Billington Holdings (LON:BILN) – New Price Objective Of 610p I have said this so many times before – this company is a ‘class act’ and its shares are cheap. It is one of the UK’s leading structural steel and construction safety solutions specialists. The group is focused on structural steel and engineering activities throughout both the UK and the European markets. In mid-November last year, it advised the market that it expected revenue and pre-tax profits would be ahead of market estimates. In late March this year, the company reported that it had recently been awarded six new contracts wort ..read more

It has been an interesting start to the year with the macro-economic data driving sentiment one way then another. This has created a challenging environment for investment trusts with many big winners and losers. When there is so much uncertainty about which way things will go it can create some decent opportunities, so it is worth looking back at what has happened and why. If you do that then the recent performance can provide a useful guide as to what might happen in the months ahead. The year started on a positive note, but hopes of multiple rate cuts in the US and the UK faded quite early ..read more

Africa always amazes. For instance, the BBC report that The Nigerian minister for alleviation of poverty, one Betta Edu, has helped herself to c. USD24m of funds (straight into her personal bank account). The full title of this ministry is The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Alleviation of Poverty. I suppose Ms Edu reckons that charity begins at home and since she felt poor helped herself. It is logical enough. Although quite why the British government continues to pay subsidies of one sort or another direct to Nigeria under the overseas aid programme I have no idea. ***** Markets seem to ..read more

Does it have to take a former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, to tell us that the Governor and his colleagues have been unable to properly predict the ensuing economic shocks after Russia invaded Ukraine? He called the BoE’s main economic model as being no longer fit for purpose.  Andrew John Bailey, aged 65, has been the Governor of the Bank of England since 16 March 2020, he is employed on at least £11,500 a week plus perks.  Refusing to apologise for the lack of more accurate economic analyses, Bailey’s response was effectively, like others in public offices – le ..read more

There is, it is said, lots of oil around but much is far from politically safe and therefore Chariot (CHAR) off the coast of Morocco is not as attractive as Pantheon (PANR) which clearly has a massive oily acreage in Alaska. But these things take time to be proved up and, although the management of PANR is regarded as well up to speed, the expected eventual bid (at comfortably above 100p) will not appear, it is said, before 2025. I sold 250,000 at 36.2p and regret this. But cash is needed for domestic matters and CHAR which I pocketed at 9.3p. Cavendish (part developed from Cenkos) are still b ..read more

The US economy appears to be in very good shape and is likely to remain so for the rest of the year. If that’s good news overall, it’s also a thorn in the side of investors who are reaping the benefits of interest rate cuts. Driven by the euphoria around AI, growth stocks have dominated the investment landscape for many months. However, sentiment about the future path of interest rates is changing, derailing the enthusiasm around the growth theme. In my view, the potential for further deterioration is high and I suspect that the hype around AI and megacap growth may be coming to an end. Howeve ..read more

Porvair (LON:PRV) – Shares Regaining Confidence Two months ago this group announced its results for the year to end November 2023, showing a 2% increase in sales to £176.0m while its adjusted pre-tax profits were 10% higher at £21.4m, lifting its earnings up 8% at 37.2p and its dividend to 6.0p per share. Since that announcement the group’s shares have been down to 610p, a fortnight ago, from the 674p at which they peaked upon the figures. Porvair is a group of specialist filtration, laboratory and environmental technology businesses.  The first half of the current year is expected to end ..read more

There is a general consensus that the UK stock market is cheap, especially when compared to the US. This is particularly the case when you look at a value-oriented portfolio like Temple Bar (LON: TMPL) that is trading on just eight times historic earnings, versus the twenty times multiple of the S&P 500. Obviously the earnings growth of the latter has far outstripped the former and may continue to do so, but it wouldn’t take much for the UK to generate a decent return. For example, if the Temple Bar portfolio was re-rated to a conservative ten times multiple it would imply a 25% gain. Such ..read more

Anguish In Wiltshire Let’s save the planet by destroying our green and pleasant land and worsening our already lamentable food insecurity. As John McEnroe used to say in the heyday of Wimbledon in the 1970s: You cannot be serious! A solar array covering 2,118 acres (that’s 857 hectares or three and a half square miles) of the glorious North Wiltshire countryside, rich in wildlife, is to be erected on prime agricultural land. Unless it can be stopped by local opposition, the proposed Lime Down Solar Park (park?) will wound the landscape in a triangle between the market towns of Malmesbury, Tetb ..read more

Time Finance (LON:TIME) –Boost To Facility Will Power Further Growth Don’t underestimate this little specialist finance provider, in my view it is destined to grow and very profitably too. Yesterday it announced that it had signed off an extended and improved £64m Funding Facility with The British Business Bank. That line, which is up from the previous £35m facility, boosts the group’s total funding facility availability to over £200m. Time Finance is an independent AIM listed finance company, specialising in lending to small UK businesses through a variety of Asset Finance, Invoice ..read more