LSL Property Services (LSL LN) -Mixed trading update

LSL’s trading update shows its diversification strategy is working: increased market share and good growth in Financial Services and Surveying for the first 10 months, however the last 2 months of 2023 have been disrupted by political uncertainty and increased mortgage rates. We cut our EBIT forecast by 14%.

LSL Property Services (LSL LN) - Pipeline: slower but not older

LSL’s interims reveal increased market share and productivity in Financial Services and Surveying, but slow down in conversion of exchanges into completions has raised the pipeline 26% yoy to £26.7m (Dec 21: £20.7m; June 21: £21.2m), skewing revenue and profit into 2H and probably into 2023.

LSL Property Services (LSL LN) - AGM trading update

LSL’s performance in 2022 YTD shows the benefits of its Financial Services growth strategy and significant progress in its Surveying Division. The impact of housing market cycles will have a reducing impact. As previously reported, the split of H1:H2 profit in 2022 will have a more typical profile (i.e. skewed to H2), after a record H1 2021.

LSL Property Services LSL LN) - 2021 record profits

What’s new: Full year results confirms 2021 was LSL Property Services’ most profitable year. Improved profitability in its Surveying division and strong drivers of growth in Financial Services suggest group profits should be maintained in 2022.

LSL Property Services (LSL LN) - Financial Services led growth

What’s new: Full year trading update reveals LSL Property Services is “on track with the execution of [its] Financial Services led growth strategy, with further investment in … in H2, which is expected to deliver benefits in future years”.

LSL Property Services PLC (LSL LN) - Recovery with underlying growth

Zeus view: We expect 1H underlying operating profit will be 54% of 2021 underlying operating profit of £50m (note: normal split 1:3). With minor adjustments, we leave our Group revenue and profit forecasts for 2021 and 2022 unchanged.

LSL Property Services (LSL LN) - Updated SOTP valuation

What’s new: Our estimate of LSL’s sum of the parts “SOTP” (Exhibit 1) is 726p, which has continued to rise and the discount LSL share price has widened to 43%:  1 Jan 2021 LSL at 280p was a 24% discount to our SOTP of 539p  30 April 2021 LSL at 305p was a 31% discount to our SOTP of 589p LSL and its reference stocks (Mortgage Advice Bureau, Fintel Group and The Franchise Property Group) have all traded well and their share prices outperformed the FT All Share over the past 30 days, 90 days

LSL Property Services (LSL LN) - Further focus on financial services

What’s new: LSL has sold its 32% investment in TM Group, a joint venture whose principal activity is to provide searches, for £29m cash. This follows LSL’s sale in May 2021 of its 49.6% holding in LMS, (Legal Marketing Services, a conveyancing panel manager) for £12m cash. These sales simplify LSL’s Group structure and facilitate reallocation capital into LSL’s Financial Services opportunities. Zeus view: this sale is a good clearing up exercise on sensible terms. The sales of TMG and LMS ha

LSL Property Services (LSL LN) - Simplification supports strategy

What’s new: LSL has agreed to sell its 49.6% holding in LMS, (Legal Marketing Services, a conveyancing panel manager), to Private Equity, for £12m cash. The sale simplifies the Group structure, providing further capital for deployment into opportunities to accelerate the Group’s growth strategy, in particular Financial Services. Current Trading: The AGM yesterday provided no update to the detailed comment made on 28 April 2021 (see Exhibit 1, page 2) which revealed a very strong start to all

LSL Property Services (LSL LN) - Strong trading in all divisions

What’s new: LSL’s results deliver on the recent trading update, namely: Group underlying profit of £35.2m (2019: 37.0m), or £41.5m pre £6.3m Covid-19 costs. Reported net bank Debt of £1.6m (Dec 2019: £41.9m) is “historically low”. All divisions traded well, despite a difficult 1H. For the year 2020:  16% rise in Financial Services EBIT to £13.5m, as it benefited from a rise in Mortgage and Protection completions in PRIMIS, driven by the rise in total financial advisors (n.b. 8% rise in 20

LSL Property Services (LSL LN) - 5-year deal accelerates growth

What’s new: The Property Franchise Group PLC (“TPFG”), the UK's largest property franchisor, has reached a long-term agreement for LSL to offer mortgage and protection advice services to all of TPFG’s franchisees. TPFG has over 430 physical offices, conducts the sale of circa 23,000 properties per annum and manages over 73,000 tenanted properties.

LSL Property Services (LSL LN) - £200m Pivotal Growth JV

What’s new: LSL and Pollen Street Capital (“PSC”) have agreed to establish Pivotal Growth (“Pivotal”) to invest £200m building the leading national mortgage broker using market leading tech, first class compliance and exemplary customer service. Simon Embley has been appointed Pivotal’s CEO; he will step down from his role as non-executive Chairman of LSL.

