Maistro issued full year results for FY’18 highlighting revenue growth of 154% to £1.5m. Revenue growth was primarily driven by traction with its core customer (Revenues: £0.9m; 2017: £0.0m) fitting with management’s new, targeted ‘land and expand’ strategy. Cash-burn remained stable at £2.1m. During FY’18 the group completed a successful share issue raising £2.1m net of fees; the cash balance stood at £1.1m at year-end, with £0.9m of the raise collected in early 2019. We are encouraged by continued strong growth; however execution remains key, with performance against management’s strategic goals required to unlock value potential.
Companies: Maistro
Clinigen Group (CLIN LN) FY results in line, further acquisitions & placing | CVS Group (CVSG LN) Reassuring tenor to FY18 finals | Halfords Group (HFD LN) New strategic vision launched to build on existing strengths | Itaconix (ITX LN) Focused on commercial progress following recent fundraise | Maistro (MAIS LN) Momentum continuing to build into H2’18 and beyond | Urban&Civic (UANC LN) Contracting parcels, positive developments towards planning | Vp (VP/ LN) Positive H1 update highlights further good progress | Zinc Media Group (ZIN LN) Strategy boosts visibility and quality
Companies: CLIN CVSG HFD ITX MAIS UANC VP/ ZIN
Green Man Gaming—pure play e-commerce and technology company in the digital video games industry. revenue CAGR growth of 26.7% in the last three years to £47.5m. Due late Sep. EBITDA Profitable. Offer TBA Crossword Cybersecurity PLC* (NEX:CCS)—the technology commercialisation company focusing exclusively on the cyber security sector is exploring its options in relation to a potential move to the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange which, if it were to proceed, would likely take place over the next few months. Path Investments (PATH) -RTO of a 50 per cent. participating interest in the producing Alfeld-Elze II gas field located 22 kilometres south of Hannover in Germany. Seeking £10m. Offer TBA. Due Mid September Kropz PLC-Intention to float by the emerging plant nutrient producer with an advanced stage phosphate mining project in South Africa and exploration assets in West Africa
Companies: EML BBSN GHH CNS BOTB OCI CDGP CNIC MAIS AQX
Maistro reported an encouraging FY’17 set of results that show the group is on a much improved trajectory, led by the new Board (appointed in July 2017) and supported by a much stronger balance sheet. Revenues for the group materially increased (164%) in the second half of 2017 compared with the first half of 2017 driven by improved engagement with Enterprise customers particularly in the UK and Eurozone. Adjusted LBITDA reduced 25% to $2.7m with a cash balance at year end of $3.3m following two share placings. The outlook is positive and the group believes it can build on the progress made in H2’17 into 2018 and beyond as Enterprises seek innovation to improve their corporate buying processes.
accesso Technology (ACSO LN) First healthcare partnership | Clinigen Group (CLIN LN) Downgrades irritating, mask more important progress | IDOX (IDOX LN) First steps to rebuilding confidence | IndigoVision Group (IND LN) Period of stabilisation targeted | Maistro (MAIS LN) Much improved H2’17 performance | Nichols (NICL LN) Finals highlight another year of excellent top-line execution | Redde (REDD LN) Growth from new relationship, 3-8% EPS upgrades
Companies: ACSO CLIN IDOX IDOX IND MAIS NICL REDD
Blur issued a positive trading update indicating revenue and gross profit making quarter on quarter progress. The group also talked about an increasing rate of repeat business and the addition of significant new customers though usage of the platform builds up over time. With cash balances at 22 Nov 2017 of £2.7m, the group has sufficient working capital to fund its strategy over the next coming years. We continue to believe there is a strong opportunity to provide enterprises with a technology platform that brings efficiency and transparency in the procurement of business services.
