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Quoted Micro 28 August 2017
NEX EXCHANGE
Good Energy (GOOD) and Ecotricity have come to an agreement that means the latter has withdrawn its requisition of a general meeting. No details were released about the reasons behind the withdrawal.
Cadence Minerals (KDNC) is in talks to sell part of its 16.1% stake in AIM-quoted Bacanora Minerals (BCN) to a strategic investor group. Bacanora’s main interest is in the Sonora lithium project in Mexico.
Blockchain investment company Coinsilium Group Ltd (COIN) has formed a Gibraltar-based subsidiary called Terrastream Ltd, which plans to develop blockchain platform for a token-based alternative funding system. Gibraltar is expected to be the first jurisdiction to develop a regulatory framework for distributed ledger technology and the blockchain. A token sale will help to finance the development work. The initial focus is likely to be the resources sector.
MetalNRG (MNRG) has added additional ground to its licence in Australia. The new area will be called Palomino North.
All Star Minerals (ASMO) has extended the terms of the convertible loan note issued to Valiant Investments have been extended so it matures in May 2018. The annual interest charge is 20% and the conversion price is 0.1p a share. The maturity dates of other loan notes totalling £110,000 have been extended to January 2018. The interest rate and conversion price are the same. Shares have been issued to satisfy past liabilities on these loan notes.
AIM
Warehouse REIT has issued the AIM prospectus for its placing, offer for subscription and intermediaries offer to raise up to £150m. An existing portfolio of warehouse assets will be acquired for £108.9m, based on a 7% net initial yield, and there are other potential assets being assessed. A dividend of 5.5p a share is being targeted for the year to March 2019.
Utilitywise (UTW) has confirmed that trading last year was in line with expectations so pre-tax profit is likely to decline from £8.2m to £4.7m.
Palace Capital (PCA) has sold a Bristol property for £2.25m, which is its net asset value, following the loss of one of its tenants, Blafour Beatty. The property was acquired as part of a portfolio from Quintain in 2013.
Scientific Digital Imaging (SDI) is acquiring Applied Thermal Control, a manufacturer of chillers, coolers and heat exchangers, for up to £1.2m.
Management Resource Solutions (MRS) says that its chief executive Joe Clayton has left the company. He was appointed chief executive at the end of 2016. In the year to June 2017, MRS generated revenues of A$52.2m and the loss for the year will be higher than expected. Exceptional costs will also be higher than thought initially. MRS had cash of A$2m.
Gatemore Capital has increased its stake in DX (DX.) from 21.3% to 23.8% following the resumption of trading in the shares.
Redx Pharma (REDX) will be paying unsecured creditors in full. The process has begun but it will take some time. This brings the reintroduction of trading in the shares nearer.
Home improvements products provider entu (UK) (ENTU) is appointing an administrator because it has not agreed a refinancing with a potential financial backer. The trading businesses will be sold. Trading in the shares was suspended on 24 August. entu raised £32.8m when it joined AIM in October 2014.
Kin Group (KIN) has been unable to secure the funding it requires and an administrator has been appointed to the main subsidiary. Kin Group will not get anything from a sale of the subsidiary and it will become a shell. There will still be a requirement for a fundraising for the shell to be viable.
365 Agile (365) has left AIM because it has been unable to secure a reverse takeover. Potential acquisitions are still being assessed.
Mercantile Ports and Logistics Ltd (MPL) has signed up the first customer for its Mumbai port facility. This should generate £4.7m for each one million tonnes handled, with the payment raised by 7% a year. Two million tonnes of cargo have been contracted for the first year, with a guaranteed minimum of 750,000 tonnes, and the figure will rise for each of the next two years reaching three million tonnes in the third year, with a minimum of two million tonnes. Operations should commence in December. The share price rose by two-thirds to 8.13p.
Sula Iron & Gold (SULA) has raised £900,000 at 0.146p a share but £500,000 of this figure will be part of an equity sharing agreement. Sula is gambling that it will receive £500,000 or more as part of the equity sharing agreement and this will paid on a monthly basis until September 2018. The benchmark price is 0.161p a share so each month the share price has to be at least that level for Sula to at least receive that amount owed. The board members have agreed to halve their salaries.
Verditek (VDTK) has secured a deal that will mean that 51%-owned Greenflex Energy will provide its solar technology to power digital advertising boards in bus shelters in Italy. This is a trial contract won via competitive tender and starting with one bus shelter and then rolling out to a further 20. The customer is Media One, which operates more than 5,000 digital advertising boards.
Finsbury Food (FIF) is closing the loss-making pastry products maker Grain D’Or,which has failed to improve despite cost controls. Grain D’Or was acquired as part of the £56m Fletchers acquisition in 2014 and last year generated revenues of £28.5m.
