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Innovation Group Buy 04-Sep-12 £50,375.00 David Thorpe 250,000 @ 20.15p

The wife of Admiral’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) bought a staggering amount of shares in the car insurance giant on Tuesday, worth nearly 1.6m pounds. Diane Briere de l'Isle, the partner of CEO Henry Engelhardt, snapped up 144,348 shares in Admiral at average price of 1,107p - this cost her a total of £1,597,932. Following this transaction, ‘Henry Engelhardt and Family’ holdings now total 37,957,913 ordinary shares in the insurer, equal to just under 14% of the entire issued share capital.

Valuation: Still conceptual As yet, the company is difficult to value – we will have to wait for an announcement of an LNG project in due course to make tangible estimates. However, we note that the strategy of leveraging its regional connections to better supply West Africa with gas is sound and should lead to value creation in the long term. We look forward to potential deals with interest.

http://www.edisoninvestmentresearch.co.uk/researchreports/GasolUpdate050912.pdf

WH Ireland kept its "buy" stance for Pennant International (PEN) with an increased target price of 59p, from 43p. The broker was impressed by the 20% increase to the training simulator developer's interim dividend, to 0.6p per share, noting that a similar increase to the full year dividend would give a yield of 5.5%. WH Ireland noted that the group secured a number of large contracts during the period and added that it has submitted a proposal for a five year training equipment and services contract in Australia, in conjunction with BAE systems (BA.).

Seymour Pierce reiterated its "buy" recommendation for Belvoir Lettings (BLV) with a 91p target price. The letting agency will issue its interim results on Wednesday, the first since listing on AIM in February 2012, and the broker expects the firm to have benefited from a growing rental market, as would be buyers struggle to accumulate sufficient funds for a deposit. While Seymour Pierce noted that rental prices fell from October 2011 to March 2012, it said that they have recovered sharply, with July 2012 rates averaging 725 pounds per month, compared to October levels of 720 pounds.

Singer Capital maintained its "buy" rating for Vectura Group (VEC) with a target price of 120p. The broker pointed to positive results from Phase III trials of the pharmaceutical company's QVA149 and Seebri Breezhaler treatments. The results showed that QVA149 was more effective at treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease than GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) current standard drug Seretide. Singer added that Glaxo's new treatment Revalar has failed to demonstrate similar efficacy.

RBC Capital Markets upgrades to outperform, target lifted from 200p to 300p.

UBS lifts target from 585p to 650p, buy rating kept.

Oriel Securities upgrades to buy; BarCap upgrades to overweight, target lifted rom 1,800p to 2,400p.

Strategy: When Belvoir Lettings PLC floated in February of this year, we announced a number of key targets and projects. We shared our business plans with our new investors, the franchise network and of course our internal team, who we knew would be critical to the success and achievement of this plan. Our strategic focus for 2012 and beyond in abbreviated terms is as follows: • Open 15 new franchised outlets in areas where we do not currently have a Belvoir Office. • Increase the number of company owned outlets by two additional outlets in 2012 and two more each year for the next three years. • Maintain our existing strong underlying growth in turnover from franchised outlets. • Assist franchise owners acquire 12 - 15 competing letting agencies and help integrate these businesses into existing Belvoir offices, thus substantially increasing turnover and profits for the franchise owners concerned and Belvoir Lettings PLC.

Commenting on the results and the outlook, Dorian Gonsalves, Chief Executive Officer of Belvoir Lettings, said: "Belvoir delivered a strong financial performance for the six month period to June 2012. All targets set were either achieved or exceeded in line with our forecasts. During the period we grew the franchise business from 142 to 144 franchise outlets and we anticipate the number of Belvoir offices to reach 150 by the end of 2012." "Belvoir's debut on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in February this year will enable us to continue to expand the brand's national reach and strong market presence in the UK residential lettings market which is continuing to grow and remains strong. We remain committed to providing a professional and personal service designed to exceed the expectations of landlords and tenants." "Looking ahead we have a strong pipeline for the remainder of 2012 and we expect to meet our expectations. The business continues to grow and increase its market share in a growth market and we are specifically looking to target the South East and London markets, which hold huge potential for Belvoir."

