Inaugurated in 2013, the Small Cap Awards is an annual event celebrating and rewarding the finest in the sub-£350m market cap quoted company sector.
The Awards celebrates those professionals and companies that work within the AIM and Aquis communities and is attended by listed companies, institutions, fund managers, brokers and advisors.
The 2026 Awards will be held on Thursday 11th June 2026 at Merchant Taylors Hall in London.
The nominees for Dividend Hero of the Year are as follows:
Hargreaves Services
Hargreaves Services plc is a diversified group delivering services to the environmental, infrastructure and property sectors, supporting key industries within the UK and South East Asia. The Company is split into three business segments:
- Services, which provides critical support to many core industries including Connectivity, Clean Energy and Environmental infrastructure through the provision of materials handling, mechanical and electrical contracting services, logistics and major earthworks;
- Hargreaves Land, which is focused on the sustainable development of brownfield sites for both residential and commercial purposes;
- An investment in a German joint venture, Hargreaves Raw Materials Services GmbH, which trades in specialist commodity markets and owns DK Recycling und Roheisen GmbH, a specialist recycler of steel waste material.
Hargreaves is headquartered in County Durham and has operational centres across the UK, as well as in Hong Kong, South Africa and a joint venture in Duisburg, Germany. The Company is profitable, debt free, maintains a progressive dividend policy and holds a strong cash position, with a clear focus on generating and delivering value to its shareholders.
Hargreaves’ success in 2025/2026 can be attributed to a combination of significant strategic focus, exceptional client delivery, identifying and winning contracts in areas of core competence, all whilst realising value for shareholders, positioning the Group for sustainable growth.
Growth in profits has been delivered across all three divisions, as stated at the last set of interim results, with success in the Group’s Services division playing a key part. The Services division itself has seen a period of substantial growth, with annual growth in excess of 30% over the past 5 years. Market opportunities within the Company’s target areas of Connectivity, Clean Energy and Environmental services have been abundant, and Hargreaves excellent reputation has helped build and maintain a strong orderbook and excellent long-term client relationships. The average contract duration is four years with over 90% of revenue for the year ending 31 May 2026 already secured. The renewable energy land asset portfolio remains a key source of value creation for the Group and the Company has successfully sold two tranches of this portfolio for an initial consideration of £8.8m (with an additional top up consideration of £3.8m) and £6.4m respectively which underpins the Board’s decision to return cash to shareholders via a tender offer of up to £20m.
In addition, Hargreaves has remained committed to delivering a progressive dividend with continued organic growth driving further increases. The interim dividend, for the six months ended 30 November 2025, increasing 5.4% to 19.5p and the final dividend expected to increase to 39.0p. Increases have been underpinned by the sustainable growth in the underlying business model and management’s confidence in the forward market opportunities.
Overall, the Group is maintaining strong momentum, with key news flow aligning with its strategic objectives and successfully realising value and delivering returns for its shareholders.
Keystone Law
Keystone (AIM: KEYS) the premier tech-enabled platform law firm. It is a highly scalable business with an organic growth strategy which has a proven record of delivering sustainable growth since its IPO in 2018. Ranked within the UK Top 100 law firms, Keystone provides conventional legal services in a £14bn addressable market through its differentiated platform model which has three defining characteristics:
- Lawyers have freedom, flexibility and autonomy, and are paid up to 75% of what they bill.
- Lawyers determine how, when and where they work, in contrast to the conventional law firm model.
- Lawyers are provided full infrastructure and support via its central office team, bespoke user-friendly IT platform, and network of colleagues and events.
Keystone is a full-service law firm, with extensive experience across a wide range of sectors and specialisms. With nearly 500 high calibre self-employed Principal lawyers, supported by over 150 other fee earners, Keystone delivers dynamic services to its client base which ranges from fast growing start-ups to multinational corporations and high net worth individuals.
Over the course of the past twelve months, Keystone Law has:
- Delivered an excellent operational and financial performance with strong client demand across the business
- Seen significant levels of applicant demand in the Period reflecting Keystone’s market position
- Buoyant recruitment environment delivered 294 qualified new applicants (2025: 283) in the Period
- 22% increase in Principals recruited with 61 new Principals added (2025: 50) bringing total Principals to 491 (2025: 455)
- 31% increase in offers accepted with 68 new joiners in the Period (2025: 52)
- 35% increase in ‘other’ fee earners to 163 (146 pod members and 17 central office lawyers), with total fee earners up 13.5% to 654
- Maintained its quality focused recruitment strategy continues to reinforce Keystone as ‘the premier platform law firm’
- 221 Keystone lawyers ranked in Legal 500 UK Solicitors 2025 (2025: 207 listed, up from 65 in 2019)
- Continued its investment in Keystone’s tech-enabled platform and ongoing AI adoption
- Ongoing implementation and evaluation of IT infrastructure to drive real impact for our lawyers and the broader business
- Rolled out several AI initiatives to enhance our offering to lawyers, including deploying secure, locked-down versions of ChatGPT and Claude and adopting the NetDocuments AI extension
- Designed and delivered our brand refresh which accurately reflect Keystone today
- Launched a new website and marketing collateral in Q1 2027, enhancing stakeholder experience and strengthening our market position to support growth
More information about Keystone can be found at www.keystonelaw.co.uk.
Smiths News plc
Smiths News plc is the UK’s largest newspaper and magazine wholesaler and a leading provider of earlymorning, endtoend supply chain and logistics solutions. Headquartered in Swindon, the company has a distribution heritage spanning more than 200 years and plays a critical role in ensuring nationwide access to print media.
The Group operates a highly efficient hubandspoke distribution network across England and Wales, delivering newspapers and magazines seven days a week to over 22,000 retail outlets, ranging from major supermarket chains and travel hubs to independent convenience stores and rural newsagents. Smiths News holds approximately 55% market share in the UK, underpinned by longstanding contracts with all major national and regional publishers, providing strong revenue visibility.
In FY2025, Smiths News plc reported statutory revenue of approximately £1.06 billion, adjusted operating profit of £39.1 million, and profit after tax of £28.3 million, reflecting the resilience of its business model despite structural declines in print volumes.
Beyond its core newspaper and magazine activities, Smiths News has diversified into complementary services that leverage its earlymorning logistics capabilities. These include Smiths News Recycle, which provides recycling and waste management solutions for retailers and publishers, alongside pickandpack, finalmile delivery and returns processing.
Smiths News plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker LSE: SNWS and is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. The company’s strategy focuses on continuing to delivery excellent customer services to its core newspaper and magazine customers and partners, driving operational efficiencies, disciplined capital allocation, and expanding into adjacent logistics and recycling services.