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Looks like the overhang has cleared! I'll allow myself a small pat on the back for actually having timed my entry point here rather well (hopefully)!

Exscentia was up slightly again last night to $10.93.

The order intake and supply chain problems are unchanged from the results outlook, whereas I'd hoped for signs of an upturn for this H1. At least the "opportunities pipeline" continues to improve, auguring well once these short-term difficulties are out of the way.

There's no point in selling at 120p imo, particularly taking a longer-term view of the prospects here. The £13.8m m/cap is backed by £6.8m net cash (which has risen nicely since the year end), a further £5.1m of PPE and an innovative business which with steadily improving markets (see Quixant) could see much improved trading with time - hopefully in this upcoming H2.

Good to see the rise continuing today - no reason why we shouldn't see new all-time highs here assuming ETP delivers and with 28.8p EPS forecast for the current year.

Particularly with 84% of this year's revenues already secured.

Apparently tipped today by the IC's Simon Thompson in a big Alpha Stock note...excellent.

....and moving up again to 10p bid after just a £5k buy. Hopefully a signal that there's not much stock around.

Intriguing goings-on this morning - 124,000 shares traded already in what's normally an extremely quiet stock.

We're now past the 31st January year end. Last year's update was on 2nd March, but that was the first year end update post-IPO, so maybe ETP will get this year's one out more quickly.

Good to see the bounce continuing - 150,000 shares just bought at 10.14p-10.19p seem to have made the difference.

Cheers PortfolioPower - not much I can dd on OMI though, just a case of patience and waiting for the re-rate!

More investee company news - CAPD have around a $10.9m investment in the privately owned Allied Gold Corp, which was due to IPO back in 2021 before the IPO was pulled for obvious reasons at the time.

This news snippet from a couple of weeks ago sounds encouraging:

Https://www.mining.com/web/mali-industrial-gold-production-rises-4-4-to-66-2-tonnes-in-2022/

"Output has increased due to better performance in existing mines, particularly at Allied Gold Corp’s Sadiola mine, Mamadou Sidibe, head of the mines ministry’s statistics department, told Reuters.

Sadiola produced 6.6 tonnes of gold in 2022 compared with 3.4 tonnes in 2021, he said."

Also, CAPD have a substantial investment in PDI worth around £15m from memory at PDI's current A$0.18 share price. Sprott have just issued a new research note on PDI raising their target price to A$0.55. Which would be nice :o))

Https://sprott.com/media/6139/230206-pdi-scp-mre.pdf

I've built a stake here recently for the first time.

I've met the CEO a couple of times in the past and really liked him - clever, down to earth and obviously knows his stuff as regards this type of investing.

The recent decline strikes me as a good time to get involved. Especially as Exscentia seems to be on a roll again - up 20% last night to $10.80 and then up again in the aftermarket to $11.10.

FIPP have a number of investee companies which look impressive imo and could multibag, but most importantly have been going for a number of years now and are already, or seem to be on the cusp of, gaining substantial commercial traction. So this could be an important inflection point for FIPP.

My buying has been around and just above the mid-price so there evidently is or has been an overhang which buyers might wish to take advantage of.

Singer have reiterated their Buy with a 1.5p target price.

They conclude:

"We believe the shares are substantially undervalued, trading on a Sep. ’23 P/E rating of only 7.8x. We target a 10x P/E multiple, which implies a 1.5p TP. Given the M&A strategy and opportunities to grow LaddersFree ahead of our forecasts, we see scope for the price to exceed this level over time."

Singer's forecast is now 0.148p EPS this year (from 0.153p). Which is the tiniest of adjustments, but unfortunately with the roundings means Singer's forecast on the front page of their note is a hugely rounded down 0.1p compared to a previously hugely rounded up 0.2p!

Glad to see confirmation that trading for 2022 was nicely in line with expectations.

That equates to consensus 18.5p EPS - a historic P/E of just 6.2.

The full results are in line with the numbers from the trading update, so no surprises there.

Good to see there's almost £1m net cash.

Perhaps the key takeaways from today's RNS are:

- the outlook is very positive:

"Momentum from the final few months of the previous year has continued into the new financial year, and despite the usual slow down across the festive period, the first quarter has delivered a record performance for the Group"

- recurring revenues should reach 86% this year, which is extremely encouraging and should bode well for City sentiment as they love to see recurring revenues

- the LaddersFree acquisition has gone well and seems to be delivering nicely

Singer have forecast 0.15p EPS for this year. Assuming no changes today, that's a P/E of only 7.7 (and less if stripping out the £1m net cash).

"I've added what will probably be a final lot of social housing energy services group Sureserve.

I've had these tucked away for some time, and added on weakness.

A very nice report was published, net cash, profits and order books all much higher.

I think it deserves a much higher rating but happy to remain patient. I guess most traders think it's too dull!"

Https://www.nakedtrader.co.uk/

Keith Ashworth-Lord's Sanford Free Spirit fund have just issued their latest monthly update for Feb'23. In it they have this very enocuraging discussion about SDI:

"Top of the leader board was SDI Group (+22.9%), a position we finished building during December. This rose on the back of our investment thesis being featured in the Daily Telegraph’s Questor column.

