Smaller companies spotlight

EACH week, former Fleet Street City Editor

Creditable performer
THOSE people viewed as poor credit risks by most lenders are, in fact, probably no worse than others – but they have to pay up to three times as much for a loan to buy a car or something worthwhile for their home.

This is one of the reasons that both brokers Seymour Pierce and research group SQC Research like Private & Commercial Finance Group. This week, they reported an 85% surge in pre-tax profits to £1,132,000.

Private & Commercial targets these people and, by weeding out the real risk potential – those who are living up to the limit of their credit cards – has built an operation which has increased profits five-fold in the past three years.

The company‘s motor finance division saw volumes rise by 94% during the past year and, according to chief executive Tony Nelson, around a third of all borrowers were paying the top rate of around 30% for their loans.

These are all people who have problems borrowing, sometimes because of past experience, but often due to other factors such as redundancy, marital breakdown and situations that have left the borrowers looking vulnerable.

Mainstream lenders will not touch them. Private & Commercial give them a lifeline and find they present no more problems than other 'good risks' who can borrow at 10% – 11%. The group also offers business finance for the purchase of plant, equipment and vehicles, and that division, too, had a successful year.

As well as Seymour Pierce, which has put a target price of £1 on the shares (currently 71p), and SQC Research, which believes profits will double in the next couple of years, the company is supported by some powerful shareholders, not least entrepreneur Nigel Wray who has recently increased his stake in the company from 5.4% to 5.97%.

Lap it up
THE spooks at MI5 who seem to have trouble hanging on to their laptops might soon be able to leave them in taxis, bars or on railways trains without any fear of the information falling into the hands of foreign governments.

PC-OP.com, the Ofex-listed e-security services provider, is to launch a prototype attachment that will be applicable to all laptops and allows all the data to be downloaded via the internet to a secure storage area and retrieved when needed using a code and password.

According to Dr Rick Smith, chairman and chief executive of PC-OP, the product will be on sale before the end of the year, probably following a major launch at a world computer exhibition.

'There are some 50m laptops in operation,' says Dr Smith. Diplomatically, he did not mention MI5. Potential customers include accountants and solicitors who could move from meeting to meeting, downloading information as they go and recovering it when they return to their offices.

The business already acts as an off-site secure storage provider for data downloaded from the internet. Their reputation is such that, since 11 September, there has been a 1000-fold increase in visits to its website, www.beitsecure.com

PC-OP has just bought Globe Microsystems, a value-added reseller of computer and networking equipment. It boasts some powerful, blue-chip clients, including the Crown Agents, the Home Office and several health authorities.

In a month or so the group is moving from Ofex to AIM, and through Corporate Synergy is raising £3m for new product development. It is also negotiating the takeover of a US company that manufactures back-up and data-storage software.

Rich seam
MINING is an industry that has had some problems in the past raising capital to provide the picks and shovels so essential in digging deep holes. No longer, however, because the world is beating a path to the door of our Alternative Investment Market.

There are some 30 mining companies traded on AIM, of which more than half are international. According to Brian Moritz, chairman of accountant Grant Thornton's Capital Markets practice: 'In the mining sector in particular, the success of AIM is known throughout the world, and it is attracting more and more quality foreign companies.'

Some you might have missed
SECTORGUARD, a company which supplies security officers for buildings, mobile patrols and keyholding and alarm response facilities, has come to AIM through the placing of 29m shares at 3p each and the issue of one warrant for every five ordinary shares.

FORMER songstress Patti Boulaye has sung a lot happier words than those she produced last week on behalf of e-maleorder.com, the gay website of which she is chairwoman. With sales of £13,944 the group produced losses of £1.8m. 'This has been a challenging year for e-maleorder.com,' she said, which was something of an understatement.

But in true showbiz style, she left the audience smiling with the phrase: 'I believe we have great things to look forward to.'

AIM-listed residential property developer Propan Homes is buying Sitemaster, which owns properties in London, Lincolnshire, the Isle of Wight and Kent. The price paid is £1,075,000 payable in shares.

HARTEST Holdings has bought the instrumentation business of HW Wallace & Co for a total cash consideration of £113,000.

MUSIC Choice Europe has reported on its trading for 2001. Turnover was up 53% to £8m and losses rose £2.1m to £13m. The company still had nearly £30m cash at the year end and shareholders will be relieved to hear chairman Mike Thomas say: 'Our focus is now on increasing availability, generating new revenues and making good progress towards a profitable business.'

SIGNIFICANT progress was made at Retail Decisions, the payment card fraud prevention group, in 2001, says chief executive Charles Clump, on the back of a 25% rise in turnover to £22.2m and a doubling of operating profit to £2.4m.

Some to look out for
'DO not be short of Radio First', says SQC Research. The AIM-quoted group, which has joint radio ventures with major football clubs including Chelsea, Southampton, Derby County and Aston Villa, now expects another four or perhaps five clubs to sign up.

The shares, at 15p each 'are 45% below net asset value and take no account of its potential' says the research, indicating a bid may well take the company out before too long.

FROM the same SQC Research stable, comes a strong recommendation for Bond International Software, a group that targets the recruitment sector. 'We really rate this company and its potential and consider its shares are significantly undervalued'(70p) says the buy note.

ADRIAN Murray, analyst at brokers Teather & Greenwood, has upgraded his recommendation for Belgravium Technologies, from 'buy' to 'strong buy.' The company, which develops and installs systems used for data collection in warehouses, is soon to launch a new product and is expanding into the European market.

Mr Murray also likes Chemring Group, believing the shares are a 'buy', offering the potential for outperformance.

ANALYST Richard Ratner, at brokers Seymour Pierce, is a generous chap. He gives retailers Homestyle Group a 'buy' recommendation despite a second downgrade in profit expectations. 'While a second downgrade is not good news,' he says 'the cash situation is unchanged and most of the 'bears' in Homestyle focused on this issue. Although credibility has been dented, at current levels (317 1/2p) the shares are cheap.'