LSL Property Services (LSL LN) - 2021 trading update

What’s new: Today LSL’s trading update reveals strong 2021 trading, a new £90m Bank Facility and plans release 2020 results in April, reinstating guidance and providing detailed strategic update, including “significant opportunities in financial services.” In 2020, LSL completed £32.6bn of mortgages (3% up 2019), which is c. 9% of total purchase and remortgage market.

LSL Property Services (LSL LN) - Driving digital growth

What’s new: LSL has announced two important acquisitions (60% stake in Direct Life Quote Holdings Limited for £1.8m, and the business and assets of Mortgage Gym for £2.4m) and made two key appointments (Steve Goodall as new MD of e.surv; Andy Deeks as new Group Chief Strategy Officer).

Uncertain outlook comes as no surprise

We take a positive view of Legal & General’s FY 22 results. Despite the tough environment, the Group managed to outperform expectations – something which was hardly a given for such a large asset manager. With L&G being widely exposed to the UK economy, it might be a call one does not want to make but the firm’s business remains one of spreads – as long as a default does not occur. We remain positive but concede that L&G embeds more risk than we had assumed.

Very strong CY22 - CY23 upgraded 10%

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

Ambitious winds of change

M&G’s FY 22 results were strong. It was also the opportunity for new CEO Andrea Rossi to depict clearly his strategy for the upcoming months. While the impetus is clear and the objectives are ambitious, we rather believe in a structural improvement of the business (driven by the higher rates environment) than a commercial one.

LIBERUM: Alpha Group International* - Highly attractive global growth opportunity

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 06 Mar 23

6 March 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 objective

Belvoir Group - Debt free, entrepreneurial and diverse

2022 followed on from the strongest year for property in recent history, but Belvoir has, nevertheless, reported a robust set of full-year results further evidencing the power of its franchised model and strategy. FY 2022 revenue was up +14% (+2% like-for-like), gross profit up +6% and adj. PBT down -1% as the resilient Lettings income and expanding Financial Services business continued to grow (both +4% LFL), while housing Sales fell (-15% LFL) as market conditions weakened and administrative c

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 14 Mar 23

14 March 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 objectiv

Critical Metals Plc - Initiating Coverage - 20th March 2023

Critical Metals is a British company that has acquired a 70% interest in a producing Molulu copper mine in the Katanga region of the DRC. The focus of the company is in the natural resources sector in Africa focused on the strategic or critical metals as defined by the United States Government Survey list in Open-File Report 2018-1021 and the Critical Raw Minerals as defined by the European Commission. The main catalysts for 2023 will be the announcement of the first sales of copper ore. This i

LIBERUM: Pollen Street * - Clear fundraising momentum

NAHL Group - Finals

NAHL generated growth in both its Personal Injury (PI) and Critical Care divisions, the former despite a continuation of subdued market conditions – hence market share gains. Results were in line with our forecasts but with a significant reduction in net debt which is especially welcome in the current high interest rate environment. Group strategy remains intact and in PI that means building the embedded value of future cash flows in NAL while flexing enquiry placements to maximise cash generati

Positive update - EPS upgraded by 5% p.a.

H&T (initiation of coverage): Pawnbroking royalty, with strong, profitable growth

Founded in 1897, H&T is the UK’s leading pawnbroker, with 269 stores, and it has gained a strong pawnbroking market share in recent years. While it is growing ancillary gold buying and forex products, its core is pawnbroking and related retail services. As other small-sum, short-term lenders have withdrawn, H&T’s well-capitalised, low-risk proposition has unique growth opportunities, with the pledge book up over 50% in 2022. The lessening of legitimate competition at a time of heightened demand

Oakley Capital Investments Ltd (OCI): 2022: NAV returns driven by EBITDA growth

The January trading statement announced NAV (662p per share), total NAV return (24%), NAV growth driven by EBITDA growth (65%), modest multiple expansion (35%), investments (£271m), realisations (£244m), available finance, including cash (£210m), and commitments (£929m). The detailed results announcement highlighted i) 2022 exits, on average, 70% above carrying value, ii) 22% investee company average earnings growth, iii) weighted average EV/EBITDA of 15.9x, below listed market levels, iii) a PE

Interims in line, undervalued high quality income stream

Income quality stands out here: lfl rental growth continues, occupancy is full and rental collection is strong. The asset class is demonstrating the ability to perform in challenging conditions, reflecting the structural undersupply of high quality PRS homes in the UK. Pre-announced, EPRA NAV was largely unchanged at 117p in H1 with no yield compression and all rental earnings distributed. We make no changes to forecasts at this stage. We see an attractive total return with the shares trading at