Hybridan Small Cap Feast 13/06/2022

Joiners: No joiners today. Leavers: No leavers today. What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen? AssetCo plc, intends to join re-join AIM. The Company's strategy is to develop an agile asset and wealth management company that meets the needs of investors in the 21st century by acquiring, managing and operating asset and wealth management activities and interests, together with other related services. The Company is in the process of acquiring the entire issued share capital of River and Mercantile Group

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 28/03/22

Joiners: Summerway Capital plc, (AIM:SWC) to be renamed Celadon Pharmaceuticals plc following completion of the acquisition of Vertigrow Technology Ltd, has relisted on AIM. Vertigrow is a UK based pharmaceutical Company specialising in the researching, growing and supply of medicinal cannabis. Summerway is an investing company focused on investment and acquisition opportunities across the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors, particularly within new and emerging therapeutic areas. Capital rais

Small Cap Feast: 30/04/21

Dish of the day Dispersion Holdings (AQSE:DEFI) an investor in the high growth FinTech sector within the UK, the USA and Canada, has listed on the Access Segment of the Aquis Stock Exchange Growth Market. The Board intends to deploy the majority of the Company’s cash resources in the acquisition of minority interests in a number of different, yet to be identified, companies in the broad FinTech sector, and to apply expertise to the business operations and strategic plans of these companies. Pla

Small Cap Feast: 16/07/21

Joiners: No Joiners Today. Leavers: No Leavers Today. What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen? Central Copper Resources, a company focused on delivering a high grade copper project into production and exploration of assets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and in the Republic of Zambia to join AIM. By 2022, CCR intends to be ready to commence the project financing of its Mbamba Kilenda copper project. Timing and offer TBA Spinnaker Acquisitions to join the Main Market (Standard). A com

THE MONTHLY July 2020

A number of REITs have the ability to thrive in current market conditions and thereafter. Not only do they hold assets that will remain in strong demand, but they have focus and transparency. The leases and underlying rents are structured in a manner to provide long visibility, growth and security. Hardman & Co defined an investment universe of REITs that we considered provided security and “safer harbours”. We introduced this universe with our report published in March 2019: “Secure income” REI

Putting fears to rest

Burford has announced its results for 2019. As previously indicated, these were lower than in the previous year. Revenue fell 17% from $430m in 2018 to $357m. Profit after tax, on Burford’s basis, declined 31% from $329m to $226m. As announced earlier, there will be no final dividend so only the interim dividend of ¢4.17 was paid for FY19. Unusually, Burford has also released a trading update for early 2020 alongside its main figures. Court results and arbitral awards have been obtained that wou

THE MONTHLY April 2020

THE MONTHLY March 2020

Much of the UK’s privatisation programme took place between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s: subsequent sales have been few. Undoubtedly, privatisation attracted many private investors to the market, many for the first time.

Mixture of strong and weak activity in 2019

Burford recently released its first-ever trading statement, covering cash activity in 2019. Group-wide commitments set a new record of $1.57bn, a 24% increase. Overall deployments were almost flat compared with 2018, at £1.07bn. In both, the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) and fund arrangements increased their share. It was, however, a quiet second half for realisations on-balance sheet in the core litigation finance business. 2019 profits will be lower than in 2018, with Burford indicating that net

THE MONTHLY January 2020

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is due to publish its most up-to-date survey on share ownership in mid-January, which identifies the beneficial owners and decision- makers of the stock market. Hardman & Co has worked together with the share analysis service, Argus Vickers, to jointly produce its own survey, which anticipates the conclusions of the ONS survey but goes into much greater detail. Our work does not use a sample of 200 quoted companies as the ONS historically has, but rather

Burford Capital

Positive corporate governance developments

THE MONTHLY November 2019

The trade-off in the risk/reward for gold and gold mining equities is improving, as central banks push the current iteration of the post-World War II Bretton Woods financial order towards its limits.

