Hybridan Small Cap Feast 17/06/2022

*A corporate client of Hybridan LLP Dish of the day Joiners: No Joiners Today. Leavers: No Leavers Today. What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen? Visum Technologies seeking admission to The AQSE Growth Market. The Company's business is to own and operate an "on-ride" video and photographic camera system that it sells and/or licenses to customers (being theme parks, ride manufacturers, souvenir imaging providers, and other leisure operators). Due 30 June. LifeSafe Holdings, a fire safety

Still going strong

Future today released an update highlighting FY’20E adj EBITDA which is trading towards the top-end of consensus (£86.3m-£91.0m; N1Se: £88.5m). Strong performance has been supported by acceleration of the consumer shift to digital, positive cost control and cost synergy extraction from the TI Media acquisition (c.£9m annualised savings delivered so far). Migration of TI Media sites to the Group’s Vanilla platform are underway, whilst Hawk (price comparison platform) has been successfully deploye

Digital transition accelerates

Future’s H1 results highlight the benefits of the Group’s diverse revenue model. Group sales grew 33% y/y to £144.3m (organic: +11%; N1Se: £145.0m), with AOP up 77% to £39.9m (organic: +40%; N1Se: £38.7m). Organic Media sales growth of +21% y/y reflects strong online user growth, with H1 average monthly online users up +26% to 253m, driving eCommerce sales up +68% organic. Online audience growth rapidly accelerated post lockdown (+66% y/y in March) supported by gaming and Live Sciences verticals

TI Media completion and Covid-19 update

Future has completed the acquisition of TI Media (the Group’s largest acquisition to date), following clearance from the Competition and Markets Authority (‘CMA’) and disposal of four small TI Media assets to satisfy competition remedies. The acquisition incorporates 38 new brands strengthening Future’s position in some segments whilst also helping to diversify the Group’s portfolio and offering new online audience creation avenues. Alongside the announcement the Group provides an update on Covi

H1’20 pre-close: cash ahead

Future has announced a pre-close trading update for H1’20 highlighting continued strong online audience growth which is further driving eCommerce and digital advertising revenue streams. Recent weeks have been unprecedented, however the Group continues to see limited impact to online consumer behavioural trends (Feb audience traffic: +2% month on month per ComScore), whilst in Magazine y/y growth in Grocers is partly offsetting declines in travel outlets. Key metrics are holding up well, and the

TI Media CMA update: progressing as expected

Future has announced an update regarding the acquisition of TI Media. The Competition and Markets Authority (‘CMA’) has found that the acquisition of TI Media does not raise competitive concerns subject to the sale of 3 closely competing products. The Group is now in discussions with the CMA on potential remedies to mitigate competitive issues and proceed with the transaction as soon as practicable. The update is in line with our expectations, with a prudent £10m revenue adjustment and no procee

Minimal Covid-19 impact expected

Future Group has announced the outcome of a management review into the potential impact from Covid-19 on forecasts. As we would expect, the conclusion is that there will be no impact to profits in FY’20E or FY’21E, with Covid19 not showing signs of disrupting strong Group underlying online fundamentals. The Group’s events revenue stream (6% of Group revenues, c.2% of profits) has seen two near-term events rescheduled, although these are still forecast to land in the current financial year (July

CMD flags strong near-term opportunities

We take the opportunity after last week’s Capital Markets Day to review key themes touched on by management, and the impact on likely future performance. Takeaways impacting organic growth are: 1) The speed at which migrations/ launches occur with Vanilla is faster than previously expected; 2) Video Content and Intent Marketing opportunities open up new streams; and 3) The Group has more potential to generate value from back catalogue content than previously thought. Organic Media sales growth o

Capital Markets Day – a Future view

Future’s Capital Markets Day yesterday highlighted the Group’s continued success in identifying, developing and monetising new audiences and content and driving strong organic growth. The CTO’s run through of the tech stack presented a platform in complete alignment with Group strategy, able to spin-up new sites impressively quickly, fully integrated with Ecom and Adtech back-ends. The walk-through of an example article life-cycle also shows the strength of RoI potential for individual editorial

Audience growth outperforming expectations

Future’s audience growth metrics have proved stronger than expected in the first 4-months of FY’20E. Management now forecast financial performance to be ‘materially’ ahead of current FY’20E market expectations. We upgrade our FY’20E sales by 4%, and with outperformance indicated to be in higher margin profile eCommerce and digital display advertising areas, we upgrade FY’20E EBITDA by 8%. Given current macro uncertainty we leave FY’21E and FY’22E forecasts broadly unchanged although we flag heig

A big, bold Future

Shareholders yesterday approved the net £140m proposed acquisition of TI Media Group (‘TI Media’). The acquisition will be funded through a mix of debt and equity, and presents a compelling opportunity for Future to leverage its digital platform, ecommerce and content expertise, and global reach (TI Media continuing sales: >70% magazine). Post removal of broker restrictions, we now update forecasts for both TI Media (assumes endApril’20 completion) and Barcroft Studios acquisitions, with an addi

FY’19 organic Media sales up 31% y/y

Future Plc’s FY results revealed the better than consensus growth noted in the trading update last week. Underlying group revenues grew 11% y/y, and 70% on a reported basis to reach £221.5m (FY’18: £130.1m), with organic Media revenue growth of 31% (reported: 134%) to £154.9m (FY’18: £66.3m). EBTIDA margins were 24.6% (FY’18: 15.9%) supported by increased scale and improving product mix. Regionally, US sales grew an organic 40% y/y with US ARPU still at a 38% discount to the UK (FY’18: 48%). EPS

