Harland & Wolff Group Holdings shares rose 2.8% to 22.3p in late afternoon trading on Monday following reports that the company won a contract from P&O cruises for dry docking two cruise vessels in Harland & Wolff’s Belfast dock.

The two ships are scheduled to make port for dry dock later this year, with Cunard’s Queen Victoria entering from 2-19 May and P&O Cruise’s Aurora entering the yard from 9-23 June.

“We are delighted to be able to have these two ships at a UK shipyard with such a long heritage and reputation and we very much look forward to supporting the UK maritime industry and working closely with the Harland & Wolff team on this project,” said Carnival UK vice-president maritime David Varty.

The contract reportedly marks another milestone for Harland & Wolff’s re-activation strategy across its key markets, which include its goal to operate in five markets and six service sectors in a bid to ensure project continuity, and to provide longevity for its key workforce, with the aim of providing an improved productivity and reduction in project costs for vessel owners.

The company famous for facilitating the construction of the RMS Titanic mentioned that the recent release of the National Shipbuilding Strategy would be a key factor to boost productivity levels at Harland & Wolff.

According to the group, the addition of 150 domestic vessels to be built in the coming years is set to kick the group’s projects up several notches into gear as it anticipates a fresh wave of projects.

“When acquiring the assets of Harland and Wolff (Belfast) in December 2019 and in a pre-pandemic period, the cruise industry was one of our key target markets,” said Harland & Wolff CEO John Wood.  

“Our facilities are ideally placed to capitalise on these types of large projects whilst we continue servicing our smaller but regular clients.”

“We have now secured contracts in four out of our five markets; commercial, cruise & ferry, renewables and energy – we now hope to complete the final milestone of securing a defence contract in the near future.”

Induction Healthcare announced a contract renewal with NHS England which secures £6.6m annual recurring revenues for Induction Attend Anywhere on Monday which sent shares flying 20% to 52.5p.

Following the recent contract renewal across NHS England for remote consultation services in secondary care, Induction Attend Anywhere contracts have been successfully extended or renewed across 94% of existing contracts, according to Induction, a leading digital health platform driving healthcare system transformation worldwide.

This is well over management’s estimates, and it went into effect on 1 April 2022.

As a result of the foregoing contract renewals, £6.6m in annual recurring income will be recorded in FY23.

Previously all contracts were for one year, the new contracts range in length from one to three years, with the majority committing to at least two years which amounts to a total contract value of £10.9 million.

Induction Attend Anywhere

Induction Healthcare transforms care delivery by delivering a portfolio of software solutions through a single integrated platform.

The company’s system-wide applications enable healthcare practitioners and managers to give care remotely as well as face-to-face, allowing communities to have a more flexible, efficient, and positive experience.

Hundreds of thousands of physicians and millions of patients across almost every hospital in the British Isles rely on its applications, which are used at scale by national and regional healthcare systems as well as non-health government organisations.

Induction Attend Anywhere is a purpose-built collection of services, tools, and resources that have helped NHS health services in England, Scotland, and Wales integrate video consultations into everyday practice.

It allows patients to attend a medical appointment through video, which helps patients, healthcare providers and the healthcare system as a whole.

Following a successful national roll-out of AA in Scotland and regional trials in England, NHS England centrally contracted with Attend Anywhere in early 2020 to offer healthcare practitioners the option of remote consultations in secondary care for their patients.

The Covid-19 outbreak sprang out a few months later. Attend Anywhere’s rollout under lockdown conditions was one of the fastest in NHS history in terms of a single technology.

This centralised NHS England contract terminated in March 2021 and a series of competitive regional tenders were launched as anticipated.

To enable NHS Trusts to licence a platform of their choosing, central funding has been made available until March 31, 2022.

The directors believe that the NHS contract renewals announced today, which were completed in a highly competitive environment, represent a significant endorsement of the Induction Attend Anywhere solution and a clear justification for the claim to be the UK’s market-leading video consultation service used in secondary care.

