Hardman & Co

We are a rapidly growing, innovative corporate research & consultancy business, based in London, serving the needs of both public and private companies.

Our expert team of sector analysts and market professionals collectively have over 400 years of experience.  This depth of knowledge and a reputation for integrity have built trust with investors. With effective communication and precision distribution, we help companies disseminate their investment message to interested investors, as well as advise them on strategy.

Our smaller, boutique structure allows us to provide first-class customer service and to deliver a wide range of ad-hoc services for multiple clients with different needs.

Regulatory Information

  • Regulatory Status: Hardman Research Ltd, trading as Hardman & Co, is an appointed representative of Capital Markets Strategy Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Brian Moretta
  • Brian Moretta

Manager Review – Praetura Investments

Praetura Investments has been a leader in supporting venture companies and SMEs across the North of the UK, with a commitment to delivering “More Than Money” through strategic and operational support in addition to funding. Founded in Manchester, Praetura has grown significantly, now managing over £300 million in assets and providing flexible financial solutions through a range of tax-advantaged products and partnerships with institutions like British Business Investments. Our latest report off...

Mark Thomas ... (+2)
  • Mark Thomas
  • Martin Hall

The Hardman & Co Monthly: November 2024

Feature article: “ROOM” (Running Out of Money) risk, How managing liquidity risk can sustain corporate value and maintain shareholder confidence As we come close to the end of a very challenging year for many UK entrepreneurs, as well as a frustrating period for shareholders, it is time to address one elephant in the ROOM! ROOM stands for “Running Out of Money”. The risk of doing so, or the perception that it could occur, can destroy corporate values and prematurely paralyse a business. While ...

Brian Moretta
  • Brian Moretta

Calculus EIS Fund - Calculus Capital Limited

Calculus EIS Fund is an EIS fund that will invest in a minimum of six companies. The target return for each investee company is an IRR of 20%, with a return of £2 for each £1 invested. Returns will be focused on capital gains, and investors are unlikely to receive any dividends. The aim is for the assets to be invested 12-15 months from closure of the tranche. Calculus Capital Limited is the Fund Manager, and there are no other companies involved in running the fund. The report goes into detai...

Mark Thomas
  • Mark Thomas

ICG Enterprise Trust plc: Portfolio: 14% EBITDA growth + widening marg...

The key message from ICGT’s 1HFY’25 results (to July) is the continued strength of the operating companies, which delivered an average 14% LTM EBITDA growth. Margins have widened by ca.5% (average revenue growth 9.4%), which should help allay some concerns over the impact of the higher-rate environment. New investment is accelerating, and realisation activity continued with an average 26% uplift to carrying values on exit. A degree of short-term volatility is to be expected, and the five- and 10...

Mark Thomas ... (+2)
  • Mark Thomas
  • Mike Foster

Real Estate Credit Investments (RECI): Why the discount has been closi...

RECI’s discount has halved over the past six months. We believe this is due to both actions taken by the trust (with an active buyback programme, changing asset mix and enhanced disclosure of highest-risk positions) and more favourable markets. Interestingly, not all debt investment companies have benefitted from the more favourable markets. By historical standards, the current level of RECI’s discount is very high, ca.10% above the 10-year average. RECI was at an average 2% premium in 2015-19, ...

Retail Bond Review No. 10 Feature Article: Bond Structuring

For many investors the coupon, term and rating is all they look at when they buy a bond. But each bond has a structure that affects the credit risk, and investors need to know what that is.â–º The recent Wasps Finance plc issue is one of the more complicated of the recent ORB issues. We use it as an example, highlighting some of the terms used and what investors need to look for when assessing bond structuresâ–º We also look at the different forms of security that investors may see, explaining t...

UK Housebuilding Sector in Q3 2015

​On 31 October, the Final of the Rugby World Cup (RWC) will be contested at Twickenham. Will the New Zealand All Blacks prevail to become the first team to win it consecutively (and the first to win it three times)?If the listed UK Housebuilders were rugby teams, our guess is that Berkeley would be the All Blacks with Tony Pidgley as the record breaking captain, Richie McCaw. In turn, Persimmon would be the South African Springboks - both formidable and both named after wonderful creatures.For...

Material World. “Experience has made me rich”

Summary - The UK Building Materials Sector is vital but ignored; and in terms of definition and analysis, really only exists here. - It comprises 18 companies with total revenue of £2.6 billion, net assets of £1.3 billion and more than 15,500 employees. - The London Stock Exchange value is £3.62 billion as of 5th June 2015.In the latest fiscal year it has grown revenue by 9.4% and gross profit by 12.3%. - Gross margins are a tidy 29.5%. - EBITDA has done even better with 21% annual growt...

