Taking the Upper Brand: Brands Sector Overview

The earliest dated brand has long been contested; the majority point to Kongō Gumi, a family run construction company that specialised in Buddhist temples in Japan; its documented record of ownership goes back to 578 AD. Like Kongō Gumi, several different brands have withstood the test of time, albeit without then same degree of longevity. The term brand originates from the 1500s and means "to burn" in Ancient Norse and was initially used to mark cattle for ownership. This practice can be consid

VSA Morning Consumer Comment (S-Ventures)

S-Ventures (“SVEN”) announced its audited results for FY22 on 30 June and its interim results on the 5 July, which means that the share suspension has now been lifted. The announcement delay was primarily due to various audit reasons surrounding the Purchase Price Allocation work and impairment on its Lizza GmbH acquisition; acquired in Aug 2022 for €1. We note that when SVEN acquired Lizza it was already loss making, and given the current backdrop, SVEN noted in Feb 23 that the losses were unsu

S-Ventures PLC: Full Year Trading Update

S-Ventures PLC (SVEN) is an investment vehicle that invests in and grows brands in the natural, wellness, and food technology sectors. SVEN recently reported a trading update for the Full Year ending September 30th 2022 (FY 2022) and expects revenue of £8.7m (vs. our forecast £9.4m), mainly derived from protein bar brand Pulsin, and an EBIT loss of £2.6m (vs. our forecast of £1.2m). Sales were lower than we had anticipated due to constrained supply of ingredients from Ukraine. EBIT losses missed

VSA Morning Technology Comment, 04/10/22 (S-Ventures Plc)

SVEN has today announced new contract wins from its Pulsin, Purely, Ohso and Livia's product ranges across current and new retail channels.

S-Ventures PLC: Interim Results

S-Ventures PLC (SVEN) is an investment vehicle investing in and growing brands in the natural, wellness and food technology sectors. Since IPO in September 2020, SVEN has made three acquisitions and four investments, including main trading business, Pulsin, a UK protein bar and shake producer. SVEN recently reported Interims to March end 2022 (FY 1H22); year-end September. Revenue of £4.0m was mainly from Pulsin and the EBIT loss of £0.8m was in part due to inflationary, M&A and post-acquisition

S-Ventures PLC: Trading Update

S-Ventures PLC (SVEN) is an investment vehicle investing in and growing brands in the natural, wellness and food technology sectors. Since IPO in September 2020, SVEN has made three acquisitions and four investments. This includes its main trading business, Pulsin, a UK protein bar and shake producer. In an AGM update issued pre-Easter, SVEN highlighted Pulsin’s growth with the Group forecasting FY 2022 (September end) revenue to rise by 41% to £9.0m; this in tough retail markets! Although good

VSA Capital Brands Comment 18/02/22

SVEN has announced today that it has acquired of the business and assets of Livia's Health Foods Limited

VSA Morning Brands Comment 20/12/21 (S Ventures)

S-Ventures PLC (SVEN), announced on December 17th 2021 that it had raised gross proceeds of approximately £3.0 million by way of an issue of 4,285,714 new Ordinary shares at 70p per Share – this at a significant premium to the share price of 24.5p. In the placing, each investor has been granted one warrant for every three New Ordinary Shares subscribed for, whereby each warrant will entitle the holder to subscribe for a new ordinary share at £2.00 per Share at any time prior to 20 December 2023.

S-Ventures PLC: Creating Value for Food Technologies

S-Ventures PLC (“S-Ventures, The Company”) was incorporated on July 6th, 2020, as an Investment Vehicle to identify acquisitions and investment opportunities in the Wellness sector with a focus on Food Technology. Its strategy is to acquire and invest in underdeveloped and poorly capitalised brands with strong food technologies and apply the board’s skills and capital to significantly scale them. Since IPO on the London Aquis Exchange in September 2020, S-Ventures has raised £3.7m in equity and

LIBERUM: Plus500: Strategic progress pays dividends

Tatton Asset Management (TAM LN) - Record net inflows

Tatton, the leading on-platform discretionary fund manager (DFM) and IFA support services Group has released a trading update ahead of its results to 31 March 2024, due on 18 June 2024.

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

Ondo InsurTech FY24 Trading Update

Ondo InsurTech has released a brief post-YE update revealing its good progress continued through 2H24 and consequently FY24 will be in line with market expectations.

BlackRock World Mining

BRWM’s managers: we see all the classic signs of high commodity prices...

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.

Morning Note – 18 April 2024

NextEnergy Solar Fund - Attractive Refinancing

The refinancing of a £135m revolving credit facility and the extension of a similar £70m facility gives NESF firepower as development opportunities for new solar are especially attractive thanks to lower module prices in Europe. They give the fund key financial flexibility at a critical time as it pursues its capital recycling programme.

Foxtons Group - FY24 underpinned by market share gains

Foxtons Group’s Q1 revenue grew by 9%, supported by growth in all three divisions as the strategic initiatives continue to gain significant momentum, driven by investment in staff, best-in-class bespoke IT and data platforms. This implies that Foxtons’ medium-term targets are now coming into focus. Market share is being gained in all divisions, which puts Foxtons in a good position as the sales market stabilises. We maintain our valuation of 132p/share and believe that if interest rates stabilis

NextEnergy Solar Fund – High- and growing-income opportunity?

NextEnergy Solar Fund (NESF) is almost 10 years old. Since launch, it has built a £1.2bn, 933MW portfolio of 100 operating solar assets, powering the equivalent of over 330,000 homes, declared dividends totalling £333m, and avoided the emission of about 2.2 Mt CO2e. NESF is on track to pay 8.35p in dividends, with forecast dividend cover of about 1.3x. Share price weakness that has afflicted the whole sector means that dividend translates to a yield of 11.1%, one of the highest in its sector, a

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

Initial Equity Trading Comments - 19 February 2024

M Winkworth+ (WINK, House Stock at 163p) - Solid FY23A results, well placed to grow

Hybridan Research: Sector Review: Artificial intelligence in UK cybersecurity: the human uplift 17/04/2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a double-edged sword in cybersecurity. Whilst new AI models, architectures, and innovations are emerging to protect the security posture of organisations, attackers are also benefiting from deepfakes, sophisticated phishing, and automation of malicious codes. To ensure the impact of AI on cybersecurity to be a net-positive, we need to pit good AI against bad AI. Point solutions enhanced with machine learning: Global cybersecurity has been built with point soluti

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