Induction Attend Anywhere is now the preferred embedded technology for NHS video consultations throughout the United Kingdom.

Between March 2020 and March 2021, outpatient visits delivered by video utilising the Induction Attend Anywhere platform saved 4.64m hours of inpatient travel and wait times, as well as £40m in patient transport costs and parking charges throughout NHS England.

James Balmain, Chief Executive Officer, Induction Healthcare commented, “We are absolutely delighted by such a significant endorsement of the Induction Attend Anywhere video consultation solution.” 

“When we acquired Attend Anywhere in June 2021, we knew that the change to regional procurement might present more of a challenge than national and were aware of the clear competitive pressure from global video conferencing providers, who’ve become household names during the pandemic.”

“It is a testament to the strength and quality of our offering, and to the speed of business integration, that we were in a position to open negotiations within months of the acquisition and complete this complex process within deadline.”

“The conversion rate for these renewals, and the fact that the majority have opted for multi-year contracts, shows that our purpose-built technology has not only become a trusted, long-term solution for secondary care in the UK, but one of the most widely used technologies to be rolled out as part of the digital transformation of the NHS.”

“This not only reinforces the significance of the acquisition but also the intrinsic value that Attend Anywhere brings to the group as part of an integrated and all-encompassing digital health platform.”

ECR Minerals shares were up 6.9% to 1.5p in early afternoon trading on Tuesday after the company announced its appointment of Andrew Haythorpe as Chief Executive Officer.

Haythorpe is reportedly scheduled to join the Australia-focused gold mining firm as a non-board CEO before taking on the position of executive director in six months time, pending shareholder approval.

ECR Minerals highlighted Haythorpe’s 30 years of experience in managing listed gold miners and explorers on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), alongside his career as a mining analyst and hands-on gold exploration work as a geologist.

He is currently working as the managing director of GoldOz Limited.

“I am delighted ECR has attracted a CEO of Andrew’s calibre,” said ECR Minerals chairman David Tang.

“With more than 30 years of experience as a managing director and chairman of junior and mid-tier gold explorers and producers, he’ll be an exceptional addition to our team.”

His previous positions include managing director of Crescent Gold Limited, which spiked from a market capitalisation of $8 million to $250 million within four years under his leadership.

“Andrew built Crescent Gold from an $8 million explorer into a $250 million gold producer. He clearly sees the potential within the ECR portfolio,” said Tang.

Haythorpe also worked as the managing director of ASX-listed gold producer Michelago Resources.

He has further been listed as the 12th best gold analyst at Hartley Poynton over his tenure as an international leader in the industrial minerals sector.

Non-executive director Adam Jones added: I’m thrilled to welcome Andrew, a fellow geologist, to ECR.

“Being based initially in Australia he’ll be working closely with me and the field team in Victoria and Queensland, to ensure the exciting developments we are working on are progressed as quickly as possible. We look forward to providing more updates in due course.”

Sabien Technology Group shares were up 0.3% to 16.8p in early afternoon trading on Monday after the company announced a contract win for its Sabien Technology operating subsidiary worth £264,000 from an arm of the UK government.

The contract is reportedly for the extended deployment of Sabien Technology’s M2G Boiler Optimisation Technology across a selection of sites throughout the country in support of a major government project, and follows a previous contract awarded to the group for the use of its Boiler Optimisation products.

The contract comes as the second half of an initial order on 25 March 2022, which is scheduled for implementation through a different facilities managing partner.

The heating, cooling and transportation solutions company said that a minimum of £206,000 of the order will be recognised in FY 2022.

Sabien noted that its latest order increased the firm’s forward orders to 229 M2G Cloud devices to be installed, from which most of the revenue has either been invoiced or is set to be invoiced over 2022.

“This further contract award re-confirms the confidence placed in the M2G Cloud device by a major UK Government department,” said Sabien executive chairman Richard Parris.

“At times of rapidly increasing gas prices, Sabien Cloud delivers significant, easy to install savings, visible in real time through the intuitive M2G Cloud dashboard.”