May 2015 Monthly / Feature Article: Why Should we be worries about unw...

May 2015 Monthly / Feature Article: Why Should we be worries about unwinding quantitative easing?

Hardman & Co. September 2015 Monthly. Featured article - MiFID II –...

​For most people Tuesday, 3rd January 2017 is likely to be the first day back at work after a long weekend celebrating the New Year. In London it will probably be overcast with occasional showers whilst commuters will be suffering the effects of 'over-running engineering works'. But for participants in the London stock market it could be a momentous day, on a par with the Big Bang of October 1986 when fixed commission rates and the distinction between brokers and jobbers were swept away. For o...

Keith Hiscock ... (+2)
  • Keith Hiscock
  • Yingheng Chen

Punching above their weight? The contribution of small- and mid-cap qu...

Back in May 2019, Hardman & Co and the Quoted Companies Alliance jointly published a paper looking at the importance of small and mid-size quoted companies (SMQCs) to the markets, and their contribution to tax revenues and employment in the UK. This is a poorly researched area, and that paper helped frame the debate; it has been quoted from by bodies such as the City of London Corporation. Three years have passed since that note, and we felt it was time to update the work. Of course, the econom...

Keith Hiscock
  • Keith Hiscock

Hardman & Co Insight: Share ownership: For the many, not the few - The...

We recently published a paper, 'Share ownership: For the many, not the few', based on a statistical survey of share ownership, produced jointly with Argus Vickers, the share analysis service. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has now issued its equivalent survey. This paper compares its results with ours. Although there are, inevitably, differences in the detail, the two surveys reach the same conclusions. The two key themes from the surveys are that: i) investors from the Rest of the Wo...

February 2016 Monthly

​The timing of being invited to write this article is perfect, coinciding as it does with a) the huge uncertainty which 2016 thus far has presented to investors (resulting in the frequently heard question ‘what do I do with my money?’) and b) last week’s sale of Swiftkey [https://swiftkey.com/en] for $250m to Microsoft. The company was founded in 2008 by two people in their 20s to develop predictive keyboards driven by artificial intelligence - its technology is embedded in over 300m dev...

Feature Article: Oil Prices and Credit

The falling oil price has had many consequences, both politically and economically. In this article we look at the financial effects and, in particular at the shale oil industry. We give a brief history of its development and show how its combination of a high cost of production and higher debt funding, together with some technical failings, have led to the difficulties it now finds itself in. We also briefly consider the two ORB born oil and gas bonds, from Premier Oil...

Paul Mylchreest
  • Paul Mylchreest

Hardman & Co Insight: Is silver the cheapest asset on the planet?

We’ve chosen a provocative title for this Insight piece, but it’s one we think is justified given the shortage of silver that we see emerging. This should translate into growing investor interest as silver’s attractive fundamentals become widely appreciated. In our opinion, they are currently not that well understood by most investors, both professional and retail. Why has silver’s long and illustrious history faded from people’s minds during the past century and why are more people not drawing...

Paul Mylchreest
  • Paul Mylchreest

Hardman & Co Insight: Gold and a Chinese credit event

A western phenomenon? If you own, or are considering owning, gold or gold equities, it’s likely that you’re concerned about protecting your wealth, or the performance of your fund, in the expectation of some kind of financial instability. Maybe your confidence in policymakers is ebbing, or you’ve researched debt bubbles in history and concluded that physical gold and silver have been the safest places to be invested when they unwind. Maybe, you can’t put your finger on it. You don’t know where ...

Martin Hall
  • Martin Hall

Hardman & Co Healthcare Index: 2020 – greater appreciation of science

The Hardman & Co Healthcare Index (HHI) has been running since 2009. Its main function is to highlight the attractions of life sciences investments over the long term. 2020 was an exceptional year, with the index rising 19.9% to 590.6, broadly in line with the FTSE AIM All-Share Index (+20.7%), but in complete contrast to the performances of the FTSE 100 (-14.3%) and FTSE All-Share (-12.5%) indices. A number of our life sciences companies really stepped up to meet the challenges posed by the COV...

UK Housebuilding Sector: Q1 2016 “Eat My Shorts, Man!”

​The Simpsons, as if you didn’t know, is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a satirical depiction of a working class lifestyle epitomised by the family members Homer, Marge, Bart (our hero), Lisa, and Maggie. The show is set in the fictional town of Springfield and parodies American culture, society, television and many aspects of the human condition. Since its debut on 17 December 1989, the series has broadcast 591 episodes over 27 ...

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