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

Franchise Brands CMD feedback

Franchise Brands held a well-attended CMD yesterday in which it detailed its medium-term growth potential, including setting an Adjusted EBITDA target of £60m for 2027.

Allenby Capital: Franchise Brands Year end update

Franchise Brands’ year-end trading update confirms a solid year dominated by the transformational acquisition of Pirtek Europe in April which effectively doubled the size of the Group. In FY23, all divisions serving business customers traded at record levels, an outcome which considering the challenges of acquiring and integrating Pirtek is a testament to the strength and depth of the management team. We make no changes to our full year expectations and believe the shares represent outstanding v

Franchise Brands FY23 Trading Update

Demand for the essential reactive services offered by Franchise Brands has enabled the business to perform well and achieve record results in its key B2B areas, despite the challenging macro-economic background.

Allenby Capital: Franchise Brands Q3 update

Franchise Brands’ Q3 trading update provides investors with a number of positives. Given the mostly essential nature of the Group’s reactive services, all B2B businesses have traded at record levels while profitability in B2C activities is in line with management expectations. In addition, we are pleased to see that debt levels are reducing. The Board expects Group adjusted EBITDA to be in line with consensus forecasts. However, given the rise in interest rates on the Group’s debt, we are easing

Q3 Trading Update

The 3Q trading update highlights the group's continued success in growing international franchise businesses in essential reactive services.

LSE AIM - Market Screener (4 October 2023)

 The market capitalization of AIM companies was £81.1bn, FTSE AIM All Share Index was down 15.4% YTD as of 3 October 2023. Among the top YTD winners, were Plexus Holdings (1289% YTD on major contract value increase, £26.4mn MktCap), Amur Minerals (+314%, MktCap £1.3m), Glantus Holdings (+259% on acquisition offer, MktCap £17.0mn), Cornerstone FS Plc (+175% YTD, MktCap £9.5mn), RTC Group (+238% on strong financials, MktCap £8.4mn), Mycelx Technologies (+172% YTD, MktCap £14.7mn), Empire Metals

Feedback from Digital Disruption Conference

On 12th September, Dowgate Capital and FTI Consulting held the third annual Digital Transformation Conference. Franchise Brands' Executive Chairman Stephen Hemsley and CIO Colin Rees detailed how the group is using tools to drive operational gearing and the way it is rolling out systems across the group following the recent acquisitions of Filta and Pirtek.

Allenby Capital: Franchise Brands interims

The transformational acquisition of Pirtek Europe was completed on 21 April and as a consequence its results are consolidated for 10 weeks of Franchise Brands’ first half. Together with strong organic growth from the B2B division and Filta North America, the enlarged Group is well placed to continue its growth trajectory into the second half and beyond. The B2C activities are no longer being marketed for sale and performed in line with expectations. The Group, which is primarily focused on provi

Interim results

Franchise Brands has reported strong interim results that highlight encouraging performances both at recent acquisition Pirtek and the pre-existing portfolio, and it now expects FY23 EBITDA to be ‘at least' in line with market expectations.

IP Group - Several potential portfolio catalysts on the horizon

IP Group’s NAV declined by 13% in total return (TR) terms in FY23, affected by continued soft valuations across venture capital (VC) markets, as well as funding delays at some of its holdings. That said, management indicated that many of IP Group’s portfolio companies continued to make strong progress. Its maturing portfolio offers a number of potential NAV triggers and is now available at a wide 59% discount to NAV. We note that, as at end-2023, only 14% of IP Group’s portfolio was valued based

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

Meet, beat, repeat

FY23 - preparing for two high impact wells this year

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

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 - 16/04/2024

16th 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: Electric Guitar (ELEG.L) Concurrent with its Admission to trading on AIM, Electric Guitar is proposing to acquire the entire issued share capital of 3radical Limited for

Braemar - Diversification paying dividends

Braemar’s FY24 trading update was in line with expectations, with revenues of c £150m and underlying operating profit of c £18m. Underlying operations continue to expand and diversify and the company remains well-positioned to drive its future growth strategy. The trading outlook is promising and Braemar should be able to leverage its strong balance sheet in pursuit of strategic growth. We have maintained our underlying estimates for FY24 and FY25, but edge down the valuation based on the lower

Trinity Delta Lighthouse: Avacta

Trinity Delta view: The proprietary pre|CISION platform is key to Avacta’s investment case, hence updated data that continue to support key hypotheses for AVA6000 are reassuring. Future efficacy data from studies planned to start in H224 will be key, and could also help to more broadly validate pre|CISION. The recent £31.1m fundraise (March 2024 Lighthouse), which provides a cash runway of c 24 months ie into early 2026, will be used to advance the therapeutics pipeline, in particular AVA6000, a

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

Avacta Group - AACR update

As pre-announced, Avacta has presented the results of the 3-weekly P1 Arm 1 study of its AVA6000 lead clinical asset, based on the pre|CISION™ drug development platform at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual general meeting. The update does not cover progress on the ongoing 2-weekly dosing study which is underway, and Avacta confirmed current guidance on timing including being on track to begin the dose expansion study in 2H24. There are compelling updates on the progress repor

Morning Note – 9 April 2024

LIBERUM: Agents of change: Evolving for modern demands

Allenby Capital: Deltic Energy - Update

Deltic Energy plc (DELT.L) has announced some positive news concerning its 50% interest in the Selene joint-venture with Shell UK Ltd. The announcement concerns a farm-out to Dana Petroleum Ltd of a 25% interest in Licence P2437 which contains the Selene prospect. The farm-out calls for Deltic retaining a highly meaningful 25% interest in one of the most interesting prospects in terms of risk profile and scale in the Southern North Sea (SNS) Basin while largely eliminating exposure to the cost o

Top of the Pops

We reveal the winners of our investment trust ratings for 2024... Our ratings seek to reward closed-ended funds which deliver attractive and persistent performance characteristics in three categories which we think match up to broad goals investors usually have: long-term growth, income and growth, and high current income. This includes strong performance versus a fund’s underlying market, as well as attractive risk characteristics which we think suggests they could continue to be premium optio