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Sales growth of 12.7 per cent from a UK-focused consumer group sounds impressive, even when the comparison is a 53-week trading period in 2012 juxtaposed with 52 weeks in 2011. Indeed, the group that reported that number, Domino's Pizza (DOM) is impressive, but it may no longer be as good as its share rating suggests. Its growth rates are slowing (see table), but its share rating has not cottoned on. That's illustrated in the chart. The shares' price-earnings ratio has stayed high, while earnings growth has tailed off, leaving its so-called PEG factor (PE ratio divided by growth rate) looking worryingly high.

Hangar 8's share price has doubled since August, yet earnings upgrades put them on a forward PE ratio of less than 10. Broker Seymour Pierce thinks the share price should be 240p, but we believe it could easily go higher when it's clear that lots more revenue is being thrust through that fixed-cost base.

A growing fleet of long-range jets - the type owned by heads of state and the super rich - will also help. With New York in range, they're in the air and generating cash for longer than smaller planes, yet similar fixed costs mean profits are far higher. That's why buying rival International Jet Club (IJC) in November for just over £2m looks a good move. Farnborough-based IJC's 10 heavy jets take Hangar's total to 22, or 44 per cent of the fleet. Given the highly fragmented nature of the industry and Mr Dryden's ambition to double the size of the business "as fast as possible", more acquisitions are guaranteed. That could be a worry since acquisition-driven companies often dilute the quality of their business in the medium term. That said, money won't be a problem. A £4.2m share placing at 170p to pay for IJC was oversubscribed by institutional investors. The placing should improve dealing liquidity.

Given most of Hangar 8's costs are fixed, operational gearing is significant. It has already passed critical mass - 16-18 planes, according to chief executive and co-founder Dustin Dryden - above which extra revenue is highly profitable. Scale, then, is critical; and, with 50 jets and helicopters on its books, the money is rolling in. Underlying pre-tax profit hit £1m in 2011-12 and will double this year, according to broker Seymour Pierce. It looks feasible, too. Hangar 8 is tying more clients to contracts of between one and five years, with obligations to buy a minimum number of flying hours a month. That means assured revenues. Indeed, contracted revenue tripled to £10.8m, or 68 per cent of the total, in 2011-12 and first-quarter cash profits for 2012-13 quadrupled to £461,000, prompting City analysts to raise their forecasts (see table).

Looking after expensive private jets is technically demanding and time-consuming. That's why film stars, rock musicians, football teams and oil executives let Hangar 8 (HGR8) do it for them. It's a lucrative business and the Oxford-based company is growing fast, but the shares still look exciting for risk-tolerant investors. First, note that Aim-traded Hangar 8 is an asset manager. It doesn't own the jets, so there's no risk of high capital investment or depreciation. Charging owners a management fee of between £10,000 and £20,000 a month, and taking a cut if the planes are chartered by film stars and football teams is where the money is made. Most direct costs - crew, maintenance, jet fuel, landing and handing charges - are passed onto the owners, too. But they're happy with that because Hangar's service comes with tax and cost benefits of approaching £0.5m a year that they would not get for themselves.

True, there's no certainty a formal bid will materialise, but we think there's a good chance of one, as indicated by the bid-scenarios table, where the probability factors are entirely our own estimates. Stripping out Afferro's $90m cash, worth about 50p a share fully diluted, a low-ball bid of around 70p a share from another suitor would value Afferro's significant iron ore assets at just £30m - peanuts for a new deposit comparable in size and grade to several iron ore mines operating in the region. We'll make that our downside marker, which would be a loss of about 9 per cent. But if - big if - a 140p bid materialises, shareholders really will be laughing. As it is, buying Affero's shares looks worth the gamble

In addition, Afferro appointed the vice-chairman of IMIC's strategic infrastructure partner, African Iron Ore Group (AIOG), to its board earlier this year in order to encourage "co-operation between the parties". AIOG is privately run by Ethelbert Cooper, the well-connected founder of Afren (AFR), a FTSE 250-listed pan-African oil and gas company with a market capitalisation of £1.5bn. True, IMIC only had around £9m in cash at the end of November. But the infrastructure development group has other heavy hitters behind it, besides Chinese business. IMIC raised $50m (£31m) in an unsecured bond offering in October to unnamed investors, some of whom were likely to be a group of high net worth individuals who picked up 25 per cent of IMIC's shares in earlier private placements and hold their interest in a nominee account with Banque Benedict Hentsch, a private bank in Geneva.

IMIC's board and its advisers have wealthy and influential connections - Andrew Buxton, former chairman of Barclays Bank, chairs IMIC's advisory board, for example. More important, IMIC has a deal with a leading Chinese state-backed rail company to provide it with investment capital. In July, IMIC said that China Railway Materials Company (CRM) had agreed to "become a strategic investor in IMIC, at an appropriate time in the near term, when the parties decide on their first specific project investment opportunity". CRM will also "intermediate with potential Chinese investors to secure and maintain a significant Chinese participation in IMIC, and will interface with the Chinese authorities if and when applicable approvals of the Chinese government are required".

