reports
- Brian Moretta
- Jason Streets
- Mark Thomas
Hardman & Co Monthly: May 2025
Feature article: Attractive asset managers - Radical derating presumes things only get worse The UK asset management sector has been significantly derated over the past couple of years. It has faced the dual problem of a shift towards passives and to private assets and away from traditional listed equities and bonds. However, the sector’s assets haven’t collapsed; its margins have proved relatively robust and its profits fairly stable, even against all the rising costs. The clear implication, ...
- Mike Foster
Hardman & Co Insight: REITs - a much more positive outlook
Hardman & Co has carried out several assessments of the REITs sector in the past; in 2024, we looked at whether they represented fair value in terms of their share prices compared with the average discount to NAV at which share prices traded over several historical cycles. We concluded, at that point, that REITs were trading at very close to the historical, long-run average but that the macroeconomic momentum was not strong enough to encourage us to view prospects for REIT share price performanc...
- Brian Moretta
Chesnara plc (CSN): Showing good operational progress
Chesnara announced its 2024 results, which showed positive progress compared with 2023. The main features were positive market returns, offset by some mixed operational experience. Economic Value profit of £69.1m represented a 17% increase on the £59.1m in 2023. Economic Value increased to £531m, up slightly on £525m 12 months earlier, with a negative forex impact as well as dividend payment. Cash generation was excellent, with base cash increasing to £51.6m and commercial cash to £59.6m. The di...
- Mark Thomas
Arbuthnot Banking Group - 2024 results: franchise growing through the ...
The core of any successful, long-term business lies in offering clients the products they want so that they give you more business and, in turn, you attract new customers. The 2024 results show how ABG has achieved this, with growth in i) specialist lending (now £828m, 35% of loans up 33% in 2023, 27% in 2022 and 21% in 2021), ii) deposit volumes (+10%), and iii) wealth management (FUMA +30%). 1,200 new banking clients were onboarded in 2024. Short-term profits reflected that ABG had optimised r...
- Martin Hall
Hardman & Co Insight: 2024 Pharma Statistics
An efficient reporting system has seen all the listed multinational pharmaceutical companies announce results for 2024, which has given us the opportunity to update our industry statistics and drug database. This report provides the first snapshot of global pharmaceutical market growth plus the global and US company rankings for 2024. The year was characterised by 9.2% underlying (ex-COVID-19) growth. Much of the growth was driven by recently launched anti-obesity drugs and oncology drugs. Both ...
- Mark Thomas
Apax Global Alpha (APAX): Jam yesterday, and tomorrow, but not today
AGA was transparent in that 2024 was a below-average year for the company, with a total NAV return of 0.8% (-3.0% constant currency, including a 4Q total NAV return of 2.6% (-1.8% cc). By comparison, the five-year total NAV CAGR return was 8.3%. Problems in healthcare (no longer a core sector), and one portfolio company in particular, meant the strong average investee company EBITDA growth did not fuel NAV growth. However, the detail in the results bodes well, with i) investee companies deliveri...
- Mark Thomas
- Martin Hall
Hardman & Co Monthly: April 2025
Feature article: 2024 pharma statistics An efficient reporting system has seen all the listed multinational pharmaceutical companies announce results for 2024, which has given us the opportunity to update our industry statistics and drug database. This report provides the first snapshot of global pharmaceutical market growth plus the global and US company rankings for 2024. The year was characterised by 9.2% underlying (ex-COVID-19) growth. Much of the growth was driven by recently launched ant...
- Mark Thomas
H&T (HAT) - 2024 results: reasons to be cheerful 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
H&T’s 2024 results were reassuringly in line with expectations, delivering 10% PBT growth, with the pledge book capital value up 26%, retail sales up 27% and forex profits up 11%. The outlook remains positive, with i) strong demand in the core pawnbroking business where H&T is taking share and may have increasing acquisition opportunities, ii) consumer trends favouring its multi-channel, value-for-money, new and used product retail offering, iii) an expanding range of currencies helping forex gr...
