Other Small cap news...
Bagpuss penny shares up 30%
Stick to the top hundred companies of the FTSE index and the same old names stare back at you. Every day it is BP vs Shell, AstraZeneca vs Glaxo, Sainsbury vs Tesco. It is you against every professional in the City and every other investor who daren’t take the plunge with small companies.Bagpuss penny shares up 30%
- AIM-listed penny share Coolabi (ticker: COO) jumped 30% after its final results this morning. Seems the City likes a new deal with Superdrug. The health and beauty retailer will be stocking Coolabi’s new teen cosmetic range, Scarlett & Crimson.
- Coolabi has a stable of “high quality intellectual property assets”. As well as Scarlett & Crimson, it has on its books cult classics such as Purple Ronnie, The Clangers and Bagpuss.
- The company says it has delivered organic growth as planned. It also met its other target of enhancing the underlying value of each asset in its portfolio of intellectual properties.
- The firm’s results for the 18 months to the end of December show improvements in gross profits and EBITDA. Chairman, William Harris, added: “We expect the second half of the year to be considerably stronger than the first.”
But down at the penny share end the cast is ever changing as newcomers take their place upon the stage.
Hopefuls hint at the next big gold play, the next technology breakthrough, the next oil discovery. It is like a talent show. Who looks the part? Who shows the most promise? Who has something that no-one else can offer?
Why things are looking up on AIM
Back in the peak year of 2005, 519 new companies made their bow on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM).
But last year investors put up the shutters and only 36 new entrants arrived. But now the tide is turning. Eight newcomers made their debut in January and February and a similar number should make it in March and April. Let us run out eye over five of them.
Oxford Nutrascience (ONG): Oxford Nutrascience plans to launch a range of healthy tablets based on pre-biotic soluble fibres. This is a new type of ingredient that has digestive health benefits which, because they can replace sugars, can improve taste. These functional properties make them ideal for the delivery of medicines, especially for those who find it difficult to swallow tablets.
Oxford has one calcium chew called Ellactiva on the market. It is planning to launch several more pleasant-tasting chewable tablets, while also delivering some form of medicine, vitamins or supplements. Shares are valued at 3.4p, while Oxford is valued at £15m, which looks aggressive in relation to last year’s sales of just £43,000.
Scotgold ReSources (SGZ): Scotgold is an Australian company that has seen fit to come all the way to Scotland to look for gold. It owns the Cononish gold and silver deposit and three exploration licences in the Grampian region.
An independent report in 2004 calculated that Cononish has 163,000 ounces of gold and 596,000 ounces of silver in the measured, indicated and inferred categories. The British Geological Survey has repeatedly said that there are significant deposits yet to be discovered in the region.
Scotgold plans to bring Cononish into production by the end of 2011, for which it will need to raise additional capital. At a share price of 6.75p Scotgold is valued at £8m.
SPECIALIST ENERGY (SEGR): Specialist Energy is the latest owner of one of the UK’s oldest engineering companies, Hayward Tyler. From its headquarters next to Luton Airport, Hayward Tyler is the world’s leading supplier of boiler circulating pumps. Its equipment is installed in 70% of North America’s nuclear power stations and it recently developed the world’s largest subsea motor for use in the North Sea. Sales to India and China, where it already has an installed base of 520 pumps, are the main driver of growth.
DIGITAL BARRIERS (DGB): Shares in Digital Barriers have raced to a 35% premium to their 100p issue price, which owes everything to its management team, led by Tom Black. Black was boss of Detica, a specialist security consultancy that delivered a 30% per annum return to its shareholders in the period 2002-8.
We are talking about surveillance technology here and Black sees the need for “investment to improve the digital security and surveillance technology needed to protect high-profile targets, crowded spaces and the critical national infrastructure”.
CSF (CSFG): CSF looks like a good way to play the rapid growth of Asia’s ‘knowledge economy’. CSF runs two huge data centres in the Cyberjaya technology park outside Kuala Lumpur. The main tenant of these data centres is the Malaysian government’s telecom provider, TM Net. But CSF has attracted other multinational businesses who see Malaysia as a good base from which to attack the Asian market.
Data centres house networking and computing equipment such as servers, routers and fibre optic transmission gear. Big users are increasingly seeing the sense of outsourcing these services demand is rising rapidly. CSF is planning to build a third, and even larger data centre at Cyberjaya, and also to expand into Thailand and Vietnam.
There is plenty of variety here and there will be more debutants coming along soon. I can’t wait to pick out the likely winners!
Why April’s going to be a Red Hot month
Finally a reminder about the April issue of my Red Hot Penny Shares investment newsletter.
Among the attractions this month, readers can find out about a great new oil play that could provide their first payoff within a month. There's also advice on how to profit from an ambitious UK penny share that’s having a big impact in Hollywood. Don’t miss it!
Good investing,
Tom Bulford
For The Penny Sleuth
Red Hot Penny Shares is a regulated product issued by Fleet Street Publications ltd. Forecasts are not a reliable indicator of future results. Your capital is at risk when you invest in shares, never risk more than you can afford to lose. Penny shares can be relatively illiquid and hard to trade. There can be a large bid/offer spread so if you need to sell soon after you’ve bought, you might get less back than you paid. This can make them riskier than other investments. Please seek advice if necessary. 0207 633 3600.
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