Belluscura— Provider of premium medical devices at value prices to address part of the global unmet need for affordable, premium quality medical devices. Raising £7.5m to £10m. Offer TBA. Due early Dec Ten Lifestyle Hldgs - Technology-enabled lifestyle and travel platform providing trusted concierge services to the world's wealthy. Net revenue increased from £20m in the year ended 31 August 2015 to £33m in the year ended 31 August 2017, a compound annual growth rate of 29%. Offer TBA, expected 27 Nov 2017. Miriad Advertising—Global video advertising company incorporated in 2015 and is engaged in the development of native invideo advertising . 2016 rev £0.7m and £7.3m operating loss. Offer TBA Keystone Law Group— full service law firm with over 250 self-employed lawyers . Due 27 Nov. Raising £10m at 160p. Mkt Cap £50m. Revenue of £25.6 million and EBITDA of £2.1 million. In FYJan17. Beeks Financial Cloud -niche cloud computing and connectivity provider for automated (algorithmic) trading in Forex and Futures financial products . Raising £7m. Mkt Cap c.£24.5m. Due 27 Nov. FYJun17 rev £4m. Profitable at operating level. OnTheMarket—Intention to float on AIM to raise c.£50m which will be used to fund the growth of the OnTheMarket.com portal, already the third biggest UK residential property portal provider. Expected valuation £200m to £250m. OG Graphite, brownfield development-stage graphite company focused on the reactivation of its wholly-owned Kearney natural flake graphite mine and mill located 280 km north of Toronto, Canada. Offer TBA, expected mid November.
Companies: RGL IDEA MAIS MED TILS YGEN MOGP NTOG CALL ANR
blur reported FY 2016 results showing revenue of $0.83m, adjusted LBITDA of $3.6m and year end cash of $2.5m. The group’s transition to an enterprise-only strategy ceased direct marketing activities at the SME market whilst long sales cycles in the enterprise space meant revenues developed slowly. Significant reductions in cost helped to keep the loss in line with expectations and reduce cash burn. On July 7 2017, the group announced a successful placing raising £1.75m (before expenses) and with it, a refresh of the Board. The new Board is currently conducting a review of the business and during this period, we are suspending our forecasts and will re-publish them in due course. We continue to believe there is a highly attractive opportunity for a platform providing automation for the enterprise procurement process, particularly in services. There group continued to make positive progress in 2017 and we await the update from the new Board as to its strategy to best convert the opportunity.
Altus Strategies—African focused natural resource Company. Offer TBC. Expected Mid July. Harvey Nash Group— Provider of professional recruitment and offshore solutions moving to AIM from Main. No capital to be raised. Mkt Cap c. £57.8m. AnimalCare—RTO of Ecuphar NV, a European animal health company. £30m raise. Ecuphar FY16 rev £68.4m, underlying EBITDA £8.9m. Due 13 July. Angling Direct -Schedule 1 from the specialist fishing tackle retailer in the UK . Raising £9m of which £7.4m new money. Mkt cap c. £27.4m. Due 13 July NEXUS Infrastructure—£35m vendor sale. Mkt cap £70.5m. Provider of essential infrastructure services to the UK housebuilding and commercial sectors. Expected 11 July. FYSep16 rev £135.7m. Greencoat Renewables - Schedule 1. Targeting a portfolio of operating renewable electricity generation assets, initially investing in wind generation assets in Ireland. Offer TBC. Due Mid July. QUIZ— Omni-channel fast fashion womenswear Company intention to float. Due July 2017. Offer TBA I3 Energy –Schedule 1 Update. Independent oil and gas company with assets and operations in the UK. Offer TBC, Mid July admission. Verditek— Sch 1 update. The Company's subsidiaries will be involved in advanced solar photovoltaic, filtration and absorption technologies specialising in providing environmental services. Issue price 10p. Admission late June Rockpool Acquisitions—Northern Ireland based Company seeking strong NI acquisition with an international outlook. Raising £1.5m at 10p. Due 5 July Hipgnosis Songs Fund investment company offering pure-play exposure to Songs and associated musical intellectual property rights. Prospectus yet to be published. Impact Investment Trust—Exposure to a diversified portfolio of funds providing SMEs across developing economies with the growth capital they need to have a positive impact on the lives of the world's poorer populations. Raising up to $150m at $1.00 Residential Secure Income - social housing REIT raising up to £300m Admission due c.12 July. Curzon Energy—Report on Proactive Investors of intended LSE float this year with acquisition of coal bed methane assets in Oregon. Looking to raise £3m plus. NLB Group—financial and banking institution based in Slovenia, with a network of 356 branches. Seeking Ljubliana Stock Exchange listing with GDRs on the LSE. Expected mid June. Kuwait Energy— has not been able to complete its initial public offering as announced in its Intention To Float of 3 May 2017. However, in light of positive feedback from potential investors, the Company remains committed to obtaining a London listing and continues to explore its options. Supermarket Income REIT– Up to £200m raise to acquire a diversified portfolio of supermarket real estate assets in the UK, providing long-term RPI-linked income. Due 21 July.
