Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
XP Factory attractive operating metrics and consistently high margins.
XP Factory (LON:XPF) CEO Richard Harpham chats to *************.
discussing the acquisition of Boom Battle Bar Cardiff Limited and an update on site openings and trading.
Richard explains the rationale for the acquisition of the Cardiff Boom Battle Bar franchise, the Boom Battle Bar concept, how the Escape Hunt side of the business is performing and what can investors expect to see in the coming months.
The XP Factory (LON XPF) is one of the UK’s pre-eminent experiential leisure businesses which currently operates two fast growing leisure brands.
https://www.***************************/xp-factory-attractive-operating-metrics-and-consistently-high-margins-video/4121081990
Energy industry backs plan to save businesses and homes up to £18bn a year.
The energy industry has thrown its weight behind a plan it says could save homes and businesses up to £18bn a year, by reducing the prices charged for electricity generated from sources other than gas.
Energy UK, the trade body for the sector, said its proposals could cut £18bn a year from energy bills, including £11bn for businesses.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/sep/01/energy-industry-backs-plan-to-save-businesses-and-homes-up-to-18bn-a-year
This could deliver a saving for households of between £150 and £250 a year.
The business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, is understood to have met members of Energy UK to discuss the proposal and is said to be considering it seriously as an option to present to the next prime minister.
The Conservative party will announce the result of a vote for its new leader on Monday
With Liz Truss widely expected to win the mandate.
Saietta Group Key Achievements Since IPO
Acquired a commercial vehicle e-drive business for a €2m (with 2.6m in service kilometres)
Secured a valuable in-house power electronics capability allowing the group to offer integrated edrives as opposed to stand alone motors
Developed an award-winning fully integrated marine edrive system and generated €1.5m revenue in the first year
Took over factory from ZF that had already made 25 million electric motors for automotive OEMs and for
£1.1m acquired production lines and equipment that had an estimated original cost of £23 million
Secured an up to €10m revenue commitment from a major US Tier 1 supplier for US market entry on a product partnership.
Financials
Increased group income from £0.9m to £4.3m (including £0.7m worth of grants)
Delivered on (slightly ahead of) market expectations and the Saietta’ Board remains confident that the Group
remains on track to reach its revenue expectations for the financial year 2023
Saietta is aiming to continue to grow into one of the world's leading e-drive businesses and be a showcase of
engineering and production excellence June 2022 - £2 million grant from the UK Government’s Automotive Transformation Fund.
Commercial Traction.
Initial contract wins for prototype integrated AFT140 based e-drive systems from four Lightduty vehicle manufacturers around the world: Ayro Inc (USA), Electric Assisted Vehicles
Limited (UK), an established OEM of Light-duty vehicles in India, and a new European vehicle
platform developer.
Additionally, having secured key JV with: Padmini VNA
The Company is working on proof-of-concept e-drive system designs for two further potential
high volume Light-duty commercial vehicle customers (based in India).
Going Forward
Although at prototype stage, and with further milestones to be met, the Directors believe that
collectively these activities have the potential to develop into volumes in excess of 87,000
integrated AFT140 e-drive systems per annum.
Berenberg Bank set a target price of 160 GBX for the company, which when compared to the Michelmersh Brick Holdings Plc share price of 93 GBX at opening today (11/07/2022) indicates a potential upside of 41.9%.
https://www.defenseworld.net/2022/07/09/michelmersh-brick-lonmbh-receives-buy-rating-from-berenberg-bank.html
Michelmersh Brick Holdings Plc with ticker (LON:MBH)
Now has a potential upside of 41.9% according to Berenberg Bank.
Berenberg Bank set a target price of 160 GBX for the company, which when compared to the Michelmersh Brick Holdings Plc share price of 93 GBX at opening today (11/07/2022) indicates a potential upside of 41.9%.
Trading has ranged between 88 (52 week low) and 152 (52 week high) with an average of 93,717 shares exchanging hands daily.
The market capitalisation at the time of writing is £87,595,257.
https://www.***************************/michelmersh-brick-holdings-plc-41.9-potential-upside-indicated-by-berenberg-bank/4121072391
Vistry boosted as robust housing demand eclipses soaring costs.
Property developer Vistry Group has upheld its optimistic earnings outlook following continued strong demand for new housing.
