Allenby Capital - Character Group - Trading update

At its AGM scheduled for 11.00am today, the Group will state that the business continues to trade satisfactorily and financial results are expected to be in line with current market expectations. Although trading conditions in the current financial year to August 2024 remain challenging, the Group has a strong product offering which has been well received by the trade. Adverse trading conditions will at some stage revert to normality which we believe will allow strong historic growth to resume.

Allenby Capital - Character Group - Finals

Excluding FX mark-to-market adjustments, The Character Group (Character) delivered full year adjusted PBT slightly ahead of forecasts at £5.2m following a strong H2 recovery as intimated by the Board many months ago. While economic conditions remain challenging, a strong product portfolio which has been well received by the market, together with satisfactory trading encourages the Board to expect an improvement in sales and profitability for the current financial year. With an attractive yield,

Allenby Capital - Character Group - Update

The Character Group (Character) has released a year-end trading update affirming the exceptionally difficult market conditions to date but that as a result of a strong product portfolio, the second half has, as expected, resulted in a bounce-back leading to a significant improvement in profitability compared to H1. The Board’s view is that underlying profitability is expected to be in line with current market expectations. While not immune to the broader market difficulties, Character has the be

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 11 May 23

11th May 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

Chracter Group: Interims - Weak H1 as anticipated, but bounce back expected in H2

The Character Group (Character), in common with the rest of the industry, experienced tough trading conditions in the first half and as anticipated by the Board, revenues and profits were lower than the comparative period and indeed, lower than that reported by the Group for a number of years highlighting the exceptional market conditions. However, a strong product line and a continuing sell-through of inventory is expected to result in a bounce-back in H2 leading to a significant improvement in

Character Group - Update

The Character Group (Character), which reported full year results in December, has issued a trading update ahead of its AGM being held today. In essence, the announcement states that in what is a challenging year for the industry, sales and profit before tax are expected to be marginally below current market expectations. We are therefore revising down our FY23 revenue and PBT expectations by 7% and 9% respectively. Given typically strong cash generation and a sound balance sheet our dividend fo

Character Group - FY22 Finals

The Character Group (Character) reported full year results in line with our forecasts, albeit revenues were stronger than anticipated. Adjusted PBT was in line but impacted by increases in input costs and a stronger US dollar creating margin pressures. We make no changes to forecasts but anticipate FY23 being H2 weighted. The Company is expected to remain comfortably profitable, cash generative with a strong balance sheet and is committed to maintaining a progressive dividend policy.

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 04/10/22

Dish of the day Joiners: Milton Capital plc (MII.L) has joined the Main Market. Leavers: No leavers today. What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?** TECC Capital plc, to be renamed EDX Medical Group, intends to join the AQSE Growth Market. EDX operates a molecular biology and diagnostics laboratory in Cambridge, UK, from which it performs research & development, provides Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing and genomic sequencing services, undertakes quality assurance and has established expertise

The Character Group YE Trading Update

The Character Group (Character) has published a year end trading update which anticipates FY2022 underlying profit before tax being broadly in line with current market expectations. However, with just one month of trading completed in the new financial year, economic challenges, weaker sterling and a tightening of consumer expenditure has led management to expect a lower outcome for the year. Thus, our earlier expectation of underlying PBT of £11.3m has now been amended to one of c.£5.5m, althou

The Character Group Interims

The Character Group (Character) reported a 22% year-on-year (yoy) increase in sales and an improvement in profits in the first half to February 2022, despite the ongoing impact of Covid in China (where most of the group’s manufacturing is conducted) and supply chain issues. Investment in finished goods has significantly increased to ensure product availability in H2 but the Group still generated operating cash, ending the period with net cash of £21.5m after a £13.6m share buyback.

