PROGRESSIVE: IG Design Group: Appointment of new Group CFO

IG Design (IGD) has announced the appointment of its new Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The group had indicated in its April pre-close trading statement that it was well-advanced in the search for a new CFO, expecting it to be completed shortly. The incoming CFO is Rohan Cummings. He joins from Devro Limited, formally Devro plc, which was listed on the London Stock Exchange until its recent takeover by Dutch company SARIA Nederland BV. His appointment will be effective from 3 July 2023, ta

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 20/04/22

Dish of the day Joiners: Dowlais Group (DWL.L) has joined the Premium Segment of the Main Market. Dowlais joins the Main Market following the completion of the demerger of the GKN Automotive, GKN Powder Metallurgy and GKN Hydrogen businesses from Melrose Industries PLC into Dowlais. Leavers: Bion plc has left AIM. What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?** Golden Metal Resources Plc a mineral exploration company focused on tungsten, gold, copper, silver and zinc within Nevada, USA intends to join AIM.

PROGRESSIVE: IG Design - FY23 to beat expectations for profit and cash, boding well for longer-term objectives

IG Design Group’s post-close trading update on FY23 to 31 March reveals outperformance in terms of profitability and cash against market expectations. Compared with upgraded guidance to a small adjusted profit before tax for FY23 at the time of the interims, management anticipates a figure of $9m (cf Progressive forecast of $1.9m). Year-end cash of $50m represents around a 66% increase on FY22’s closing position.

FY23 margin, profit and cash beat

PROGRESSIVE: IG Design: A strong H1, with progress on many fronts

IG Design Group has delivered a strong set of interim results, as guided in October’s trading update, with adjusted PBT up 35% to $27.4m on a reported basis (+42% on a constant currency basis). This was driven by accelerated ordering of seasonal goods by retailer customers keen to de-risk their supply chains, alongside catch-up pricing and product engineering, which has delivered some gross margin recovery. While cautious on the outlook given continuing economic uncertainties, the Board has upgr

A strong H1 performance

PROGRESSIVE: IG Design: A strong first half, but no change to full-year guidance

IG Design Group has reported strong trading across both divisions for the H1 period ended 30 September. The primary driver is that the group’s retailer customers have brought forward their seasonal ordering to pre-empt a repeat of the supply chain challenges and disruptions that occurred in the run-up to Christmas 2021. The result of this reweighting towards H1 will be a significant improvement over last year’s difficult H1 period. As such, and mindful of the ongoing challenges of a difficult ec

FLASH: Encouraging first-half trading

FY22 Results

IG Design: Rebuilding a more resilient model

IG Design’s FY22 results reflect both a challenging cost environment and the group’s unwavering service commitment to its customers, with the former unable to be recouped and the latter incurring significant incremental costs. The priority now turns to building a more robust business model.

Hybridan Small Cap Feast 27/04/22

According to Proactive Investors, Bridgepoint is said to preparing to list Burger King UK on the London Stock Exchange as early as this spring. A valuation of £600m is expected. Lift Global Ventures plc to join AQSE Growth Market. The Company's investment strategy is to operate as an enterprise company seeking acquisition or investment opportunities within the financial media and technology industries. Within these broad industries, areas of focus may include: Financial news websites and other f

boohoo Group (BOO LN) - Building back to growth

FY23 revenue and EBITDA is a marginal beat vs. estimates with cash generation the standout beat. Market conditions are challenging, reflected in lower FY24 growth, but strategic progress is delivering improved profitability, with medium term guidance confident in a return to double-digit growth and increased profitability.

Initial Equity Trading Comments - 15 May 2023

Cenkos: Solid State Plc -- Solid Supply Chain

Solid State has a track record of delivering consistent growth in revenue and earnings, supported by secular organic growth drivers and a successful strategy of targeted acquisitions. We examine the customer industries, the company's technology specialisms and the financial performance drivers. Solid State is well positioned to continue delivering growth and shareholder value creation over the medium-term. We initiate coverage with a BUY.

Mixed thoughts about Imperial Brands

Despite falling short on the bottom line, the H1 23 results were in line with the street’s expectations in terms of the top-line and operating profit. The challenges posed by high comps and the effects of the COVID period significantly impacted tobacco volumes but this decline was effectively mitigated by pricing strategies. In our assessment, the market’s lukewarm response to the results can be attributed to a perceived lack of catalysts for Imperial.

LIBERUM: Ceres Power - Initiation - A Compellingly solid case

Morning Note – 11 May 2023

AGM update; benefitting from geographic diversity

Portmeirion has issued a brief AGM statement covering the traditionally quieter period of the year. Progress has been made YTD with geographical diversity and self-help being supportive features we understand. Overall, the expectation is for a flat H1 performance, which in the context of a challenging consumer backdrop would be a creditable outcome. We note USA has been singled out as showing customer caution in recent weeks re ordering and will need to be closely monitored over Q2. With c.80% o

Second half promises

No growth in sight, we cut top-line forecasts for 23/24e We have updated our forecasts for the seven European online retailers under our coverage, following the Q1 reporting season. At the start of the year, growth for online pure-plays was scarce. Current trading comments suggest this hadn''t changed in April/May. The outlook message across the sub-sector was consistent as almost all the retailers push top-line growth and profit expectations out to the second half of 23/24e. This report aligns

Portmeirion+ (PMP, House Stock, 508p) - No changes to forecasts on AGM statement

Portmeirion+ (PMP, House Stock, 418p) - Appointment of Non-executive Director

GenAI: How to Use It

You''ve been here before, right? Blockchain, the Metaverse - and now GenAI. Could this time really be different and the hype justified? The answer to this question is rooted in how GenAI can be used in the real world. In this report we thus challenge our sector teams to identify GenAI use-cases within their industries - and those companies likely to pioneer them. The result is perhaps the broadest consideration yet of how GenAI can diffuse through the economy. Efficiency is the common theme, pr

46 stocks, 272 charts, 690 questions

Conference compendium With the summer conference season approaching, we have collated a convenient compendium of questions and performance/valuation/data screens for all the stocks within our food, household and personal care, beverages and consumer ingredients coverage universe. Stock information Within you will find 15 updated questions for management, latest company guidance, the P/E and EV/EBIT history relative to the wider sector, the P/E history relative to the relevant sub-sector, the YTD

LSE AIM - Market Screener (30 May 2023)

 The market capitalization of AIM stocks was £95.9bn as of 26 May 2023, down 3.7% since 14 April 2023. Among the top YTD winners, there were Celadon Pharmaceuticals (up 216.6%), Vast Resources (+325% YTD), B90 Holdings (+212.4%), Verditek (209.1%, MktCap £7.5mn), Star Phoenix Group (+175%), Inspecs Group (+166.3%). Among the bottom movers, were companies canceling admission to AIM: Applied Graphene Materials (-88%,), Circle Property (-93%, MktCap £1.2mn), Purplebricks Group (-93.1% on a possi

India''s decade: key learnings from our field trip

Key learnings from our India field trip We spent much of last week in India meeting both corporates (Beiersdorf, Diageo, Godrej Consumer, Heineken, Jyothy Labs, Marico, Reliance Retail, Titan and Unilever) and important domestic equity investors. This report summarises the key learnings from our trip. Fast pace of development We were struck by the fast pace of development since we were last in India (2018): new roads, metro lines and a high-end shopping mall in Mumbai being obvious examples. Gr

Morning Note – 9 May 2023