Vistry Group revealed it completed the construction of 3,219 homes in the first half of 2022.
A slight rise from the 3,126 built during the same period last year said that despite current economic uncertainty.
The FTSE 250 company said that despite current economic uncertainty
It expects to report adjusted pre-tax profits of around £417million for this year.
Which is towards the top end of market forecasts.
It also anticipates margins in both main divisions.
Housebuilding and Partnerships will surpassing annual targets as higher sales prices outpace the growth in costs of energy, wages and building materials.
There are signs that the housing market is beginning to cool down.
With five successive base rate hikes by the Bank of England since December and a growing cost-of-living crisis putting a dampener on prices.
But yet Vistry Group notes that demand remains strong, with forward sales at the end of June totalling £2.14billion, a 16 per cent leap on the equivalent time last year.
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-10994147/Vistry-Group-maintains-robust-annual-profit-forecast.html
Vistry Group stays upbeat on robust demand for new homes.
Demand for new homes is still strong despite rising interest rates and inflation.
According to Vistry Group the latest large housebuilder to downplay the effect of the UK’s economic slowdown on the property market.
Those concerns have weighed on shares across the housebuilding sector in the past six months. Vistry’s share price is down by around 28 per cent over that period, Persimmon’s 34 per cent.
But Greg Fitzgerald, Vistry’s chief executive, said “whilst mindful of the wider economic uncertainties, we are positive on the outlook for the group.”
https://www.ft.com/content/b97697ab-235c-4bfc-bfbc-abec65664261
Michelmersh Brick Holdings plc.
Share price passed below its 200-day moving average.
The stock has a 200-day moving average of GBX 117.97 and traded as low as GBX 88.00.
Michelmersh Brick Holdings plc has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports.
Berenberg Bank reissued a “buy” rating and set a GBX 160 price target on shares of Michelmersh Brick in a report on Friday, June 10th.
Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 162 target price on shares of Michelmersh Brick in a research report on Friday, March 25th.
The company has a market cap of £86.72 million 95.88 million Share's in issue.
Also in recent days, housebuilder Persimmon cut its own full-year production forecasts to between 14,500 and 15,000 new homes. It had previously expected volumes to grow between 4% and 7% year-on-year from 2021’s 14,551 delivered units.
Persimmon said that “delays in the planning system, disruption in material supply chains and challenges in securing labour” had impacted construction levels in the first half of 2022.
This has the potential to damage demand for all building products.
This includes Michelmersh which City analysts expect to record a 40% rise in annual earnings this year.
That said, I believe recent share price weakness reflects the growing near-term threat to the brickmaker’s bottom line. Michelmersh’s share price has dropped around 30% since the beginning of 2022.
At 90p per share with a PE ratio of around 10 and div yield of 4%
I’d happily buy Michelmersh shares despite this near-term danger.
This is because I buy on the returns I expect to make over the long haul.
Yes I am a shareholder and a long term holder, and if the share price drop's any more I will be buying some more.
I consider Michelmersh as a quality company and hopefully in the future the share price will reflect this.
The company can and will increase prices.
There was a 9.5% price increase last January and another planned July 9.5% increase just now.
With energy costs hedged this may actually lead to an increase in margins.
Michelmersh is a premium brick company with wealthier customers and selling into a market where demand exceeds supply.
With a PE ratio of around 10 and div yield of 4%
I think this company is grossly undervalued.
Michelmersh nominated for 19 shortlisted projects at the BDA’s Brick Awards 2022
In another stellar year for the clay brick industry, Michelmersh is excited to have been nominated for 19 projects at the 2022 Brick Development Associations Brick Awards. The BDA’s Brick Awards attract exemplary projects from the UK’s leading contractors, developers, architects and housebuilders to submit their work across a range of 18 different categories.
The Brick Awards have been running for 46 years and in that time has become one of the industry’s most respected and well-attended events. The Brick Awards cover projects from the UK and the rest of the world with 18 categories featuring the best of individual houses to large housing developments, urban regeneration and housebuilders, commercial, public, education refurbishment and more, all ultimately culminating in the “Supreme Winner” category. New for 2022 is the Sustainability award, sponsored by Michelmersh – a chance to highlight the positive and sustainable opportunities presented by clay brick.
https://www.mbhplc.co.uk/michelmersh-nominated-for-19-shortlisted-projects-at-the-bdas-brick-awards-2022
Michelmersh Brick Holdings PLC remain on track to meet full year expectations.
