Modest profit upgrade despite cost pressures

Solid update

The Promised Land

Red Dwarf, the very British sci-fi comedy franchise, ran for 11 seasons – most recently in 2017; and The Promised Land is a feature-length TV movie – out this year. Yes, the programme is an acquired taste. Strangely, too, many episodes are impacted by a virus or three (physiological, not main-frame).

UK Housebuilding Sector: 2020 vision: Sharpness and clarity for industry prospects

For fighter pilots, it is a minimum requirement. But having 20/20 ‘visual acuity’ (correct term) does not necessarily mean you have perfect vision (as convention assumes); instead, it indicates sharpness and clarity of vision at a distance. It is measured by a Snellen Chart, which displays letters of progressively smaller size and whereby 20/20 means that the test subject sees the same line of letters at 20 feet that a person with normal vision sees at 20 feet (or 6 metres; but 6/6 simply didn’t

UK Housebuilding Sector in 3Q 2019: ‘And then there were 17’

Dame Agatha Christie (née Miller) published more than 80 books and plays; and the Guinness Book of World Records lists her as the best-selling novelist of all time with roughly two billion copies sold. ‘And then there were none’ was originally published in 1939, with an un-politically correct title; and it is still the world’s best-selling mystery (with more than 100 million sold). It is also number six on the list of best-selling books of all-time.

UK Housebuilding Sector in 2Q 2019

Dwight Barkley PhD is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick. He studies waves in excitable media such as the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction, heart tissue and neurons. In 1997, Dr Barkley and Dr Laurette Tuckerman, a Paris-based mathematical physicist, developed ‘bifurcation analysis for time steppers’, which is a technique for modifying computer codes to perform bifurcation analysis. More lyrical, perhaps, Dwight is also known for formulating an equation to estimate how long it

UK Housebuilding Sector in 1Q 2019

Y2K is a numeronym and was the common abbreviation for the year 2000 software problem; and, for the benefit of millennial readers, the abbreviation combines the letter ‘Y’ for year and ‘K’ for the SI unit prefix kilo, meaning 1000. Hence, 2K signifies 2000.

UK Housebuilding Sector in 2018

‘From the deserts of East Ham to the gardens of Cottenham’, the UK Housebuilding Sector was whacked to the tune of 27% in 2018; and not one share price (out of 18) rose on the London Stock Exchange.

UK Housebuilding Sector in 3Q 2018…

“It’s like the cow that every single day during 10 years sees the train crossing in front of it at the same time. And if you ask the cow what time is the train going to come, it’s not going to have the right answer. In football it’s the same”.

UK Housebuilding Sector in 2Q 2018

This VAR was conceived in 2010 by the Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB) but it was seven years later, in April 2017, that it had its professional club competition debut in the A-League in Australia in a match between Melbourne and Adelaide.

UK Housebuilding Sector

This ominous-sounding term originated from the work of famed Swedish meteorologist, Tor Bergeron (1897-1977), but it only entered popular vernacular this year – and there have been ample opportunities in 2018 to use it.

Morning Song

Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH LN) Significant European acquisition | Northern lights The year of the Great Exhibition

The year of the Great Exhibition

2018 is the year of the Great Exhibition of the North. This summer, Newcastle and Gateshead will play host to a government-sponsored, 80-day marathon of events. Billed as the largest event in England this year, the Great Exhibition will showcase the best of the North East’s art, culture, design and innovation and we expect it to highlight the region’s ongoing success in high-end engineering, technology and life sciences. It may also reflect on the success of the North East’s plcs, the most strik

Boohoo Group plc (BOO LN) - Controlling the controllables

• Trading update: Group revenue of £637.7m is 10.7% lower YOY (P3 FY22: £714.5m), in line with previous guidance and Zeus forecasts. Performance was softer across all markets and almost all Group brands and reflects the normalisation of the channel shift online over the last twelve months. UK revenue of £400.8m is down 11.1% YOY (P3 FY22: £451.0m) suggesting a softening in demand versus H1 FY23: (4.4)%, but against a strong prior year comp (P3 FY22 UK revenue growth: 26.4%) as the outbreak of Om

Top Picks for 2023 - 2022 review and outlook for 2023

On 10 January last year, we set out our ten top stock picks for 2022, in what turned out to be a very poor twelve months for global equities, due to war, accelerating inflation, political instability and recession fears. Between 7 January 2022 and 31 December 2022, the AIM All-Share Index declined 30.0%, whilst the average performance of our ten top picks was -24.7%, a modest relative outperformance. In this note we discuss the performance of our 2022 top picks, equities trends in 2022, and our

