Allenby Capital - Nightcap plc - Interims

Nightcap’s interims for the 6m to end December 2023 were in line with expectations, as such, we make no changes to our forecasts. The number of bars at the period end was 46 up from 36 a year earlier – the expansion driven by the June 2023 acquisition of Dirty Martini. The portfolio expansion led to a year-on-year revenue increase of 42% to £33.4m and 5% growth in underlying EBITDA (IAS 17) to £2.1m. Post period end the Company announced the acquisition of Piano Works funded by a £1m equity rais

Allenby Capital - Nightcap plc - Update

Nightcap has announced the acquisition of Piano Works, the late-night live music venue currently operating at a venue in Farringdon and also within Nightcap’s Barrio Covent Garden site. The headline acquisition cost is £200k, funded through a £1m equity placing at 6p per share. Based on the success of Piano Works residency within Barrio Covent Garden, there is the opportunity to roll the Piano Works concept to other venues in the Nightcap portfolio. The Company has also announced a trading updat

Nightcap plc - Update

Nightcap has acquired DC Bars Limited, the operator of the 10 Dirty Martini cocktail bars and Covent Garden located Tuttons Brasserie. To fund the £4.65m acquisition Nightcap has raised £5.0m through £2.65m of convertible debt and £2.35m new equity raised at 12.0p, a 26% premium to the prevailing share price. With high debt levels and expensive central overheads DC Bars had been unable to weather the tough hospitality trading conditions of late exacerbated by the ongoing rail strikes. The busine

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 13 Mar 23

13 March 2023 @HybridanLLP Status of this Note and Disclaimer This document has been issued to you by Hybridan LLP for information purposes only and should not be construed in any circumstances as an offer to sell or solicitation of any offer to buy any security or other financial instrument, nor shall it, or the fact of its distribution, form the basis of, or be relied upon in connection with, any contract relating to such action. This document has no regard for the specific investment objectiv

Nightcap - Interims

Nightcap’s interims for the 6m to end December 2022 were in line with the early January guidance and continue to illustrate the growth of the Group. The number of bars reached 36 at the period end, up from 31 six months earlier and from 27 at the end of December 2021. The portfolio expansion led to a year-on-year revenue increase of 49% to £23.5m and 25% growth in underlying EBITDA (IAS 17) to £2.0m. With the majority of bars in central city locations, in particular London, the portfolio was par

This Week's AIM Highlights 13th January 2023

Nightcap - Update

Nightcap delivered a very credible performance in Q2 2023 (Oct-Dec) with revenues of £12.9m, +60.9% on Q2 2022 and +4.7% on a like for like (“LFL”) basis. With the majority of bars in central city locations, in particular London, the portfolio was particularly exposed to the rail strikes throughout the second half of 2022 and during the key Xmas trading period. Although impacted, the portfolio continues to deliver and December was particular strong with yoy growth of +71.8% and +27.6% on a LFL

Nightcap finals

Nightcap has reported strong FY2022 results in-line with our forecasts. In a year which saw the portfolio grow from 19 to 31 bars, Nightcap reported revenues of £35.9m and EBITDA of £3.3m. Growth has continued in the current year with a further five openings taking the portfolio to 36 and revenues were £10.3m in Q1 2023 (July - Sept.). Given the current economic climate and cost headwinds the Company has reined in its opening plans. When economic confidence returns we expect a return to a high l

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 17/08/2022

Dish of the day Joiners: No joiners today. Leavers: Altus Strategies Plc has left AIM. 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. T

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 20/04/22

What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen? Lift Global Ventures plc to join AQSE Growth Market. The Company's investment strategy is to operate as an enterprise company seeking acquisition or investment opportunities within the financial media and technology industries. Within these broad industries, areas of focus may include: Financial news websites and other forms of “new media”, Investment research providers, Financial PR, IR, design and marketing agencies, Production studios and visual content prov

Nightcap Interims

Nightcap has delivered impressive results for the 6m period to end December 2021. Despite the impact of ‘Plan B’ restrictions the Group delivered like for like (“LFL”) revenue growth of +22.4% vs 2019 (last period pre COVID).

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 07/03/22

Altus Strategies 54p £63.4m (ALS.L) Altus Strategies announces the appointment of Mr Gérard De Hert as a non-executive director of the Company, effective immediately. Mr De Hert is Managing Director (Technical Services) at La Mancha Holding S.àr.l. His appointment is in accordance with the terms of the Strategic Investment Agreement between La Mancha and the Company (SIA) approved by shareholders on 18 February 2020 (see Company announcement of 19 February 2020). Under the terms of the SIA, La M

Material earnings upgrade post Barrio acquisition

Nightcap has added another five cocktail bars to its portfolio through the acquisition of Barrio Familia Ltd (“Barrio”). The £4.94m acquisition price is being funded by £3.63m of existing cash resources and the issue of £1.31m of shares to the vendors at 23p. Barrio made £600k of EBITDA in the first quarter of the year to June 2022, conservatively assuming £1m EBITDA for the full year equates to a 4.9x EBITDA acquisition multiple (or 3.0x our Barrio June 2023 forecast). Funded principally throug

