reports
- Richard Williamson
Checkit - New product launch and contract wins
Checkit has won contracts with two customers worth at least £417k over the three-year lives of the contracts, confirming its ability to upsell to its existing customer base and supporting our forecasts. Having trialled the new technology with multiple customers, Checkit has launched its Asset Intelligence module, which uses advanced analytics and machine learning to enhance customer sustainability, reduce costs and increase revenue.
- Pedro Fonseca
abrdn Asian Income Fund - All looking good in terms of income and grow...
abrdn Asian Income Fund (AAIF) recently posted an upbeat set of results. In FY23, the company outperformed its reference index (MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex Japan), there was a significant increase in the dividend, which was fully covered and has now risen for 15 consecutive years, and AAIF’s board has negotiated a more competitive fee structure. AAIF is managed by abrdn’s well-established Singapore-based Asian equity team. This location is an advantage in terms of communication and developing strong...
- Pedro Fonseca
Murray Income Trust - Delivering income and capital growth
Murray Income Trust (MUT) invests in high-quality, mainly UK-listed stocks. It has achieved both its dividend and capital growth objectives over the long term. The trust boasts 50 years of continually rising dividends. It paid a dividend of 37.5p per share in FY23 (ended 30 June 2023 (FY22: 36.0p)), and the board has indicated the dividend will rise to at least 38.0p in FY24. This represents a prospective yield of 4.5%. Late last year the company decided to take action to allow shareholders to a...
- Pedro Fonseca
VietNam Holding - Introducing redeemable shares
VietNam Holding (VNH) posted a solid net asset value (NAV) per share total return (TR) in 2023 of 15.8% (22.4% in US dollar terms), outperforming the Vietnam All Share index (VNAS), which posted an 11.7% return, and its direct peers. The investment manager remains confident that 2024 will be strong for Vietnamese equities, underpinned by average 20% y-o-y expected earnings per share (EPS) growth. VNH recently introduced a share redemption facility (on top of regular share buybacks), which allows...
- Sean Conroy
OSE Immunotherapeutics - Funding accelerates Tedopi clinical developme...
Despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, OSE announced an encouraging funding win with the receipt of €8.4m in non-dilutive public funding from Bpifrance (a French public sector financing institution). Proceeds will be directed to support the upcoming registrational Phase III study of lead asset Tedopi, in second-line treatment in HLA-A2 positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with secondary (acquired) resistance to anti-PD-(L)1 immunotherapy. This announcement follows the...
- Richard Williamson
EML Payments - Cutting the final link to PFS vendors
EML Payments has entered into an agreement to settle all the outstanding deferred consideration payments relating to the acquisition of Prepaid Financial Services Group (PFS) for £15.0m/A$28.8m, which represents a £7.9m/A$15.2m discount to the originally agreed amount. This agreement concludes all outstanding actual and potential liabilities relating to the PFS acquisition in 2020. Combined with the agreed sale of Sentenial for A$54m, this substantially strengthens EML’s balance sheet and simpli...
- Pedro Fonseca
Lowland Investment Company - Is the tide turning?
Lowland Investment Company’s (LWI’s) unconstrained, multi-cap investment policy differentiates it from most peers in the AIC UK Equity Income sector. It offers investors broad market exposure, outside of the large, traditional ‘income stocks’ at a 13% discount to NAV. The underperformance of small- and mid-cap companies versus larger peers has slowed and a turnaround would be very positive for LWI. Portfolio returns are already benefiting from acquisition activity, spurred by low valuations, and...
- Toby Thorrington
Norcros - FY24 trading in line with expectations
FY24 trading underpins Norcros’s compelling investment case, where its new product development initiatives, market positioning and self-help initiatives allow it to take market share in both the UK and South Africa. We believe that Norcros’s key strengths are underappreciated and that legacy issues have been resolved. Its rating is low at 5.6x FY24e P/E, which is attractive, especially when compared to its yield of 5.7% on its well-covered dividend. We retain our estimates and value the shares a...
- Kate Heseltine
Ocean Harvest Technology - Harvesting the power of seaweed
Ocean Harvest Technology (OHT), based in the UK, produces animal feed additives products using a composite of blended seaweed. Its patented products have been shown to enhance growth rates in livestock, increase feed efficiency and improve egg quality and quantity for laying poultry. As OHT operates in an attractive market, there is significant potential for its proprietary technology to drive volume growth as awareness of its product benefits increases, along with improving financials.
- Fiona Orford-Williams
M&C Saatchi - Moving into alignment
There has been a lot going on under M&C Saatchi’s operational bonnet, so delivering FY23 results a shade above market forecasts is a good result, especially given the difficult market backdrop. Earlier issues regarding outstanding put option liabilities are in retreat, with minority interests in FY23 down to 13% from 25% in FY22, and most remaining liabilities are expected to be settled in FY24. The focus is now firmly on optimising the operational structure. There has already been good progress...
