The UK Investor Magazine is joined by the founder of investment platform Get Income for a discussion around income investing and Get Income’s Crowdfunding platform on Seedrs.
Kimmo has extensive experience in FinTech and has been involved in successful exits in the sector. He’s identified an opportunity for investing in loans and the income opportunities for investors who can invest from €10.
Get Income have surpassed their target on Seedrs and are now in over funding.
You can find out more information on the Seedrs website here:
Socially conscious property investors can provide a lifeline for households facing homelessness while investing in Scotland’s most in-demand property market with the City of Edinburgh Council’s Private Sector Leasing (PSL) scheme.
Edinburgh is regularly recognised as one of the top cities in the UK for property investment – including being named by Real Estate specialist Colliers as the Top UK Residential Investment City in December 2021 – due to the capital’s solid potential for high rental yields and capital growth, not to mention its outstanding qualities as a place to live and visit.
For investors seeking long-term investment in this thriving residential market, PSL provides a hands-off opportunity with complete property management and guaranteed rental income for three or five years. Investors who want to manage repairs themselves can also do so.
Over 1,000 investors currently let their Edinburgh property to the Council through PSL, creating a supply of safe emergency accommodation across the city. The City of Edinburgh Council funds the management costs, so property owners get professional management services at no cost to them whilst helping those in need.
The scheme has been managed by Link Housing Association since 2010. Benefits include:
Guaranteed rent paid quarterly in advance (even if the property is empty through no fault of your own)
Market-linked rental assessment
No void periods
No letting agency fees
Tenant damage covered
Regular property visits
3- or 5-year lease
ISO-accredited maintenance service
Optional repairs service
Link PSL also has a network of local contractors to help source properties suitable for PSL and carry out refurbishment to meet current legislation.
Trouble free investment management
Ken, a current landlord with Link PSL said, “Link’s PSL scheme is a godsend for landlords looking for trouble free management. I have half of my property portfolio on the scheme, and this is the half I can most relax with. There are no voids, rents are paid 3 months in advance without fail and there are no issues regarding getting your property back at the end of the contract. Staff are professional, courteous and helpful!
I have been a serial landlord for almost 20 years and can honestly say that Link PSL has saved me through each property downturn. A guaranteed income for 3 or 5 years paid in advance with no voids – it can’t get any better!”
The priority of many investors is income security, whilst for others it will be the positive social impact of their investment. With PSL, investors don’t have to choose between the two.
Link also offers quality build to rent portfolio management and affordable factoring services.
Link PSL is accredited with Landlord Accreditation Scotland and a registered Letting Agent under the Letting Agent Registration (Scotland) Regulations 2016 (Registration Number LARN1907019).
AstraZeneca revenues surged in 2021 as the Pharma giant rolled out the COVID-19 vaccine and saw strong growth in oncology and immunotherapy drugs.
AstraZeneca revenue rose 41% (38% at CER) to $37.4bn including COVID-19 vaccine sales and 26% excluding vaccines sales.
“Astrazeneca’s results showed a total revenue increase of 41% to $37,417m including COVID-19 vaccine revenues. The company managed to achieve 14 positive Phase 3 readouts across nine medicines in 2021, and 22 regulatory approvals and authorisations in major markets which further boosted its market dominance in the field,” said Walid Koudmani, market analyst at financial brokerage XTB.
Astra will create a new business unit for their COVID-19 vaccines but in an interview with Bloomberg TV, the Astra CEO said they expected volumes to fall as we move out of the pandemic. Although vaccine sales boosted Astra’s sales, the overall impact of the pandemic on profitability was negative.
“Covid vaccine sales added $4bn to sales at AstraZeneca, but coronavirus had the opposite impact on profits. Outfitting staff with PPE and providing tests together with increased investment in vaccine and treatment development all weighed on the bottom line,” said Laura Hoy, Equity Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Hoy also highlighted the impact of acquisitions on Astra’s profit but was confident growth would support a dividend hike in the future.
“The real driver for Astra’s profit decline was the Alexion acquisition. The purchase brought Rare Diseases under the Astra umbrella and our fist glimpse at performance for this sector wasn’t too shabby. Management were confident enough in the promise of future growth that they announced a dividend hike,” said Hoy.
Astra shares were up 2.3% at the time of writing on Thursday morning.
Unilever achieved the fastest sales growth in nine years in 2021 but the impact of rising prices meany underlying operating profit margins were squeezed by 10 basis points.
Unilever recorded a 6.2% constant currency rates to €52.4bn, up from €50.7bn in 2020. The jump in revenue helped produce a 16% increase in net profit to €6.6bn, up from €6bn.
However, the market’s focus was on margin pressure and the impact of rising input prices.
“The promise of share buy backs and a softly-softly approach to acquisitions won’t give Alan Jope much of a break from the mounting criticism over the way the business has been run. Inflation is flashing as a big warning light in these results and the worst may be yet to come,” said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.
“Despite the fastest underlying sales growth in nine years, coming in at 4.5%, the fall in the underlying operating margin is already painful. Input costs are rising dramatically and prices are being pushed up as result by 4.9% in the fourth quarter.”
Although Unilever shares dipped over 3% in the initial market reaction, there were positives from Unilever’s results in the form of strong growth in emerging markets.
“Our thirteen billion-Euro brands grew 6.4%. Priority markets of China, India, and the US grew at 14.3%, 13.4%, and 3.7% respectively. Our growth in e-commerce was 44%, ahead of global channel growth and bringing e-commerce to 13% of turnover. We have continued to re-shape our portfolio into high growth spaces, acquiring in Prestige Beauty and Functional Nutrition, and agreeing the sale of our Tea business,” said Unilever, Chief Executive Officer, Alan Jope.
