Morning Note – 18 April 2024

Morning Note – 5 January 2024

Morning Note – 19 December 2023

LendInvest - Strong H1 cash performance, platform positioned to capitalise

In challenging market conditions, H1 results show AuM growth of +11% yoy to £2.7bn, growth and cost initiatives to enable the business to capitalise as the market recovers, and H1 24 cash of £88m after £47m at FY23. H1 24 AuM has grown despite challenges for new lending, such as UK Finance highlighting BTL lending volumes down 50% in the last 12-months, where 70% of LendInvest’s FY23 AuM was from BTL lending. Successful execution of the strategic focus to move a greater proportion of AuM off-BS

Morning Note – 30 November 2023

The Joy of Techs - Cavendish Technology quarterly sector note

£23.3bn in enterprise value has been returned to AIM technology shareholders over the past six years in the form of 51 public to private takeouts, including 10 in 2023 alone with the takeovers of Smoove* and Tribal announced in early October. With UK valuations appearing cheap and looking more attractive to potential acquirers, we take a moment to reflect on the trends of corporate and private equity bidders targeting AIM-listed technology companies going back to 2017, through the uncertainties

Morning Note – 6 September 2023

Morning Note – 18 July 2023

LendInvest - Strengthening the platform through FY23 and FY24

LendInvest has reported FY23 AuM growth of +21% to £2.6bn, reported PBT in line with FY23 guidance at £14.3m, and FY23 DPS of 4.5p. The group’s revenue disclosure has changed to focus on net operating income instead of gross revenue, and on the new basis, FY23 net revenue increased +8% yoy to £54.7m, with growth of +38% in BTL driving the performance. Through the currently challenging market conditions, management has continued to focus on selectively scaling the platform, and the launch of the

Morning Note – 3 July 2023

Morning Note – 30 May 2023

Morning Note – 20 April 2023

Morning Note – 13 April 2023

LendInvest - Strengthening and scaling through FY23

In today’s trading update, LendInvest has announced FY23 platform AuM growth of +21% to £2.6bn, record monthly applications for bridging loans in March, and that it expects to report FY23 results in line with market expectations. Through volatile market conditions, management has continued to strengthen the platform in H2, including HSBC and the British Business Bank providing up to £100m of funding to expand LendInvest’s development finance products, and the successful launch into the specialis

Morning Note – 17 January 2023

Redde

Proposed share-for-share merger with Northgate

Lowland Investment Company - Is the tide turning?

Lowland Investment Company’s (LWI’s) unconstrained, multi-cap investment policy differentiates it from most peers in the AIC UK Equity Income sector. It offers investors broad market exposure, outside of the large, traditional ‘income stocks’ at a 13% discount to NAV. The underperformance of small- and mid-cap companies versus larger peers has slowed and a turnaround would be very positive for LWI. Portfolio returns are already benefiting from acquisition activity, spurred by low valuations, and

Foxtons Group (FOXT LN) - 1Q24 IMS shows real momentum

Foxtons Group plc first quarter revenue rose 9% to £35.7m (1Q23: £32.9m) with growth delivered across all business segments. Trading is in line with management's expectations.

PCI Pal - +25% FY23 revenue growth, FY24 growth of +28% reiterated

PCI Pal’s FY23 results show revenue growth of +25% to £14.9m, gross profit growth of +31% to £13.1m at a margin of 88%, and an outlook confirming robust momentum in H1 24. The FY23 results are as expected following the August trading update, and FY23 Total Annual Contract Value (TACV) is +23% yoy to £16.4m, with ARR +14% yoy to £12.6m due to £3.1m of contracts in deployment. We expect ARR will increase +35% and +31% to £17.0m and £22.2m in FY24 and FY25, as management lands and expands following

Foresight Solar Fund - Optimising capital allocation

Foresight Solar Fund (FSFL) celebrated its 10-year anniversary of listing on the London Stock Exchange with decade-high cash distributions from assets of £120.4m in its FY23 results (year end 31 December). FY23 also saw FSFL’s divestment programme come to fruition with the sale of a 50% stake in its Spanish Lorca portfolio at a 21% premium to its holding value. The proceeds of this divestment, along with free cash, were used to pay down the fund’s variable rate debt via its revolving credit faci

Tetragon Financial Group - FY23 growth driven by idiosyncratic factors

Tetragon Financial Group (Tetragon) posted a 6.4% net asset value (NAV) per share total return (TR) in US dollar terms in FY23. Tetragon’s returns normally have a low correlation with broader markets, and therefore its FY23 performance was below the 26.3% return of the S&P 500 Index, which rallied on the artificial intelligence (AI) theme. Tetragon’s FY23 return on equity (RoE) of 5.5% was below its target of 10–15% pa. That said, its performance since listing was within the target range at 11.3

Resilient FY24, confident long-term outlook

Vp’s full year update highlights sector-leading results, once again benefiting from the diversity of its end markets and the quality of its specialist businesses. With results expected to be broadly in line with expectations, we trim our FY24 PBT forecast by c.5% to £39.0m, a shade below the FY23 outturn (£40.2m). We consider this an impressively resilient performance set against a mixed market backdrop. Under new leadership, a strategic refresh is underway and management is confident in long

Zeus Top Picks for 2024 - 2023 review and outlook for 2024

On 9 January last year, we set out our ten top stock picks for 2023, for what turned out to be another relatively poor twelve months for UK equities due to two wars, stubbornly high inflation and further tightening of monetary policy. This was even as other major markets, such as the US, largely recovered in the year. In the 2023 calendar year, the AIM All-Share index fell 8.2% and is still 42% off its 2021 high. From the release of our 2023 top picks note, the average total return (assuming div

Vector Capital - Full year results illustrate challenging backdrop; dividend maintained

Vector Capital is an established commercial lending group, focused on secured short-term and bridging loans in the property sector. This morning, the group has reported full year results to 31 December 2023, illustrating the challenging market backdrop. While underlying trading was robust, with good demand being seen for new loans, provisions for bad debts relating to historical loans of £728k in the year led to a decrease in PBT to £2.1m (WHI est. £2.4m, FY22 £2.8m). Looking ahead, although VCA

Strong H1'23 results; forecasts upgraded