Trading Update and Notice of Results.
Michelmersh Brick Holdings PLC (AIM: MBH), the specialist brick manufacturer, today announces a trading update ahead of its half-year results for the six-month period ended 30 June 2022.
Since our announcement on 12 May 2022, the trading performance of the Group has continued to be positive in the second quarter of the year and the Group is pleased to report revenue for the first six months to 30 June 2022 of at least £33 million, representing an increase of over 10 per cent compared to our 2021 interim results, and combined with our well-balanced forward order book, we remain on track to meet full year expectations.
The first half of the year has been characterised by strong operational cash generation which has driven Group cash as at 30 June 2022 to £9.5 million. This cash position, combined with the Group's undrawn Sterling and Euro denominated bank facility of £20 million entered into in FY21, provides the Group with considerable financial resilience and the flexibility to pursue strategic investments and acquisition opportunities in the future where they meet our commercial and financial criteria and complement the existing portfolio.
As we highlighted in May, we continue to operate in a more challenging environment due to the ongoing elevated inflation rate and unpredictable energy cost environment. To protect our margins, we have remained focused on mitigating risks to our input costs as well as maintaining appropriate portfolio pricing, and in collaboration with our customers we have introduced our standard timetabled price increase at the start of July.
The Company intends to announce its half-year results on 6 September 2022.
Michelmersh Brick Holdings PLC is a business with seven market leading brands: Blockleys, Carlton, Charnwood, Freshfield Lane, Michelmersh, Floren and Hathern Terra Cotta. These divisions operate within a fully integrated business combining the manufacture of clay bricks and pavers. The Group also includes a landfill operator, New Acres Limited, and seeks to develop future landfill and development opportunities on ancillary land assets.
Established in 1997, the Company has grown through acquisition and organic growth into a profitable and asset rich business, producing over 125 million clay bricks and pavers per annum. Michelmersh currently owns most of the UK's premium manufacturing brick brands and is a leading specification brick and clay paving manufacturer.
Michelmersh strives to be a well invested, long term, sustainable, environmentally responsible business. Opportunity, training and security for all employees, whilst meeting the needs of stakeholders are at the forefront of everything we do. We aim to lead the way in producing some of Britain's premium clay products and enhancing our environment by adding value to the architectural landscape for generations to come.
Michelmersh to produce the world’s first 100% hydrogen fired clay bricks.
Michelmersh has announced its successful bid to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) UK Government, Industrial Fuel Switching competition to conduct a feasibility study to replace natural gas with hydrogen in the brick making process. The programme is part of the £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP) which aims to provide funding for low-carbon technologies to decreasing the costs of decarbonisation.
The project represents a global flagship physical study to replace natural gas with hydrogen in brick manufacturing. Phase 1 of the project will demonstrate the viability of fuel switching and will see hydrogen used in the clay brick production process at Michelmersh’s Freshfield Lane site. The project aims to inspire radical change across the sector and present opportunities and evidence-based research to support manufacturers on their journey to heavily decarbonise the production processes.
https://www.environmentuk.net/component/content/article/309-sustainability/3690-michelmersh-to-produce-the-worlds-first-100-hydrogen-fired-clay-bricks
BEIS Industrial Fuel Switching Programme (IFS) Hydrogen.
BEIS are hosting a hydrogen supply event prior to the launch of Phase 2 of the £55m Industrial Fuel Switching Programme (IFS).
About this event
The £55 million Industrial Fuel Switching competition will support innovation in the development of pre-commercial fuel switch and fuel switch enabling technology for the industrial sector, to help industry switch from high to lower carbon fuels. Funding will be awarded through Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) contracts, providing 100% funding for pre-commercial solutions. Phase 1 feasibility projects started in March 2022 and are expected to complete in September 2022, with the Phase 2 demonstration competition expected to launch in late 2022 for applications and with £1m to £6m available per project.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/beis-industrial-fuel-switching-programme-ifs-hydrogen-supply-event-tickets-349598698117
Industrial Fuel Switching Programme.
Phase 1: summaries of successful projects.
Project Name: Deep Decarbonisation of Brick Manufacturing.
