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Nice to see them picking up the pace.

Andrews Sykes (ASY.L) is a great example of how powerful sustained buybacks can be in a high-ROCE business. Back in 2000, they had around 90.15 million shares in issue. Over years of buybacks and cancellations, they’ve reduced that to about 41.86 million today — more than halving the share count.

I’ve held Andrews Sykes for nearly 20 years now, and the long-term results from this kind of disciplined capital return (buybacks plus regular and special dividends) have been really strong.

How it affected EPS (simple illustration using ~£18m net profit):

textYear Shares Net Profit EPS

2000 90.15m £18m ~20.0p

Today 41.86m £18m ~43.0p

Both companies have strong returns on capital. Andrews Sykes has delivered high ROCE for years, usually in the 30-40%+ range. ME Group’s ROCE has recently improved sharply to around 33%. In businesses like these, buybacks really work well.

ME Group looks set up for a similar double benefit on EPS. The £18m annual buyback target will steadily reduce the share count, while pushing towards 20k Wash ME units, which should grow profits. Of course, it’s worth keeping an eye on regulatory risks related to business warming (especially on the Photo Me side) and ensuring that the new Wash.me units perform as expected.

Overall, in cash-generative, high-ROCE companies, combining sensible growth with disciplined buybacks is a very effective way to build shareholder value over time.

(Grok helped with the maths & Format)

H1 2026 Wash.Me revenue grew +17% for the full half, compared to +13.3% in H1 2025. The business was clearly accelerating before April.

In April, growth slowed sharply to just +3%. The company was very clear that this was due to lower consumer confidence caused by the Middle East conflict — the same factor that hit Photo.Me (-17% in April). They also noted recovery in May.

I wasn’t surprised Photo.Me was affected, but I was a bit surprised Wash.Me felt it too. Still, this looks like short-term noise. The long-term investment thesis remains fully intact.

ME Group 5-Year Profit & EPS Forecast (with £18m annual buyback)

Base Year (FY2025 - ended 31 Oct 2025)

Revenue: £315.4m

Profit Before Tax: £78.2m

Net Profit: £56.6m

EPS: 14.91p

Shares outstanding: ~376.3m

Key AI Assumptions for the Forecast

Revenue growth: 6.5–7.5% p.a., driven by continued Wash.Me expansion (high-teens % potential), Photo.Me recovery, and new machine deployments.

EBITDA margin: Gradual expansion from ~38.2% to 40–42% thanks to operational leverage and higher-margin laundry mix.

Net margin: Stable to slightly improving (~18%).

Share buyback: £18m per year (at assumed average price of ~£1.50/share → ~12m shares repurchased annually).

Tax rate: ~27.5%.

Conservative earnings growth with meaningful EPS accretion from buybacks.

Forecast Table (in £ millions, except EPS and shares)

Year,Revenue,Growth,EBITDA,PBT,Net Profit,Shares (m),EPS,EPS Growth

FY2025 (Actual),315.4,-,120.4,78.2,56.6,376.3,14.91p,-

FY2026,337,+6.8%,130,85,61.8,364.3,16.97p,+13.8%

FY2027,360,+6.8%,141,93,67.2,352.3,19.08p,+12.4%

FY2028,385,+6.9%,152,101,73.0,340.3,21.46p,+12.5%

FY2029,411,+6.8%,163,109,79.3,328.3,24.16p,+12.6%

FY2030,439,+6.8%,175,118,86.1,316.3,27.23p,+12.7%

Summary 5-Year Outlook (FY2026–2030)

Cumulative Revenue growth: ~+39%

Net Profit growth: ~+52% (CAGR ~8.8%)

EPS growth: +82.6% (CAGR ~12.8%), significantly boosted by the ongoing £18m annual buyback (reducing shares by ~16% over the period).

Important Note: This forecast does not account for potential regulatory risk.

This remains a conservative base case. The buyback alone adds roughly 3–4% extra annual EPS growth.

