IG Design Group Plc

The key takeaway from IG Design’s post-close trading update for the six months to 30 September is that it remains on course to meet the FY26E guidance issued at its preliminary results in July. This outlook is underpinned by an H1 adjusted operating margin of 4.3%, above the full-year guided range of 3%-4%, together with strong orderbook visibility of 91%. Period-end net cash remained positive at $2m despite an outflow of $33m relating to the disposal of DG Americas (DGA) on 

IG Design Group: Research

Watkin Jones

Watkin Jones has confirmed indications made in last month’s project announcement that it expects to meet current expectations for FY25E adjusted operating profit and net cash. The UK’s leading rental developer and manager states ‘we enter FY26 with a strong pipeline of opportunities’ and its medium-term outlook remains ‘attractive, supported by a structural shortage of rental and student properties and enduring investor appetite’.

Watkin Jones: Research

Gear4music (Holdings)

Continued strong revenue momentum across Q2 has seen G4M deliver impressive revenue growth of 31% for the six months to 30 September. While the peak Christmas trading period has yet to begin, the board has consequently raised its full-year expectations once again, following the upgrades delivered previously in June and September.

Gear4music: Research

Secure Trust Bank Plc

Secure Trust Bank (STB) announced in July the closure and run-off of its Vehicle Finance (VF) business, which would, through reallocation of capital to the more profitable businesses, enhance overall group profitability. STB has announced today a faster Q3 decrease in the VF loan portfolio than anticipated. This, combined with VF impairments remaining elevated, has resulted in a substantial PBT forecast downgrade for FY25 and more modest downgrades for FY26 and FY27. Manageme

Secure Trust Bank: Research


GameSpot recently described ‘delays’ as one of the ‘three constants in 2025’ (alongside death and taxes), as they have become so common. On Friday 3 October, developer Redemption Road announced that Kingmakers, previously scheduled for release on 8 October, was delayed. On Monday 6 October, tinyBuild reconfirmed its outlook: it is on track to deliver FY results ‘at least’ in line with expectations. The H1 outlook commentary had already made it clear that there may be delays.

tinyBuild: Research


In FY25, Proximity Cloud revenue grew to £7.8m from £1.6m prior year: Beeks has tapped into a geyser. FY25 ended in line with guidance (14 July trading update, see our note). This banner year featured 26% revenue growth, and improved ‘best in class’ profitability. Beeks guides that it is ‘in line’ to achieve FY26 expectations, so the coming 12 months are set to be another growth year. Confidence is ‘bedrocked’ by the soaring growth at Proximity Cloud, strengthening industry 

Beeks Financial Cloud: Research

Watkin Jones, the UK’s leading rental developer and manager, has announced a new JV in a further demonstration of its innovation and diversification amid continued volatility in residential investment. The group’s first transaction with Maslow Capital ‘together with the continued strong operational delivery across the business through the second half, is expected to enable the group to meet its financial expectations for FY2025’.

Watkin Jones: Progressive


Pharos Energy announced on 23 September that it has reached an agreement with EGPC (Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation) on the consolidation of its two licences. This provides Pharos an extension on the new licence as well as better fiscal terms, and gives the group an immediate 25% increase in its Egyptian 2P reserves. On 24 September, the group released its interim results, which showed the business was on track. After a relatively quiet 12 months, drilling activity is

Pharos Energy: Progressive

Interim results are consistent with the guidance issued in July, and we make no changes to our full-year operating profit estimates. Trading remains challenging in Q3 for both advertising and programme commissioning, but STV is announcing a number of operating and financial cost actions that should underpin the group’s potential to bounce back strongly and deliver longer-term growth when markets recover.

STV Group: Progressive

Stampede Drilling Inc.