The industrial laser systems business, 600 Group along with other group companies have completed the sale of the Machine Tool Solutions division, for cash consideration of $21m after the conditions have been met on Monday.

On March 7, 2022, 600 Group announced that it and other group companies had agreed to a conditional sale and purchase agreement with Timesavers Acquisition for the disposal of the entire issued share capital of each of 600 UK Limited, Colchester GmbH, 600 Machinery Australia and Clausing Industrial, which together comprise the group’s Machine Tool Solutions division, for cash consideration of $21m.

The group announced on Monday, that all of the remaining conditions for the sale have been met, and the transaction has been finalised.

The cash consideration of $21m has been received and the company now has a net cash position.

The 600 Group’s shares increased 5% to 15.8p after the company completed the sale of the Machine Tool Solutions division.

“The disposal of our Machine Tools division completes our strategic shift to the higher margin industrial laser system businesses which continue to deliver new customer wins and carry a record order book,” said Paul Dupee, Chairman of The 600 Group.

“With our net cash position, we now have additional resources and are well placed to capitalise on the opportunity in this highly attractive, yet fragmented, market through organic and inorganic growth strategies.” 

Hygiene and decontamination company, REACT announced a new 3-year contract with a new customer in the education sector to perform ‘regular facilities maintenance cleaning’ on Monday.

The three-year contract begins at the end of May 2022 and has a total value of £0.7m.

The contract contains a mechanism for annual price hikes to account for future increases in labour and material costs.

Fidelis, a part of REACT that specialises in routine facility maintenance cleaning, will complete the contract.

Shaun Doak, Chief Executive Officer, REACT said, “I am delighted for the team winning this prestigious new account.”

“It comes as a result of our growing strength in customer satisfaction and references in the education sector, which would not be possible without the great work performed by our professional operators at the sharp end of the business.”

“This contract builds upon our strategy of increasing recurring revenues in resilient markets such as education and healthcare to complement our ad-hoc and specialist reactive work.”

REACT’s shares gained 6% to 1.8p after the company announced a new 3-year contract for £0.7m.

The FTSE 250 was down 0.17% to 21,138.7 and the AIM was flat at 1,055.4 on Monday, as London more domestic facing markets suffered after the latest UK GDP figures reported a dismal 0.1% growth in February.

“It’s a difficult time to be an investor given how markets stubbornly refuse to break out into a decent rally. So far this year we’ve had enough ups and downs to make anyone owning shares and bonds travel sick,” said AJ Bell financial analyst Danni Hewson.

“The new trading week got off to another mixed start, with markets initially down across Europe and Asia before some territories managed to make positive progress.”

The Wood Group was up 13% to 175p after the company reported a guided revenue of £6.4 billion ahead of its annual results on 20 April.

Ascential shares rose 3.8% to 343.7p following a statement that it was discussing “the merits” of separating some of their assets by potentially demerging its digital sector and listing it in the US.

“We are not hugely surprised to note this development given Ascential management’s long-standing commitment to maximising shareholder value and optimising the group’s portfolio of businesses,” said Shore Capital analyst Roddy Davidson.

Pets at Home enjoyed a 1.5% rise to 333.7p on the back of Berenberg’s “buy” recommendation of the shares.

BH Macro Limited shares increase 1.2% to 42,150p after a report from Kepler Trust Intelligence assured investors of the company’s high diversification and impressive track record so far in 2022, noting its NAV performance rise of 5.5% in March alongside its exposure to rising interest rates.

Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings fell 6.1% to 816.2p after Goldman Sachs cut the group’s price target to “neutral.”

Countryside Properties continued its decline with a 2.4% fall to 254.5p following its selection of “execution-related” failures across its properties and a heads-up warning of the company’s half-year revenue fall of 13%, alongside the group’s 42% drop in adjusted operating profit over the past year reported last week.

Scancell Holdings shares spiked 27.9% to 13.7p after the firm announced the opening of trial recruitment for its first-in-human clinical trial with its Modi-1 treatment for patients with triple negative breast cancer, ovarian, head, neck and renal cancer.

