Firstly, here's the link to last year's comments:-
Ok it's the end of the third year. Below is a very brief update on the five companies in question. Needless to say in the current environment the share prices of all the companies in question have not faired particularly well, although it's more of a mixed bag in terms of yearly performance. I'm really not concerned with the prospects of any of these 5 companies going forward. If anything they're much better placed than 3 years ago when I first mentioned them. With the long term in mind, prospects look promising. Anyway here goes:-
1) IXICO current share price 19p (down 72.5%)
Judging by the collapsing share price over the past three years, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Ixico was ready for the knackers yard. It's down 72.5% over three years and 51% in the past year. However, they issued a trading update today which says that
" FY23 earnings performance is anticipated to be in line or slightly ahead of market expectations despite a small shortfall in revenues caused by delays in the timing of new client trial initiations."
Whilst performance in 2024 will be similar to this year, they expect to see double digit growth return in 2025 and beyond. My comments from last year still apply here, and whilst the wait for the more lucrative phase 2 and phase 3 trials has been longer than anticipated, if/when these awards materialise then the step change in revs and profitability will be very significant. The current market cap. is around £9m but they have cash of over £4m and no debt. Cash burn for 2023 was circa £1m which should reduce this year. There may even be news of significant contracts during 2024 which will benefit 2025 and beyond. Their current order book is healthy at £14.5m.
2) CRIMSON TIDE current share price 1.9p (down 44%)
Current share price is about the same as last year albeit slightly up. Their interim report was published this week. Revs were up 31%, ARR was up 35%, gross margins are 84% and they moved back to a small EBITDA profit. Revs are expected to be 20% ahead at the year end. They're expanding in the US. They've encountered a couple of minor blips this year (imo) but growth remains strong and the future still looks very encouraging. As mentioned last year, moving forward additional revs should pretty much start to drop straight to the bottom line.
3) BIOME TECHNOLOGIES current share price 150p (down 36%)
Stellar 3 fold recovery in the share price from last year's 52.5p. Biome's interims were released this week and are in line with expectations. Both the Bioplastics and RF divisions are making good progress. Bioplastics revs were up 50% at £3.1m with RF up to £0.5m (£0.4m last year). The outlook for both divisions suggests excellent growth prospects. Even after the outperformance of the share price in the past 12 months the market cap. stands at around £5.5m. Not exactly expensive. Indeed it has the potential to really multibag with a medium to long term horizon (imo).
4) SRT Marine Systems current share price 48p (up 13%)
Best performer over 3 years and up 66% since last year. My only comment on this one is that the huge systems contracts are now landing and that the transceivers business is showing excellent growth. Rapid growth has it's own challenges but this company has a wide moat and over time I'm optimistic that they'll steer this company towards very large revs and profits.
5) TRAKM8 current share price 15.5p (down 17%)
Down 14% from last year and priced to fail. Ironically it's better placed than it's been for some years. Trakm8 is currently on target to meet adj. profit expectations of circa £2m. Clearly the market doesn't believe them, valuing the company at less than £8m. Even if the company achieves, let's say £1m adj profit for the full year, it's still cheap (imo).
That completes the round-up for this year. Stay healthy, happy and enjoy your investing.