In a trading update ahead of the group’s AGM, SDI reports that it has continued to see positive momentum across its portfolio and an improvement in organic growth compared to last year. The group expects to deliver FY26 results in line with market expectations. Our forecasts for FY26 reflect management’s clear focus on both organic and inorganic growth, fostering greater collaboration and synergies across the portfolio of quality, cash-generative businesses. We remain confide

SDI Group: Progressive

Van Elle Holdings

Van Elle has indicated that FY26E trading and profits for the year to 30 April will be ‘materially below’ market expectations and below the prior year as contract delays have meant the expected improvement across the ground engineering group’s core markets has ‘yet to materialise’. We cut our profitability assumptions for FY26E and FY27E, but with the latter reduction possibly over-conservative given the 14% uplift in the order book over the three months to 31 July.

Van Elle: Progressive

tinyBuild delivers impressive H1/25 results headlining with Adj EBITDA US$4.2m - it was -US$2.3m a year ago. tinyBuild has a brim-full pipeline (four games parked up in the Steam Top 100), evidence of sales momentum and a disciplined cost base. H1 sales were entirely back catalogue. That H1 paucity of new releases is already addressed, with the successful debut of ‘The King is Watching’, notching up 200k+ units sold in the first two weeks, and from the back catalogue ‘DUCKSID

tinyBuild: Progressive

Springfield Properties, in today’s FY25 results, reveals it is in ‘advanced discussions’ with power infrastructure providers in the North of Scotland which could open up a new multi-year income stream from renting out homes to workers, as part of its evolving Northern-focused strategy. Results for the year to 31 May show substantial rises in profits and falls in bank debt, as expected, but with a higher than anticipated dividend, demonstrating the Group’s confidence in the ne

Springfield Properties: Progressive

H1 results, released today, show a resilient performance in the UK and the German businesses delivering strong growth. Revenue increased 12% to £316.6m (vs £282.5m in H1 24), mainly due to the Starface and Placetel acquisitions. Organic growth was generated in Germany and the UK, despite the challenging macroeconomic backdrop, and it was into double digits on a proforma basis at Starface and Placetel. Adjusted EBITDA was £70.9m, up 14% on H1 24 and adj. FD EPS grew 13% to 47.

Gamma Communications: Progressive

Severfield has reaffirmed its guidance in today’s AGM statement, with trading in the current financial year as expected, including: a well-diversified order book in the UK and Europe; strong growth in the Indian JV; and the bridge remediation progressing in line with expectations. The new CEO, Paul McNerney, joins in the autumn and the group’s long-term prospects are underpinned by structural growth sectors including datacentres and energy.

Severfield: Progressive

Sanderson Design Group Plc

Sanderson Design Group’s (SDG) H1 FY26 trading update to 31 July continues to be led by the performance of its Licensing and North America operations, with reported trading up 6% and 1%, respectively. Complemented by steady revenue in third-party manufacturing, a better Brand product revenue performance in the final nine weeks and a new cost-savings initiative to reduce overheads by an annualised £1m, the group remains on track to achieve the board’s expectations for the year

Sanderson Design Group’s: Progressive

SDI’s FY25 results for the year ended 30 April 2025 were in line with market expectations, despite wider global economic challenges. The robust performance reflects management’s clear focus on both organic and inorganic growth, fostering greater collaboration and synergies across the portfolio of quality, cash-generative businesses. SDI has a robust order book with good momentum going into FY26, and we maintain our current estimates. We remain confident long term given SDI’s 

A recent severe deterioration in both advertising and commissioning markets in the UK leads us to reduce our near-term estimates materially, following an unscheduled trading update from the group. Timing is clearly disappointing coming after the strategy update on 21 May, but the group strategy and key financial targets for 2030 are unchanged.

Van Elle delivered a ‘resilient’ performance for the year to 30 April 2025 in the face of ‘challenging’ conditions and previously highlighted regulatory disruptions. Adjusted PBT on a continuing basis, excluding the discontinuing Canadian business, declined 21% but was 1.5% ahead of our estimate. The ground engineering contractor ‘remains confident in achieving market expectations’ for FY26; we have trimmed our adjusted PBT, which is ahead of consensus, but continue to expect

Springfield confirms in today’s trading update that it expects adjusted PBT for the year to 31 May 2025 will be in line with market expectations and that year-end net bank debt has been reduced in excess of market expectations. We trim our slightly higher than consensus FY25E PBT by 2.3% but cut our projected year-end net bank debt from £33.3m to £21.0m.

