Samarkand Group PLC: Interim Results

Samarkand Group plc (SMK ASE) has today reported Interim results for the period ending September 30th, 2023 (1H 2024). SMK, a cross-border eCommerce technology, services, and consumer brand group, had seen China COVID controls impact its revenue growth and profitability. The Group has been growing revenue beyond China and reducing internal costs. 1H 2024 revenues decreased by 1.0% to £8.1m, however, whilst sales within China fell by 9%, those outside China rose by 13% to become 41% of the Group

Samarkand Group PLC: Full Year Report, Strong Progress

Samarkand Group plc (SMK ASE) has today reported Full Year results for the period ending March 31st, 2023. SMK, a cross-border eCommerce technology, services and consumer brand group, had seen China COVID controls impact its revenue growth from 3rd party and wholly owned brands shipping over its Nomad technology platform into China. The Group has focused on driving wider geographic revenue and reducing costs, which saw FY 2023 revenues rise by 5.4% to £17.5m, China was flat at £11.7m and the UK

VSA Morning Technology Comment 17/04/23 (Samarkand)

Samarkand Group plc (SMK), the cross-border eCommerce technology solution provider that enables international (Western) brands to expand into China, has announced a Trading Update for the year ended 31st March 2023 (FY 2023) and near-term outlook. SMK expects FY 2023 results to be slightly ahead of market guidance. This is very positive news given the Group has had to go through a period of extended disruption in China, its largest market.

VSA Morning Technology Comment 200223 (Samarkand Group PLC)

Samarkand Group plc (SMK), the cross-border eCommerce technology solution provider that enables Western brands to expand into China, has announced a Trading Update and near-term outlook. SMK sees the lifting of COVID-related restrictions, accumulated China consumer savings growth of 42% to US$4.8 trillion since the start of 2020, and pent-up consumer demand all pointing to a positive outlook for consumer demand for brands.

Samarkand Group PLC: Interims Report Strong Progress

Samarkand Group plc (SMK NXX) has today reported Interims for the 6 months ending September 30th, 2022 (H1 2023). SMK, a cross-border eCommerce technology solution provider, has seen China COVID controls impact its revenues from western brands and wholly owned brands shipping over its Nomad technology platform into China. The Group has focused on recovering revenue and reducing costs. H1 2023 revenues rose by 15% to £8.3m (H1 2022: £7.2m), the gross profit increased to £4.4m (H1 2022: £4.1m), an

Samarkand Group PLC: Open Offer Raises £1.98m

Samarkand Group plc (SMK NXX) has today announced that it has raised £1.98m through an Open Offer to qualifying shareholders, via the issue of 3,597,616 New Ordinary Shares at 55p each. This included 2,181,818 shares (£1.2m in value) purchased by strategic investor Global Smollan Holdings and 545,454 (£0.3m) purchased by Directors. The new shares are set for admission on September 26th 2022 and will bring the total in issue to 58.4m. SMK is a cross-border eCommerce technology solution provider t

Samarkand Group plc: Full Year Results in Line

Samarkand Group plc (SMK NXX) has today issued Full Year results for the period ending March 31st, 2022 (FY 2022). SMK is a cross-border eCommerce technology solution provider that enables Western brands to expand into China. Revenues are primarily derived from sales of own and client health and beauty brands. The Group today reports FY 2022 revenue of £16.6m and an adjusted EBITDA loss of £6.2m, which is in line with our estimates. Our P&L estimates for FY 2023 and FY 2024 are unchanged. SMK h

Samarkand Group PLC: Trading Update in Line with Expectations

Samarkand Group plc (SMK NXX) has today issued a trading update for the full year close on March 31st 2022 (FY 2022). SMK is a cross-border eCommerce technology solution provider that enables international brands to expand into China. Revenues are primarily derived from sales of own and client health and beauty brands. We reduced estimates in early February 2022 following a Group update on the impact of measures enacted in-line with China's zero COVID policy. The Group has successfully managed c

VSA Morning Technology Comment 24/02/22 (Samarkand Group)

Samarkand Group plc (SMK), the cross-border eCommerce technology solution provider that enables Western brands to expand into China, has announced today that it has signed a three-year contract with UK-quoted Revolution Beauty Group PLC, a global mass beauty and personal care business.

Samarkand Group plc: Trading Update

Samarkand Group plc (SMK NXX), has today issued a trading update ahead of Full Year close on March 31st 2022 (FY 2022). SMK is a cross-border eCommerce technology solution provider that enables Western brands to expand into China. SMK in today’s update stated that, “2H 2022, a traditionally strong eCommerce period, will be unusually weak due to a number of measures have recently been enacted in-line with China's zero COVID policy that will have a significant impact on the remainder of the financ

VSA Morning Technology Comment 24/01/22 (Samarkand)

Samarkand Group plc (SMK), the cross-border eCommerce technology solution provider that enables Western brands to expand into China, has announced today that it has formed an Alliance Partnership with FedEx, utilising the SMK Nomad software platform to enable cross-border eCommerce from international markets into China.

VSA Morning Technology Comment 17/01/21

Samarkand Group plc (SMK), the cross-border eCommerce technology solution provider that enables Western brands to expand into China, has announced that it has signed a 3-year contract extension with UK based skincare and personal care product company TEMPLESPA.

VSA Morning Technology Comment 10/01/22 (Samarkand Group)

Samarkand Group plc (SMK) has today announced an agreement with Venture Life plc (AIM: VLG) for the exclusive distribution of their oral care brands Dentyl Dual Action and Ultradex in China.

VSA Morning Technology Comment 04/12/21 (Samarkand Group)

Samarkand Group plc (SMK), has today issued Interim results for the period ending September 30th 2021 (H1 2022).

VSA Morning Technology Comment 13/12/21 (Samarkand Group)

Samarkand’s cross border eCommerce software is to be deployed by a major eCommerce platform, Strawberrynet, to drive China online growth

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

Meet, beat, repeat

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

FY23 - preparing for two high impact wells this year

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

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

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

Morning Note – 9 April 2024

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

LIBERUM: Agents of change: Evolving for modern demands

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

UK Equities: Overlooked, oversold, and over here

In this note we look at the gap between perception and reality in the UK equity market, the opportunities and threats in the economic and market outlook, and the emerging consensus that the valuation discount versus other major markets is at or close to an inflection point. We consider the benefits of UK equity strategies both for income investors and for those seeking exposure to the higher growth potential of smaller and mid-cap companies.