Induction Healthcare shares rose 20.6% to 52.5p following the company’s reported £6.6 million in annual recurring revenues for its Induction Attend Anywhere, after the NHS renewed 94% of its existing contracts with the digital health platform for its remote consultation programme, vastly exceeding management expectations.

Argos Resources enjoyed a boost of 15.3% to 2.2p after the oil and gas exploration company announced the provision of a second term for its PL001 licence from 1 May to 31 December from the Falkland Islands government.

CyanConnode Holdings shares rose 14.9% to 19.2p on the back of a successful multi-million pound contract in the Middle-East and North Africa region (MENA), and a £2 million fundraise which the company is set to use for investment in short-supply inventory components.

Bluejay Mining shares took a dip of 16% to 7.1p after the group released an update from its Disko-Nuussuaq Field programmes, in which the company opted to double its collection and analysis of modern data for its entire suite of projects and commence diamond drilling in 2023 instead of the original timeframe for 2022.

Dekel Agri-Vision shares fell 10.9% to 4.9p following the firm’s March palm oil production and cashew project update, which revealed that the company’s palm oil production was 50.5% lower in March 2021 than it was in March last year due to a seasonal production change across the Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria.

The group’s cashew production was also reported at 15% capacity in the interim period due to Dekel awaiting the arrival of key equipment to commence proper production for the project.

The FTSE 100 dropped 0.5% to 7,634 on Monday after the UK GDP growth missed economist estimates and grew at just 0.1% in February.

Production costs have skyrocketed as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and supply chain concerns, with the prices of critical metals and computer chips in the tech industry pounding the manufacturing sector.

For a sense of confidence, the economy turned to the weakening services sector, which increased by 0.2% and helped boost real GDP 1.5% higher than before Covid-19. However, the outcome is not entirely positive for the UK economy.

Today’s GDP figures show recovery and confidence both remain soft. The economy grew 0.1% in February and is now 1.5% above its pre-pandemic level – growth may be anaemic but continues to be almost all driven by hospitality recovery https://t.co/gn4VHfPrQr

— Kate Nicholls (@UKHospKate) April 11, 2022

Markets across Europe were jittery today with French elections, low UK GDP growth and increasing Covid related problems in China hurting stocks from all segments in the FTSE 100.

“It’s a difficult time to be an investor given how markets stubbornly refuse to break out into a decent rally. So far this year we’ve had enough ups and downs to make anyone owning shares and bonds travel sick,” said Danni Hewson, Financial Analyst, AJ Bell.

Tech shares or trusts invested in tech shares like Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Ocado were amongst the top fallers on the FTSE 100 on Monday as investors dumped the sector on the prospect of rising interest rates that will “reduce the value of future cash flows” making the tech space “less appealing” suggested Danni Hewson.

With rising rates tightening monetary conditions, tech stocks are losing out to value stocks, which are “offering jam today rather than jam tomorrow.”

Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust saw shares drop 3% to 945p as the trust has exposure to Chinese tech stocks which are currently under scrutiny with rising supply chain problems and inflation in the country due to another wave of the pandemic.

Ocado shares lost 2% to 1,217p as investors withdraw from tech stocks and move to value stocks as rising rates of interest may hurt future cash flow for the company.

Mining shares were taking a hit on Monday due to China’s metal trade with the world getting impacted by the surge in Covid-19 cases. FTSE 100’s Anglo American, Rio Tinto and Antofagasta shares lost 1.9%, 0.02% and 0.06%.

Goldman Sachs also raised Anglo American, Rio Tinto and Antofagasta’s price targets to 5,300p, 7,300p and 1,900p respectively.

The price of oil decreased 1.5% to $101 a barrel on Monday leading to oil and gas companies such Shell and BP shares losing 0.2% to 2,162p and 391p respectively.

Hargreaves Lansdown, Halma and Prudential shares dropped between 2%-3% on Monday as investors rotated away from financial stocks.