Surface Transforms - Pre-close trading update, short-term production glitch

The group’s year-end trading update highlights that revenue for November and December was affected by some technical production issues, occurring as production was being significantly ramped up. These issues have been addressed and the wider capex of phase 2 is on track to be operational by Q3 2023. The group is capacity-constrained in H1 2023, not demand-constrained, with customers fully supportive of the remedial actions and planned capacity expansion. We reduce revenue expectations for FY22 b

LIBERUM: Accrol Group Holdings Plc* - A journey of growth, profitability and returns

Frontier Developments (FDEV LN) - Superior strategy

Frontier is a leading developer and publisher of simulation, management, strategy and non-linear games. These genres allow Frontier to continuously offer additional content, attract loyal fanbases and face less competition. Our analysis confirms Frontier’s games have higher player retention after twelve months (28% vs. average of 14% for peers) and engagement (162% higher average playtime), and that its chosen genres generate over 50% more revenue per game whilst facing half the competition of a

LIBERUM: Superdry* - Retail surging, progress made but work required to re-ignite wholesale

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 25 Jan 23

25 January 2023 @HybridanLLP Status of this Note and Disclaimer This document has been issued to you by Hybridan LLP for information purposes only and should not be construed in any circumstances as an offer to sell or solicitation of any offer to buy any security or other financial instrument, nor shall it, or the fact of its distribution, form the basis of, or be relied upon in connection with, any contract relating to such action. This document has no regard for the specific investment object

Accrol Group Holdings (ACRL LN) - Growth in every area

Accrol has delivered strong H1 results, reflecting impressive market share gains with strong growth in volume, revenue, and profit. Cost recovery and margin control has been impressive in what remains a challenging inflationary backdrop. We are upgrading our forecasts in anticipation of a strong H2 performance. The outcome of the Strategic Review sets out a clear roadmap to Accrol emerging as a £250m+ business over time in our view, including confirmation of plans to construct of its own paper m

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 12 Jan 23

12 January 2023 @HybridanLLP Status of this Note and Disclaimer This document has been issued to you by Hybridan LLP for information purposes only and should not be construed in any circumstances as an offer to sell or solicitation of any offer to buy any security or other financial instrument, nor shall it, or the fact of its distribution, form the basis of, or be relied upon in connection with, any contract relating to such action. This document has no regard for the specific investment object

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 23 Jan 23

23 January 2023 @HybridanLLP Status of this Note and Disclaimer This document has been issued to you by Hybridan LLP for information purposes only and should not be construed in any circumstances as an offer to sell or solicitation of any offer to buy any security or other financial instrument, nor shall it, or the fact of its distribution, form the basis of, or be relied upon in connection with, any contract relating to such action. This document has no regard for the specific investment object

Morning Note – 16 January 2023

Character Group - Update

The Character Group (Character), which reported full year results in December, has issued a trading update ahead of its AGM being held today. In essence, the announcement states that in what is a challenging year for the industry, sales and profit before tax are expected to be marginally below current market expectations. We are therefore revising down our FY23 revenue and PBT expectations by 7% and 9% respectively. Given typically strong cash generation and a sound balance sheet our dividend fo

WHI Support Services Sector Comment: Challenges and opportunities

Bleak expectations for the UK economy in 2023 anticipate underperformance against other G7 countries based on factors such as (a) the UK's higher than average mortgage rate sensitivity and (b) relative exposure to high gas and energy prices. Some measure of political / economic stability has returned, though this arguably remains a brittle quality, given the scope for dissent within the Conservative party and the unpredictable impacts of industrial action, among a range of factors. All of this s

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 18 Jan 23

18 January 2023 @HybridanLLP Status of this Note and Disclaimer This document has been issued to you by Hybridan LLP for information purposes only and should not be construed in any circumstances as an offer to sell or solicitation of any offer to buy any security or other financial instrument, nor shall it, or the fact of its distribution, form the basis of, or be relied upon in connection with, any contract relating to such action. This document has no regard for the specific investment object

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 24 Jan 23

24 January 2023 @HybridanLLP Status of this Note and Disclaimer This document has been issued to you by Hybridan LLP for information purposes only and should not be construed in any circumstances as an offer to sell or solicitation of any offer to buy any security or other financial instrument, nor shall it, or the fact of its distribution, form the basis of, or be relied upon in connection with, any contract relating to such action. This document has no regard for the specific investment object