SDI Group has announced the acquisition of Severn Thermal Solutions Ltd, a UK manufacturer of high temperature furnace systems and environmental chambers for advanced material processing. This marks the third acquisition in a nine-month period, following Collins Walker (£1.9m) in April 2024 and Inspecvision (£6.1m) in October 2024. The acquisition is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing and we increase our FY26 estimates, with a 6% uplift to our adjusted EBIT. Severn

Tern’s FY24 results highlight the strength of the core portfolio, delivering progress with major key accounts and strategic partnerships. Tern’s exposure to Sure Ventures plc is already providing an additional source of income. We see a strong similarity with Tern’s strategy in the proactive investment style of Sure Ventures plc, now leveraging Tern’s hands-on approach. Valuations across the technology landscape remain depressed and therefore portfolio companies have not look

Tern: Progressive

Van Elle’s trading update for the year to 30 April reveals that continuing ‘significant’ delays to approvals by the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) – widely reported across the housebuilding industry – have led it to moderately reduce guidance for FY25, while confirming net cash expectations. The order book has grown, and we maintain our estimates for the rest of the forecast period, underpinned by growing infrastructure and industrial opportunities, but will review these ass

tinyBuild’s AGM trading update is positive. Revenue is ‘slightly ahead of expectations’, the cash burn is down (again) and the cash trough (summer 2025) should improve post the launch of ‘high-potential new games’. The pipeline is ‘strong’ and, despite the economic backdrop and Ukraine conflict, tinyBuild anticipates results in line with expectations.

STV Group

STV Group hosted a CMD on 20 May updating on strategy under new CEO Rufus Radcliffe. A clear path to long-term growth was laid out, in our view, including the launch of a new radio station, new reach and targeting propositions in broadcast, and further strong growth for the successful Studios business. STV targets EBITA of £30-35m in 2030 versus £18.5m now forecast for this year (CAGR of 10%-14% pa) with an additional £10m pa uplift in FCF when pension deficit payments cease 

Results for the first half to 31 March were in line with the group’s expectations, with a modest operating profit and significantly improved net cash. They demonstrate, in our view, a resilient performance by the specialist residential rental developer in the face of continuing challenging markets, but with promising signs of the pipeline building. We have introduced estimates for FY25E that point to improved profitability in H2, based on targeted forward sales being achieved

Watkin Jones: Progressive Research

Beeks’ latest Exchange Cloud deal is with the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and forms the basis of the new ASX ‘Colo OnDemand’ service. By removing the burden and capital costs of managing IT infrastructure, Colo OnDemand expands TAM by enabling underserved buy-side firms, niche and smaller brokers, investment firms and emerging software providers to access Australia’s financial markets.

Beeks: Progressive

SDI Group’s trading update for the year ended 30 April 2025 is in line with guidance, with a strong H2 offsetting the slow start to the year. This reflects management’s clear focus on driving organic growth over H2 and addressing short-term issues that had led to underperformance in some businesses. 

Nexus delivered improved revenue in the first half, for its core Tamdown unit and recently acquired Coleman Construction & Utilities infrastructure business. ‘Encouraging’ progress was made against the group’s objectives ‘despite the challenging market backdrop across the housebuilding sector’. The gross margin improved, as did orders and net cash, but we now no longer anticipate a return to an operating profit in the second half, with a likely improvement from housing and wa

Nexus: Progressive

Secure Trust Bank’s (STB’s) Q1 25 Trading Update demonstrates convincing progress towards its medium-term targets (MTT), combined with the start of derisking the Vehicle Finance loan book through the sale of £25.8m of defaulted loans. Impressive year-on-year growth in net loans (10.5%) was driven by a strong performance in Business Finance. STB remains on track to deliver £8m of annual costs savings, previously announced. Our forecasts are unchanged but reinforced by today’s 

