Hybridan Small Cap Feast

A round up of the day’s news brought to you by the team at small-cap broker and advisor Hybridan.

Joiners: Lords Group Trading (LORD.L) joins AIM. Lords Group Trading plc is a consolidator of specialist merchant businesses across the Southeast and Midlands, adding value to the supply of building materials through product expertise and next day delivery. The Group aims to become a £500m turnover building materials distributor group by 2024 as it grows its national presence.  The Group has a strong track record of acquisitions, with the six acquisitions completed between 2016 and 2020 having been fully integrated and performing at a return-on-investment rate of greater than 20%. £30m primary, £22m shareholder sale, Mkt Cap £150m.

Leavers: No Leavers Today.

Banquet Buffet

Arena Events 15.5p  £50.6m (ARE.L)

The integrated event solutions business, announces that, it has been awarded a multi-million pound contract to deliver one of the venue clusters at the XXII Commonwealth Games, to be held in Birmingham in 2022.  At a high level, this contract award includes the planning, design, schedule management, building control services, supply, installation, maintenance and removal of a range of structures, seating and associated infrastructure. Arena will work closely with key partners to deliver this project including ES Global, an award-winning specialist in demountable overlay and infrastructure solutions. Given the timing of the event, the majority of the revenues associated with this contract are expected to be recognised by Arena in the financial year ending 31 March 2023.

Corero Network Security 11.65p  £57.65m (CNS.L)

The provider of real-time, high-performance, automatic Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) cyber defence solutions, has provided a trading update for the six months ended 30 June 2021. Order intake for the six months ended 30 June 2021 is expected to be c.$8.9m, ahead of the previous high of $7.9m for H1 2020. Revenues associated with order intake are recognised over the lifetime of each of the contracts. This strong start to the year reflects the growing demand for the Company’s products despite the on-going backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic. Revenue for H1 2021 is expected to have increased by c.34% to c.$8.3m (H1 2020: $6.2m). In addition, Annualised Recurring Revenue is expected to have increased to c.$11.2m as at 1 July 2021, driven by growth in DDoS Protection-as-a-Service  and software subscription orders (ARR at 1 July 2020: $8.8m; ARR at 1 January 2021: $9.8m).

Dianomi 326p  £97.9m (DNM.L)

The provider of native digital advertising services to premium clients in the Financial Services and Business sectors, provided  a pre-close trading update for the six months ending 30 June 2021. Following on from a successful listing on AIM alongside a significantly over-subscribed placing in May, the Company confirms that trading during the first half of this year has been strong and that the Company is trading in line with market expectations for the full year. Revenue for H1 2021 is expected to demonstrate significant growth compared to the prior year as the Group continues to expand its customer base. As at 30 June 2021 the Company had cash of £7.8m. In addition to high levels of repeat revenue from existing customers, during the first six months of the year a number of new advertisers and publishers within both the established Financial Services and Business vertical and the newer premium Lifestyle vertical have ‘gone live’ on Dianomi’s platform, including a market leading luxury publishing house and a British national newspaper on the publisher side and premium global brands from both lifestyle and business on the advertiser side.

FireAngel 16.5p  £29.9m (FA.L)

HY Jun 21 trading update from, one of Europe’s leading developers and suppliers of home safety products. The Board of FireAngel is pleased with the progress made in H1 2021, with the Company reporting improved performance and sales growth in-line with the Board’s expectations. Sales are expected to be materially ahead of the prior year period at approximately £22.3m (H1 2020: £16.5m) with a materially reduced operating loss of approximately £1.3m (H1 2020: loss of £2.7m). The Board sees this as a strong recovery from last year with a return to a positive EBITDA of £0.3m in the period (H1 2020: LBITDA £0.8m). While COVID-19 restrictions combined with ongoing challenges in global supply chains reduced the ability to exploit fully the growing demand for FireAngel’s connected products, the Board is pleased to have remained on track.

