Cenkos is a leading UK securities business, which acts as nominated advisor, sponsor, broker and financial adviser to companies, focusing on UK small- and mid-cap companies and investment funds. Since inception in 2005 it has raised more than £22bn in equity capital for corporate clients, which stood at 103 at end June 2022.
Investment summary
Cenkos’s H122 results announced in September were affected by the challenging capital markets background. Total revenue was 30% below H121 at £12.7m. The flexible business model with contained fixed costs meant that underlying operating profit fell by a similar percentage (29%) from £2.7m to £1.9m; this was before changes in the fair value of options and warrants received in lieu of fees (a reduction of £1.9m in H122) and incentive plan costs (£0.6m). After these items there was a reported loss before tax of £0.48m compared with a £1.69m profit in H121. An interim dividend of 1.0p, versus 1.25p for H121 is to be paid.
On the outlook, Cenkos cautioned that market conditions are likely to remain challenging for the foreseeable future given the macroeconomic background. Nevertheless, there are encouraging signs in that Cenkos accounted for 23% of money raised on AIM in the first half (FY21: 10%), the number of corporate clients is higher and the company had carried out three transactions in H222 to date (nine in H122). The balance sheet remained strong with capital resources of £23.6m, comfortably above the regulatory requirement, and cash stood at £15.9m. This supports selective investment in staff to maintain service levels to a growing client base.