High-street lenders were among the FTSE 100 risers with Lloyds Banking Group leading the sector with shares increasing 1.4% to 45p.

Barclays and Natwest are amongst the banking sector with shares rising 0.9% and 0.7% to 145p and 218p respectively.

Sainsbury’s shares lifted 1.2% to 250p after Jefferies raised the grocer’s price target by 300p.

Glencore shares gained 1% to 533p after Goldman Sachs raised Glencore’s price target to 720p from 600p.

Other performers on the FTSE 100 include Vodafone Group, Flutter Entertainment, Airtel Africa, Pearson and BAE Systems whose shares increased between 1.5% and 2%.

Travel stocks have been mixed with consumers looking to travel and holiday as the weather gets better and the pandemic eases over, however, flight cancellations and staffing shortages are holding the shares back from taking off.

As airlines continue to battle with labour shortages, dozens of UK flights were cancelled on Monday, with British Airways cancelling at least 64 domestic or European flights to or from Heathrow.

British Airways, part of the International Consolidated Airlines Group SA, said customers were given advance notice of the cancellations.

Last month, the airline agreed to cut its schedule till the end of May to avoid having to cancel flights on short notice owing to staff shortages. It has concentrated on routes with several daily flights, allowing passengers to choose from a variety of departure times on the same day they bought.

IAG shares rose 0.8% to 134p as the airline company altered its schedules and tried to mitigate any travel risks for its consumers.

Amongst travel and leisure losers were Whitbread and InterContinental whose shares were losing 0.3% and 1% to 2,821p and 4,873p.

This sub-£100m group has very big ambitions and its experienced management is moving at an impressive pace with its corporate strategy.

The Likewise Group is a UK distributor of both domestic and commercial floor coverings and matting. 

Upon floating last August, the group’s directors stated that they believed that they had an opportunity to build a business of national scale and over time become a strong alternative to the current larger industry competitors within the sector. 

A very big and growing market

Excluding ceramics, the UK floorcoverings market, which is made up of manufacturers, distributors, retailers and installers, is worth some £2bn and is growing at around 3% per annum.

Some 30% of this market is made up by a number of larger players. 

The 70% balance is covered by the national multiples and the regional independent retailers and flooring contractors.

Homes and offices creating demand

The residential sector of the market is expected to increase as new homes are added to meet the ongoing structural demand for housing at around 150,000 new residential dwellings a year. 

Additionally, home improvements, changing consumer tastes and trends along with repair works is expected to create further demand. There is also a very strong replacement requirement.

It is believed that demand in the commercial sector will remain robust over the medium term, especially as new office developments continue to be constructed.

The group’s supplies and sales

Its suppliers are sourced from Holland (25% of sales), Belgium (24%), other countries in Europe (16%), the UK (15%), the Far East (11%), Turkey (6%), India (2.5%) and even Ukraine (just 0.5% previously).

Some 36% of the group sales is made up by carpets, commercial 20%, laminates 14%, mats and runners 10%, domestic vinyl 6%, artificial grass 6%, underlay 4%, luxury vinyl tiles 4% and other such products 1%.

Scale generates opportunity

It is the strategy of this group to consolidate the distribution and retail sections of the market to gain national scale and provide a channel for UK and overseas manufacturers.

To deliver on this strategy, Likewise has declared that it intends to utilise its expertise and industry knowledge to deliver organic growth, operational leverage and execute strategic acquisitions.

Expansion strategy and setting a price marker

But just look at this group’s expansion over the last few years.

From 2019 to the summer of 2021 it had made and integrated some seven acquisitions, that was ahead of going public last August. 

The valuation then was £48.1m, when it raised £10m before float expenses, with its shares priced at 25p each.

In mid-December last year, it made a £30m acquisition of Valley Wholesale Carpets – settled by paying £24m cash, £1m deferred cash and the issue of 5m shares.

If investors took any real notice that last part of the payment put down quite a marker. 

