The challenge for companies targeting AIM 13/08/2010
With AIM investment advisers speaking of ‘cautious optimism’ and a ‘stronger deal pipeline’, Robert Tyerman assesses whether we are soon to see a deluge of new issues
Many pairs of peepers will converge on full year results from former AIM darling Sportingbet (SBT) on Thursday following the US government’s recent online gambling crackdown. Shares in the company have fallen from 450p in May to only 51.75p, and last week the London-based firm sold its US-facing operations for a nominal dollar, saving itself $27 million in liabilities and redundancies.
On the same day, broker Arden Partners expects restaurant chain Fishworks to serve up maiden annual profits of £250,000. Led by celebrity chef Mitchell Tonks, the seafood specialist has opened four new London outlets since reporting its interim figures in April, taking its estate to fourteen. At 43p, the shares are trading on a budget nine times 2007’s forecast earnings of 4.8p.
Meanwhile, Chinese orange plantation owner Asian Citrus (ACHL), which owns plantations covering an area larger than Guernsey, will squeeze out full year figures tomorrow, with analysts looking for profits of £17.4 million and earnings of 30p.
Looking East
Tuesday will also see annual results from Engel East Europe (EEE), a property developer with operations in Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania. House broker KBC expects pre-tax profits of €19 million.
Today, Engel’s Eastern Bloc peer Bulgarian Property Development reported a small pre-tax profit of £38,000 for the year to June. Joint chief executives Ivo Hesmondhalgh and Philip Pashov, who managed to attract a further £32.9 million of new funds for investment in January, outlined a bulging pipeline of deals and said the company would be fully invested ‘in the next couple of months’. The shares were unchanged at 58.5p on the results.
All IPO (ALP), spun out of financial website ADVFN (AFN) in 2004, issued some disappointing figures for the year to June, with losses more than tripling to £872,000. Shares in All IPO, 48 per cent owned by ADVFN, sank 9.2 per cent to 17.25p on the day. ADVFN, whose own shares edged forward a tiny 0.8 per cent to 3.1p, plans to publish its final figures for the year to June on 15 November.
Lamprell arrives
One of the market’s latest entrants is oil and gas services outfit Lamprell, which debuted on AIM today by way of an introduction, having already pulled in almost £300 million with the help of broker and advisor JP Morgan Cazenove. The company has facilities based in Port Khalid and the Jebel Free Zone of Dubai, and constructs, upgrades and refurbishes offshore rigs and oil fields.
Later this week, Altium Capital will introduce Jersey-registered investment company Carbon Trust to the market. Chaired by the Baron of Ecchinswell, Jonathan Adair Turner, the trust will seek to invest in ‘the low carbon economy and clean energy technologies’.
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With AIM investment advisers speaking of ‘cautious optimism’ and a ‘stronger deal pipeline’, Robert Tyerman assesses whether we are soon to see a deluge of new issues
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