Companies: FUTR UKOG THR NSCI DX/ MAIS PHD LWLG COS
ABZA (ABZA) Supported by capacity shortage and CDMO M&A | blur Group (BLUR LN) Update on financing, business plan and current trading | Marston’s (MARS LN) Updated forecasts & view
Companies: MARS MAIS ABZA
With blur’s cash at 31 May 2017 standing at $1.14m, the group conducted market soundings with new and existing potential cornerstone investors to see if it can secure additional funding. On conclusion of some of these initial discussions, the proposed investment terms included a number of onerous conditions which the board considered to be not in the best interest of shareholders. As such, it is currently evaluating alternative sources of near-term funding, which may or may not be forthcoming within four to six weeks. blur is continuing to execute on its enterprise customer strategy, remains engaged with a number of customers, continues to control costs with Q1 performance in line with expectations; however, it is clear that protecting/shoring up the equity value can only be achieved by securing additional funding.
Arix Bioscience — Intention to float on the main market from the global healthcare and life science Company supporting medical innovation. Raised £52m in Feb 16 with investors including Woodford Investment Management Ramsdens Holdings –Schedule One from the financial services provider and retailer, operating in the core business segments of foreign currency exchange, pawnbroking loans, precious metals buying and selling and retailing of second hand and new jewellery. Expected admission to AIM 15 Feb raising circa £15.6m. Expected mkt cap £26.5m.
Companies: KWS CKT DPP RRL DSG AURA MAIS FLOW TLY KOD
AKERS BIOSCIENCES INC (AKER US) | ASA RESOURCE GROUP PLC (ASA LN) | BLUR GROUP PLC (BLUR LN) | GRIFFIN MINING (GFM LN) | LIDCO GROUP (LID LN) | NORICUM GOLD LIMITED (NMG LN) | PREMIER TECHNICAL SERVICES GRP LTD (PTSG LN) | PROACTIS HLDGS (PHD LN) | VALIRX PLC (VAL LN)
Companies: VAL ASA GFM MAIS NMG PTSG LID PHD AKR
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Oxford Metrics has delivered solid 1HMar20 results, with sales of £15.0m (PY: £16.1m) and adj. PBT £0.3m (PY: £1.7). Within this, Yotta demonstrated continued ARR progression (up +15% to £6.8m) while at Vicon, the division added additional bluechip customers, further validating its industry leading position. Progress was, however, held back by lockdown restrictions. £1.1m of expected orders slipped to post period, but have now largely been fulfilled. Had they occurred as expected group sales would have been flat y/y. Looking ahead, CV19 related uncertainty leads us to withdraw forecasts. At this stage we expect disruption to be short-lived. As such – and considering OMG’s persuasive track record - we continue to view the company as a long-term winner in this growth industry.
Companies: Oxford Metrics
AGM statement as expected; Resume with a Buy
Companies: Cloudcall Group
COVID-19 continues to have a profound impact on virtually every industry, on a global basis. Enterprises of all types and sizes are racing to adapt their models to the “new normal”. The more thoughtful are looking not just to effect change, but to improve how change happens, to become more flexible and more nimble as organisations. Sopheon has today announced some major developments to its Accolade platform which look to assist the group’s customers in this endeavour. This note describes the changes to the product range, and draws on a recent customer webinar used by Sopheon to highlight the evolving challenges to enterprise innovation management.