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 21/01/2022

Joiners: No Joiners Today. Leavers: No Leavers Today. What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen? Hercules Site Services a technology enabled labour supply company for the UK infrastructure sector, intends to float on AIM. Hercules is seeking to raise approximately £5.5m to rapidly deliver on the significant demand it is experiencing for its diverse range of services across the UK infrastructure sector, including to scale up its operations to supply labour to the northern section of the HS2 rail project

Board remains cautiously confident for FY 2022

Ahead of the AGM of The Character Group (Character) to be held later today, the Board has provided an update to shareholders which concludes that assuming market trading conditions do not worsen further it expects the Group to achieve current consensus market expectations for the year ending August 2022. Consequently we are maintaining our forecasts for both FY2022 and FY2023.

A highly successful year despite supply chain issues

The Character Group (Character) reported results slightly ahead of our expectations despite having to deal with the unprecedented supply chain challenges that impacted manufacturers and distributors of goods globally. Notwithstanding these headwinds, Character not only returned underlying EBITDA 72% ahead of 2020 but also ahead of the pre-COVID 2019 outturn. Despite continued pressure on margins, the high quality of Character’s earnings coupled with an exceptionally strong balance sheet (net cas

Logistical challenges lower profit expectations by 8%

The Character Group (Character) has informed the market that while sales and trading remain very strong, the logistical challenges facing many companies in terms of ongoing delays at ports, shipping and container shortages and a rise in freight rates, mean that underlying profits for the year to August 2021 will be slightly lower than market consensus. We have therefore reduced our 2021 PBT forecast by 8% from £12m to £11m. Cash forecasts remain unchanged and on the assumption that this is a cha

Strong H1 reported and further upgrade to year

The Character Group’s (Character) interim results were remarkable in that the Group produced very strong results in a period of significant disruption. The right products at the right price and in the right categories all served to distinguish the Group in the first half. As trading begins to return to some sense of normality during H2 we anticipate trading to improve further and have raised forecasts accordingly. Selling on a significant discount to the US “giants” and with significant cash res

Surface Transforms - New guidance – forecasts under review

Surface Transforms has issued new revenue guidance for FY24, with the company now expecting revenues in the range £17.5-22m. We are withdrawing our previous forecasts for FY24 and withdrawing our price target while we review the impact of the new guidance.

Surface Transforms plc (SCE LN) - Forecasts and valuation withdrawn

We note the regulatory announcement this morning from Surface Transforms and withdraw our estimates and valuation, pending conversations with management.

Morning Note – 16 April 2024

Robust margin and cash performance

Surface Transforms (SCE LN) - Obstacles removed for higher production

Surface has issued a brief Q1 update. Production will ramp-up this year as final new equipment is installed, and manufacturing teething problems recede.

Initial Equity Trading Comments - 19 February 2024

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

Dowlais Group - Motoring forward

Dowlais Group’s first set of results were ahead of our expectations, with positive cash generation a highlight despite restructuring and demerger costs. Softer automotive markets will limit margin progress in FY24 towards the double-digit target. Despite this, margins of c 6.5% are still ahead of automotive peers, although the shares trade at a significant discount to our implied generic peer-based valuation.

Morning Note – 9 April 2024

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

Morning Note – 4 April 2024

LIBERUM: New Energy Nuggets: Hydrogen - the future is green

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

Gooch & Housego (GHH LN) - A chink of light

Gooch has issued a positive update for H1. Trading has started to recover with stocking levels normalising at industrial and medical devices customers. The outlook is positive with growth returning, and management has confirmed our full year estimates (adjusted for the disposal of EM4). The order book and order flow appear healthy, and net debt is comfortable. Gooch clearly still has plenty to do to lift operating margins from a lacklustre 8.1%, but the transformation plan appears to be back on

Nexteq - FY23 adj EBITDA +4% ahead, FY24E upgrades of +1-10%

Nexteq’s FY23 results show adjusted EBITDA +4% ahead of the +6% upgrade at the January trading update, record FY23 EFCF of $17.4m, and a confident outlook that leads us to reiterate our FY24E revenue and upgrade FY24E gross profit, adj EBITDA, and EFCF by +1-10%. The strategic focus on higher-margin products and customers reducing elevated inventory levels led FY23 group revenue -5% yoy to $114.3m, with Quixant 6% lower at $69.3m and Densitron 2% lower at $45.1m. Effective supply-chain managemen