YearRevenueGrowthEBITDAPBTNet ProfitShares (m)EPSEPS GrowthFY2025 (Actual)315.4-120.478.256.6376.314.91p-FY2026337+6.8%1308561.8364.316.97p+13.8%FY2027360+6.8%1419367.2352.319.08p+12.4%FY2028385+6.9%15210173.0340.321.46p+12.5%FY2029411+6.8%16310979.3328.324.16p+12.6%FY2030439+6.8%17511886.1316.327.23p+12.7%

Summary 5-Year Outlook (FY2026–2030)

Cumulative Revenue growth: ~+39%

Net Profit growth: ~+52% (CAGR ~8.8%)

EPS growth: +82.6% (CAGR ~12.8%), significantly boosted by the ongoing £18m annual buyback (reducing shares by ~16% over the period).

Fellow shareholders,

The 2 June vote is critical — First Seagull’s resolutions must pass.

Today’s Kingfisher Q1 trading update (26 May) shows just how tough the UK home improvement market remains. B&Q sales fell -4.1% like-for-like, with big-ticket categories (which include flooring) down sharply and seasonal sales hit hard by the late spring. The overall UK market declined in the low single digits. This directly affects Headlam as the leading flooring distributor.

The current Headlam board management’s strategy of chasing low-margin big-account and trade-counter business has left us far too exposed in this weak environment. While low-margin revenue was gained, far more profitable core independent retailer business was lost.

Years have been wasted under Stephen Bird and the current board, who have not shown they have the skill set required, through a clear ignorance of Headlam’s real business model.

We are the owners. Vote FOR ALL of First Seagull’s resolutions by the 29 May proxy deadline.

For First Seagull’s plan to restore Headlam to profitability:

www.linkedin.com/company/first-seagull

Sincerely,

A concerned fellow owner

Fellow shareholders,

The 2 June vote is critical — First Seagull’s resolutions must pass.

Stephen Bird has driven Headlam into the ditch. He chased low-margin big-account and trade-counter business while abandoning the high-margin independent retailers that are the true heart of the company. Headlam’s own figures confirm it: low-margin revenue was gained, but far more profitable core revenue was lost.

Years have been wasted through a clear ignorance of Headlam’s real business. Yet Bird has taken home around £500,000 while owning just ~50,000 shares (0.069% of the company) worth only about £20,000 today. That is not skin in the game.

We are the owners. Vote FOR ALL of First Seagull’s resolutions by the 29 May proxy deadline.

For First Seagull’s plan to restore Headlam to profitability:

www.linkedin.com/company/first-seagull

Sincerely,

A concerned fellow owner

These purchases were part of Playtech’s remuneration policy, which stipulates that a portion of the executives’ annual bonuses is automatically deferred into shares.

The most notable transaction was by John Gleasure, the Non-Executive Chairman, who bought 57,000 shares last week, on May 13, 2026, for nearly £200,000. That’s a real skin in the game; he obviously sees upside and believes the ~5% short position is wrong.

Asteriscos (Galician investment firm, founded 2000) has been PayPoint’s top holder since at least 2021, building to ~31%. Today’s jump to 32% is just passive creep from buybacks—no big new buy.

Shareholder Zoom call Sandy said it was planned to wind down Disposals sales and delay the rollout of the new four pods system that, in trials, are selling well.

Excellent report. Regarding 88nic, I am uncertain about its success, but by casually asking the B & M staff, they confirmed that the brand now sells well in their shops after a slow start.

Your point is noted; however, it is important to mention that Supreme also distributes nicotine pouches under the Elfbar and Lost Mary brands, among others. Furthermore, Supreme plans to manufacture its 88nic nicotine pouches in-house in Manchester. The UK nicotine pouch market is valued at 350m in the UK and growing around 20% a year. If the government is serious about making the UK smoke-free, it should consider following Sweden's example by implementing a tax policy that favours the nicotine pouch market, with lower taxes compared to cigarettes and vapes. Recently, the Swedish government has reduced taxes on nicotine pouches further.

Am I missing something? From what I've read online, no tax will be imposed on nicotine pouches for now. Supreme has its own nicotine pouch brand, 88nic, which I find pretty good, and they also distribute other brands of nicotine pouches. Therefore, I believe that, in the long run, Supreme's sales won't be negatively affected.

