magazine archive


magazine archive

Story In Numbers

Debenhams’ alarming rent bill

Thursday 11 Jan 2018

Future aggregate minimum payments under ‘non-cancellable’ operating leases amount to more than £4.5bn at Debenhams ( DEB ) , according to the ailing department store operator’s 2017 annual report and accounts. The fact the hard-pressed British brand is locked into very long-term leases will hinder...

Shares in Luceco nearly halve on valuation mistake

Thursday 21 Dec 2017

Lighting manufacturer Luceco ( LUCE ) slumped by 45% in value on 15 December after a mistake with valuing the company’s products. It downgraded full year post-tax profit guidance by 21% to £13.2m. Gross margins have weakened as a result of the Chinese currency renminbi strengthening against the US...

Science kit micro-cap rises by more than 150% in a day

Thursday 21 Dec 2017

Mass spectrometry instruments minnow Microsaic Systems ( MSYS:AIM ) has finally burst to life, in terms of its share price. Shares in the £5m micro-cap business soared 152% in a single day (the stock was up 363% at one point) after unveiling an extension to a biotechnology research partnership that...

Keywords Studios has made 26 acquisitions in 4.5 years

Thursday 21 Dec 2017

Video game services provider Keywords Studios ( KWS:AIM ) has made an astonishing 26 acquisitions since joining the stock market in July 2013. Last week alone it made two deals worth a combined $28m. The large number of acquisitions is helping Keywords to broaden its skill set and become an...

19th AIM alumni to rise up the ranks and join the FTSE 250

Thursday 14 Dec 2017

Investors in any doubt about AIM’s role as a breeding ground for growth companies might be encouraged by Stevia sweeteners maker PureCircle ( PURE ) which this month joins the FTSE 250 index. The company is the 19th former junior market member to have moved to London’s Main Market and eventually...

Apple’s big boost from Trump tax cut

Thursday 14 Dec 2017

Calculations by tax experts and Financial Times suggests consumer electronics business Apple could see as much as $47bn slashed from its tax liability if planned reforms in the US get through Congress. The scale of the windfall reflects an expected reduction in the tax rate applied to overseas cash...

Herald’s magic milestone

Thursday 14 Dec 2017

Small cap technology fund Herald Investment Trust ( HRI ) has now created more than £1bn for investors since its 1994 launch. As relayed to research house QuotedData, seasoned manager Katie Potts says £98m was raised from investors at launch and in subsequent issues. ‘All of this and more has been...

Live longer, and wealthier

Thursday 07 Dec 2017

Not only will you probably live longer than your parents, but your children and grandchildren will likely live longer lives still. That’s according to data published by the Office for National Statistics. The cold, hard estimates show that the number of Brits reaching the age of 100 has quadrupled...

Halstead hands over the baton

Thursday 07 Dec 2017

70 – Is the number of years Geoffrey Halstead has grafted for family-run commercial flooring company James Halstead ( JHD:AIM ) , including 55 years as a group director and the last 17 years as chairman. At the annual general meeting (1 Dec), Mr. Halstead stood down as chairman, handing over the...

OPEC’s shale conundrum

Thursday 07 Dec 2017

According to the US Energy Information Administration US shale production is set to increase for the 12th consecutive month to 6.17m barrels of oil per day in December as producers respond to a stronger oil price. This underlines the challenge facing producers’ cartel OPEC and fellow oil producing...

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