Afferro Mining (AFF) has been locked in takeover talks with multiple suitors for weeks, but the iron ore miner has yet to receive a formal bid. Media reports suggest that Indian steel producer Jindal Steel & Power is in the mix along with at least one other bidder. Now a little-known, Aim-quoted investment company has entered the mix, perhaps significantly. International Mining & Infrastructure Corp (IMIC) says it "has made an approach to Afferro regarding a possible offer" of between 115p and 140p per share for the company and its huge iron ore exploration assets in Cameroon. That values Afferro at between £129m and £157m. The offer would comprise an undisclosed mix of cash and shares. However, the £17m investment company wasn’t able to enter talks with Afferro until 13 January, when an exclusivity agreement with another party ended. Despite IMIC's declaration of intent, Afferro's shares are trading well below even the minimum proposed bid, suggesting the market doesn't believe IMIC has the muscle to do a deal. Analysts from broker SP Angel are sceptical because IMIC "does not have a meaningful asset base". Nevertheless, we think IMIC can raise the required funds and make a formal bid,

Clinigen's shares trade on 15 times current year forecasts from broker Numis. That puts them towards the top-end of valuations for healthcare companies in the UK. Investors may also be wary of Clinigen's reliance on just two customers for a large proportion of sales, though Novartis and Celgene are expected to sign up this year. Given that its services business is forecast to grow by 17 per a year over the next three years, they can probably live with those risks; especially as Clinigen has few tough competitors and has shown what it can do on its products side with Foscavir.

Clinigen's rapid growth coincides with the prevailing trend for pharma companies to outsource more functions. Independent forecasters reckon that supplying drugs for trials in Europe and the US alone is worth £600m-£800m a year. And Clinigen estimates that the global market is worth about $2bn (£1.2bn). Regulators also help by prolonging the duration of trials, especially by insisting that new drugs must show tangible benefits over existing therapies. That means more trials using so-called comparator medicines. The most profitable part of Clinigen is its products business, which generates about 25 per cent of sales but more than 60 per cent of gross profits. The division looks to buy-in profitable drugs that have been deemed surplus to the requirements of big pharma companies. It has achieved notable success with AstraZeneca's HIV product, Foscavir. Clinigen's boffins added an indication to Foscavir for bone-marrow patients; its marketeers did a better job and sales more than quadrupled to £21.7m in response. Overall, Clinigen reckons it can generate a return on acquired medicines within two years.

That makes it highly unusual as its nearest competitors are low-margin, capital-intensive wholesalers. Clinigen has found favour with pharma companies because wholesalers have a patchy record of preventing drugs for clinical trials from creeping onto the 'grey market' of parallel imports, where medicines are bought in cheap markets, repackaged and sold in higher-value countries. In Clinigen's case, excess drugs are destroyed and the company has no financial interest in finding a further buyer as it has already earned a fee from sourcing them.

Clinigen (CLIN) is that rare beast - a company whose share price performed well after flotation (for 164p in September). That made it the first successful healthcare flotation in the past five years. Now that the share price has settled, it is time to assess Clinigen's prospects in its niche area of global pharmaceuticals services. They look good. The company has grown quickly since its formation in 2010 and, while sales growth won't maintain the pace set in 2011 and 2012 (see table), lively organic growth should ensure that Clinigen's shares are good value for investors who want to diversify away from tired pharmaceuticals majors. Clinigen is an unusual company that specialises in supplying the drugs that big pharamceutical companies use in clinical trials. In addition, it takes on medicines that big pharma deems surplus to requirements and gives them a new lease of life.

As we head into the latest trading announcement from SABMiller (SAB), it is worth remembering that the brewing giant reported a mixed picture at the end of November, with a slowdown in some of its key markets. Although the impact of the update was somewhat mitigated by a dividend hike, this still leaves the possibility that certain geographies could weigh on the fundamental performance, with no prizes for guessing the Eurozone is currently the main culprit. Nevertheless, any signs of stabilisation in this region could improve SABMiller’s standing with investors, even though the shares are already pushing well into record 52-week high territory.

Although we are in a period of the economic cycle where cyclical groups like household products group Unilever (ULVR) are popular with investors, the broking community has yet to reach a consensus on how well current conditions suit profits generation. At least going into the end of December, broker Credit Suisse upgraded the blue-chip giant on the basis of revenue prospects, hiking it from underperform to neutral. Unilever’s promise to double its sales, without delivering a timeframe on such a call was enough for the broker to publish an upgrade, and certainly the share price has progressed since then.

there was rather better than expected newsflow from luxury goods group Burberry (BRBY). Any doubts over a possible slowdown in China and a consequential profits hit were quickly dispelled as the shares soared after the group reported a bumper Christmas sales period.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/tep-exchange-group-plc-(tex)/prn/parent-companys-interim-financial-statements/20130118070000PA31D/

http://www.investegate.co.uk/oracle-coalfields-(orcp)/rns/placing--elf-drawdown/201301180700068397V/

catch you all again ........ive used my alloted time off the wife lol.......

No what you meen ive missed out on a couple last year.......such is life mate.......you keeping ok....