Interim Results for the six months ended 30 June 2012 Belvoir Lettings PLC (AIM: BLV), one of the UK's largest lettings franchises which recently listed on AIM, is pleased to announce its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2012. The interim accounts are prepared using merger accounting principles. To ensure consistency of accounting treatment, the comparative figures include the results of the previous group holding company. As part of Belvoir's IPO process, the Belvoir group underwent a reconstruction whereby Belvoir, a newly incorporated entity, became the new group holding company with effect from 16 February 2012. Kilima Holdings Limited ("Kilima") was the relevant holding company for Belvoir Property Management (UK) Limited prior to reorganisation ahead of the Company's IPO. As part of the IPO group reconstruction process, Kilima underwent a solvent liquidation and has therefore ceased trading. Highlights · Successful IPO on AIM on 19 February 2012 raising £6.2m net of expenses · All 2012 performance targets to date were either met or exceeded · 144 franchise outlets at 30 June 2012 with 4 further outlets attending induction training in August 2012 (At 31 December 2011 - 142) · 5 significant acquisitions completed by Belvoir franchisees since IPO · Revenue of £1.83m, an increase of 16.7% on the same six month period in 2011 · Excluding an exceptional charge relating to the costs of the Group's Admission to AIM, operating profit as a percentage of turnover was 48% · Rental market continued to grow with an estimated 3 million private rented properties in England, representing 14% of all households · Some 60% of private rental properties are believed to be owned by landlords who use lettings agents. Management expect this percentage to grow further · Maiden interim dividend of 2.9 pence per share (H1 2011: nil)

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201209050700044953L

Julian Baines, CEO of EKF commented: "Whilst we expect strong revenue performance in the second half through the growing contribution of HemoPoint H2 sales through Alere and Quo-Lab sales in emerging markets we expect that full year revenues will be slightly below market expectations. However following our conscious decision to focus on higher margin products, this has been more than compensated by a stronger earnings performance in the first half, above market expectations, and this gives us confidence that we will at least meet or exceed current earnings expectations for the full year."

Trading Update EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc (AIM: EKF), a worldwide manufacturer of point of care in-vitro diagnostic devices, provides the following trading update for the six months ended 30 June 2012. Adjusted EBITDA for the period is expected to be well ahead of market expectations, due to the Company's decision to increase its sales focus on its higher margin products, in particular Beta-Hydroxybutyrate (BHB) liquid reagents and the Board is confident that the Company is on track to meet or exceed current earnings expectations for the full year. Cash at 30 June 2012 was £3.2 million, with a net cash position of around £0.6 million. Unaudited revenues for the period are expected to be approximately £12.65m. Whilst a little lower than market estimates for the first half, this is due to a combination of a conscious decision to delay the launch of Quo-Lab, a low cost HbA1c analyser for developing markets, as well as a delay in the launch of HemoPoint H2 instruments and cuvettes through Alere in the US. Both of these products are now launched and with strong initial sales we are confident that second half revenues will be significantly higher than H1. Even though the HemoPoint H2 was only officially launched by Alere in the North American market in mid April they have already ordered in excess of the guaranteed first year minimum of 1,400 analysers in the last 4 months alone. In addition to this Quo-Lab was launched later than expected in early July and we have already sold over 290 units with c. 70,000 accompanying tests ordered for these units demonstrating the opportunity for this product in emerging markets and the strong consumable pull-through associated with it.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201209050700044935L

In the Telegraph, the Questor column likes veterinary pharma company Dechra, which yesterday announced the ninth successive year of double-digit profit growth. It’s always provided drugs for “companion” animals like cats and dogs but a recent Dutch acquisition now sees it in the agricultural space as well as developing a drug with a US firm to treat “dry eye” in dogs. Trading at around 12 times this year’s earnings, Questors says hold.

Tempus also notes the impressive fortunes of construction equipment rental firm Ashtead. It moved into the US market in 2006, just before all hell broke loose during the financial crisis. But the US division (SunBelt) is raking in revenues at an extraordinary rate (17% up in the first quarter) because US builders don’t want to buy their own equipment with the market in such dire shape. Analysts are now busy lifting full-year targets and the group has even begun paying an interim dividend. Trading at 14 times earnings Tempus says buy.

In The Times, the Tempus column kicks off with animal semen producer Genus, which dropped yesterday as investors worried about the price of feedstocks like corn in the agricultural sector. But Genus has been a major success story, providing the gene pool to increase yields for pig and cow farmers across the globe. Its recent moves into China also bodes well. Tempus believes, at 24 times earnings, there is a case to take profits on the stock and sell.