Church & Dwight has terminated its CSD500 condom licensing deal with Futura Medical (FUM) after just over four years. The licence covered North America and part of Europe. The rights will be returned to Futura by November. New partners will be sought.
Green & Smart Holdings (GSH) says that biogas project development is on track and the company could pay a maiden dividend for the 2017-18 financial year.
Investment in the business has held back first half progress at packaging manufacturer Robinson (RBN) and underlying pre-tax profit fell from £580,000 to £364,000. It was also difficult to pass on plastic resin cost increases. Full year profit is forecast to fall from £2.2m to £1.2m.
Bushveld Minerals Ltd (BMN) has retired its $3m prepayment facility, which was used to buy part of its 78.8% stake in Strategic Minerals Corporation, with Wogen Resources. Vametco Alloys has increased its facility from $6m to $11m. Vametco’s Nitrovan vanadium will be marketed by Wogen around the world outside of Japan and Taiwan.
Filta Group Holdings (FLTA) is acquire drain services provider Grease Management for up to £1.11m. Annual revenues are £1.28m and three-quarters are recurring. Post-acquisition cost savings of around £100,000 could nearly double the profit contribution.
Cancer drug developer Sareum (SAR) says that its full year profit will be better than expected. The cash pile will also be higher than forecast.
Sphere Medical Holdings (SPHR) is ditching its AIM quotation as part of a funding deal with Woodford Investment Management and the Wales Life Sciences Investment Fund, which will invest £5m in convertible preferred shares. Other investors will invest up to £3m. The convertibles will be issued at 2.82p each and can be swapped for one ordinary share. Sphere will be re-registered as a private limited company, which makes it possible for Woodford to invest more.
MAIN MARKET
Nanoco Group (NANO) is attracting interest in its cadmium-free quantum dots following the EU’s plans to ban cadmium in displays from October 2019. However, revenues are slower in coming through than hoped.
Photovoltaic silicon wafers supplier PV Crystalox Solar (PVCS) still had net cash of €27.9m at the end of June 2017. Running down inventories has offset the loss of €5.4m. A decision should be made by the arbitration tribunal concerning a customer that did not purchase the wafers it was contracted to buy by the end of September.
Packaging company Macfarlane Group (MACF) increased its revenues from £81.5m to £89.8m, while pre-tax profit jumped from £2m to £2.54m with the improvement coming from the distribution business. Net debt was £14.6m at the end of June 2017, while the pension fund deficit was cut from £14.5m to £13.4m. The interim dividend was increased from 0.55p a share to 0.6p a share.
Following the ending of bid talks for Quarto (QRT), Liontrust has cut its stake from 12.65% to 7.54%. Cavendish Asset Management has taken its stake to 5.18%, while two directors have also made small purchases.
Shares in standard list hostels operator Myanmar Strategic (SHWE) started trading on 22 August. The placing price was $10 and the shares are trading at $9.5m – a bid/offer price of $7/$12.
Standard list shell Boston International (BIH) is in talks to acquire Cornhill FX Holdings. This is part of the strategy to acquire operations in the foreign exchange sector. Legal and financial due diligence is being undertaken. Cornhill Capital is Boston’s broker.
Andrew Hore
Weir Group Recovery Starts
Weir Group Weir has North America to thank for signs of recovery in its fortunes. North American oil and gas markets have recovered more strongly than anticipated and volume and price increases have both been ahead of prior expectations. Operating margins in the first half have been in low double digit figures and full year revenue and operating profits will be above the upper end of analysyst’s estimates
Finsbury Food FIF updates that it is very pleased to have grown revenue in the year to the 1st. July, ignoring the unwelcome fact that on a constant currency basis its like for like revenue actually fell by 1.4% and on an actual basis only rose by 0.3% How Chief Executives hate to have to announce poor figures and will do their utmost to try and justify calling a fall, a rise. At least the second half performance was better than the first where the decline was twice as large, at 2.9%, The European business showed a leap of 17,3% but only 2.2% was organic growth and 15.1% was due to exchange rate benefits.
Plant Impact PIM expects strong growth in the use of Veritas in Brazil, with revenue for 2017 expected to rise from from £7.2m in 2016 to between £8.5 and £9m. The prospects for 2018 are even brighter with revenue expected to be around £13m.
Conviviality CVR is increasing its full year dividend by 33% to 12.6p per share. after what the company claims was a transformational year, with all areas of the business performing strongly, revenue rising by 85% and profit before tax by by 147%. The success has continued into the new financial year with sales for the nine weeks to 2nd July showing further growth of 9% compared to last year.