Companies: Sopheon
Nanoco has signed a framework agreement with STMicroelectronics (ST). This covers both development work and commercial supply of nano-materials for use in multiple infra-red sensing applications over a five-year period. While the agreement underpins the operational cash runway, which was recently extended to Q221, there is still significant uncertainty regarding future revenues, so our estimates remain under review.
Companies: Nanoco Group
The Panoply’s trading update reveals the business entered FY 21E with a £15m order backlog and that the group expects to report a strong trading performance for Q1 21E, having recorded £9.5m of new contract wins since the start of the year. A further positive is confirmation of a $5.2m contract win with a global philanthropic organisation by the group’s FutureGov unit (included within the £9.5m total). Against an ongoing backdrop of COVID19 driven uncertainty, this is a very positive announcement in our view. Noting that c70% of group turnover is now generated by public sector clients, we continue to believe The Panoply is well-placed to weather the COVID-19 pandemic and we maintain estimates following the release.
Companies: The Panoply Holdings
Avation is a lessor of 48 commercial aircraft to a diversified airline client base. Intra-day yesterday, the group announced that, as a result of the present uncertain backdrop caused by COVID-19, the Board had withdrawn from the previously announced strategic review and formal sale process, and that it was no longer in active discussions with any interested parties. The key reasons behind this were 1) the present uncertainty meaning that an attractive valuation was seen as unlikely to be achieved at this present moment in time and 2) the distraction of the process in the day to day operational activities of the business. Petards supplies advanced security and surveillance systems to the Rail, Defence and Traffic Technology markets. Intra-day yesterday, the group confirmed that its RTS Solutions subsidiary had secured a multi-year renewal agreement for the provision of software support services to one of its major rail customers. Touchstar is a supplier of mobile data computing solutions and managed services to a variety of industrial sectors. This morning, the group has released full year results to 31 December 2019, alongside providing an update on progress against the present COVID-19 backdrop. In line with the market updates provided in February and April, group revenue in the year increased by 3.2% to £7.1m, whilst revenue from continuing operations, excluding the Onboard business that was disposed of in the year, increased by 7.2% to £6.7m, driven by traction being gained with new products and services. The gross margin in the year increased by 280bps to 53.9% reflecting the greater proportion of software and service income. This resulted in a trading loss after tax before exceptionals of £89k, which post exceptionals of £412k that predominantly related to the disposal of OnBoard, resulted in a loss after tax of £501k. As previously reported, the year-end net cash position stood at £850k, which reflected an increase of £554k in the year; this post £1.1m of new product development expenditure and cash costs associated with the disposal.
Companies: AVAP TST PEG
Success breeds success. Take B2B software developer Rosslyn, who over the past few years has meticulously built a leading Big Data & spend analytics SaaS platform (RAPid), supporting an illustrious roster of 100+ clients (many global multi-nationals). Topped off with the synergistic acquisition of Langdon in Sept’19, & becoming EBITDA positive in FY’20 for the 1st time ever - thanks to increasing ARR (+12% to >£6m vs £5.4m LY) & favourable operational leverage (81% gross margins).
Companies: Rosslyn Data Technologies
Watchstone has this morning announced a proposed second return of cash to shareholders, totalling a further £18.4m/40p per share. The rationale for this second tranche relates to the Board having previously allocated a cash buffer of £20m for any possible fines or penalties arising from the now lapsed SFO investigation. Subject to shareholder and court approval, this further return is anticipated to be made on or around 31 July 2020. Shareholders approved the first £50.5m/110p per share return of cash on 27 April 2020, which remains subject to court approval on 11 June 2020 and is scheduled to be paid on or around 30 June 2020.
Companies: Watchstone Group
Following the announcement of a business restructure and temporary cost reduction measures to reduce costs by A$12m, we have updated our forecasts for Seeing Machines. We believe that the significant measures taken by the management offset a weaker revenue outlook, as the impact of COVID-19 looks likely to continue for longer than anticipated. The net result is a similar to previous expectations in terms of cash, which we believe remains sufficient to see the company through FY22 ahead of profitability in FY23. The long-term effects of the business restructure is expected to be positive for shareholder value as demonstrated by our DCF based valuation which increases to 7.2p (from 7.0p).