- Mark Thomas
NB Private Equity Partners (NBPE): Update on: NAV, capital, Trump and ...
We highlighted our capital markets day takeaways in CM day: 6 November fireworks; notably, i) positive market trends, ii) NB’s platform unique benefits, and iii) multiple levers for value creation. In this note, we update investors on i) the latest NAV/portfolio, ii) NBPE’s revised capital allocation framework, iii) the potential impact of current Trump polices, and iv) the impact of interest rate expectations, which seem to evolve daily but which, in our view, have seen a trend of higher-for-lo...
- Brian Moretta
Jenson EIS Fund - Jenson Ventures (Jenson Funding Partners LLP)
The Jenson EIS Fund is a generalist fund that invests into follow-on investments from Jenson’s existing SEIS and EIS investments. The fund invests at three different stages, with each tranche looking to diversify by stage of development, sector and business model. Jenson aims to provide 5-10 investments in each tranche, although towards the lower end of that is most common in practice. Jenson has a small team, using appropriate outsourcing to give scale. The report goes into details of how the...
- Brian Moretta
Seneca EIS Portfolio Service - Seneca Partners Limited
The Seneca EIS Portfolio Fund invests in a mixture of unquoted and AIM-listed companies that are scaling up. It has a target return of 2x capital (before fees) and typically provides 5-7 investments in each portfolio. The fund has been running for over a decade and the management team has been in place for some time. Seneca has achieved a good number of exits over the past decade, taking advantage of liquidity on AIM when appropriate. The report goes into details of how the investment process w...
- Nigel Hawkins
Hardman & Co Insight: UK energy policy - up for grabs?
UK energy policy has changed of late, following the election of a Labour government last summer. The quest for Net Zero by 2030 – a hardly realistic target – is now a priority. Rightly or wrongly, the issues of security of supply, electricity prices and generation investment have all been superseded by this overarching aim. In recent months, the government has withheld licensing approvals for various oil and gas projects – the latter, in particular, is much needed. Irrespective of the ca.£40bn ...
- Mark Thomas
- Nigel Hawkins
Hardman & Co Monthly: March 2025
In this month's feature article, we review the energy situation in the UK. On the domestic front, Ofgem has recently announced the new price cap figure of £1,849 for a typical household’s annual use of gas and electricity; this figure represents an increase of 6.4% over the January-March 2025 price cap. UK energy policy has changed of late, following the election of a Labour government last summer. The quest for Net Zero by 2030 – a hardly realistic target – is now a priority. Rightly or wrong...
- Mark Thomas
- Mike Foster
Real Estate Credit Investments (RECI): The rise of private credit: thr...
One of the key trends in global financing markets has been the rise of private credit. In this report, we consider the implications for RECI. On the upside, we note i) the disintermediation of banks reconfirms the drivers to its business model, ii) this should be positive for sentiment, and iii) most of RECI’s competitive advantages relative to banks also apply to private credit funds. On the downside, we note i) competition will increase, especially for higher-end loans and staff, although RECI...
- Richard Jeans
accesso Technology Group (ACSO): We expect revenue growth to accelerat...
In this note, we review the prospects for accesso ahead of the final results in April. The January update was reassuring, with revenue of ca.$152m ahead of our $150m forecast and the ca.15% cash EBITDA margin well ahead of the 13.2% forecast. Conservatively, we maintained our FY25 and FY26 forecast. However, as accesso is a growth technology company with a leading market position, we expect revenues to gradually accelerate from 6% in FY25E into the high single digits, and margins to rise as the...
