Bond International (BDI, 53.5p, £17.7m), the software provider for international recruitment and human resources industries, has raised £6.17m (net) at 75p per share, to acquire VCG and Constellation Software Inc. VCG is a front office and back-office software provider to the staffing industry in the US, In the year ended 31 December 2009, VCG generated revenues of US$6.8m ($5.7m recurring from annual maintenance or SaaS service), EBITDA of US$2.0m, PBT of US$0.4m, net assets US$1.0m, including US$6.4m of loans notes.  Bond will purchase certain of these loan notes for cash as part of the transaction. The Group is seeing some signs that the market for staffing software is recovering, with more positive decision making. The acquisition is an excellent fit, increasing the group’s product portfolio and geographical spread. The fundraising and the acquisition encourages us to upgrade our recommendation to a HOLD.  

Enova (ENV, 55p, £8.50m) has received a further order for 100 electric drive systems from Smith Electric Vehicles, adding to the 220 orders received so far in 220, and forms part of a 500+ unit order which is funded by a $32m DOE grant. Still a SPECULATIVE BUY.

Ilika (LON:IKA) (IKA, 55p, £20.12m) has signed a 6 month initial development contract with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), a subsidiary of the UK’s MOD, for the development of high throughput, screening technologies for the discovery and improvement of next generation thermo-electric materials (those able to convert heat to power so improve the efficiencies of engines). We maintain our HOLD recommendation  

Impellam Group (LON:IPEL) (IPEL, 155p, £69.84m) The strong first half performance (which saw op profits surge to £12.5m (£0.5m) and debt reduce to £30.4m (£39.2m) ) has continued in Q3 and led to a further reduction in net debt to £28.5m. We suspect forecasts will increase from the £18.8m PBT and 31.3p EPS  - but with a significant exposure to the UK Health sector, which accounted for  18% of revenues and 34% of group EBIT, must temper our enthusiasm after such an appreciation. Since February the group has soared from 64p and we now take the group to a HOLD until the impact of the UK Government’s austerity measures are more clear.

Kedco (LON:KED) (KED, 0.07p, £15.74m)…

Unlock the rest of this article with a 14 day trial

Unlock with Email
Unlock with Google

Already have an account?
Login here