Fintel plc (FNTL LN) - Forecasts updated to include M&A

Fintel IQ and Defaqto, two of Fintel’s divisions, have just completed two bolt-on acquisitions: VouchedFor and AKG for upfront payments of £7.5m and £1.6m (max consideration £17.5m and £2.0m) respectively.

SHORE CAPITAL - Begbies Traynor Group (BEG) - House Stock at 147p

Ashoka India Equity - Overview

Ashoka India Equity’s (AIE) management team uses detailed cash-flow analysis to pick a concentrated portfolio of what they view as the most attractive Indian equities, aiming to outperform the market in all macro environments thanks to stock selection. The team looks for the most compelling investment opportunities across the market capitalisation spectrum, with over 50% of the current AIE portfolio invested in mid caps and small caps. This stock selection process uses a unique approach to cash

CC Japan Income & Growth

CCJI is an attractive ‘buy and hold’ strategy…

IP Group - Priority companies making progress in 2022

IP Group’s NAV per share came in at 132.9p at end-2022, only 2% below the end-June 2022 level. The NAV decline during 2022 was primarily due to the £428.5m loss from listed holdings (before foreign exchange (FX), mostly Oxford Nanopore Technologies, ONT), while private holdings posted gains before FX of c £101.4m (or 5.8% of opening NAV). Excluding ONT, IP Group posted a £25.2m profit in 2022. Most notably, its four major cleantech holdings posted a valuation uplift of c £120m in FY22. IP Group

Fintel plc (FNTL LN) - Interims echo pre-close update

Fintel’s interims provide the detail behind the detailed interims trading update released on 27 July, which showed “solid performance” in its core business and “significant strategic progress through investment and acquisitions”. In addition, the Board has raised the interim DPS by 10% to 1.1p a share. We leave our forecasts unchanged.

Focus on debt reduction as forecasts rebased

Despite an in line H1 performance, with transactions taking longer to complete, RBG now expects FY23 adj. EBITDA to be £10m-£12m. We set our forecast at the bottom of this range, representing a reduction of 33% to EBITDA and 44% to EPS. In response, management is prioritising debt reduction and we cut our dividend forecast to nil. We expect year end net debt of £20m, with leverage at 2.7x. Whilst this presents a risk (above the <2.25x covenant), management is in discussion with its bank and is c

Time Finance - Timed to Perfection

Time has released a positive set of FY23A annual results and a Q1/24A quarterly statement. They both show the business continues to perform well with strong loan book expansion, profit growth and falling arrears. FY23A revenue was up 17% to £27.6m, PBT was up 281% to £4.2m which was slightly ahead of prior guidance of £4.1m. In Q1/24A, the gross book hit a new record high of £175.8m. Time looks extremely cheap given it is trading on an FY25E PE of just 5.6x. We derive our 1-year price target of

Braemar - FY23 results – focussed strategy steering the right course

Braemar performed strongly in FY23, with revenue up over 50% and underlying operating profit up 100%, with all business segments performing well and helped by the strong dollar. The focus on shipbroking, disposing of non-core activities and adding to shipbroking operations, is proving successful and Braemar is becoming a stronger and more resilient business with increasingly diversified revenue across shipping segments. The target of achieving double the £8.9m underlying EBIT from FY21 by FY25E

Morning Note – 28 November 2023