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Finsbury Food Growth Halted
Finsbury Food Group FIF A successfull roll out of vision and values appears to have been the main feature of Finsbury’s second half and once you see management reduced to that level of jargon, you know that something is not quite right. Well revenue for one thing was completely flat, in fact it was so flat that the first and second half revenues were virtually identical – so much for meaningless empty phrases like vision and value. Profit before tax for the 26 weeks to the end of December rose by 5.3% and the interim dividend was increased by 7.5%. The CEO refers to the company’strack record of exceptional growth but offers no explanation as to why that should suddenly have come to a halt in the second half of 2016.
EKF Diagnostics EKF A successful restructuring helped to produce strong organic growth in the year to the end of December, with revenue rising by 28% and gross profits by 24%. EBITDA of £6.1m compared to 2015’s loss of £2.9m
Volution Group FAN is increasing its interim dividend by 12.5% for the half year to 31st January. Revenue grew by 26.1% or 2.3% on a like for like and constant currency basis. Reported profit before tax grew by 10% compaed to the first half of 2016. Further good growth is expected in 2017.
Taptica TAP A strong performance for the year to the end of December saw revenue rise by 66% and gross profit more than double. Adjusted EBITDA more than tripled to $25.7m and an increase in the final dividend means an increase for the year from 0.00784 to $0.1011 cents per share.
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Royal Mail Drowns in Jargon
Royal Mail plc RMG How can any company be taken seriously when its CEO’s English appears to be so bad that she has to express herself in internal company jargon – thus ones breakfast reading of the goings on at Royal Mail includes – “movements in foreign exchange, ASM and GSO in GLS” Can the Board not send her for re training so that she can speak the same language as the rest of the country.
More jargon follows with the update for the 9 months to the end of December claiming 9% growth in GLS and a 2% decline in PIL. Is that good or bad, one must ask oneself. Parcel revenue rose by 3% whilst letter revenue was down by 5% as overall business uncertainty continued to affect letter volumes in the UK.
Chemring Group CHG appears to have rebounded from 2015’s problems and turned last years loss of £9.1m into a profit of £8m. for the year to 31st October. Earnings per share came in at 2.5p after last years loss of 2.4p. whilst total evenue for the year rose by 26.5% and operating profit soared from £5.5m to £ 26.2m.
Finsbury Food Group FIF suffered from flat sales in the in the 6 months to the 30th November, with the bakery division down by 2.9% as the UK retail market continued to suffer from price deflation. In contrast the European division which is 50% owned by FIF rose by 31.7%. Sterling induced commodity inflation and increases in the national living wage are expected to lead to cost inflation in the second half.
1 PM PLC OPM continued to experience high levels of demand in each of its three subsidiaries for the half year 30th November. Revenue rose by 52%, profit before tax by 23% and basic earnings per share rose from 2.91% to 3.08%
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Dairy Crest To Be Impacted By Food Price Inflation
Dairy Crest Group DCG Expects a good first half performance, with Clover, Country Life and Frylight all showing strong volume growth for the half year which will end on the 30th September. Market share continues to be increased. However there are clouds on the horizon in the shape of price inflation which has already started and which the company expects to impact margins and butter volume in the second half. The milk price paid to farmers has risen by 12% and the price of cream has doubled in a very short period.
Petra Diamonds PDL Net profit after tax rose by 12% for the year to 30th June following only a 1% rise in revenue on production up by 16%. Petra describes these as a strong set of results despite pressure on prices in the first half and unusually it gives no further information on prices, preferring instead to the look to the future outlook it see for 2017 which it claims will be the year when all the promises start to become reality. Firstly it will enter the final stage of its expansion program and in the second half it expects to become free cashflow positive, despite some caution about future diamond prices but again no further information is provided.
Finsbury Food FIF performed strongly during the year to 2nd July with adjusted profit before tax up by 40.8% and the final dividend increased to to 1.87p, making a rise for the year of 12%. Like for like revenue was up by 5% and total revenue by 24.8%. 2016 was the year when it delivered on its growth strategy and rolled out vision and value at all levels, whatever that may mean. For 2017 claims to be excited about new innovations for muffins and doughnuts. The balance sheet is strong and it has made record capital investment for the future
Styles & Wood STY produced a strong performance for the half year to 30th June with good growth and strong cash generation. Significant success was achieved in securing long term contracts as its diversification program began to bite. The company returned to profitability with last years first half loss of £0.5m being turned into a profit of £0.4m and earnings per share coming in at 2.6p compared to last years loss of 10.2p per share. Net debt has been virtually halved.
