Friday Takeaway—delving a little deeper into UK small caps
This will delve a little deeper on individual companies and focus on non-house stocks under £200m market capitalisation to raise awareness
Alphabetically arranged
Share prices and market capitalisations taken from Alpha Terminal from the current price on the day of publication.
Top three shareholders are taken from the websites of the companies that we are writing about, unless there is a more up to date TR-1 notification RNS announcement.
Growth likely to be enhanced by AI
APTA Breadth of Science
PULS AI Leverage
Aptamer Group 0.48p £16.41m (APTA.L)
Last Reported in Friday Takeaway, 29 August 2025, at 1.00p
Financial Calendar:
Year End 30 June, reported 14 October 2025, Interims to 31 December, reported 25 March 2026
Three Main Shareholders:
Dr John Wardle 10.59%, Oberon Investments Ltd 5.94%, Pathcelerate Ltd 5.32%
Key Investment Points:
New Revenue Stream, License Pipeline, Recent funding
The developer of synthetic binders for the life sciences industry, continues to progress additional Optimer licensing opportunities across diagnostics, life‑science tools and therapeutics, building a portfolio of royalty-bearing assets. Aptamer also operates a fee-for-service business, according to Aptamer, in the $210bn US market for antibody alternatives, working with all the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies. This builds valuable Optimer assets with partners, aiming for future licensing revenue.
The development of Optimerbinders was reported on Wednesday 8th this week for a potential rapid diagnostic test for the highly infectious Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus. The fatality rate ranges from approximately 30% to 50% and existing tests lack the sensitivity needed for timely detection in field settings. The global Ebola testing market, management reports, is projected to grow from $1.3bn in 2026 to $2.3bn by 2033, as it is witnessing sustained growth due to the increasing emphasis on outbreak preparedness. The new programme will aim to develop Optimer binders suitable for integration into rapid, field-compatible diagnostic tests for Bundibugyo Ebola. The work has commenced with all necessary materials on-site to enable Optimer discovery and development.
On 31 March 2026, £4.5m was raised at 0.6p and circa £0.75m will extend the cash runway through to 2028 and the rest is for the completion of the strategic roadmap such as for the development programme building of an AI-enabled Optimer discovery engine. This would deliver faster, improved services, with insights into undruggable proteins, such as transcription factors and RNA-binding proteins. The AI programme has moved from initiation to generating real candidates with encouraging early performance data in a matter of weeks.
The therapeutic pipeline is expanding and making tangible progress to potentially deliver new licensable assets. The pipeline includes the identification of new kidney-targeting delivery vehicles for siRNA to the completion of large-scale radiolabelling ahead of the first in vivo studies. On 29 January 2026, £190,000 of new fee-for-service orders was won, including £80,000 for cash licensing which is a high-margin, recurring revenue business. The Optimers generated under these agreements will support a range of research applications for the Group's pharmaceutical partners, further embedding Optimer binders within customers' development pipelines. The licensing receipt was from a non-exclusive hot‑start PCR Optimer licence signed in December 2025 and marks the transition of the Group's growing licensing portfolio from signed agreements to cash-generative assets.
Hybridan Comment: The breadth of the pipeline maybe a distraction, but it increases the chances of producing a lifesaving blockbuster application.
Pulsar Group 38.00p £52.20m (PULS.L)
Last Reported in Friday Takeaway, 27 February 2026 at 46.5p
Financial Calendar:
Year End 30 November, reported 1 May 2026, Interims to 31 May, reported 14 July 2025
Three Top Shareholders:
Kestrel Partners LLP 28.63%, Canaccord Genuity Group Inc 8.52%, Herald Investment Management Limited 7.19%
Key Investment Points:
AI roll-out, Large Client base, High ARR & Margins
Pulsar’s strategy is focussed on accelerating its evolution into a global leader in AI-driven audience intelligence, providing clients with the mission-critical decision infrastructure required by marketing communications (marcomms) professionals to navigate increasingly complex and fragmented media environments. This technology innovator is delivering Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions to thousands of organisations, from global blue-chip enterprises, marketing and communications agencies to public sector organisations and not-for-profits. Key Clients include the Australian Department of Climate Change, the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore, Electronic Arts, HMRC, McDonalds, MHP Group and Microsoft.
Research Nester estimates that the global AI-driven audience intelligence and platform market is valued at approximately $10.5bn, driven by the need for hyper-personalisation and data-driven ad targeting, this market is projected to grow to $39.1bn by 2035 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of roughly 15.7%. These insights are increasingly important to strategists who use media, political and influencer insight, monitoring and analysis, not only to define marketing delivery, but also to test market messaging and determine ROI.
The FY 30 November 2025 financial results showed the transition, reporting virtually unchanged revenue at £62m of which the Annualised Recurring Revenue (ARR) increased by £3.9m to 96% of revenue and gross margins were 69%. The Group delivered a 12% increase in EBITDA to £10.4m which are underpinned by the global restructuring programme, which successfully removed £7.0m from the annualised cost base including a 20% reduction in headcount. The statutory loss increased from £6.7m to a statutory loss of £9.5m, with non-recurring expenses and salary costs of £8.1m.
The restructuring has fundamentally reset the cost base and significantly enhanced operating leverage for 2026. Net debt was £6m and on 30 April 2026, a new £6m bank loan and £2m revolving credit facility were agreed. The Board expects the strong cash generation to be sustainable as the rate of ARR growth is maintained.
EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) & North America continued to be the primary engine of growth. There is an impressive list of new client wins during the year including Amey, Anglo American, Apple, Arts Council England, BT, Cathay Pacific, The Department of Health and Social Care, The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, HMRC, Inmarsat, McDonalds, Microsoft, Network Rail, Papa Johns, The Scottish Government, The Telegraph, Unicef and Yale University Press.
The FY to 30 November 2026 forecast from Alpha Terminal is for turnover increasing to £63.4m, with a 15% rise in EBITDA to £12m, a surge in PBT to £4.9m and an EPS of 2.7p. This gives a prospective P/E of 14x and an EV/EBITDA of 4.8x.
Hybridan Comment: The restructuring is fading into history leaving an improved operational leverage. The effect on earnings from the successful roll-out of AI enhanced software as a service should become clearer in 2026.
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