- Pedro Fonseca
Seraphim Space Investment Trust - Several key holdings funded to break...
Seraphim Space Investment Trust (SSIT) reported a modest 1.8% NAV total return (TR) in H124, as the positive impact from up rounds (most notably D-Orbit’s) was partly offset by downward fair value adjustments of some other holdings due to technical setbacks or operational underperformance. However, we note that fund-raising across the spacetech sector remained robust in CY23. Moreover, 82% of SSIT’s portfolio has a robust cash runway, with 60% fully funded based on the projections of its managem...
- Pedro Fonseca
Utilico Emerging Markets Trust - Quality of UEM’s assets is underappre...
Utilico Emerging Markets Trust’s (UEM’s) manager Charles Jillings, at specialist investor ICM, is very excited about the prospects for the trust’s investee companies. He believes that investors underappreciate the quality of these businesses and the teams that manage them. Jillings travels extensively, along with deputy portfolio managers Jacqueline Broers and Jonathan Groocock, meeting with current portfolio and other firms and relevant organisations in emerging markets. They report first hand ...
- Sean Conroy
Basilea Pharmaceutica - CARB-X grant for preclinical programs
In the lead up to its capital markets day, Basilea Pharmaceutica announced it has received initial funding of up to US$0.9m through a grant from Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X), a global non-profit partnership backed by governments and foundations, for its preclinical antibiotics program. CARB-X is focused on supporting early-stage antibacterial research and development, and this grant is expected to support development work up until clinical candid...
- Toby Thorrington
ADS-TEC Energy - Serving the energy transition
ADS-TEC Energy operates in an emerging market serving the changing grid and power management requirements of an electrifying world. Its key market at present is for battery-buffered ultra-fast charging systems for electric vehicles (EVs). This is starting to produce tangible positive results, with the business EBITDA positive in Q423. Hence, ADS-TEC offers a de-risking investment into the electrification of the energy system, including the growth of EVs through the associated charging infrastruc...
- Martyn King
Regional REIT - Performing as expected ahead of refinancing
In a challenging market, Regional REIT’s (RGL’s) FY23 operational and financial performance was robust, in line with expectations and previous guidance. Investor focus remains on the company’s loan to value (LTV) reduction and bond refinancing plans, explored in detail in our previous note and RGL will provide an update on this in due course.
- Pedro Fonseca
Premier Miton Global Renewables Trust - Deep dive on developers
The energy developers segment of Premier Miton Global Renewables Trust’s (PMGR’s) holdings accounts for 30.2% of its portfolio (at 29 February 2024). These developers can generate significantly higher returns than other sections of the portfolio (eg yield plays and investment trusts) due to higher initial capital investment and development risk. PMGR’s portfolio remains a diversified approach to renewable energy asset investing, with a mix across technologies, geographies and corporate structure...
- Martyn King
Picton Property Income - Accretive portfolio repositioning
Picton Property Income has agreed the sale of Angel Gate, its second largest office asset, and largest portfolio void, with an agreed consideration above the Q323 valuation. The sale is part of its strategy to repurpose selective office assets and accretively recycle the capital. This sale supports NAV, and we expect a positive impact on earnings. Further repurposing asset management initiatives are being progressed.
- Sean Conroy
Oryzon Genomics - FDA green light for SCLC combination trial
With the FDA investigational new drug (IND) application clearance, Oryzon can commence its Phase I/II cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) trial sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI; part of the National Institutes of Health) with Dr Noura Choudhury from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) as the principal investigator. This trial will evaluate iadademstat in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) for the treatment of first-line extensive...
- Pedro Fonseca
JDC Group - Accelerating again in FY24
JDC Group (JDC) reported FY23 results that were in line with the preliminary results published on 8 March. After a very strong Q423, JDC expects FY24 revenue growth to accelerate to c 17% (FY23: 10.0%) and EBITDA to grow by 36% (FY23: 30.2%) at the midpoint of guidance. To reach the FY25 target of €246m in revenue, JDC also needs 17% top-line growth in FY25. JDC trades at an FY25e EV/EBITDA multiple of 13.7x on our estimates, which we believe is undemanding for what is essentially a fast-scaling...
- Richard Williamson
MGI - Media and Games Invest - Google strategic collaboration
MGI – Media and Games Invest has announced a strategic collaboration with Google Cloud that will bring all MGI’s marketplaces together by mid-FY25. As well as result in the obvious scalability advantage, this collaboration should boost the effectiveness of MGI’s privacy-first AI-driven products. Management anticipates it will also generate cost savings of €20m over the next four years. MGI has started the year strongly, with organic revenue growth of 18% in January and 25% in February. Q124 resu...
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