Companies: Seeing Machines
Synairgen (SNG.L): Preliminary 2019 results | Yourgene Health (YGEN.L): COVID-19 testing service launch and business update
Companies: Synairgen Yourgene Health
This morning's announcement from PEN highlights significant mitigations of some of the Covid-19 risks identified in its recent Report & Accounts, notably where cash and working capital are concerned. From this perspective it is highly reassuring that major invoices to the tune of £2m in relation to PEN's contract with General Dynamics (GD), delayed by the practical issues around milestone meetings during the pandemic crisis, have now been raised, with help from virtual technology, and that written confirmation has been received from the client that the equipment milestone has been met. Formal agreement by GD to the £1.5m pricing adjustments which PEN had applied for is also excellent news, and as a result a contract which initially was expected to be valued at £7.3m is now worth at least £13.5m, with more potentially to go for. Moreover, on the back of the re-scoping of last year's Middle East contract and the GD agreement combined, over £4m of positive working capital is expected to flow into the current year, resulting in a significantly improved cash situation.
Companies: Pennant International Group
1HMar20 sales flat at £2.3m, MRR also flat at £340k. Net loss £-2.0m (PY: £-1.9m), period-end net debt £0.14m. On MRR - a new customer win and also upsells were offset by customer churn. New sales generation has been slower than planned. In response, INX has reduced staff headcount by 20%, starting in January. Covid has negatively impacted business performance – meaning longer sales cycles and higher DSOs. Encouragingly therefore, cash collection improved post period-end (to £0.3m). Further, two upsells have been secured, meaning YTD upsell value is up +10% y/y. Despite this progress, prudently, INX has decided to further reduce costs, with the objective of obtaining a monthly breakeven performance. This, combined with the company’s renewal pipeline and cash position, is said to provide sufficient funding for the current year. The board is however mindful of the sustainability of the changes made and as such, is in the early stages of reviewing its longer-term strategic options to introduce fresh capital. Forecasts remain U/R.
Companies: I-Nexus Global
Walker Greenbank is a higher-end interior furnishings business with well-established global brand names and manufacturing facilities in the UK. This morning, the group has provided a further update on the business in relation to COVID-19 following its previous announcement on 25 March. In addition, and in line with recent FCA/FRC guidance, full year results to 31 January 2020 have been rescheduled to 30 June (previously expected 23 April). With cash ahead of expectation in a year of transformation, PTY has reported inline results for the year to December 2019, with revenues standing at £80.4m and £0.1m adj. PBT. Net cash at £0.9m is ahead of our expectation prior to the company's pre-close update by some £1.9m, a significant beat. Dillistone's update this morning is, on the whole, reassuring. Although the economic implications of COVID-19 will likely materially affect FY2020E results, as with many businesses seeing a significant reduction in demand for products and services, it is too early to determine the quantum. As such, we remove our FY2020 estimates that previously looked for an EBITDA contribution of £1.6m and adjusted PBT to £0.1m.
Companies: WGB DSG PTY
The Panoply’s trading update for the year to March 2020 confirms that H2 trading was solid, and that the Board expects to report revenue and EBITDA in line with market expectations. The group’s financial position remains robust and will be enhanced by cash collections from the solid 20E trading performance. The Panoply is actively involved in the response to the COVID19 pandemic, with the business being only minimally impacted so far. Overall, we believe the announcement contains a number of positive messages. However, with ongoing macro-driven uncertainty over the medium/ longer-term outlook, we revise forecasts. Our FY 21E and FY 22E EBITDA estimates are reduced by 37% and 21% respectively.
Rosslyn is expected to move into positive operating EBITDA for FY20E. Moving the business model into self sustaining status will be a major milestone. Rosslyn has raised £7.3m gross in a Placing of new equity to increase its sales & marketing capability, maintain its investment in R&D and position it to take advantage of bolt-on acquisition opportunities.
