Scholium - Profitable in the half year despite challenges, cautious optimism about FY

H1 results this morning from SCHO show that the company has not been idle in the first half, addressing more challenging markets by taking out costs and reconfiguring the sales strategy around fairs and exhibitions in order to maximise effectiveness in a more challenging environment. While SCHO's business is specific and highly focused as a provider of rare and antiquarian books and works of art, we view the company as sharing some of the characteristics of a luxury retailer, at a time when the

WH Ireland: Scholium Group (SCHO) - FY22A sales strongly ahead, return to profit, cash-positive; £9.6m of stock strongly underpins

This morning's results from SCHO represent a significant YoY improvement, as the company generated a big jump in sales, up 58% and a return to profit at adj. PBT of £417k, before closure costs / provisions relating to Mayfair Philatelic (£240k, prior year PBT loss £0.4m), a significant profit turnaround. The company has moved from a -£0.2m net debt position to £0.5m of net cash. Stock standing at over £9m is a significant plus both in underlining the value of the business and in supporting tr

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 08/06/2022

While we were away Woodside Petroleum (WDS.L) joined the Main Market. Woodside is an ASX listed oil and gas company based in Perth and is Australia’s leading natural gas producer. Intosol Holdings (INTO.L) has left the Main Market. Dish of the day Joiners: No Joiners Today. Leavers: CIP Merchant Capital has left AIM. What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen? AssetCo plc, intends to join re-join AIM. The Company's strategy is to develop an agile asset and wealth management company that meets the needs o

Scholium (SCHO) - H1 results to September 2021 - best ever six months; trading well online and offline

H1-22A results from SCHO this morning reflect a strong recovery, with revenues overall at £4.2m up 35% YoY and the £135k pre-tax loss reported in H1-20A turned round to generate a £135k pre-tax profit. SCHO's main business is a top player among UK dealers trading internationally in rare and antiquarian books and paper-based artworks. Overall gross margins at 34% also reflect the healthy progress made by the group (H1-21A: 31%). Net cash at £1.0m is substantially ahead YoY (prior year: £0.3m),

Scholium (SCHO) - FY21A saw challenges, cost-reduction and growth in online

Reported PBT at -£437k is after £125k of exceptional costs, leaving an underlying H2 result similar to the first half, scarcely surprising given the impact on both periods of lockdowns. As in the first half, both the main Shapero Rare Books business and the SCHO's philatelic operation were supported by the growing online strand of activity. Net cash standing at £183k at the year end is after subtraction of the Covid loan, and as ever NAV is meaningful at 68p p/share.

WHI First Light: Scholium Group (SCHO) - H1 results as flagged – online lift in books and philately, cash ahead, £8.7m of stock strongly underpins

Reporting a modest adj. PBT loss of £158k, H1-21A results to 30 September are as guided in SCHO's October update, but with cash slightly better than expected at £348k (anticipated: c.£300k). P&L results are also better than the company originally expected, helped by a strong online performance by Shapero Rare Books and SCHO's philatelic business. Net cash at these levels represents a £67k / 24% jump on the full year, while YoY the business has reversed a small level of net debt into a healthy

WHI First Light: Scholium (SCHO) - H1 update highlights significant lift in online activity, Rare Books better than expected

Covering the period which saw the closure for several months of the Shapero Rare Books retail outlet due to lockdown, and the cancellation of all UK and international fairs, which are typically important business generators for the company, this morning's H1 update from SCHO, which highlights only a “modest” loss, seems like a very creditable outcome. A key factor was a better than expected performance from the company's rare books operation, Shapero Rare Books, benefiting from a significant sh

WHI First Light: Scholium Group (SCHO)

While this morning's update from SCHO unsurprisingly highlights significant falls in revenue during March, following the closure of the Shapero Rare Books retail outlet and the cancellation of major fairs, the business still appears to have succeeded in making a profit in the full year. This therefore marks a turnaround from the prior year notwithstanding the onset of global crisis towards the end of its financial year, with only a small loss in the six months to March '20, which we view as a c

Small Cap Feast

Small Cap Feast

African Export-Import Bank a supranational financial institution whose purpose is to facilitate, promote and expand intra- and extra- African trade, of its potential intention to publish a registration document, the Bank hereby confirms its intention to proceed with an Initial Public Offering. The GDRs are expected to be admitted to the standard listing segment of the Official List of the FCA and to trading on the Main Market of the LSE. DNEG Limited intends to apply for admission of its Shares

First Light

Scholium (SCHO) – Corporate – FY19 Results

Small Cap Feast

Essensys plc—a provider of mission-critical SaaS platforms and on-demand cloud services to the high growth flexible workspace industry, plans to join AIM. Offer TBC, expected 29 May 2019. Induction Healthcare Group plc—a healthcare technology company focused on streamlining the delivery of care by Healthcare Professionals looking to join AIM. Expected raise of £14.58m at 115p, market cap of £34.07m. Expected 22 May 2019. SDX Energy plc—a North Africa focused oil and gas company, announces its in

First Light

UK Oil & Gas (UKOG) – Corporate – Production Update | Immotion Group (IMMO) – Corporate – Content and licensing update | Scholium (SCHO) – Corporate – Trading update suggests roughly breakeven FY outcome

