Investors who bought into Hotel Chocolat Group plc (LON:HOTC) at May’s AIM float will be very happy in the run-up to the festive season, with the stock having almost doubled in value in just seven months.
For Angus Thirlwell, son of Prontaprint and Mr Whippy founder Edwin Thirlwell, and Peter Harris, it promises to be a very happy Christmas.
The pair, who set up in business together in 1988, in Royston, Hertfordshire, reportedly made £40mln from the IPO.
However, both retained a third of the business each, worth £107mln based on Friday’s share price.
The shares have enjoyed a very good run with investors betting Hotel Chocolat has been one of the retail sector’s winners with its ‘clicks and mortar’ strategy of having a significant web and High Street presence.
They’ve advanced 9% in the past week and are up 18% over the month at 281p – just 9p shy of their record high.
It was a very quiet week for small-cap stocks with the AIM All Share registering a 0.5% gain, lagging marginally behind the FTSE 100, which was up 0.8% in that time.
Sticking with the winners, it was a good week for North Sea junior Independent Oil & Gas PLC (LON:IOG) (up 30%).
It submitted its development plan for Blythe Field on Monday and followed that on Friday with an upgrade to resource estimates for acreage in the southern North Sea.
Earlier this month we speculated about the transformation that Aurum Mining PLC (LON:AUR) might be undergoing with the recruitment of some big hitters from the world of aerospace and defence.
Well, on Tuesday the shares began motoring following the appointment of Giles Willits, former finance chief of Peppa Pig owner Entertainment One PLC (LON:ETO), as an independent director.
Over the last five trading days the company’s value has advanced 25% to £20mln and has grown more than 700% in the last year.
Shares in the media and technology group Milestone (LON:MSG)) (down 40%) came crashing back to earth after it raised around half a million quid issuing shares at 0.3p each.
In October, a cash call at 1.5p a share fell apart when an investor who bought the majority of the stock failed to stump up the funds. That particular saga looks like it will run and run.
RM Secured Direct Lending plc (LON:RMDL) made a solid stock exchange debut after raising just over £50mln from its float on Thursday.
The shares, listed at 100p, are currently changing hands for 104p.
Finally, the shrewd money appears to be getting into Angus Energy (LON:ANGS) (up 25%).
Very quietly it is going about its business, which it hopes will result in a major UK onshore oil find.
On Thursday it secured crucial sign-off to drill the Brockham Oilfield in Surrey, which is just a few miles away from Horse Hill, better known as the Gatwick Gusher.
Work is already underway on what is expected to be a very short drilling programme – it should take around 10 days to re-enter and side-track a well first sunk by BP in 1987.
It is targeting an already producing play before going deeper in to probe the same horizons that generated significant quantities of oil at Horse.
Given the schedule provided by Angus, we may receive an update on progress between Christmas and New Year.
If the company does find the sort of oil accumulations that made the Gatwick Gusher gush, then hold onto your hats as this stock is likely to go off like a grenade.