The condition stated with the 5m new shares, was that if the 5m are valued at less than £5m on the second anniversary of the Acquisition Completion, then the shortfall will be settled in cash.

I take that as quite a strong pointer that the group’s management and its financial advisers are happy with setting a two-year target for the shares at 100p or better.

At the time of this deal the group raised £14m by way of issuing new shares to existing investors and institutions at 35p each, which was a 24% discount to the 46p share price on the day before it was announced.

A month later the group declared that the acquisition had been approved and completed. So, could the aim now be 100p a share by mid-January 2024?

Acquisitions continue

Continuing the group’s expansion programme saw it announce another acquisition at the start of this month. 

For £3m it has added the Leeds-based Delta Carpets. Again it was completed with the issue of 0.5m new shares, at the underpinned 100p value upon the second anniversary of completion.

This really is a quite inventive and attractive form of financing through the issue of equity. The balance of the earnings enhancing deal price was in cash. 

Delta distributes to independent retailers in the Midlands, South Wales and the North of England. It boosted the group’s geographical and operational spread.

Number Two player in the marketplace

Its various purchases over the last four years have now helped it to build itself up to be the number two player in the UK flooring market. 

In the year to end December 2020 it had sales of £47.3m.

To the end of 2021 that revenue figure had risen 31% to £62.0m.

Current broker’s estimates suggest £115m this year, £137m next year and £161m in 2024.

But those estimates, obviously, do not take account for any future deals that the Likewise corporate team may put together. 

Geographic expansion widens its coverage

At the current rate of expansion, I believe that the group will fill in its blank coverage areas of the UK by taking over other distribution companies.

So the management’s target of creating a national distribution business, with revenues in excess of £200m could well be beaten within a very short time frame.

From its centres across the country – Leeds, Sudbury, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle, and Peckham in the UK, while also having a centre in Meulebeke in Belgium – it can already offer an impressive one-day delivery service.

More sales ability brings added margins

As the expansion happens the pure strategic logistics will really start to fall into place.

Far bigger dealing power when negotiating with its global suppliers, which in turn strengthens operational and financial efficiency, its margins will increase and it will boost its cash flow, while also helping to reduce company debt. 

It will also outperform other players in the sector.

The group management aim is to generate operating margins in excess of 5%, while also implementing a progressive dividend policy.

That is just what a quoted company should do, especially in these current markets.

Growth adds to profits

The current year is already looking promising. 

Alongside details of its latest acquisition, the company reported that it was trading ahead of internal budgets for the first three months of this current year.

It also mentioned that it will be looking to help to cover general supply price rises by introducing a new price list as from the beginning of next month.

For this year its management believes that the group will meet market expectations.

The group’s brokers, Zeus Capital, are bullish about the company. They are not at all concerned by the current high price-to-earnings ratio at some 51 times 2021’s estimated results. They amplify the scalability of the group.

Their estimate for the 2021 figures look for a turn around from £3.6m of losses to £1.6m profit.

For the current year they go for £4.2m profits, worth 1.3p per share in earnings.

Next year the expansion shows through with £6.2m profits, generating 1.8p per share.

For the 2024 trading year the brokers go for £9.1m which would pump in 3p in earnings. 

The group should be reporting its 2021 results next month, at which time we should expect a further trading update,

This real growth deserves a higher price

This really is a growth story – a classic ‘buy to build’ – and it has only been on the market for nine months.

There is a lot more to come from this very expansive group, its shares at just 35p warrant a much higher rating to reflect its growth prospects.

The regionally focused specialised asset manager, Mercia Asset Management, with £948m in assets under management reported the release of £0.8m in ring-fenced cash profits from the sale of Faradion, as announced on 5 January 2022.

In January, the company confirmed the completion of the sale of Faradion, a sustainable energy storage solution, for a total enterprise value of £100m to Reliance New Energy Solar Limited, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries.

The £0.8m ring-fenced proceeds are in addition to the £5.7m profit announced in January 2022, bringing the total realised profit on the sale to £6.5m over the holding value as of September 30, 2021.