Focusrite 1405p  £824m (TUNE.L)

The global music and audio products company supplying hardware and software used by professional and amateur musicians and the entertainment industry, has updated on current trading. Since the half year period ended 28 February 2021, the Company has continued to trade well across all business units and demand has remained strong when compared with the corresponding period in FY20. As a result the Board now expects revenue for the full year to 31 August 2021 to be ahead of market expectations. In addition, profitability for the full year will be significantly ahead of expectations as a result of strong trading together with a substantial decrease in travel and trade shows due to the restrictions and changes in working practices caused by COVID-19.  The Board does not expect these cost savings to be recurring. Despite the strong demand for most of the Company’s products, the Board remains conscious of factors that are currently impacting operations adversely, in particular the previously reported effect of supply constraints due to the global shortage of semi-conductors and other components as widely reported by many manufacturers of electronics. The Group is experiencing continuing disruption to the supply chain; and freight and shipping costs are significantly higher than normal, principally caused by the effects of COVID-19.

Induction Healthcare 68.5p  £63.055m (INHC.L)

The virtual care platform driving digital transformation of healthcare systems worldwide, announces that NHS Wales has renewed its existing contract with Attend Anywhere with an update and expansion of its current scope. This is the first major contract win for Induction since its acquisition of Attend Anywhere in June – the transaction having enhanced Induction’s suite of technology products that provide flexible care options for patients and healthcare professionals. The contract is worth £1.635m and will result in £1.22m of revenues being recognised in the year ending 31 March 2022, with the balance falling into the following financial year, representing significant commercial momentum for Induction. Attend Anywhere and Induction products are now used widely across NHS Wales, reinforcing the key strategic value of bringing together these two businesses to offer healthcare systems an all-encompassing virtual care platform with greater UK based support. The COVID-19 pandemic, with the need to radically reduce footfall in hospitals, was a ‘super-catalyst’ to an already-underway shift toward virtual care, and digital platforms have all grown by a large margin. Providers and patients, who both expect greater flexibility in all aspects of their life, are demanding greater flexibility in the way they deliver and receive care.

Intercede Group 101p  £59.2m (IGP.L)

The specialist in digital identities, credential management and secure mobility, announced that its MyID credential management software is now formally FIDO2 certified. The certification has been awarded after MyID passed FIDO (Faster IDentity Online) Alliance interoperability trials. FIDO is a set of open authentication standards backed by technology leaders including Microsoft, Apple, Google, Intel, Facebook and Amazon. The FIDO2 standard enables users to easily authenticate into applications and services via mobile and desktop environments using common devices. FIDO2 specifications incorporate the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Authentication (WebAuthn) specification and FIDO Alliance’s Client-to-Authenticator Protocol (CTAP). This certification means any organisation currently using MyID v12+ will have a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) credential management system and FIDO authentication server out-the-box to issue, manage and authenticate with FIDO credentials with any FIDO certified authenticator.

Maestrano Group 11.25p  £19m (MNO.L)

The artificial intelligence platform for transport corridor analytics, announced that its specialist geospatial solutions subsidiary, Airsight has been awarded two new contract s by the Australian Northern Territory Government. The expected return for Airsight from both contracts is AUS$218,000. The contracts have been awarded to conduct two large rural road surveying projects in the Northern Territory, and the projects will be utilising  light detection and ranging technology provided by Maestrano’s other subsidiaries, Cordel and Nextcore.  The two projects start this July and are part of major highway upgrades planned in the Northern Territory. These contracts further underline the Group’s strong and growing market position in Australia. The Group and its subsidiaries are working on projects with Australian Rail  Track Corporation rail network, with a 3.5 year contract to provide automated monitoring services across 50,000 miles of railway per year.

Verici Dx 74.5p  £105.6m (VRCI.L)

The developer of advanced clinical diagnostics for organ transplant, announces that it has initiated its first European clinical validation trial site with Prof. Gaetano La Manna, Director of the Specialization School in Nephrology and the Dialysis and Transplant Unit, at the Sant’Orsola Polyclinic Hospital in Bologna, Italy. The trial is a global, non-randomised, observational study for the clinical validation of Verici Dx’s lead products, ClaravaTM to predict risk of early acute rejection in the first six months post-transplant and TutevaTM for the diagnosis of acute cell-mediated rejection, and over the longer term, for the validation of the Company’s fibrosis test, now called Protega™.

