Good morning, it's Paul here.


BOTB

Trading update

(I have a long position in this share)

Best of the Best PLC, (LSE: BOTB) the organiser of weekly competitions to win dream cars and other luxury prizes, is pleased to announce the following trading update for the 12 months ended 30 April 2019 (the "Period").

Good news!

The Company's financial performance during the Period has continued to be strong, with the impact of the Company's online strategy and focused marketing efforts becoming increasingly evident.

As a result, the Board expects to report full year profit ahead of market expectations and revenue marginally ahead of market expectations.


This share is very illiquid, but it's a nice little company in my view.

The flow of divis, both normal, and special, have been excellent, in recent years.




Zytronic (LON:ZYT)

Share price: 262.5p (down 24.5% today, at 14:39)
No. shares: 16.0m
Market cap: £42.0m

Trading update (profit warning)

Zytronic is a UK manufacturer of bespoke touch-sensor screens.

Today it updates us on trading in H1 of FY 09/2019.

Revenue is down 10% & profit down 36% on last year's H1;

... interim results for the first half, which are due to be announced on 14 May 2019 and are expected to show revenues of £9.5m (2018 H1: £10.6m) and profit before tax of £1.4m (2018 H1: £2.2m)...


The last update was on 11 Dec 2018, which I reviewed here - being 09/2018 results, and associated trading update. Interestingly, I noted then the lumpy nature of orders, customer concentration, and the ever-present risk of a profit warning. Although the very strong, cash-rich balance sheet, and record of generous divis cushions that factor somewhat.

Performance has deteriorated since Dec 2018, when the company said that current trading was at "similar levels as last year" (Dec 2018), but is now well below last year (Mar 2019).

What's gone wrong? Order delays in the gaming sector;

Despite there still being an encouraging pipeline of opportunities in Gaming, the pace of conversion to orders in the year to date has been much slower than the Board had anticipated. 


H2 outlook - doesn't sound great to me;

Although trading in the second half of the financial year is usually stronger than the first…

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