Good morning and welcome to the opening report of 2026! I'm not expecting much news today, but let's have a look!
Spreadsheet accompanying this report: link (updated to 16/12).
I'm sorry there was so little to look at today - see you next week when the year should kick off in earnest!
Companies Reporting
| Name (Mkt Cap) | RNS | Summary | Our View (Author) |
|---|---|---|---|
Boku (LON:BOKU) (£623m | SR53) | SP +5% The board has approved the buyback of up to 4 million shares (current share count: 297 million). Shares purchased may be used to satisfy warrant holders or the staff bonus programme. | AMBER= (Graham) [no section below] Checking the most recent interim report, I find that there were 5.1 million warrants (issued to Amazon) that were expected to vest. This company also has a history of significant share-based payments (e.g. $5m in H1 2025). These two factors say to me that the company needs this share buyback in order to offset dilution. I'd be far more impressed if this buyback caused the share count to permanently reduce. Also, this share has a ValueRank of 17 and a P/E multiple of 26x (before today's gains); a buyback is not obviously a good investment of the company's cash resources. | |
Public Policy Holding (LON:PPHC) (£267m | SR44) | “A senior professional with an established client portfolio” has joined a PPHC subsidiary. Consideration payable is up to $1m, depending on performance targets in 2026 and 2027. | AMBER/RED = (Graham) [no section below] This US lobbying/PR group strikes me as a bit of an oddity - I still don't know why it listed on AIM rather than in its home markets. In November, it did at least join the NASDAQ with a dual listing and its valuation now seems to reflect the optimism of a US investor base. As for its financials, it has never made any statutory profits, but this hasn't worried investors yet. And today's announcement is light on details: they have hired a heavy hitter, but that person's identity is not revealed in this announcement. So I don't think there is much that can be usefully said about it! | |
Seeing Machines (LON:SEE) (£265m | SR28) | SP +14% This is a dedicated team within Seeing Machines that “will work collaboratively with global customers to embed Seeing Machines' next-generation driver and occupant monitoring system (DMS/OMS) technology into their autonomy products and services”. | AMBER/RED = (Graham) [no section below] This is an RNS Reach announcement, i.e. a non regulatory press release. In theory this means that it shouldn't move the share price, as it doesn't contain any material non-public information. However, it does sound like a very bullish announcement with the promise of commercialisation as SEE's technology gets embedded into vehicle production. Checking the most recent full-year results, I see that SEE was still loss-making at the adjusted EBITDA level, although promising that it would reach a cashflow breakeven run rate by the end of 2025. It has served me well in the past to be cautious of companies that are loss-making at the adjusted EBITDA level and so I will cautiously maintain our RED stance for the time being. | |
Invinity Energy Systems (LON:IES) (£107m | SR9) | SP +7% Revenue and project grant income for 2025 of approximately £17m. Order book plus “substantial pipeline of potential order for 2026 and beyond gives significant confidence in the future prospects of the company”. | BLACK (AMBER/RED =) (Graham) [no section below] The 2025 revenue forecast on the StockReport was £18.8m, and Longspur Research had forecast 2025 sales of £20.7m, so the £17m figure provided in this trading update looked like a miss to me. Checking today's note from Longspur Research, I find that they have indeed revised down their 2025 top line revenue figure for the company, but there are few other changes: the 2025 PBT forecast is unchanged (still an enormous £24.3m loss) and 2026 and 2027 are both virtually unchanged in terms of both the revenue and the PBT forecasts. I still do not claim to have any expertise whatsoever when it comes to battery technology, but I'll leave my moderately negative stance unchanged today. New sales agreements are promising and as I said last time, IES does have impressive growth figures and a decent cash balance. So perhaps it can be a rare success story? | |
Tap Global (LON:TAP) (£16m | SR16) | Revenues +31% to £3.5m. Loss before tax £5.7m after a £4.7m goodwill impairment. The CFO has resigned, new Head of Finance appointed. The company “enters FY26 with a clear pathway to monetising the infrastructure now firmly in place.” | RED = (Graham) [no section below] 391,000 users (up from 369,000 last year) is an impressive figure but this remains at a very early stage of development. The pre-tax loss is significant at £5.7m and there is an operating loss even if we ignore the large impairment charge. The company has been issuing shares to its broker in lieu of fees which strikes me as a desperate measure and today's report does indeed have the standard going concern warning. The cash balance was only £0.8m as of June 2025. |
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