Interims – guidance reiterated. We reintroduce forecast & move to Buy

Alliance Pharma’s H1 interims are relatively robust, with trading conforming to recent commentary. Whilst there has been an impact in some areas of the business in H1 (Prescription Medicine) as expected per the trading update in July, the rest of the business particularly Kelo-cote, has proved very resilient and highlights the defensive nature of the business, and underlying adj. PBT (excl. amortisation and impairment charges) was solid in H1 2020 at £16.3m (+7% YoY). We anticipate some push and

Small Cap Feast

Intention to float by Gemfields Group. No Capital Raise. Currently listed on JSE. (GML:JNB) at circa £122m. The Group's key producing assets, the Kagem emerald mine in Zambia (believed to be the world's single largest producing emerald mine) and the Montepuez ruby mine in Mozambique (one of the most significant recently discovered ruby deposits in the world), are both expected to have long mine-lives with potential for expansion. Also owns the Faberge brand. Due Valentines Day 2020.

THE MONTHLY January 2019

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. 2018 was a difficult year; however, the index still outperformed its comparative London indices, falling 10.0% to 393.2, compared with -13.0% and - 18.2% for the Allshare index and the AIM index, respectively. Furthermore, several (17) companies in our index increased their capital base – 15 of our 50 constituents raised new funds

International brands driving performance

Alliance Pharma (APH) is a profitable, cash-generative, specialty pharma business. The proportion of sales generated from higher margin international star brands is rising rapidly, and will be boosted by the recent acquisition of Nizoral in APAC, and UK approval and launch of Xonvea for nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, where conservative management has failed. Investment behind these brands together with compliance with new regulatory directives will limit short term growth but positions the co

THE MONTHLY November 2018

In addition to Hardman’s monthly analysis of client stocks, the thorny issue of market disruption – a popular theme currently - is also addressed. In a wide-ranging article, Hardman’s utilities analyst, Nigel Hawkins, assesses the impact that market disruption has already made. In some sectors, notably telecoms and aviation, market disruption has been apparent for many years, as the rise of Vodafone, Ryanair and easyJet demonstrates. However, in some sectors, such as oil and housebuilding, struc

Small Cap Feast

PetroTal (TAL.TO) - The exploration and production company focused on oil assets in Peru is seeking a secondary AIM quoting before the end of 2018. Path Investments— First acquisition of a 50 per cent. participating interest in the producing Alfeld-Elze II gas field located 22 kilometres south of Hannover in Germany. Seeking £10m raise. Due early Oct Green Man Gaming—pure play e-commerce and technology company in the digital video games industry. revenue CAGR growth of 26.7% in the last three

The Monthly September 2018

September’s Hardman Monthly features an article from guest contributor, Tim Ward. Tim is the Chief Executive of the Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA), an organisation that champions the interests of small to mid-size quoted companies.

The Monthly

Hardman & Co’s analysts have direct experience of uncovering accounting frauds. In this article, Steve Clapham outlines why we might see a surge in them over the next few years. He is engaged by institutions to teach their fund managers and analysts how to identify risks brought about by such frauds. Hardman & Co is pleased to offer this service to private investors.

2018: a year of international progress

Alliance Pharma (APH) is continuing with its buy-and-build strategy, having evolved through 35 acquisitions over a period of 20 years into a profitable, cashgenerative, specialty pharma business. The company has a mix of international growth brands – Kelo-cote, MacuShield, Vamousse – and a bedrock of solid, local, low-growth products. A fourth international growth brand in the portfolio, Nizoral, was acquired from J&J on 21 June 2018 in the APAC region. The cash consideration of £60m was funded

