Morning Note – 26 January 2024

Coral Products - Trading update – revised outlook

Coral Products has issued a trading update for FY April 2024E, which highlights weaker trading in recent weeks. We are lowering our FY24E revenue by 10% to £32.2m, and EBITDA is reduced to £3.2m, reflecting operating leverage. However, the statement notes that the company sees improving signs in forward looking pipeline orders. Coral has a sound financial position, and we forecast a year-end gross cash balance of £3.4m. Furthermore, Coral highlights a strong level of customer retention notwithst

Morning Note – 11 December 2023

Coral Products - Interim results in-line, successful focus on driving profitabil

Coral Products has reported positive H1/24 results, which support our expectations for the full year, with profitability benefitting from positive mix effect and successful measures to drive integration of the business and overall cost control. We maintain a price target of 25.2p which represents 90% upside to the current share price.

Morning Note – 29 November 2023

Cenkos: Coral Products Plc -- Strong FY23 results, good outlook

Coral Products has reported strong results for the year-end April 2023, with revenues in-line with our forecast and adjusted EBITDA ahead of our forecast. The company has made good progress on the integration of the four businesses acquired during the year and reports a “strong start” to the current financial year. We maintain a BUY rating.

Cenkos: Coral Products Plc -- FY trading update

Coral Products has released a positive trading update for the financial year ended 30 April 2023. We are raising our FY23E EBITDA forecast by 12.9%, in-line with the company guidance. We are lowering our FY24E EBITDA forecast by 4% to reflect our view of the macro environment. Including these changes, our forecasts continue to reflect an impressive growth trajectory for the company, and we maintain a BUY rating.

LSE AIM - Market Screener

 The market capitalization of AIM stocks declines 1.3% to £99.0bn from the 6th to the 15th of December. Among the top winners for the previous five trading days, there were Bonhill Group (+39.1% on an acquisition offer for the part of the business), Oriole Resources (34.8% on first-ever JORC report), Rua Life Sciences (33.3% on smaller reported loss), Blackbird (29.8% on partnership news), Billington Holdings (28.9% on trading update). Among the bottom movers were Parsley Box (-68.7% on propose

LSE AIM - Market Screener

We launch our Market Screener, which will be focusing on LSE AIM companies. We plan to reflect on the drivers behind the performance of relatively scarcely covered stocks. AIM has 835 officially listed stocks with an aggregate market capitalization of £100.2bn as of 6 Dec 2022. Around 58% of AIM stocks have a market capitalization below £50mn, including 32% of all stocks below £15mn MktCap. The largest industries represented on AIM are Industrials (19% in cumulative market cap), Healthcare (15%)

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 12/12/2022

Dish of the day Joiners: No joiners today. Leavers: No leavers today. What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?** Savannah Energy, the AIM-quoted energy company, is undergoing a reverse transaction in connection with the acquisition of Exxon Mobil Corporation's entire upstream and midstream asset portfolio in Chad and Cameroon. No capital to be raised on Admission. Anticipated market cap £323m. Expected 13 December. Celsius Resources intends to join AIM. Currently ASX listed, Celsius is a natural resou

Cenkos: Coral Products Plc -- Interim results – solid progress

Coral Products has released its interim results for the period ended 31 October 2022. The results show strong progress from the existing and the recently acquired businesses. The shares have performed well (+28% in the past 3 months), at these levels Coral continues to offer an attractive valuation and 7.0% dividend yield. We reiterate our financial FY23E and FY24E forecasts and maintain our BUY rating.

Cenkos: Coral Products Plc -- Upgrading earnings forecasts

Coral Products recently announced the acquisition of Ecodeck Grids Ltd. We have reviewed our financial model and raised our EPS forecasts for FY23E and FY24E by 10.2% and 19.3% respectively. we examine the balance sheet metrics following the four acquisitions announced this year. We maintain a BUY rating.

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 10/10/22

Dish of the day Joiners: No joiners today. Leavers: No leavers today. What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?** OTAQ plc, (OTAQ.L) the technology company with three divisions: Aquaculture, Geotracking Devices and Offshore intends to delist from the Main Market and join the AQSE Growth Market.. OTAQ is developing adjacent technologies to take advantage of a number of growth initiatives that will broaden the Group’s current product portfolio in the global marine aquaculture sector and facilitate entry

Cenkos: Coral Products Plc - Finding more space

Coral Products recently announced the acquisition of Manplas holdings Ltd. Although the size of the deal is relatively small, we believe this to be another positive strategic step, and we maintain our BUY rating with fair value of 20.8p.

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 07/09/22

Dish of the day Joiners: No joiners today. Leavers: Stanley Gibbons Group has left AIM. What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?** Critical Metals plc, a company established to acquire mining opportunities in the critical and strategic metals sector, is to be re-admitted onto the Main Market under the ticker “CRTM”, following the proposed acquisition of a 57% interest in Madini Occidental Limited, which holds an indirect 70% interest in the Molulu copper/cobalt project located in the Democratic Republ

City of London Investment Group (CLIG LN) - 3Q IMS: return to growth

CLIG’s 3Q IMS reveals 5.5% rise in FuM in the first three months to March 2024 to US$10.1 billion. In the quarter performance added US$302m and group net inflows were US$224m.