Secure Trust Bank: Progressive

Zoo Digital Group

ZOO’s full-year trading update (to 31 March) confirms that while the order book is improving, workflow patterns and mix are taking longer than anticipated to adapt to the changing market environment. ZOO also notes that the assets required to commence several high-value projects were not delivered in Q4 25, but are in the process of being delivered in H1 26. This will move some revenue into FY26, and we adjust our FY25 estimates. There has been a marked increase in discussion

Zoo Digital: Progressive

Van Elle has announced a five-year partnership with WS Specialist Logistics (WSSL), which will involve it consolidating Van Elle’s heavy haulage operations. This will increase Van Elle’s net cash, helping the UK’s largest ground engineering contractor to invest in areas of greater return as it ‘enters a long-awaited period of anticipated growth’ in its core markets.

Watkin Jones has issued a trading update for its first half to 31 March, which points to a ‘small positive’ operating profit for the period, despite a market backdrop that ‘remains challenging’, with ‘good construction delivery on schemes which have traded in line with stated margin guidance’. There was also a 66% Y/Y increase in net cash at the period end – following on from the FY24 results, which beat our expectations.

The H1 trading update issued today confirms that trading went to plan in the six months to 31 March, with revenue and adjusted PBT in line with management expectations. Both divisions – Vicon and Smart Manufacturing – have continued to make progress. Importantly, the statement also confirms that, based on US tariff policy as currently stated, OM does not expect there to be material impact on the group, subject to changes and wider macro impacts. With c.£41m of cash, the balan

Oxford Metrics: Progressive

Severfield’s year-end update for the 12 months to 29 March maintained guidance for FY25E underlying profits but with net debt better than expected and, encouragingly, a 9% uplift in the order book. We are not changing our P&L estimates, which were at the bottom of the guidance range for FY25E, despite markets that ‘remain challenging’. We also maintain our forecasts for FY26E and FY27E, but continue to believe the latter are conservative, implying a compelling valuation at 3.

G4M has published a positive trading update for both its UK and European operations with recent double-digit like-for like (LFL) sales growth. With two significant price discounters in the UK and wider European markets going into insolvency recently, this should not only result in a more benign pricing environment but also other commercial upsides, including market share and gross margin gains, and opportunistic asset purchases.

Gear4music: Progressive

tinyBuild’s FY24 results are in line with expectations, being slightly lower at revenue but a beat on EBITDA and cash. The outlook commentary is positive with guidance being that FY25 is in line with expectations. tinyBuild, like the entire video games industry, is showing signs of revival following two challenging years. Recovery is now predicated on game releases and in tinyBuild’s case these are already proving hugely popular with Kingmakers and Sand (#15 and #40 on Steam 

Despite volatile global markets Beeks reminds us that it is business as usual. Today’s news of the latest US$2m four-year term Proximity contract continues the momentum from interim results (17 March) and underpins our H2 FY25 expectations. Once again CEO Gordon McArthur flags the “substantial pipeline” and that the company is confident in its “ability to capitalise on the growth opportunity ahead”. Our view is unchanged: Beeks is gaining from industry tailwinds (cloud adopti

Nexus confirms in this morning’s update that trading was in line with its expectations for the first half to 31 March, with a strong net cash position. During the period there were signs of housebuilding recovering and good progress in the integration of Coleman Construction & Utilities, acquired in October 2024 taking the group into the growing water infrastructure sector. Meanwhile there was an encouraging 11% uplift in the group order book.

