Edison Investment Research

Bigblu Broadband (BBB); extends contract with Eurobroadband Infrastructure

Under the extended commercial arrangement across additional European countries

Bigblu Broadband (BBB) has extended its agreement with Eurobroadband Infrastructure (EBI), a subsidiary of Eutelsat, following the successful addition of about 10,000 new satellite broadband customers since it joined the Preferred Partner Programme signed last December.

StatPro Group (SOG); revenues up 3.7% to £28.25m

The Group continues to trade in line with expectations for the current financial year

StatPro Group announced its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2019. Adjusted EBITDA grew 9.7% to £5.68m and free cash flow (before acquisition and restructuring costs) increased to £3.53m from £3.16m. A strategic partnership was signed with J.P. Morgan to expand risk and performance attribution capabilities for portfolio managers and distribute through J.P. Morgan’s data and analytics platform. The ESG research and index business unit of ECPI group was acquired in July 2019.

Nanoco Group (NANO); US Customer waives contract liability of £4.25m

The obligation is a capital funding provided for the new Runcorn production facility

Nanoco Group announced that its US Customer has released it from a repayment obligation of £4.25m. The US customer released the company due to uncertainty over the timing or use of the facility to manufacture the new nanomaterials. The facility, completed in December 2018, is undergoing commissioning as part of the current contract work.

Hutchison China Meditech (HCM); posts interim results

Hutchison China Meditech reported its interim results today. Main takeaway points: depreciation of RMB versus USD has impacted reported H1 2019 results. However in CER total consolidated sales grew 7% (2% reported) and total consolidated net income grew 8% CER (2% as reported). HCM has a broad pipeline of cancer drugs in development in its innovation platform division, adjusted (Non-GAPP) R&D increased to $74.5m (H1 18 $66.7m) , however HCM has lowered FY 2019 R&D guidance to $130-170m from $160m-200m, due to weaker RMB (most R&D expenses are in China) and global Surufatinib/fruquinitinib Ph.IIb/III trials starting 2020.

Low & Bonar (LWB); announces half year results

Low & Bonar announced its half year results today, reporting that underlying operating profit for the half year ended 31 May 2019 stood at £2.6m against £9.7m for the half year ended 31 May 2018. Basic underlying EPS declined 92.8% to 0.10p and statutory loss before tax was £41.7m after a £31.3m impairment of CTT’s non-current assets and a £7.5m impairment of the China JV’s non-current assets.

OnTheMarket (OTMP); issues over 1.03m shares to new agents

The company expects the admission to be effective on 2 August 2019.

OnTheMarket applied to the LSE for the admission of over 1,031,544 ordinary shares of 0.2p each. These shares were issued to new agents following their signing of the long-term listing agreements. Following the admission, there will be 63,746,913 ordinary shares and voting rights in the company.

Greggs (GRG); total sales up 14.7% to £546m

Exceptional trading performance driven by popularity of the new vegan-friendly sausage roll

Greggs has reported a strong set of interims with total revenue growth of 14.7% including LFL revenue growth of 10.5%.  The strong sales growth, is broadly based, including a return to favour of the traditional savoury and sweet products.  This along with a strong gross margin and good cost control helped drive the underlying pre-tax profit margin from 5.4% in H118 to 7.5%.  Clean operating profit grew by 69%, clean PBT grew by 57%, and a lower than expected tax rate, which is believed to be sustainable has, helped diluted EPS growth by almost 58. The dividend has been increased by 11.5%, and, as expected, the company has declared a special dividend of 35p per share, which should absorb £35m of the excess cash on the balance sheet.

Games Workshop Group (GAW); reports FY19 sales growth of 16%

Demand has remained strong across all channels, with online rebounding strongly in H2 after a modest decline in H1

Few retailers can boast three consecutive years of record-breaking growth in the current climate. Games Workshop, the global leader for tabletop miniature gaming, has reported FY19 sales growth of 16% (15% constant currency) to £256.6m and a 9.5% increase in pre-tax profit to £81.3m, both comfortably ahead of closing guidance (sales of c £254m; pre-tax profit not less than £80m). This represents an outstanding c 70% compound annual growth rate in earnings since FY16. 

Just Eat (JE); confirm potential share combination with Takeaway.com

The key feature of the combination of Just Eat and Takeaway.com is the limited geographic overlap between the companies.

Following speculation over the weekend the companies have confirmed they have in principle reached an agreement for a potential share combination resulting in Just Eat and Takeaway.com owning 52.2% and 47.8% respectively of the combined group.  Each Just Eat share would receive 0.09744 Takeaway.com shares, giving an implied valuation of £7.63 using share prices this morning, so the share price of £7.72p is already trading at a premium to this.

SCISYS Group (SSY); agrees to allot 7,000 new ordinary shares

Following its admission, the total number of issued ordinary shares will be 29,690,160

SCISYS Group has agreed to allocate 7,000 new ordinary shares of 25p each in the company’s capital in accordance with exercising options by an employee. An application has been made for these shares to be admitted to trading on AIM and Euronext Growth. Admission and trading are likely to start at 8.00 a.m. on 1 August 2019.