Small Cap Breakfast

Ovoca Gold (to be renamed Ovoca Bio PLC) - RTO of IVIX, a Russian company developing a drug candidate for the treatment of female sexual dysfunctions. No monies to be raised, market cap of £8.5m, due 30 July Nucleus Financial—independent wrap platform provider . FYDec17 revs £40.36m and PBT of £5.1m. Offer TBA. Due late July. Kropz PLC-Intention to float by the emerging plant nutrient producer with an advanced stage phosphate mining project in South Africa and exploration assets in West Africa

LIBERUM: Aptamer* - Prelims supports growth projections

LIBERUM: Aptamer* - Initiation - Build better binders

LIBERUM: Futura Medical: The Futura's coming

Update on Life Sciences expansion

Despite continued strong revenue growth from the existing Point-of-Care and Life Sciences activities, it is now apparent the new capacity expansion programme for enzymes fermentation will not contribute to revenues this year. As a result, management is now guiding to FY23 group revenues of ~£53m and Adj EBITDA of ~£10m, both around £4m lower than previous expectations. We update our forecasts accordingly and expect more information around the shape of the revenue ramp up in FY24 at the upcoming

Destiny Pharma plc+ (DEST, House Stock at 57p) - Primed to go

Interims in line – new forecasts for Life Sciences

Interims are in line and show strong growth from key product lines, which bodes well for future sustainable growth. Having already rebased our FY23 estimates to remove any contribution from the delayed South Bend facility, we reintroduce FY24 & FY25 forecasts to reflect the revised schedule of revenues ramping up. These show group revenues on an improving trend and EBITDA margins strengthening towards 22%. The shares trade on an FY24 EV/EBITDA multiple of sub-10x, falling to 8x in FY25. There is

Shield Therapeutics - $26.1m fundraise ($20.0m debt)/$6.1m equity)

Shield raised $26.1m through a $20m term loan facility with SWK Holdings (unconditional) and $6.1m equity placing to fund several initiatives to drive improvement in gross-to-net (GTN) prices (including new field access team), fund the working capital needs (inventories and receivables) of the US growth story and repay the $5.7m AOP Health convertible loan. The interims and Q3 update clearly show the fruits of the Viatris collaboration, with covered lives increasing 20% to 123m (vs. 100m) and st

Venture Life Group - Strong cash generation

Venture Life has published its interim results to the end of June 2023, reporting group revenue growth of 24.4% to £23.5m, supported by both VLG brands and Customer brands. Although gross margin was down in the period as anticipated, tight operational cost control delivered improved adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.9% (H1/22A: 17.6%). As in previous years, we expect H2/23E to deliver stronger adjusted EBITDA and maintain our £11.6m FY23 expectation. Significantly, cash flow generation was strong in

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 14 September 23

14th September 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 ob

Interim results

Belluscura has reported interims in line with our expectations and notes strong momentum across its product range, particularly the DISCOV-R, and ‘transformational' progress in its global roll-out after signing Agreements with InnoMax and McKessen.

Warpaint London+ (W7L, House Stock, 303p) - Stand-out FY23A interim results – forecasts unchanged

Oxford BioDynamics+ (OBD, House Stock at 10p) - Early availability of prostate cancer test

Artificial intelligence in UK biopharma and healthcare 11/09/2023

Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to accelerate at full speed, first by imitating the workings of a human brain and now it is drawing concepts of evolution, sometimes with synthetic data, artificially manufactured for training purposes or for privacy protection, and sometimes not even with human intervention. In this note, we examine how AI is being developed and applied by the NHS and UK mid/small cap companies for the benefit of human health and wellbeing. AI in drug discovery and devel

Interims – trading in line with upgraded estimates

NIOX delivered a strong H1, driven by Clinical revenues +29% in the period. Trading is in line with the forecasts that were materially upgraded in July. Margins continue to strengthen and cash flow is following the increased profitability. Having returned £10.5m via a special dividend in September, we expect a maiden ordinary dividend to be declared at the finals in March, reflecting the strong fundamentals and highly cash generative nature of the model. We continue to view NIOX as a unique asse

Morning Note – 20 September 2023