SDI Group has announced the acquisition of Collins Walker Limited, a UK manufacturer of electric boilers serving energy-intensive, high-growth industrial applications. The addressable market for Collins Walker is currently estimated at $255m. This is an expanding market, boosted by net zero regulations. The global industrial boiler market was valued at $11bn in 2024 and is undergoing a significant shift towards electric solutions. The net consideration is £1.85m, up to a maxi

Streamlining the company and doubling down on IP should be greeted positively by investors. Ahead of final results (15 April), tinyBuild sells its Brazilian QA and localisation studio, Red Cerberus. The buyer is a North American ‘consultive software and hardware company’. The move enables tinyBuild to concentrate on games/IP development. The consideration is US$1.5m cash payable on completion and guidance is that the disposal will be ‘marginally accretive’ in 2025. Into resul

A pending move to the Main Market reflects the operational reality at Intuitive Investments and will widen investor reach. Also, appointing Chief Investment Officer Giles Willits as CEO telegraphs a dramatic growth ambition. To wit, Mr Willits was previously Group CFO at Entertainment One where he led its transition from AIM to a FTSE 250 business, with its eventual sale for over US$4bn in 2019. Working with IIG Chairman, Sir Nigel Rudd, who built Williams Holdings to be a FT

Intuitive Investments: Progressive


Pharos Energy released 2024 results on 26 March showing a solid financial and operating performance, materially in line with the trading update released on 23 January. The key message is that, with its cash-generative position augmented by a very strong balance sheet, the company is well placed to build momentum. The new opportunities are likely to manifest themselves through both organic and inorganic growth. We believe that the strong platform, with the potential for mater

Gear4music’s FY25 trading update shows that its performance has been impacted by a more subdued than expected Q4. This resulted mostly from aggressive price discounting by underperforming competitors in both the UK and Europe, also adversely impacting gross margin.

Gear4music’s: Progressive

After two profit warnings due to ‘challenging’ markets and problem bridge contracts, the share price has fallen by c.75%, but we believe the long-term growth prospects for the UK’s leading steel construction specialist remain sound. 

The results for the year ended 31 December 2024 are in line with expectations, as reconfirmed in the January update. Revenue of £579.4m is 11%% above FY23 and gross profit of £300.3m is a 12% improvement. On an organic basis, the growth in revenue and gross profits is 5% and 6%, respectively. Gamma finished the year with net cash of £153.7m, up from £134.8m last year. UK operations showed good growth. Europe was mixed, with both Germany and Spain managing to deliver growth. M

Xaar delivered an in-line FY24 result (Adj EBITDA £3.7m, vs our £3.6m estimate) with a notable beat to cash, £8.7m, vs our £8.2m estimate. Revenue was down 13% Y/Y to £61.4m, £70.2m last year. Xaar’s precision inkjet technology uses high viscosity inks, which are thicker and permeate less into surfaces, so OEMs see improved print consistency, uniformity and lower cost while using fewer precious environmental resources. Recent years have shown the difficulty in developing thes

Xaar: Progressive Research

H1 results are in line with the 19 February trading update. Illustrating continuing  strong,  double-digit  sales growth, here is a raft of client  wins and Beeks enters the crypto exchange market. CEO Gordon McArthur gives an upbeat assessment of the pipeline opportunities while  the  current ACMRR ‘take rate’ underpins the positive view. The wider ‘cloud’ industry (Oracle’s print, pending CoreWeave IPO) offers ample evidence of strong cloud demand, as does the increase in t

Beeks Financial: Progressive

Secure Trust Bank’s FY24 results provide confidence in the bank’s ability to deliver on its medium-term targets. Strong loan growth, stable net interest margins and continued cost discipline delivered 18% pre-impairment profit growth in the year. Continued focus on lower-risk segments, combined with further benefits from STB’s cost-efficiency programme, Project Fusion, underpin a prospective 14% ROE.

Widespread delays, including log jams of high-rise projects awaiting approval by the Building Safety Regulator, have led Van Elle to cut guidance for FY25E. We reduce our FY25E adjusted PBT by 27% and, possibly over-conservatively, FY26E by 14%. However, we maintain our view that the UK’s largest ground engineering group is, by its nature, at the ‘front end’ of any construction recovery. Van Elle is, proactively in our view, ‘reviewing strategic options’ for its Canadian rail