It was also a company we visited in person during the month, spending the day at recent acquisition LTE Scientific at Greenfield near Oldham. LTE was founded in 1947 and has built a niche in sterilisation and decontamination equipment, making profit before interest and tax of around £400k a year. With a bit of investment, this could improve materially in the years ahead. SDI’s secret sauce is its ability to make value-enhancing acquisitions at sensible prices often below the gaze of private equity. We were eager to learn more about the M&A process from the standpoint of a vendor. The businesses had known each other for a number of years but it wasn’t until last year that the majority shareholder was ready to sell.

As part of the process, LTE had spoken to a number of would-be acquirers (including, in this case, PE) but regarded SDI as the right partner to support the future growth of the business. This preferred buyer advantage is often quoted as an attribute of Berkshire Hathaway’s success in attracting potential acquisitions."

A new summary from Master Investor after the trading update - "massive upside":

Https://masterinvestor.co.uk/equities/small-cap-round-up-digital-developments/?mc_cid=88c8560ed6&mc_eid=db9f9bbaf2

"CentralNic Group (LON:CNIC) – Trading Update As Expected

Showing strong resilient growth was the message from internet services outfit CentralNic Group when, last Monday, it announced its final Trading Update for 2022.

I will refrain for a while on mentioning anything more about more favourite technology sector ‘money machine’ – I don’t want to bore my readers by repeating my massively optimistic opinions about the group.

After the Update those views have gone even stronger.

The shares closed last night at 144p, a price level that investors should consider offers massive upside."

Moving higher again after a 25,000 share buy at 72.5p this morning.

Shore Capital have a 950p target and say Buy, with upgrades likely - RNWH are "anomalously cheap":

Extracts:

"We believe EPS could be ahead of our current number and consensus by a high single-digit percentage.

Renew has consistently had a very high level of visibility with c.70% of current year forecast sales usually in the order book. This has helped thegroup meet or beat consensus profit forecasts in every year since the group came into its current form in 2006."

"We anticipate that the adjusted operating margin will remain at the elevated level of c.6.9% with very low downside risk, given the cost-plus nature of the group’s contracts."

"Valuation and recommendation

We believe Renew presents an attractive opportunity for investors to benefit from the UK government’s commitment to spend £600bn on infrastructure from 2022 to 2027. Given the nature of Renew’s variable, cost-plus contracts, we believe it is very well placed to pass on inflationary pressures to customers. We also believe it is protected against economic downturns given that its revenue is driven by the public sector.We continue to believe Renew has a lower risk profile than the market perceives, possibly due to associations with peers servicing much larger fixed contracts. Renew’s ability to control costs and resilience during the pandemic was much greater than the majority of Industrials and worthy of a greater re-rating, in our view."

"We maintain our BUY recommendation and 950p DCF-based fair value (30% upside). As of yesterday's closing price, the shares trade on 12.3x our conservative FY23F EPS forecast and 7.6x on an EV/EBITDA basis. We consider this valuation to be anomalously cheap, given the company’s consistent c.30% ROIC, 18% adjusted EPS CAGR since 2011 and current net cash position."

Good to see the spread reduced to a more manageable 7p today, with buying coming in at 91.3p.

This sounds encouraging:

Https://www.business-live.co.uk/technology/zytronic-invests-400000-tech-capitalise-26136336

"Zytronic invests £400,000 in tech to capitalise on customers' Covid bounceback

The Tyneside touch screen sensor firm says the new equipment gives it the chance to take advantage of new opportunities

2 FEB 2023

Tyneside touch tech specialist Zytronic has invested around £400,000 into new equipment to boost its manufacturing operations.

The Blaydon based business has invested in a second laser soldering system within a factory cleanroom, which directors say allows Zytronic to leverage the latest production technology....

....Mark Cambridge, managing director of Zytronic, said: “The investment in this next-generation laser bonding system supports our continued drive for yield improvements and accelerating throughput. This new and more advanced system complements the one we installed in another cleanroom a few years ago and mitigates the risk associated with only having one laser soldering system available to production.”

"Zytronic’s continued investment in its UK touchscreen manufacturing operations aims to give the company the chance to take advantage of new opportunities as its global customer base recovers from the effects of the pandemic.

The firm last month posted full year results for the year ended September 2020, saying it had improved performance despite continued unpredictability across its supply chains and key markets.

It reported a rise in revenue to £12.3m from £11.7m, while group operating profit increased from £453,000 to £695,000, saying it was confident the return of global business development and marketing activity following Covid restrictions would start to yield results."

Contracts are being won at a rapid pace! The Fuelstar side of the business seems to be storming ahead. This reads rather well as regards the benefits of TST's systems adoption:

"Future-proofing their operations. A planned stream of new and advanced software functionality arising from Touchstar’s significant on-going investment in R&D"

I note that Manx are "scheduling implementation of the system for spring", so this will benefit TST's current H1. Here's the link:

Https://www.touchstar.co.uk/blog/manxpetroleum