H1 results in line

H1 results are in line with the guidance the company gave in October of a small loss (£56k) against the £61k profit achieved last time. As expected, this reflects profitable outcomes at both Shapero Rare Books (£87k PBT) and Scholium Trading (PBT £33k) offset by start-up losses at Mayfair Philatelics which only commenced trading in October 2017. From a standing start, H1 revenue at the latter reached £404k whilst H2 should see the benefit of three auctions (versus just one in H1). Central costs

First Light

600 Group (SIXH) – Corporate – Board appointments / trading in line | Scholium (SCHO) – Corporate – H1 trading in line with expectations

Topps Group (TPT LN) - Initiation: Market leader trading at cyclical lows

Topps Group is the UK’s largest specialist supplier and distributor of tiles and associated products to the UK’s domestic and commercial markets. Each of the last three years the Group has successfully achieved record revenue in a market that’s seen recent volume declines and regional peers enter administration. Following the right sizing of its business, Topps Group is now well positioned to capitalise on the economic recovery and continue taking share from competitors, supported by its global

HeiQ - Forecast update and Ecolab contract

HeiQ reported its interim results for the 12-months to December 2023, a period characterised by challenging conditions in the markets in which the company currently operates. In-line with the recent trading update, the company reported revenues of $41.7m for FY23 and closed the period with a cash balance of c$10m and a net debt position of $2.2m. We have updated our forecasts to reflect the FY23 results and HeiQ’s outlook in 2024, leaving our revenue forecast unchanged but adjusting gross margin

Morning Note – 24 April 2024

LIBERUM: Tortilla Mexican Grill: Prioritising profitability over roll-out

PROGRESSIVE: Gear4music: FY24 trading in-line and debt reduction ahead of market expectations

At its FY23 results in June 2023, G4M announced its intention to focus on product margins, overhead cost reduction, and efficiency ahead of revenue growth, along with further net debt reduction, in FY24. The FY24 year-end trading update confirms G4M has delivered on these rebalanced priorities, with gross margin rising and net debt almost halving compared with FY23. Cost savings achieved in FY24 and the continued development of higher-margin categories should deliver further upside in FY25E.

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

Pinewood Technologies (PINE LN) - Driving growth in automotive software

Pinewood’s transition to a pure-play automotive SaaS business is now largely complete. Today we introduce summary forecasts out to FY26 and reiterate the investment case. We see significant opportunity for Pinewood to grow its user base in the UK and internationally whilst generating high EBITDA margins and cash conversion. With a 24.5p special dividend embedded in the current price (payable Q1/Q2), the effective price today is 12.3p. Based on the Group’s FY27 target of £27m EBITDA, we estimate

PROGRESSIVE: Vertu Motors: Traction control

Vertu is the fourth largest automotive retailer in the UK, with 188 sales outlets and a track record of cross-cycle growth, principally through businesses it has acquired, funded by equity, debt and most importantly cash generation. Vertu operates across the entire vehicle lifecycle, including new and used vehicle sales, and vehicle servicing, repair and parts. Service and repair is a 40+% gross margin repeating business. With economic headwinds, the transition to electric vehicles, recent overs

AKA: Initiating Coverage of a.k.a. Brands with Buy and $14 PT: Upside Ahead

We are initiating coverage of a.k.a. Brands Holding Corp. ("a.k.a. Brands" or the "company"), a leading owner of primarily online apparel-based brands focused on Generation Z and Millennial consumers, with a Buy rating and $14.00 price target, or 10.9X our 2025 EBITDA projection of $20.2 million. The company's brands include: 1) Princess Polly, focusing on 15 to 25 year-old women; 2) Petal & Pup, which offers feminine styles for 25 to 34 year-old women; 3) Culture Kings, a street wear destinatio

Domino's Pizza - Growing the base

Domino’s Pizza Group’s (DOM’s) new CEO has set an ambitious long-term growth target, including an acceleration in its net store opening programme. With better alignment between the company and its franchisees, management believes DOM should be capable of generating improved profit growth, versus that achieved in recent years, and potential higher returns.

Borussia Dortmund - Helping itself

Borussia Dortmund’s progress to the semi-final of the Champions League brings a further upgrade to profit guidance for FY24. In addition to helping the financial results of the current year, the relative success of German teams against those of other nations in European competitions this season may ensure the club qualifies for the Champions League next season despite currently being outside the top four of the Bundesliga.

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 17 April 24

17th 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: 16 April 2024: Electric Guitar (ELEG.L) Concurrent with its Admission to trading on AIM, Electric Guitar is proposing to acquire the entire issued share capital of 3radi

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

HeiQ - Acquisition, placing and trading update

HeiQ has announced the acquisition of a site in Portugal where the company intends to build a HeiQ AeoniQ production facility with a 3,000 tonne per year capacity. To support the acquisition, the company intends to raise c£2.44m via an equity placing, supported by the issue of a c£1.7m (€1.97m) convertible loan note (largely to management) that will convert upon completion of the raise. We see this as an important step in the development programme for HeiQ AeoniQ. Additionally, HeiQ has provided

Brighton Pier Group - Interim Results

Bright Pier Group’s (BPG) H1 results reflect the highly challenging operating environment, with revenue -9% YoY to £16.2m and Adj EBITDA of £1.4m (H1/22A £3.0m). This decline was driven by weaker consumer demand (falling disposable incomes and low consumer confidence), train strikes and poor weather. Trading in H2 has remained relatively subdued, and as such, we lower our FY23E Adj EBITDA forecasts to £4.2m (from £5.5m). Whilst disappointing, we note that the group remains cash generative and co