The Hardman & Co Monthly: May 2024

Feature article: Is silver the cheapest asset on the planet? Silver is a precious metal, a monetary metal and an industrial metal with a surprisingly wide range of uses. It’s not that well understood by investors and tends to get overshadowed by gold – but, perhaps, not for much longer. We think that the provocative title of this article is justified by silver’s attractive fundamentals. The “official figures” from the Silver Institute estimate that the silver market has been in deficit for the

Chesnara (CSN): Good 2023 results set platform for future progress

Chesnara has announced its 2023 results. Positive returns from equity markets and gains from acquisitions in the first half were somewhat offset by adverse changes to operating assumptions in the second. Economic Value profit of £59.1m marked a good turnaround from a loss of £85.1m in 2022. Economic Value of £524.7m was 2% higher than a year ago, reflecting the dividend payment and forex effects. The final dividend of 15.61p brought the full year up to 23.97p, a 3% increase over the previous yea

PANMURE: Chesnara : Dividend to go Platinum

PANMURE: Chesnara : A Good Bye

The Hardman & Co Monthly: November 2023

This month's feature article is entitled 'Gold and a Chinese Credit Event'. A Western phenomenon? If you own, or are considering owning, gold or gold equities, it’s likely that you’re concerned about protecting your wealth, or the performance of your fund, in the expectation of some kind of financial instability. Maybe your confidence in policymakers is ebbing, or you’ve researched debt bubbles in history and concluded that physical gold and silver have been the safest places to be invested whe

Chesnara plc (CSN): Good first half aided by markets and acquisitions

Chesnara has announced its 2023 interim results. Good returns in equity markets, most notably in Sweden, and the benefit from acquisitions meant earnings were well ahead of our normalised estimates. Economic Value profit was £61.0m, including £28.4m from acquisitions, compared with a loss of £75.7m in 1H’22. Despite paying the final dividend, Economic Value increased 2% over the half year to £523.2m. Cash generation was solid, with commercial cash generation of £21.8m, while base cash generation

PANMURE: Chesnara : Chesnara Fan Club

The Hardman & Co Monthly: June 2023

Feature article: UK Water – making waves Over the past year, UK utility share prices have been volatile, especially within the electricity sub-sector. The combination of the war in Ukraine and the associated impact of fluctuating gas prices, along with sharply higher inflation and the consequential rise in interest rates, have destabilised much of the sector. Indeed, most sector constituents have seen their share pieces fall (although not seriously), while Centrica, the UK’s leading gas company

Chesnara plc (CSN): Nice little acquisition

Chesnara has announced its first acquisition of 2023. It is buying the onshore protection business from Canada Life’s UK business. This consists of 47,000 term assurance and critical illness policies. Chesnara is paying £9m for the policies, and expects the Economic Value to be £16m – so this is a bit smaller than some of its more recent deals. The uplift of £7m increases Economic Value by ca.1.4%. Cash generation will be improved by ca.£16m over the next five years. This benefit is relatively f

PANMURE: Chesnara Flash : Acquisitions – never hurry a Murray

PANMURE: Chesnara : Another small but perfectly formed acquisition

Hardman & Co Monthly: May 2023

Feature article: Recognising the value of Intellectual Property IP rights – always intangible, often inscrutable, but never inconsequential Intellectual Property (IP) rights protect innovation and allow companies to commercialise their endeavours. While this sounds straightforward, the challenge in raising capital to fund development has risen significantly recently as the world has responded to macro challenges and investors have become more risk averse. This has called into question the abili

Avation (AVAP LN) - Sale of ATRs validates fleet carrying value

Avation, a lessor of 32 commercial aircraft, has announced the sale of two ATR 72-600 aircraft this morning, realising $10m of net cash proceeds after repayment of associated debt. With the sale being completed at book value, the sale price provides a positive validation of the book value of Avation’s fleet, contributing to a net asset value which currently stands at a substantial premium to the share price (NAV: 256p as at 31 December 2023). Sale proceeds should enable Avation either to continu

Dream team

Our analysts review how their fund picks for 2024 have done…

Triple Point Social Housing REIT - Financial and operational progress

Triple Point Social Housing REIT (SOHO) reported a robust FY23 financial performance. Benefiting from inflation-linked rental growth and improving rent collection, DPS is once again covered on a run-rate basis, and we expect further progress. Operational initiatives included the roll-out of the new lease clause and launch of the eco-retrofit pilot project.

Triple Point Social Housing REIT - Strong rent growth and improving rent collection

Triple Point Social Housing REIT’s (SOHO’s) Q124 update confirms a continuing improvement in rent collection. The newly set FY24 DPS target is unchanged compared to FY23 at 5.46p as the board considers the impact of asset sales and transfers. This represents a yield of 9.0%. Strong indexed rental income continues to support income and capital values.

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

PCI Pal - £3.5m raise to drive further growth from a robust foundation

On 12 March, PCI Pal successfully completed an oversubscribed placing to raise £3.5m through the issue of 6.25m new ordinary shares at a price of 56p. After H1 results showed revenue growth +20% yoy to £8.7m, the group’s first period of EBITDA profitability since relaunch in 2016, and a confident outlook, the raise will enable management to invest in US and EMEA expansion, and strengthen the net cash position. Following North America H1 revenue growth of +38% yoy to £3.1m, over half of the proce

JPMorgan American

JAM’s outperformance puts it in the spotlight as a low-cost, core option for US equities…

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 16/12/2021

Joiners DSW Capital plc (DSW.L) a profitable, fast growing, mid-market, challenger professional services network joins AIM. DSW operates a licencing model and licences the DSW and associated brand names in return for a royalty based on a percentage of fee income. Public Policy Holding Company (PPHC.L) leading bi-partisan, full-service US government affairs business joins AIM. Through its wholly-owned companies, PPHC operates a portfolio of independent firms that offer public affairs, crisis mana

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 21 Feb 23

21 February 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 objec

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 14 Jul 23

14th July 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 objecti

Allenby Capital - First Property Group Interims

At a 62% discount to interim NAV, the shares take a pessimistic view of the outlook, that we believe overstates the valuation risks and operational challenges First Property Group (FPO.L faces. The outlook for Poland, its key market, is good and improving and it reports solid demand for vacant space it owns directly in two strategically located office buildings in Warsaw and Gdynia. When let, this should add c. €2m to the rent roll and generate a commensurate uplift in asset values. There is al

PCI Pal - 1H sees accelerating revenue growth as TACV builds

The interims confirm acceleration in the already rapid revenue growth (+29% yoy in 1Q and now +33% yoy across 1H23), keeping the LBITDA in line with last year despite increased investment in product development and sales and marketing to seize new market opportunities (notably in Canada and Australia). PCIP remains on track for FY forecasts, which remain unchanged. Investment in the channel sales strategy is paying off with continued strong new customer sales; a record number of new contracts we

Morning Note – 3 October 2023

PCI Pal - Victory in the Court of Appeal, net cash upgrade of +£1.1m

PCI Pal has announced that the Court of Appeal has ruled in its favour in the unfounded patent litigation case brought by Sycurio, and that the Court of Appeal has indicated that it would make an order for £1.1m of funds to be released from escrow to PCI Pal as soon as possible. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal after just one day of the two day hearing, and upheld the resounding victory in the UK High Court case in September 2023, including invalidating Sycurio’s patents for prior art an

Morning Note – 27 June 2024