Just main Uk distribution. Ate ate planning to manufacture their own 88 nicotine brand named 88 nic. After a slow start they are sell well in the shops.

Sorry I meant the taste and feel in mouth for me personal is the second best . My order of taste and feel in mouth is,

1st QXS

2nd 88nic

3rd Velo

The uk nicotine pouche market is worth nearly 300m and growing.

Great product. It's the second to third best in the market. The product is offered at a great price. The UK is mainly a vaping market but the the uk nicotine pouch market grew about 20% last year.

Yes 12m. My main concern is on future regulations on the display of vaping products. 88 vape have carved out a niche selling to value Conscience ex smokers, customers average age is in the 40 year olds bracket. Company has clearly not been Targeting underage groups. The product the company sells are the cheapest on the market and are normally displayed on the counter of various shops and supermarkets. The company also has a £10 million contract for the prison service and also is in discussion with the NHS with a similar deal. This has not been signed yet. I think new policy of banning disposables will be a positive Long-term. Short term, it's just a guessing game.

London South East (lse) are just making a guess if its a buy or sell. If the trade buy is near the bid price it will record it as a sell. I bought shares in the past and seen my trade on here and it was record has a sell. But most are correct indications from (lse) if it was a buy or sell.

Playtech states Total B2B opportunity.
Page 19 has the details of Playtechs possible USA market. http://www.investors.playtech.com/~/media/Files/P/Playtech-IR/results-reports-webcasts/2021/h1-2021-results-presentation-vfinal-2.pdf. Playtech makes 27% EBITDA margins on all revenue. Playtech believes there is a future opportunity of USA revenue of 3bn and if Playtech only makes half of the EBITDA margins of 27% i.e 13.5% its USA EBITDA would be 405m. 405m at 7.5 times could put a value of 3bn, 9.92p a share, on the USA side alone. This is all guesswork but Playtech has great properties and services that are needed in the USA and can be rapidly expanded. As someone said in the past "I like the stock"

Page 19 has the details of Playtechs possible USA market. http://www.investors.playtech.com/~/media/Files/P/Playtech-IR/results-reports-webcasts/2021/h1-2021-results-presentation-vfinal-2.pdf. Playtech makes 27% EBITDA margins on all revenue. Playtech believes its possible future USA revenue will be 3bn and if Playtech only make half of the EBITDA margins of 27% i.e 13.5% its USA EBITDA would be 405m. 405m at 7.5 times could put a value of 3bn, 9.92p a share, on the USA side alone. This is all guesswork but Playtech has great properties and services that are needed in the USA and can be rapidly expanded. As someone said in the past "I like the stock"

I valued the whole Playtech business at EBITDA at 7.5 times. Its EBITDA was 300m in 2020. Pre Pandemic 2019 Playtech EBITDA was 383m. At this 2019 EBITDA at 7.5 times, would value Playtech at 9.38p. 2021 half-year Net Debt is 677m 2.20p per share. Enterprise value including debt would be 7.18p + debt 2.20p = 9.38p. If we take the debt off, it will value the shares at a minimum of 7.20p. I'm voting against the bid as Xlmedia plc report said the illegal online gambling market in the USA is worth over 100bn. Over the next 5 to 10 years, a lot of this will become part of the legal transformation of online gambling in the USA. Playtech said in a report that Legal online gambling and services in The USA are going to be 39bn in 1 or 3 years. Playtech management hopes to capture 3bn of these sales in the USA. This could generate an extra EBITDA of 300m to 500m for Playtech.

Flutter paid around 7.5 EBITDA for Sisal. If Playtech's EBITDA was bought for this price it would value the Playtech shares at 7.45p.

You can sell your rights to the share offer and receive the difference of offer price 40p and the share price. In my case of 30,000 shares and I sell my rights or make it lapse on (1 to 26) I get 1153 shares and they sell my rights at market price and I recieve the difference of 230.60 pounds . 40p minus share price, lets guess at 60p is 20p profit.