The Unilever CEO also addressed ongoing speculation around the revisiting of a bid for GlaxoSmithKline’s consumer business and said spare cash would be used on share buybacks instead.
“We have engaged extensively with our shareholders in recent weeks and received a strong message that the evolution of our portfolio needs to be measured. We therefore do not intend to pursue major acquisitions in the foreseeable future and will conduct a share buyback programme of up to €3 billion over the next two years,” said Jope.
The Redrow order book has reached £1.5bn and profits grew 16.6%.
The group posted record revenues of £1.052bn for the 27 weeks to 2 January. Redrow’s interim dividend increased by 4p to 10p.
Matthew Pratt, the group’s chief executive, said: “We have capitalised on strong demand, improved sales margins and continued to invest for growth.”
“The value of our first half reservations was £884m, an increase of 6 per cent on the same period last year (2021: £836m), and our total order book increased to £1.5bn (2021: £1.3bn), leaving us well placed for the future.”
Net profits jumped 17% to £1.69bn and revenues were up by 7% to £7.24bn. As a result, the board is suggesting a dividend payout of 49.8p per share.
Chief executive Erik Engstrom commented: “RELX delivered strong underlying revenue and profit growth in 2021,”
“We believe that this improved trajectory is a reflection of our ongoing strategy of focusing on the organic development of increasingly sophisticated analytics and decision tools that deliver enhanced value to our customers across market segments. Recent acquisitions, which have supplemented our organic growth strategy, have continued to perform well.”
A spokesperson at the group said: “Based on the improved performance in 2021 across the company, we expect 2022 full year underlying growth rates in revenue and adjusted operating profit, as well as constant currency growth in adjusted earnings per share, to remain above historical trends.”
Following strong demand in the UK and US, Watches of Switzerland has posted strong profits and revenues in the year-to-date.
Revenues hit £934.3m and there has been an impressive 38% growth in performance.
The company has plans to expand in Europe and has bought six shops in Sweden, Denmark and the Republic of Ireland.
“I am pleased to report continued strong momentum for our Group following a successful Christmas trading period,” said Brian Duffy, the chief executive.
“We have delivered impressive growth in both luxury watches and luxury jewellery in both the UK and US markets demonstrating the value of our portfolio of world leading partner brands.”
“Strong trading to date, revised pricing by certain brands and visibility of supply for calendar 2022 all support our expectation to perform towards the top end of our full year guidance.”
The FTSE 100 rallied on Wednesday to trade above a key resistance level that capped gains in January and potentially opens the way for further gains in the index.
The FTSE 100 traded above 7,630 on Wednesday having broken through the 7,619 mark that proved a bridge too far for London’s leading index in January.
Having pushed through 7,640, the FTSE 100 traded at the highest levels since the beginning of the pandemic in a broad rally which saw most sectors gain. Technical traders will now be looking for a consolidation in the 7,620-7,630 region for the FTSE 100 to form a base for the next higher.
Notwithstanding the favourable FTSE 100 price action, investors will also take confidence from the favourable macro picture and the composition of the index.
With a strong weighting towards commodity shares, the index is shaping up to benefit from a continued rally in commodity prices.
BP and Shell have recently reported strong revenue generation on higher oil prices and with many analysts predicted $100 per barrel prices in the short term, the stage is set for a move to the upside in the oil majors.
Couple this with surging metals prices and favourable conditions for the miners, the index is set to enjoy support in the short term.
GlaxoSmithKline
Although most sectors rose on Wednesday, there was a drag in the form of GlaxoSmithKline which dipped 2% after it announced earnings for the 2021 full year. GSK’s revenue grew on 5% on a constant currency basis, but it wasn’t enough to please investors who wanted a more solid strategic outlook given the potential sale of their consumer business.
“Our experts tell us the spotlight is focused on the consumer health spin-off, set to occur mid year, following news of Unilever’s three unsuccessful bids and reported Private Equity interest. The market eagerly awaits a more detailed strategy overview at GSK’s capital markets day in late February,” said Sebastian Skeet, Senior Analyst for healthcare sector clients at Third Bridge.
SulNOx presents at the UK Investor Magazine & AQUIS Virtual Investor Event. SulNOX is a Greentech company providing next generation, natural solutions, for immediate progression towards carbon neutrality.
SulNOx are inventors of natural, biodegradable fuel conditioners which demonstrate significant fuel savings for users of all liquid hydrocarbon fuels including petrol, diesel and biofuels. SulNOx have demonstrable savings of c.10% in multiple, long-term tests on cars, vans, loaders, buses and trucks and emerging data from an ongoing, large scale shipping trial. SulNOx formulations improve combustion by increasing the availability of oxygen to the fuel and adding significant lubricity.
Given the amount of emissions also depends on the quality of combustion, SulNOx dramatically reduces Particulate Matter emissions (e.g smoke and soot > 50%) and greenhouse gases like CO2and NOx.
SulNOx is a key ESG enabler for users of fossil fuels, providing increasingly recognised solutions to immediately improve air quality and combat global warming at a time when climate is top of the global agenda.
Good Energy is a generator and supplier of 100% renewable power and an innovator in energy services. It currently owns two wind farms, six solar farms and sources electricity from a community of 1,600 independent UK generators.
Since it was founded 20 years ago, the company has been at the forefront of the charge towards a cleaner, distributed energy system. Its mission is to support UK households and businesses generate, store and share clean power.
Good Energy is recognised as a leader in this market, through our green kite accreditation with the London Stock Exchange and as the only energy supplier with Gold Standard Uswitch Green Tariff Accreditation for all tariffs.