Elixirr - Outperforming competitors and the global Consulting market

Elixirr offers investors exposure to the long-term growth trends in the global Consulting market (including digitisation and the ongoing technology revolution, demand for innovation, efficiency and specialised expertise) all turbo charged by the group’s ‘challenger’ strategy driving market share gain from a low base. FY 2023 results showed the power of Elixirr’s differentiated model with revenue up +20% and adj. EPS up +22% in a market subdued by global uncertainty. With net cash of £18m, a posi

Morning Note – 22 April 2024

LIBERUM: MindGym: Delivering on the controllables

Malvern International - Positive results confirm turnaround on track; cash-generative and a strong bid pipeline

A positive trading trajectory for MLVN has continued to emerge strongly in this morning's results, with FY23A revenues standing at £12.2m (FY22A: £6.3m / +79%) and £0.2m PBT profit as against a £1.1m PBT loss the year before (excluding a £94k fair value movement / loan write back). MLVN provides education services including (1) a range of university-related courses for overseas students, (2) adult ELT and (3) summer schools for juniors. MLVN's contract with the University of East London (UEL) st

hVIVO - FY 2023 results, revenue in-line, margin better, future is bright

hVIVO has delivered FY 2023A results in-line with the 30 January 2024 TU, with total customer revenues of £56m, growth of 16% versus 2022A. Other income related to tax credits added another £2.6m. 2024 revenue guidance of £62m has been reiterated, representing 11% growth over 2023A, and ahead of the £60m that we had previously forecast. The company has good visibility with the 2024 figure, with 90% already being covered by the existing orderbook (stands at £80m at the end of 2023), as well as in

Hardman & Co Insight: 2023 was an annus horribilis for Quoted UK Infrastructure and Renewable Energy

The focus of Hardman & Co Research is on the nine quoted Infrastructure Investment Companies (IICs) and on the 22 Renewable Energy Infrastructure Funds (REIFs): the stocks analysed are all members of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC). We are updating our publication of January 2023, assessing both the lacklustre share price performances during 2023 and the key issues, including interest rates, inflation and power prices. As a 31-strong group, its combined market capitalisation is no

Morning Note – 26 March 2024

The Hardman & Co Monthly: April 2024

Feature article: Steady as she goes, but could be better: A review of investment company liquidity since 2016 Liquidity is the lifeblood of equity markets. The measurement of liquid asset availability to a market or company is a way of gauging a market’s health. This article builds on our previous work, which analysed the liquidity data for non-financial trading companies, by applying the same analytical techniques to the investment companies (IC) space. We analyse liquidity for ICs as a whol

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 14 Mar 2024

Banquet Buffet*** Abingdon Health 9.25p £11.3m (ABDX.L) The lateral flow contract development and manufacturing organisation announces its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2023. Revenue increased 117% to £2.4m (H1 2023: £1.1m). The Adjusted EBITDA loss decreased 47% to £1.2m (H1 2023: £2.2m). Furthermore, reduction in operating loss of 50% to £1.2m (H1 2023: £2.4m). The Board therefore expects that H2 2024 revenue will be significantly improved compared with H1 2024

Allenby Capital: Franchise Brands - Capital Markets Day

A well-attended and successful Capital Markets Day (CMD) was held yesterday with the theme being “unlocking the Group’s maximum potential and financial targets” with presentations by all Group companies and divisions. Financial targets for the Group have been set for the period from FY25 to FY27 which emphasises the growth that the Board believes the Group capable of achieving. We include these targets in our financial model with the proviso that at this early stage they are more indications of

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

Hardman & Co Insight - Asset managers had a poor 2022

Asset managers had a poor 2022: the S&P Composite 1500 Asset Management Index was down 22% and, according to the Investment Company Institute (ICI), worldwide mutual funds fell by 20%, from $76tr to $60tr. When bond and equity markets fall, the results are unlikely to be pretty: with revenues trending down and multiples contracting, there is a double whammy to contend with. So how do valuations shape up now, after a bullish start to the new year? The first chart is my favourite chart of asset m

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 17 April 24

17th April 2024 * A corporate client of Hybridan LLP ** Arranged by type of listing and date of announcement *** Alphabetically arranged **** Potential means Intention to Float (ITF) has been announced Dish of the day Admissions: Delistings: What’s baking in the oven? ** Potential**** Initial Public Offerings: Reverse Takeovers: 16 April 2024: Electric Guitar (ELEG.L) Concurrent with its Admission to trading on AIM, Electric Guitar is proposing to acquire the entire issued share capital of 3radi

Marlowe - New forecasts for Marlowe’s continuing operations

Following news that Marlowe had agreed to sell certain Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) software and services assets to Inflexion Private Equity for an EV of £430m, we release new forecasts for the group’s continuing operations, which comprise its Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC) and Occupational Health (OH) businesses. This deal crystalises significant value for shareholders (disposed assets equated to c120% of the pre-announcement market capitalisation), simplifies the business a