Led by: Michelmersh Brick Holdings PLC
Project Location: West Sussex
Funding: £292,624
Michelmersh Brick Holdings PLC will trial the feasibility of replacing natural gas with hydrogen for firing in brick production, with the ultimate aim of demonstrating a potential decarbonisation route for clay brick manufacturing. The project will investigate the feasibility of retrofitting gas burners used for brick firing, trialling 100% green hydrogen in a test kiln at Michelmersh’s site in Sussex. In parallel, project partner Limpsfield Combustion will develop and conduct laboratory testing of burners and investigate their energy efficiency. Other partners/contractors in the project include the University of Brighton, Greater South East Net Zero Hub, Net Zero Associates and Geopura.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/industrial-fuel-switching-programme-successful-projects/industrial-fuel-switching-programme-phase-1-summaries-of-successful-projects
The launch of Propel coincides with increasingly stringent legislation centred around emission-free waterways and marine electrification as a means to help fight climate change. The City of Amsterdam has announced plans for its canals to be emission free by 2025, and the United Kingdom became the first of the major G7 countries to target net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which includes the adoption of electric boats and ships.
The electric boat and ship market is expected to reach a value of US$9 billion by 2026, driven by factors such as increased maritime tourism and increased seaborne trade as so much of the world’s goods are already carried by ships. The growing government focus on encouraging consumers to adopt eco-friendly boats and ships to meet environmental regulations is further propelling demand in the market.
Saietta Group, a tech specialist leader in propulsion motors for a broad range of electric vehicles (EVs), is already heralded as an enabler of electrification. Through its first AFT e-motors – the AFT 140 and AFT 110 – the company has engineered key breakthrough propulsion innovations that will accelerate the journey towards sustainable mobility, in the process ensuring accessibility and performance while supporting the reduction of carbon emissions.
https://saiettagroup.com/saietta-launches-propel-a-new-force-in-electric-marine-motors/
Saietta have said "will require a greater investment than the original standalone motor supply plan"
Saietta did not say they would do a placing.......
Saietta "Shifting up the Gears"
Sales of electric vehicles (EVs) are literally going through the roof. Doubling globally in 2021 to a record 6.6m units (see chart), & up another 75% in Q1’22 to 2m.
Not just cars either, but also trucks, buses, vans, 2/3 wheelers & motor boats. However, this is just the start of a multi-decade transition to all things electric (see chart) - on the back of government subsidies, decarbonisation, superior performance & more recently the rocketing cost of oil/LNG.
As such, there is a race by OEMs to get their products to market as soon as possible. Tesla is leading the charge, albeit there are 100s of other manufacturers seizing the opportunity too.
The quickest, cheapest & importantly safest way of launching EVs is to use integrated subsystems, rather than assembling them from 1,000s of individual parts. Thus expediting the whole R&D, testing & 'go-to-market' strategy, alongside simplifying the supply chain & production processes, whilst significantly reducing the overall cost to boot.
In this context Saietta Electric Drive, a leading Axial Flux electric motor developer – said today that it was seeing strong demand for its patented AF140 Motors used in light-duty vehicles (4 contracts signed already), fully integrated e-drive systems (combining motors, powertrain electronics, gearboxes, axles & inverters) and ‘Propel’ branded engines for boats.
The only 'nice' problem - is coping with so much interest. Consequently the company has decided to prioritise where there is greatest 'bang for the buck'. In turn, scaling back the scope of its planned durability test centre - with the resource being reallocated elsewhere.
To me, this makes perfect sense and should enable #SED to accelerate its own commercialization strategy .
Ok, so how big ultimately could the business become?
Well hypothetically, if it were to win a 5% share (2m units pa) by 2030, then this could represent $60m-$90m of EBITDA. Which if rated on a 15x multiple, might theoretically produce a $900m-$1.35bn valuation: or equivalent to £7-£11/share vs 145p.
CEO Wicher Kist commenting: "We are delighted that we are now in a position to offer customers fully integrated AFT e-drive system solutions. The acquisition of e-Traction has enabled us to reach this point sooner than expected, and customer engagement has convinced us that this is the best commercial opportunity for delivering our AFT technology to market.
We are also delighted that we can now manufacture these innovative products at our world-class automotive electric motor manufacturing facility in Sunderland - which has historically delivered over 25m electric motors for automotive OEMs."
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/paul-hill-a5994116_sed-sed-activity-6942773107786969088-Q0qy?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web