Companies: GLI   

Acquisitive snack and confectionery foods counter Glisten, recommended by Growth Company Investor as a strong buy at 343.5p in May, has delighted followers with its fifth set of record interim figures for the half to December.

On £29.7m sales, adjusted pre-tax profits grew by an impressive 27% to £2.6m, despite a slight fall in export sales and a hot summer causing a slower than expected start to the financial year. Thanks to strong cash generation, gearing reduced from 68% to 49% and Glisten increased the interim dividend by a generous 33% to 1p. Analysts will be looking for dividend payments of 2.2p and 2.5p for the next two years.

Since listing on AIM in 2002, Glisten has gone on to complete a slew of acquisitions and is now forging its fortune ‘at the leading edge’ of nutrition, health and wellness; chief executive Paul Simmonds believes the best growth prospects to be as consumer awareness of health and obesity grows.

Acquisitions in the snacking and confectionery sectors remain a priority for management, although Simmonds notes that market prices have ‘become somewhat inflated’ over the past year, with private equity and trade buyers looking to unlock the intrinsic value of smaller, specialist food businesses.

For the current year, analysts are looking for pre-tax profits growth from £4.8m to £5.7m, translating into 11% earnings growth to 30p. For 2008, investors could expect pre-tax profits of more than £6m and 31.3p of earnings. Trading on forward price-to-earnings ratios of 13.6 and 13.1, the shares aren’t over-priced; and Simmonds is looking to build a £100m business within a matter of years. Hold.

Glisten	AIM	£17.93m	128.50p	-1.00p
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