Successful completion of ABB ahead of potential acquisition

Future Plc has announced the completion of an accelerated book build undertaken at 1275p/share (a 6.25% discount to yesterday’s closing price). The announcement of the placing of 8,184,906 (raising £104.4m of gross proceeds) has been made alongside a proposed acquisition of TI Media, the UK-based, print-led consumer magazine and digital publisher. The consideration of £140m for TI Media will also be funded through drawdown of an additional £45m of debt. This acquisition of TI Media is conditiona

Outperformance at Mobile Nations now expected

Future Plc has today announced the achievement of accelerated earn-out payments related to the acquisition of Mobile Nations in March’19. Deferred consideration of $55m (50% cash/ 50% new shares) becomes payable, with management assuming the achievement of an $11.5m EBITDA contribution from Mobile Nation operations to March’20. Mobile Nations management team will continue to work within Future within the newly created Future Labs, tasked with driving additional organic growth by integrating new

Strong pre-close update drives forecast upgrades

Future Plc has announced better than expected performance in its FY’19E pre-close trading update driven by a mix of Amazon Prime Day activity and positive underlying momentum in US operations, supported in part by a strong dollar. Integration of recent acquisitions has further increased capacity, supplementing already positive organic audience growth and benefitting margin performance. Top-line outperformance means full year EBITDA is now expected to be materially ahead of current market expecta

AGM Trading Update

S4 Capital has released an AGM update that states the strong growth delivered in 2021 has continued for the first four months of 2022 and confirms guidance for 25% LFL growth in Gross Profit combined with steady improvement in EBITDA margin.

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 21/06/2022

Joiners: No Joiners Today. Leavers: No Leavers Today. What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen? Visum Technologies seeking admission to The AQSE Growth Market. The Company's business is to own and operate an "on-ride" video and photographic camera system that it sells and/or licenses to customers (being theme parks, ride manufacturers, souvenir imaging providers, and other leisure operators). Due 30 June. LifeSafe Holdings, a fire safety technology business with innovative fire safety products, intends

Tremor - Record Q1 with 13% growth, 47% EBITDA margin, $371m cash

Tremor has reported record Q1 22 net revenue of $71.0m from +13% organic growth, record Q1 22 adjusted EBITDA of $33.6m at a margin of 47%, and continued to build its net cash to $371m including $13m of buyback. Its adjusted EBITDA for Q1 and its guidance for Q2 of c$40m are in line with consensus, while its Q1 22 net revenue and Q2 22 guidance of $75-80m are c3-10% light, as Tremor is focusing on scaling its higher-margin self-serve and PMP revenue, and has seen some advertisers postpone spend

SHORE CAPITAL - STV Group+ (STVG) - House Stock at 288p

Morning Note – 21 June 2022

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 20/05/22

Dish of the day Joiners: No Joiners Today. Leavers: No Leavers Today. What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen? Psych Capital PLC, intends to list on the AQSE Growth Market. Psych operates the Psych Platform (a business-to-business networking platform), that is developing the Blossom Database pursuant to a third party licensing arrangement. The Company also has an investment of 426,000 common shares in Awakn, a Canadian NEO Exchange listed psychedelics research and clinical group, with operations in th

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 19/05/22

Joiners: No Joiners Today. Leavers: No Leavers Today. What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen? Psych Capital PLC, intends to list on the AQSE Growth Market. Psych operates the Psych Platform (a business-to-business networking platform), that is developing the Blossom Database pursuant to a third party licensing arrangement. The Company also has an investment of 426,000 common shares in Awakn, a Canadian NEO Exchange listed psychedelics research and clinical group, with operations in the UK and Europe.

SHORE CAPITAL - STV Group (STVG) - House Stock at 300p

SHORE CAPITAL - STV Group+ (STVG, House Stock at 285p)

Small Cap Feast

tinyBuild— a leading video games publisher and developer with global operations. tinyBuild's strategic focus is in creating longlasting IP by partnering with video games developers, establishing a stable platform on which to build multi-game and multimedia franchises is to join AIM. Offer details TBC. Due mid-March. AMTE Power, a developer and manufacturer of lithium-ion battery cells for specialist markets, announced its intention to seek admission to trading on AIM. Admission is expected to ta

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 22/04/22

Joiners: No joiners today. Leavers: No leavers today. 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 marketin

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 29/04/22

Joiners: Lift Global Ventures plc (AQSE:LFT) has joined 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 providers and Te

Strong advertising and activities in studios

Q1 22 was strong in each division. Total advertising revenue increased by +16% as expected and digital advertising surged by +27%. ITV Studios revenue grew by +24% at constant currency thanks to strong deliveries of programmes. Total advertising revenue growth is expected to be +5% in H1 22 due to a tough comparative in Q2 22. ITV Studios benefits from the high demand for content and is confident on its performance in 2022. The launch of ITVX is confirmed for Q4 22.

AGM TU: Resilient performance

Reach’s YTD update shows further resilient performance against a challenging backdrop. Group revenue declined 0.9% y/y in the 4-months to April (in-line) as growth trends normalised and tougher, post-lockdown comparables are lapped. Within the mix, Print positively surprised, posting modest -4% y/y decline (SCMe FY’22e: -6%) – cover price increase acceptance helps demonstrate the relative pricing inelasticity of RCH’s loyal audience base. Digital revenue momentum remains positive (YTD +9% y/y; Q

Cenkos: XLMedia Plc -- Ahead, and guidance unchanged

Adj EBITDA was 4% ahead of that indicated in January. The material +47% YoY growth rate in this figure is attributable to the M&A activity in US sports betting over the past 12-18 months which has reshaped the Group. This also brings higher margin activities to offset Casino which is in 'managed decline'. Casino is asset-light with much variable cost and manageable. Sports now forms almost half of all Group revenues and has huge growth potential as more US states legalise sports betting.