotropic gels for the fibre optic cable industry. The Company is also a supplier of laminated steel tapes to the fibre optic cable industry in the US. Thixotropic gels and laminated steel tapes are essential components to the rapidly growing global fibre optic cable market. The Group export

Morning Note – 2 August 2022

Q2 21: Internal problems amplify the external headwinds

Smith & Nephew reported mostly in-line Q2 22 numbers, missing the top-line estimates (-0.6%) but beating on the trading profit (+0.5%), albeit marginally. The Q2 performance was overshadowed by a 100bp margin downgrade for FY22 (-50bps Y-o-Y vs +50bps previously), which sent the stock ~9% lower in the session following the update. The reiteration of the top-line growth outlook of 4-5% was no help either. We will cut our estimates, largely to reflect the soft margin guidance.

Strong top-line drives another decent quarter

In Q2, Astra sustained its solid top-line momentum. Like in the past few quarters, this outperformance was again driven by higher COVID-19 business sales and solid growth in Diabetes drug Farxiga. Moreover, the recovering Oncology and much-needed green shoots in Rare Diseases were the icing on the cake. Although, profitability again came under the scanner but should improve in the coming quarters/years as the company completes its ‘growth phase’. Overall, a decent set of results and our positive

LIBERUM: SourceBio International* - Update shows evolution to core

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 01-08-2022

Dish of the day Joiners: No joiners today. Leavers: No leavers today. What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?** Inteliqo Limited, intends to join the Aquis Growth Market. Inteliqo Limited provides sales, marketing and distribution services to technology product owners under long-term distribution agreements. The Company has agreed its first such agreement in respect of the Ipedia iQ product range. The iQ product is a smart translation earphone (earbuds) system which offers integrated real time speech

Supply agreement with VGM Group

Belluscura has announced that it has entered into a Group Purchasing Organisation Product Supply Agreement with VGM Group which further expands its distribution network across the US.

Morning Note – 5 August 2022

FY22 results and a highly visible outlook

For the year to 30 April 2022 Kromek reported results in line with the Trading Update of 16 May: revenue of £12.1m, +16.5%YoY, and an EBITDA (adj.) loss of £1.2m. We estimate revenue in the Advanced Imaging division grew 28% YoY to £4.6m, whilst the CBRN segment grew 1.5x to £5.4m. Kromek reports that it expects growth to accelerate in both its core segments – security-related CBRN and advanced imaging – with the prospect of “a substantial year-on-year increase in revenue”. The CBRN segment in

Growth on an accelerating path

Smith & Nephew’s growth acceleration and margin expansion in Q2 should continue in H215, more reflecting internal changes than improvements in market fundamentals. Its c 13% premium on 2015 P/E to its global ortho peers is supported by its brisker growth and strategic value.

The Hardman & Co Monthly: August 2022

Feature article: Utility regulation – Changes afoot - Patching up a tainted model While the gas supply crisis – and its price implications – have dominated the UK price regulated sectors in recent months, other issues have arisen that have seriously tainted the price regulation system itself. Indeed, it is fair to ask whether it is ‘’fit for purpose’’. Back in 1984, price regulation, via an unsophisticated RPI-x formula, was introduced to prevent the privatised British Telecom (BT) from abusin