What’s cooking in the IPO kitchen?
AIM
Block Energy—a NEX Listed UK based oil exploration and production company whose main country of operation is the Republic of Georgia, looks to join AIM end of February 2018. Offer TBC
OnTheMarket—Intention to float on AIM to raise c.£50m which will be used to fund the growth of the OnTheMarket.com portal, already the third biggest UK residential property portal provider. Offer raising £30m at 165p with mkt cap of £100m . Due 9 Feb.
Main Market Specialist Funds
Life Settlement—closed-ended investment company whose principal activities will be to support and manage portfolios of whole and partial interests in life settlement policies issued by life insurance companies operating predominantly in the US. Due 6 Mar.
Main Market Premium Listing
IntegraFin provides platform services to UK clients and their financial advisers through its award-winning platform, Transact. Due Mar 18. FYSep2017 PBT up 44% to £29.9m.
GEMS Education—report by Reuters that the private schools group is seeking a $4.5bn to $5bn London float in 2018. FYAug17 rev $926.2m and adjusted EBITDA $261.6m.
CVC (Sky Bet) rumoured to be seeking £2.5bn plus float.
VC firm Augmentum rumoured to be seeking raise up to £125m.
Breakfast buffet
Best of the Best (LON:BOTB) 255p £25.74m
HYOct17 numbers from Best of the Best which runs competitions to win cars both online and at retail locations.
* Revenue of £5.54m (2016: £5.52m)
* PBT increased to £0.95m (2016: £0.92m)
* Net assets of £1.83m (2016: £2.22m) underpinned by £3.0m of cash and property
* Cash balances of £2.05m (2016: £2.28m) with no debt
* Online revenues increased by 6.8% to £4.44m (2016: £4.16m).
* Special dividend of 7.5p
“We hope to build on the solid start to the financial year and continue the momentum into the second half. Trading remains in line with management expectations for the full year and I look forward to updating shareholders on further progress in due course.” FYApr18E rev £12.74m and PBT £1.37m.
Venture Life (LON:VLG) 47.3p £17.4m
FYDec17 update from the international consumer self-care group focused on developing, manufacturing and commercialising self-care products.
“Venture Life has delivered another year of double digit revenue growth, resulting in accelerating profitability by virtue of the Group's operating leverage. The Group expects to achieve revenue for the year ended 31 Dec 2017 of over £16m, a 12% increase over the reported Group revenue of £14.3m for the prior year. As a result, the Group expects to report an EBITDA of more than £1.7m.
The reported EBITDA reflects IFRS 16, a new accounting standard related to long term rental agreements, which the Group adopted in 2017. This has had the effect of increasing EBITDA by approximately £0.4m, however, due to a related amortisation charge, it will have minimal effect on the reported PBT.”
Mineral & Financial (LON:MAFL) 11p £3.85m
Investment update
HIGHLIGHTS:
* Lagoa Salgada Resource increased by 114% to 9.62Mt resource, at the top end of 8.0Mt to 10.0Mt guidance given last year, on in-fill drill program at LS-1 and new resource at LS-1 Central Sectors.
* Zinc grade for the LS-1 total resource is 2.59%. In-situ Zinc increased by 94.5% to 548.9M/lbs.
* Lead grade for the LS-1 total resource is 2.59%. In-situ Lead increased by 98.8% to 549.5M/lbs.
* Copper grade for the LS-1 total resource is 0.35%. In-situ Copper increased by 116.2% to 73.6M/lbs.
* Tin resource in the Gossan will be calculated at a later date.
Renew Holdings (LON:RNWH) 416.73p £260.8m
AGM Statement from the Engineering Services Group supporting UK infrastructure.
"Trading for the first quarter of the year has been in line with the Board's expectations. The Group order book at 31 December 2017 was £511m (31 Dec 2016: £523m). The Engineering Services order book stood at £433m (31 Dec 2016: £431m).
The Group's term loan will be fully repaid by 31 Mar 2018. A slower than usual payment profile with certain customers in the public sector has led to an increase in work-in-progress in the first half. Nevertheless, cash balances as at 30 Sept 2018 are forecast to be broadly in line with the previous year end.
We note the news this month regarding the liquidation of Carillion and can confirm that we have no financial exposure.” FYSep18E rev £564.5m and PBT of £27.45m
Westminster Group (WSG.L) 24.9p £30.28m
FYDec17 trading update from the supplier of managed services and technology based security solutions.
“The Group expects to report a 23% increase in revenues to £5.4m in 2017, an increase of £1m on the £4.4m reported for 2016. The EBITDA loss for the year is expected to be in line with the Board's expectations at around £1.2m, of which £0.7m arose from the discontinued ferry operations in Sierra Leone. The anticipated new Managed Services contract award in the Middle East will represent a major step forward towards achieving the Group's strategic objectives, and as mentioned with our Interim Results in September 2017, we expect to be investing in the business in 2018 and beyond to deliver future growth.” Also £750k placing at 22p
Property Franchise Group (TPFG.L) 136.5p £35.25m
FYDec17 Trading update from the Group comprising of 6 award winning estate agency and lettings brands. The Group's traditional high street brands have performed well during FY 17 and pleasingly, its online brand EweMove traded profitably in H2. Trading for FY 17 is expected to be in line with market expectations {EPS 11.1p}.
* Revenue increased by 23% to £10.2m.
* Expanding UK network with 403 offices, 283 traditional brands and 120 EweMove (2016:377
* Serving c.52,000 tenanted managed properties at the year end (2016: c.48,000) · Recruited 6 new franchisees for the traditional brands, and 31 for EweMove
* Group remains heavily weighted toward lettings, which accounts for 70% of Management Service Fees (2016: 74%)
* Strong balance sheet, with net cash at the year-end after fully paying the earn-out to the founders of EweMove.
Big Sofa Tech (LON:BST) 14.75p £9.68m
FYDec17 update from the fast-growing international video analytics provider to consumer brands and market research agencies.
* Revenues (unaudited) up 72% in 2017 to approximately £1.3m
* 60% uplift from H1 to H2 2017
* Projects undertaken for 40 clients in 2017 including directly commissioned work for Procter & Gamble, Unilever, 84:51, Nestlé, Target and Zurich; and work commissioned through IPSOS for major brands including McDonald's, Pepsi Cola, L'Oréal and Danone
Big Sofa crosses into 2018 with an established base of clients, in addition to IPSOS and P&G, which are poised to significantly increase spend in the current year, having already stress-tested and validated Big Sofa's technology and platform in 2017. We could see no forecasts.
Echo Energy (ECHO.L) 13.3p £53.47m
Update in relation to the Company's recently completed Argentinian acquisition. Now ready to initiate its busy 2018 Argentinian work programme. In anticipation of the 2018 work programme, tenders for the planned seismic acquisition have been issued, the slot in the rig schedule for the transformative four exploration well programme at Fracción C is reserved to commence in Q2 2018 and the permitting of those four well locations is now in progress.
As at 31 Jan 2018, the Company had unaudited current cash balances of approximately $32m and does not require further funding to complete the Company's 2018 exploration drilling programme. The Company will not proceed with the intended Open Offer previously announced.