FY 2021 Results – EBITDA earnings upgrade

Nightcap has reported full year results for the year ended June 2021, a year heavily impacted by COVID lockdowns and trading restrictions. Given the headwinds we view the £0.2m positive EBITDA performance as highly commendable. The Company has made a strong start to the current year which was highlighted in the 3 November trading update. As such, we have upgraded our underlying EBITDA forecasts for the current year to June 2022 by 16% and for the year to June 2023 by 51% - driven by a combinatio

Well positioned for future success

Strong performance against tough market conditions

LIBERUM: The Liberum Leisure Digest: NLW increase - pricing power is key

Domino's Pizza - Growing the base

Domino’s Pizza Group’s (DOM’s) new CEO has set an ambitious long-term growth target, including an acceleration in its net store opening programme. With better alignment between the company and its franchisees, management believes DOM should be capable of generating improved profit growth, versus that achieved in recent years, and potential higher returns.

PROGRESSIVE: Vertu Motors: Traction control

Vertu is the fourth largest automotive retailer in the UK, with 188 sales outlets and a track record of cross-cycle growth, principally through businesses it has acquired, funded by equity, debt and most importantly cash generation. Vertu operates across the entire vehicle lifecycle, including new and used vehicle sales, and vehicle servicing, repair and parts. Service and repair is a 40+% gross margin repeating business. With economic headwinds, the transition to electric vehicles, recent overs

Pinewood Technologies (PINE LN) - Driving growth in automotive software

Pinewood’s transition to a pure-play automotive SaaS business is now largely complete. Today we introduce summary forecasts out to FY26 and reiterate the investment case. We see significant opportunity for Pinewood to grow its user base in the UK and internationally whilst generating high EBITDA margins and cash conversion. With a 24.5p special dividend embedded in the current price (payable Q1/Q2), the effective price today is 12.3p. Based on the Group’s FY27 target of £27m EBITDA, we estimate

React Inititation of Coverage

React Group is a well-managed, growing UK services business with a high degree of recurring revenues (c87%).

Marks & Spencer+ (MKS, House Stock at 255p) - 7Y FS HSBC UK tie-up– another brick in the wall

PROGRESSIVE: Zoo Digital: Recovery underway and a significant contract

Today’s trading statement from ZOO highlights a ramp-up in demand following the end to the industry-wide strikes of last year. ZOO struck a note of caution in its January update regarding the timing of orders. However new productions are starting to translate into a healthy order pipeline, with a good recovery in revenue anticipated in H1 FY25. The update guides to revenue of at least $40m for the year to March 2024, ahead of our estimate at $36.8m. We have improved our adjusted EBITDA loss marg

Zeus Top Picks for 2024 - 2023 review and outlook for 2024

On 9 January last year, we set out our ten top stock picks for 2023, for what turned out to be another relatively poor twelve months for UK equities due to two wars, stubbornly high inflation and further tightening of monetary policy. This was even as other major markets, such as the US, largely recovered in the year. In the 2023 calendar year, the AIM All-Share index fell 8.2% and is still 42% off its 2021 high. From the release of our 2023 top picks note, the average total return (assuming div

Judges Scientific+ (JDG, House Stock at 11,600p) - FY23A - solid organic order book

ME Group - Modernising and growing the estate driving growth

During 2023, ME Group commenced the deployment of its next generation photobooths, which are integrated with the group’s newly developed proprietary software, gained market leadership in the Japanese photobooth market with an acquisition, continued to roll out laundry units with existing and new location partners, commenced a share buyback programme and gained entry into the FTSE 250. 2023 was a year of significant strategic and financial progress, with sales up 15%, EPS up 31% and net cash main

Tasty - Trading update and restructuring plan

Trading conditions remained difficult in 2023, impacted by intense cost-of-living pressures, transportation strikes, and significant inflationary pressure on labour, food and utilities. In response, Tasty implemented various efficiency measures which helped narrow FY23 EBITDA losses to -£0.9m (FY22A: -£2.7m loss). With the economic environment remaining challenging, however, Tasty intends to implement a restructuring plan (funded by a new £750k loan with potential for conversion), which will inv

Hardman & Co Healthcare Index: 2023 – Capital demands dent performance

The Hardman & Co Healthcare Index (HHI) has been running since 2009. Its main function is to highlight the attractions of life sciences investments over the long term. For the second year running, apart from global economic influences affecting world markets, performance in 2023 was dented by the capital-intensive nature of the sector. The HHI fell 3.7%, to 483.8, underperforming the main London markets – FTSE 100 (+3.8%) and FTSE All-Share (3.8%) but outperforming the FTSE AIM All-Share Index (

B90 Holdings (B90 LN) - Successful transition, outlook unchanged

2023 revenue is expected to be in line with expectations. Adjusted EBITDA loss is expected to be higher than we expected.