- Mark Thomas
Volta Finance Limited (VTAS): 2024 experience bodes well for 2025
Volta has delivered +21.2% 2024 total NAV return, outperforming i) B-rated CLO tranches (+19.2%), ii) US high yield (+8.2%), iii) Euro high yield (+8.6%), and iv) global loans (+7.3%). Its performance reflects positive markets and the incremental value added by the manager through its asset selection and portfolio management. Looking into 2025, we expect another strong year from CLOs: more market growth (partially driven by loans issued to fund greater PE activity), and stable, if not falling, d...
- Keith Hiscock
Hardman & Co Insight: The October 2024 Budget - We got it wrong
Our Hardman & Co Insight of October 2024 looked forward to the first Labour Budget for 14 years. The main theme was that, because the new Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, had ruled out increases in taxes on ‘working people’, investors would bear the brunt of any tax increases to fill the alleged £22bn hole in the public finances left to the new government by the Tories. The pain that was going to be suffered was increased by the aim to raise some more to improve public services, so Reeves booked £40bn...
- Brian Moretta
BR Review: Rockpool Inheritance Tax Service - Rockpool Investments LLP
The Rockpool Inheritance Tax Service invests in two lending strategies: senior secured loans to small corporates as part of private equity deals, and asset-based lending, which is to reserve power companies and is mostly secured on energy contracts. The underlying company has 24 loans in its current portfolio. The service has been running since 2012 and, other than a short period in 2018/2019 when it had some bad debts, has largely reached or beaten its target return of 4% p.a. Currently, its ru...
- Richard Jeans
Hardman & Co Insight: Tech sector outlook
21 notable buyouts since COVID-19 pandemic. With the January trading updates out of the way, we examine the outlook for the UK tech sector. As we entered January, the mood among investors was downbeat, given the tepid economic outlook, the changes announced in the UK Autumn budget, combined with the ongoing geopolitical uncertainties. However, the January trading announcements, across the sector, were better than expected, with two earnings outlook upgrades to every downgrade, on our estimates....
- Nigel Hawkins
Quoted UK Infrastructure and Renewable Energy ‒ A year of trials and t...
Only Cordiant and Pantheon buck the trend... For the remaining 29 quoted Infrastructure Investment Companies (IICs) and the Renewable Energy Infrastructure Funds (REIFs), 2024 was a dire year ‒ as was 2023. NAV discounts widened appreciably, while some REIFs, in particular, really struggled. During 2024, there were several “Continuation/Discontinuation Votes”, which saw some funds enter Managed Wind Down. Furthermore, there were no major sector fund-raises during the year; instead, share buy...
UKW GREENCOAT UK WIND PLC
NESF NEXTENERGY SOLAR FUND
BSIF BLUEFIELD SOLAR INCOME FUND
BBGI BBGI GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE
TXG 10X GENOMICS INC CLASS A
GSF GORE STREET ENERGY STORAGE FUND
HICL HICL INFRASTRUCTURE PLC
3IN 3I INFRASTRUCTURE PLC
AERS AQUILA EUROPEAN RENEWABLES INCOME FUND
GRP GREENCOAT RENEWABLES
GRID GRESHAM HOUSE ENERGY STORAGE FUND
SEQI SEQUOIA ECONOMIC INFRASTRUCTURE INCOME FUND
ORIT OCTOPUS RENEWABLES INFRASTRUCTURE TRUST
RNEP ECOFIN US RENEWABLES INFRASTRUCTURE TRUST
CORD CORDIANT DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE
DORE DOWNING RENEWABLES & INFRA TST PLC
HGEN HYDROGENONE CAPITAL GROWTH PLC
AEET AQUILA ENERGY EFFICIENCY TRUST PLC
HEIT HARMONY ENERGY INCOME TRUST PLC
PINT PANTHEON INFRASTRUCTURE PLC
DGI9 DIGITAL 9 INFRASTRUCTURE PLC
123F 123FAHRSCHULE SE
BCOW 1895 BANCORP OF WISCONSIN INC
FSFLL FORESIGHT SOLAR
INPP INPP
DGI9L DIGITAL 9 INFRASTRUCTURE
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