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Advanced Medical Solutions – Strong Year of Growth
Preliminary results for Paysafe (PAYS) for the year to 31st December are slightly ahead of expectations and the CEO and President is bubbling over with excitement and self praise. he is “incredibly pleased” with what was a tremendous year and is very excited about prospects for the future. Revenue rose by 68%, adjusted EBITDA by 77% and profit after tax by 60%. Statutory profit after tax however collapsed by 87% following acquisition costs and net debt surged nearly twenty fold from £22.9m.to £431.3m. although this figure is said to be not meaningful. The positive momentum which so excites the President has continued into 2016.
Advanced Medical Solutions (AMS) continues to make up for all those years of waiting whilst its new products were developed and eventually licenced. The final dividend for 2015 is to be increased by 14% after a rise of 9% in revenue, 12% in profit before tax and 10% in diluted earnings per share. Net cash increased by 98% to £34.2m. AMS made good sales progress on all business fronts, with a strong year of growth, especially in the US where market share is being increased by the success of Liquiband tissue adhesives.
Finsbury Foods (FIF) is increasing its interim dividend by 12% to 0.93p for the 26 weeks to 26th December after a strong first half performance saw like for like profit before tax rise by 22% and like for like revenue by 7.4%. Total revenue, including revenue from acquisitions was up by 84%. FIF expects to flourish in what it sees as the new era of increasing consumer confidence.
Surgical Innovations (SUN) produced significantly improved results for 2015 and with its new board and management in place, both manufacturing and operational costs were reduced and the inventory was slashed by nearly 60%. Margins also improved and revenue for the year rose by 36%. An EBITDA loss from 2014 of 0.05m was turned into a positive 0.24m in 2015 and net debt fell by 30% to £2.26m. The improvement in performance has continued into 2016.
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FINSBURY FOODS – FIVE YEARS & FIVE FOLD GROWTH
Finsbury Food Group (FIF) was a comparatively small specialist baker with a reputation for having spoilt a full years results by putting too much chocolate in its cakes over one Christmas a few years ago. Now it is a major presence in the baking industry with the acquisition of Fletchers bakery in October 2014 and Johnstones in June 2015 making it one of the largest specialist bakers in the UK.
The share price has also changed beyond all recognition.From 20p in the middle of 2011 it almost quadrupled to reach 74.6p just over two years later and it looked like the company which had always been full of promise but never really delivered, may at last be doing so. Then 2014 was a flat year with the share price sliding back to 58p by the start of 2015, after which it never looked back, rising to 107p by mid November.
A trading update issued on the 25th Novermber showed that like for like sales for the first four months of the current year were up by10.1% and that the integration of the newly acquired companies was going well.
Christmas saw a strong trading performance which continued into January with sales up by 46%, European sales up by 18.8% and overall like for like growth of 7.4%. Fletchers had produced a particularly strong performance.
The share price is now at 108p, with a price earnings ratio of 18.62 and yielding 2.3%. With more than a fivefold increase over the past 5 years it has grown steadily rather than spectacularly but to any investor that is a very acceptable return.
The interims are due on the 16th March.
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Finsbury Foods FIF – Dividends Tripled Over 2 Years
Finsbury Food Group had a longish history of never quite fulfilling its promise, until at last the promise started showing signs of becoming reality in 2013-14. In addition to its speciality and organic breads, it is the UK’s number 1 supplier of premium cakes and has a 20% share of the UK pre packed cake market. It produces over 15 million hot cross buns annually, every one of them crossed and glazed by hand.
The share price went nowhere until 2012 when it nearly doubled from 23p to 45p. By late 2013 it had risen to 78p before falling back to 45p in early 2014. Since then it has been on a bit of a roll (not hand glazed) and peaked last week at 107p. before falling back to its present 95p.
Last weeks preliminary results showed revenue up by 45.8% to 256m. and profit before tax up by 76% to 11.4m. The final dividend at 1.67p per share made a total annual dividend of 2.5p – a spectacular rise of 250% from the previous years 1p, itself a 33% rise on 2013’s 0.75p.
A company which can more than triple its dividend over 2 years obviously has something going for it. Part of the secret may lie in the acquisition of Fletchers which helped to turn it from a specialist baker into a more diverse bakery group. This year it has won the Bakery Manufacturer of the Year Award which is an improvement on a few years back when it set on a lot of Christmas temps to put chocolate on cakes but forgot to train them as to how much chocolate to use per cake. The result was a financial disaster and a ruinous set of half year results.
Those days are long gone and the new management which followed led the company through difficult times turned it round and helped to make it the success which it is today.
The fall in the share price since last weeks results could create an opportunity to get in below the recent peak.
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