UK stocks represent a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity for investors, say fund managers. After years dogged by political and economic uncertainty, and soggy stock market performance, this is a welcome change of mood music. ‘UK equities are on a 30 year low versus peers, and we see this as a once in a generation opportunity to get involved in some fantastic businesses,’ said Rory ...

Cash shell Hawkwing’s (HNG) proposed takeover of Internet Fusion could create a small cap lookalike of e-commerce play THG (THG). Internet Fusion has developed a digital platform called Reactor and acquired nine specialised, web-based retail brands in areas such as surfing, horse riding and camping, which have been brought on to the platform to improve their profitability. What may ...

Sometimes investors ignore funds which have accumulated a limited amount of funds from investors, often because they are seen as not having much of a future due to a lack of scale or just because they don’t have the marketing budgets of the big asset managers. However, ignoring these smaller funds could mean neglecting some potentially interesting investment options. VICTIMS OF SUCCESS ...

The executive management team of Russian real estate firm Raven Property Group (RAV) were out in force last week after the general meeting approved their purchase of shares from Invesco Funds as part of a newly-formed joint venture company Raven Holdings Limited. The directors, who previously owned 58.4 million shares representing 9.98% of the firm’s ordinary share capital, bought up 46.7 ...

Shares in cosmetics and nutrition website owner The Hut Group or THG (THG) surged 11% to 661.5p on news of a big investment in the company by Japanese investor Softbank. The company announced late on Monday (10 May) that Japanese investor SoftBank had been granted an option to put $1.6 billion into its Ingenuity business on top of a capital raise of around $1 billion. The fundraise, at 596p ...

The problem many investors have with IPOs (initial public offerings) is that much of the big value creation has already been had as a private company. Take THG (THG), for example, a stock investors piled into in their thousands once it hit public markets. Launched in 2004 by founder Matthew Moulding, the online retail business was backed by US private equity firm KKR 10 years later, reportedly ...

A juggernaut in its field yet still growing fast, Google-parent Alphabet (GOOG) remains an outstanding investment opportunity with large technological moats and very attractive operating profit margins of 30%. Investors have been offered some exciting prospects over the past year or so with those companies coming to the stock market grabbing a lot of attention. Yet sometimes investors are ...

The first three months of 2021 have been the busiest quarter for initial public offerings (IPOs) for a decade, and the trend shows no sign of slowing this quarter, which is good news for retail investors looking for hot new ideas. According to analysts at Liberum, £5.9 billion was raised by companies coming to market for the first time in the first quarter, and despite the car-crash that ...

Food delivery platform Deliveroo (ROO) has put the backs up of a lot of investors, and not just because of its debut share price hammering that wiped £2 billion off its £7.6 billion starting valuation. The company’s decision to adopt a dual-class share structure was a controversial one, giving co-founder and chief executive Will Shu greater control over the company. The system has a ...

The IPO market is humming again as the markets recover from the shock of Covid-19 with Deliveroo the latest big name set to join the London market. In the US, shares in virtual gaming platform Roblox jumped more than 60% on its recent market debut (10 Mar), and other stocks have been soaring this year as the public get their first chance to buy stock. Retail investors have lost ...

Food delivery platform Deliveroo has confirmed that it will list in London when it sells shares as part of its upcoming IPO (initial public offering) that is expected to value the business somewhere around £7.5 billion. This will provide a lift for London’s stock market in the wake of Trustpilot’s decision to float in London earlier this week. The company plans to adopt a dual-class share ...

When Moonpig (MOON) listed on the London stock market earlier this month it used a plethora of buzzwords to describe itself. It called itself a ‘platform’, talked about its ‘proprietary technology and apps’ and said it leaned heavily on ‘data science’. This may seem curious for a business that basically sells an extensive range of greeting cards. As one analyst told Shares, it’s a ...

For too long, initial public offerings (IPOs) have been largely the preserve of institutional investors, leaving retail investors out in the cold. Besides IPOs, retail investors are also disadvantaged when it comes to taking part in secondary fundraisings. In summary ‘retail shareholder rights are almost completely ignored when it comes to the vast majority of IPOs, which largely take ...

In the first of a two-part series Shares invites top fund managers to reveal which stocks they were most pleased with in 2020, which stocks they were most disappointed in, and which they have high hopes for in 2021. Their answers reveal an interesting mix of names across the market cap spectrum. Recent float, materials company HeiQ (HEIQ), for example, crops up twice in this set of ...

Cosmetics and nutrition website owner THG (THG) is building on its strong start to life on the stock market. On 12 January the company better known as The Hut Group, unveiled the latest in a series of earnings upgrades since its September 2020 market flotation – suggesting the firm was well advised on the merits of under-promising and over-delivering before going public. The latest ...

London’s FTSE was flat at the open on Tuesday, edging a mere 0.03% higher to 6,800.19, as concerns over the economic impact of a third nationwide lockdown were offset by a flurry of earnings upgrades. KINGFISHER CLIMBS Home improvement retailer Kingfisher (KGF) climbed 2.7% to 287p as the B&Q-to-Screwfix owner assured it is ‘comfortable’ with the top end of current market ...

Shares in The Hut Group, or THG (THG) as it is officially called, ticked up 10.6% to 737.3p on Monday after the recently-listed beauty website owner upgraded annual revenue guidance in its maiden trading update. Having seen revenue growth accelerate in the third quarter, THG flagged ‘continued momentum’ in the important fourth quarter to date. This has given management the confidence to ...

UK stocks opened lower on Monday as investors reacted to the continuing and concerning climb in Covid-19 cases across the UK, Europe and the US, not to mention confirmation of 137 local cases in China. Adding to the doom and gloom were fading hopes of a stimulus package being agreed ahead of the fast-approaching US election. At 8.20, the blue chip benchmark was 0.26% lower at 5,845.15, while ...

HOTEL CHOCOLAT (HOTC:AIM)  345p Loss to date: 18.5% Original entry point: Buy at 423.5p, 19 December 2019 Despite a rebound since March, shares in Hotel Chocolat (HOTC:AIM) are still 18.5% below our original entry price. A strong brand with global aspirations and huge online potential, Hotel Chocolat has ample liquidity to navigate through the remainder of the crisis and ...

Despite Wall Street heading higher on stimulus package hopes on Wednesday afternoon, helping European markets to regain their footing, the FTSE 100 finished 0.53% lower at 5,866.10. Weighing on sentiment was the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which revealed UK GDP dropped 19.8% in the second quarter of this year, better than the first estimate of 20.4%. Despite the ...