Strong evidence that fair value is fair

In the aftermath of a dramatic period, Burford has provided additional disclosure that greatly improves understanding of its fair value process and its conservatism. The timing of when fair value adjustments are made has been well explained previously, with clear objective criteria. How the amount of each valuation change is determined has also had some clarification, with an objective core overlaid by adjustments that involve some judgement. Detailed data have also been provided on the 20 concl

LIBERUM: Burford Capital* - Fundamentally unchanged view

Results don’t need to be appealed

Burford has announced its interim results for 1H’19 and has produced another excellent set of figures. After stripping out third-party interests, revenue was up 40% to $287m and earnings grew 36% to $225m. Litigation investment was again the star, with income also increasing 36% to $265m. While this saw some benefit from the recent Petersen transaction, there were strong results beyond that with the rest of the portfolio producing a first-half RoIC of 78%. These brought total recoveries to $1.16

Strong H1'23 results; forecasts upgraded

Strategic progress drives robust growth

H1 interims are in line. Argentex has delivered strong growth (+28% yoy revenue) by driving growth initiatives. New technology-enabled products have been launched, including Alternative Transaction Banking, which are already delivering compelling growth ahead of expectations. Pressing into Europe via the Netherlands is also delivering strong growth. At the core, client KPIs remain strong. We leave our forecasts unchanged, with revenue momentum continuing into Q3. We believe the current 12.4x Dec

Equals Group (EQLS LN) - Interims justify rise in forecasts

What’s new: Equals Group has delivered outstanding interims, which have exceeded even the positive commentary at the Capital Markets Day in May and the trading update on 5 July. With trading “ahead of expectations”, we raise our 2023E revenue forecast by 7% to £95m and adj EBITDA forecast by 11% to £20m, as well as nudging up our forecasts for 2024E and 2025E.

Inflection point - fleet growth coming

H1 23: focusing on capital generation

Promising results for M&G in H1 23. The new CEO, Andrea Rossi, continues to execute the company’s new strategy, and we have confidence that he is positioning M&G to surpass its financial targets for the 2022-24 plan. The H1 23 operating capital generation results significantly outperformed expectations, exceeding the consensus by more than 50%. This substantial capital accumulation is poised to deliver strong returns to shareholders, rewarding them for their patience during this transitional per

Gore Street Energy Storage + (GSF, House Stock, 84p) - Steady NAV growth

LIBERUM: Alpha Group International: Underlying strength

LIBERUM: Real Estate Investors: Further profitable sales reduce leverage

Robust interims; small reductions to FY24 forecasts

Taking the Upper Brand: Brands Sector Overview

The earliest dated brand has long been contested; the majority point to Kongō Gumi, a family run construction company that specialised in Buddhist temples in Japan; its documented record of ownership goes back to 578 AD. Like Kongō Gumi, several different brands have withstood the test of time, albeit without then same degree of longevity. The term brand originates from the 1500s and means "to burn" in Ancient Norse and was initially used to mark cattle for ownership. This practice can be consid

Debt reduction plan in face of higher interest rates

FY23 results were well flagged but the focus is likely to be on the outlook, where high interest rates continue to impact buyer confidence and therefore private sales rates, as well as increasing Springfield’s own cost of debt. This leads us to reduce our adj. EBIT forecast for FY24 by 24%, with a greater 48% reduction in our adj. EPS forecast. We expect net debt exc. leases of £55.1m in FY24. Management’s focus is on cash generation, with the dividend paused and a plan to sell c.£50m of land ov

Morning Note – 26 September 2023

SP Angel Morning View: Hawkish Fed statement weighs on market risk sentiment as dollar hits metal prices

Morning Note – 18 September 2023

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 15-09-2023

Dish of the day Joiners: No joiners today. Leavers: No leavers today. What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?** Announced ITF 12 July: Substrate Artificial Intelligence, an artificial intelligence company based in Spain that creates, buys and scales companies around AI in diverse sectors such as fintech, agritech, energy, human resources, and health, intends to join the Access Segment of the AQSE Growth Market. Admission delayed. Announced ITF 6 July: Blackpoint Biotech plc, a medical cannabinoids co