Onward Opportunities Limited (LON:ONWD) was launched in March 2023 and just over one year later the investment company was crowned IPO of the Year at the 2024 Small Cap Awards. 

Lead Fund Manager Laurence Hulse can only speculate why his company won the accolade. “We did what we said we would do. We raised some money. We invested it well and we’ve grown as a business and created value.” 

Onward’s purpose, says Hulse, is to aggregate a portfolio of investments, an eclectic mix of ideas and opportunities that could generate a lot of value. Indeed over the past twelve months the net asset value of the portfolio has increased by some 20%.

“The return we generated last year was in quite a severe bear market for AIM. This year things are looking a little bit more helpful and robust and reducing political uncertainty, I suspect, again, is helpful. There’s a very, very healthy pipeline of opportunities to go for in H2. We’ve delivered 9% so far in the first six months of calendar year ‘24. Our aim is to try and do the same again in H2.”

Hulse talks about the ‘dawn and dusk’ ethos of the company’s investment strategy giving portfolio constituent the housebuilder Springfield Properties as an example. After trading at “a deep discount to book value after a tough couple of years for house building, now we think that  sort of journey is over”, says Hulse. “Perhaps the shares are overlooked and offer value. So far that’s been the case. The shares are up about 30% from where we bought them and still trade at a pretty clear discount to book value.”