Roadside Real Share Price (ROAD)

Roadside Real Estate continues to execute on its growth strategy with the acquisition of a high-performing petrol filling station in Huntley, Gloucestershire.

Another strategic addition to the #ROAD portfolio…

londonstockexchange.com/news-article/R…

This company caught my eye today but it is in an early entrepreneurial build phase and it's difficult at this stage to estimate proforma profits and assets. Help would be appreciated. So far the company looks to have put together a portfolio of about 25 or so premium forecourt sites in various locations including Cumbria, Cheltenham, Coventry etc., with more to come. There are many companies operating in this space and I quickly found by googling that the industry has its own trade press. Here is a list of independent forecourt operators

https://irp.cdn-website.com/28332d9c/files/uploaded/FCT%20Top%2050%202022%20Brochure.pdf

I found this very interesting and presumably CEO Dickson is on top of all this. Some of the companies will never be for sale; some will be predators like ROAD is hoping to become (has become?); some are just looking to expand organically; and some are actively canvassing for franchisees so they can expand in that way.

The desirable ones are not just filling stations any more - it's the convenience store on the site that is the honeypot. Do I detect that there has been a sea change in how these places operate? Town centre convenience stores must be under pressure from all the driving and parking restrictions that councils are creating everywhere, not to mention walk in shop theft, so in the real world where people do drive their cars, these out-of-town forecourt sites must be becoming the convenience stores of choice for many. And even the sale of fuel is not as competitive as it used to be a decade or so ago. Anyone remember SAVE?

I think this is probably the vision that Dickson has and hopes to pursue in order to carve out a substantial niche in this market.

The next question is what sort of multiple of profits this should trade on? And not just EBITDA but real bottom line profit. ROAD are not buying these assets cheaply. Hoch is being bought at twice tangible asset value and on a multiple of about 15 times profits. That's pretty high for an established private business being bought by a quoted company.

I think I am going to follow this for a bit before taking a position. I'd like to see a pro forma financial summary of what they have bought and are buying a and a clear statement of the debt position. Gearing is fine but not over-gearing. The current market cap with shares at 60p is £106m and I think that's pretty full for the moment. I do agree the future has potential and could be exciting. I'd welcome comments from anyone who has done more research, hopefully with a solid base and not just wishful thinking for an ever-rising share price.

🚨 THIS ISN’T JUST SKIN IN THE GAME… THIS IS OWNERSHIP 👀

@ROAD_RealEstate CEO Charles Dickson just bought:

💰 1,150,000 #ROAD shares @ 61p

And now… look at this 👇

📊 Direct holding: 23.3% (41.4m shares)

➕ Via Tarncourt: 6.1% (10.8m shares)

🧮 Total control: 53.3% of the company 🤯

Let that sink in…

➡️ Majority control

➡️ Personal capital on the line

➡️ Fully aligned with shareholders

This isn’t a token buy…

This is conviction at scale.

When the CEO owns over HALF the business…

you know exactly where incentives sit 👀

Real ownership. Real alignment.

londonstockexchange.com/news-article/R…

So where's the ten top tips?|

10 Companies to follow in 2026

2025 was the year AIM showed its resilience, rising nearly 10pc after enduring years of higher interest rates in the wake of the pandemic and continued economic and geopolitical uncertainty.

It’s been the market’s best year for fundraising since the boom year of 2021: by the end of August AIM-listed companies had raised £2.1bn from IPOs and secondary fundraisings (shares sold by current shareholders rather than issued by the company itself), more than double the £889m raised in the previous 12 months.

AIM has continued to dominate Europe’s growth markets, accounting for 53pc of all capital raised across European small cap indices over the past five years: more money than its five nearest European rivals combined. IPOs on London’s junior market rebounded through the 2024/25 financial year, 16 companies listing so far against just nine last year. The average amount of new money raised per IPO was £9.9m, up from the low of £6.8m recorded in 2022/23.

And there are good grounds for believing the revival will gather pace in 2026. The brutal shakeout over the last few years has left a core of higher quality, better capitalised companies better able to inspire investor confidence. As a junior market AIM is particularly well positioned to benefit from the prospect of lower interest rates that will ease the debt burden of smaller companies. And it is a particular focus of ongoing efforts by policy makers (across all major parties) and regulators to improve the competitiveness of London’s markets and direct more investment into UK assets.

In his annual review of the small cap sector Investors’ Chronicle associate editor Simon Thompson notes that UK equities continue to be undervalued relative to US shares, particularly AIM-listed tech. Plenty of opportunities exist for canny stockpickers amid the many small caps with low earnings multiples.

The prospect of lower interest rates and – in due course – market reform augur well for AIM’s continued recovery in 2026. And though investors rightly look to the junior market for short-term gains they should not lose sight of one of the most well observed market patterns, frequently highlighted by TMS: the tendency of small caps to outperform their larger counterparts over time. The pattern has asserted itself in recent history, small and mid-sized companies generating a return premium over their larger peers of 6pc between 2009 and 2021. AIM was designed precisely to provide a framework for small cap growth over extended periods.

For investors willing to do their homework, manage risk, spread their money over different sectors, and hold on to promising shares through tough times, AIM offers as many opportunities as it ever has.

Here, we look at 10 Companies from a variety of sectors that have performed in 2025 or which may be positioned for a better year ahead. Also look out for our roundup of new year selections for Oil & Gas plus mining st