Uniphar 287p  £766m (UPR.L)

Unipar announces the acquisition of CoRRect Medical GmbH. CoRRect Medical is a Germany-headquartered company that specialise in the commercialisation and distribution of medical device products in the interventional cardiology sector across Germany & Switzerland. The acquisition represents a key strategic milestone for the Group, as it continues to build out its pan-European offering, focusing on high value specialty therapeutic areas. CoRRect Medical will accelerate Uniphar’s organic entry into the German market initiated earlier this year. Germany represents the largest MedTech market in Europe (circa 25% of European Market), with CoRRect Medical focused on some of the fastest growing areas of interventional cardiology, including structural heart. The purchase price includes an upfront payment plus contingent consideration payable upon achievement of EBITDA based performance targets. The existing CoRRect Medical team, including Managing Director Michael Braun, recognise the enhanced opportunity to grow the business as part of the Uniphar Group and remain fully engaged as a core part of the business going forward. The acquisition is forecast to deliver a Return on Capital Employed to the Group in line with Uniphar’s target rate of 12%-15% within three years.

What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?

Central Copper Resources, a company focused on delivering a high grade copper project into production and exploration of assets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and in the Republic of Zambia to join AIM. By 2022, CCR intends to be ready to commence the project financing of its Mbamba Kilenda copper project. Timing and offer TBA

Spinnaker Acquisitions to join the Main Market (Standard).  A company formed for the purpose of undertaking an acquisition or acquisitions of a majority interest in a company, business or asset. Due 28 July.

South West Brands the multi-brand cannabidiol consumer goods company  intends to float on the Main Market (Standard). Raising funds to continue to develop its existing portfolio of brand IP and pursue its strategy of adding brand IP assets to the portfolio over the course of the first 24 months following Admission. The Company expects Admission to occur in July 2021. Timing and offer TBA.

Big Technologies to join AIM. Big Technologies plc provides products and services to the remote and personal monitoring industry under a number of brand and trading names, with ‘Buddi’ being the most well known and used in respect of activities within the core criminal justice market. The Company’s criminal justice solution involves proprietary monitoring software combined with modular monitoring hardware being used to accurately track the location of tag wearers. Alongside this, the Company also offers monitoring services solutions for its customers. Offer TBA. Due late July. 

GENinCode to join AIM, a UK-incorporated company engaged in the risk assessment, prediction and prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading cause of death worldwide accounting for approximately 18m deaths annually. Due 22 July. Raised £17m. Mkt Cap £42m. 

Zenova to join AIM. The Company, is the holder of intellectual property to underpin a suite of fire safety and temperature management products and technology applicable to industrial, commercial and residential markets. Capital to be raised on Admission £4.5m. Anticipated Mt Cap £17.74m. Due 22 July.

Microlise to join AIM. Microlise is a leading provider of transport management technology solutions, delivering a globally enabled SaaS platform that digitises the business processes of enterprise organisations running highly complex logistics operations. As at 31 December 2020, the Group had over 400 enterprise customers and over 500,000 vehicle subscriptions. Total capital to be raised on Admission: £61.2m. Primary funds raised for the Company: £18.6m. Secondary funds raised for existing shareholders: £42.6m. Anticipated market capitalisation on Admission: £156.5m. Due 22 July.

Bridgepoint Group to float on the Premium Segment of the Main Market. Bridgepoint is the leader in middle market investing, with a global reach that leverages its strong pan-European footprint and Bridgepoint’s ability to deploy meaningful amounts of client capital across several well established strategies. Raising £300m. Timing TBA.

HydrogenOne Capital Growth to IPO on the Premium Segment of the Main Market. HGEN is targeting a raise of £250m. First London listed investment fund dedicated to clean hydrogen. Due by the end of July.

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