Smaller companies spotlight

EACH week, former Fleet Street City Editor

Winners all

MANY years ago I had the pleasure of playing in a game of cricket for charity in which the legendary Ted Dexter opened the batting for our side. He scored 100 before lunch, then retired 'hurt'. Later he said to me: 'It‘s always nice to score runs, wherever you play.'

I thought of those words this week as I studied the winners of the 2002 Growth Company Awards, which are organised by Growth Company Investor and sponsored by KBC Peel Hunt to acknowledge advisers to AIM and Ofex companies.

It‘s only the second year that this particular award ceremony has taken place and, I am sure, none of those connected would claim it is the Oscars ceremony of the business world.

However, the point that Ted Dexter was making was that you should enjoy success wherever it is achieved – after all, a few days after his success in the charity match he was playing for England and struggling to get into double figures.

So I list the winners of the various categories below and feel sure they will have gained immense pleasure and pride in their success:

AIM Company of the Year 2002 (It‘s still only April remember) – Specialist cleaner and facilities manager, MacLennan. As I reported a couple of weeks ago, the company turned a £2.92m loss in 2000 into a profit of just over £2m last year.

AIM adviser of the Year 2002 – Collins Stewart.
AIM Broker of the Year 2002 – Collins Stewart.
AIM Lawyer of the Year 2002 – Gouldens.
AIM Accountant of the Year 2002 – Joint winners Ernst & Young and PKF.
AIM PR Firm of the Year 2002 – St Brides Media & Finance.
AIM Fund of the Year 2002 – Joint winners Pennine AIM VCT and AIM Trust.
Smaller Companies Fund of the Year 2002 – Close Beacon Investment Trust.
Ofex Company of the Year 2002 – Legends Surf Shops, clothing retailer of goods for extreme sports.
Ofex Financial Adviser of the Year 2002– DWA Capital.
Growth Company Journalist of the Year 2002 – Miles Nolan, Investors Chronicle (my colleagues Cliff Feltham of the Daily Mail and Geoff Foster, Personal Finance Editor of the Mail on Sunday were shortlisted).

If such ceremonies help inspire quality among those involved, then they, too, deserve an award.

Some you may have missed

ENGINEERING group Mayflower, which has former Prime Minister John Major as a non-executive director, is raising nearly £67m in a rights issue of four new shares at 70p for every 11 existing shares. Chief executive John Simpson also admitted the company was open to takeover offers.

FLOOR coverings group Headlam has returned to profits after a year of restructuring. It has reported pre-tax profits of £8.68m for last year compared with losses of £44m in the year 2000.

FRESH from its recent success with Shell, Retail Decisions has now won a new contract to provide payment card fraud protection services to Superdrug, which will be able to process more than 500,000 transactions a month in its 700-plus stores throughout the UK. Retail Decisions processed more than a billion card transactions last year and says it prevented more than 877,000 fraudulent purchases worth more than £76m.

DUE to the vagaries of start and completion dates of building projects, interim profits of Ofex-listed Wren Homes were marginally lower in the six months to end January, at £116,730 compared to £137,190 in the first half of the previous year. However, chairman Peter West says: 'We are currently enjoying strong expansion with brisk activity on 18 sites.' He adds that the rise in activity is expected to lead to an equivalent increase in sales in the second half.

'A YEAR of more than creditable performance,' is how Frank Walker, chairman of AIM-quoted, Channel Island publisher Guiton describes 2001. The group, which includes the Jersey Evening Post and Guernsey Press daily newspapers, reported a 35% leap in sales to £76m and an 8% rise in pre-tax profits, before exceptionals, to £5.3m. The total dividend rises 10% to 7.5p a share. The loss-making commercial printing division was sold in March this year but was responsible for the exceptional costs of £2.1m which reduced pre-tax profit to £3.1m.

INTERCLUBNET, the group that supplies information on football from lowly Sunday leagues to top Premier clubs, has bought the Club Captain software system from MXMG for £41,500 in cash and shares. The system is currently used by several amateur football clubs. The company also has signed an exclusive agreement with BT for interactive voice response services to enable grassroots football results to be entered and retrieved automatically.

AIM-listed mineral exploration company Mano River Resources plans to start production at its King George Larjor gold property in the Liberian Bea Mountains where early studies suggest there is a potential income stream of more than $2.5m a year.

CAPITALTECH, the AIM-listed property investment group, is selling a block of 32 flats in Glasgow for £3.25m in cash.

Some to watch out for

AIM adviser of the year and broker of the year, Collins Stewart, likes the look of Affinity Internet. Analyst Graeme Kemp says the shares are trading at the bottom end of their three-month price range. With sales growth of more than 100% and significantly improved market visibility, the shares offer 'material upside'. He suggests they are a ?buy' with a short-term price target of 350p against the current 227p.

INTERNET-based research group Money Guru believes the sales and earnings growth reported by Clinton Cards this week, has finally convinced investors of its growth potential. Although the share price has risen strongly since the original ?buy‘ recommendation, analyst Paul Bethell reiterates the message and sets a price target of 219p against the current 190p.

MARTIN Cross, banking analyst at broker Teather & Greenwood, recommends taking profits in Alliance & Leicester and/or Northern Rock and reinvesting in Kensington, a specialist lender. The shares of Kensington are half the price of both mortgage banks and its growth prospects are better than A&L‘s, he adds. 'Moreover,' says Cross, ' Kensington is just as likely to receive a takeover bid.' He puts them in as a ?strong buy.‘

PETER Joseph, analyst at Peel Hunt, likes the look of clubs group Esporta. He says he continues to believe the shares are potentially worth 100p (against the current 65.5p). Esporta has issued a trading statement indicating that good progress is being made under the guidance of the new chief executive, Maurice Kelly, but that as no acceptable offers have been made for the company it will remain independent for the time being.