Welcome to our new product “Friday Takeaway”
This will delve a little deeper on individual companies and focus on non-house stocks under £200m market capitalisation to help raise awareness
Friday Takeaway from UK Small Caps
This will delve a little deeper on individual companies and focus on non-house stocks under £200m market capitalisation to help raise awareness
10th October 2025
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.
Positive news seems to have had limited impact
AEO Surprise Party
POLX Deep Breath
XSG Paid Laundering
Aeorema Communications 59.50p £5.77m (AEO.L)
Last Reported in Friday Takeway, 25 July 2025 at 57p
Financial Calendar:
(New) Year End December, Second Interims reported 18th September, (Old YE) Interims to December 2024, reported 25 March 2025
Top Three Shareholders:
The Hale Agency Superannuation Fund & Mr Hale 20.07%, Brian Geary 8.31%, Steve Quah 7.44%
Key Investment Points:
New Clients, Global Opportunities, Cash for Buy Backs
Aeorema is a strategic communications Company providing a suite of bespoke event services through its Cheerful Twentyfirst divisions. Its services include advice and a range of events such as live, virtual, and hybrid experiences on behalf of corporate clients, many of whom are listed and in sectors such as finance, professional services, advertising, IT, gaming, fashion, fintech, and beverages.
October’s update reported that since the last update in June, the Company has been busy and successful in North America. A broad range of business events have been delivered and 40% are from new client relationships. Highlights included producing The Wall Street Journal's large-scale brand activation at the United Nations General Assembly, delivering a multi-day summit for AI-powered advertising client Smartly, and conferences such as Climate Week. In addition, September saw Cheerful Twentyfirst's first major step into brand-to-consumer experiences, with a large-scale immersive concert for Instacart in New York that transported 1,300 attendees “back to 1999 for one-night only”.
Alan Charlton recently joined as a Non-Executive Director and is experienced in business strategy, operational performance, mergers & acquisitions, and shareholder value creation. In May, permission was granted to buy back up to 5% of the shares and this is yet to be done.
The accounting year end has been changed to December 2025, from June, so the 2nd Interim for 12 months to June 2025 were recently reported on 18 September. This showed revenue is little changed compared to the 12 months to June 2024 at £20.4m. The underlying profits increased by 41%, but after deducting restructuring costs, the PBT declined to £366k from £437k. The efficiency drive and organisational rebalancing programme is being completed and should create a leaner cost base and better margins going forward. The cash balance remains strong at £3.1m, allowing the 3p dividend to be maintained which is to be paid on 24 November 2025. We think that the October update suggests that the earnings for the 18 months to December will show further improvement and even an earnings surprise as contracts are in advanced negotiation for 2026.
Hybridan Comment: There seems to be strong momentum for the extended 18-month accounting period, but the shares have been relatively flat despite business improving, in the meantime the dividend yield of 5% and the share buyback offer some downside protection.
Polarean Imaging 0.43p £5.13m (POLX.L)
Last Reported in Friday Takeway, 26 September 2025 at 0.575p
Financial Calendar:
Year End December, reported 8 May, Interims to June, reported 25 September
Three Main Shareholders:
NUKEM Isotopes GmbH 18.99%, Bracco Imaging S.P.A 14.40%, Rathbones Investment Management Ltd 4.99%
Key Investment Points:
Disappointing Interims, Regulatory Approvals, Global markets
Since we last covered POLX in our Friday Takeaway on the 26 September, there have been two noteworthy announcements from this commercial-stage medical device Company with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for lungs, which is now being used by key reference hospitals.
Following the first order from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a new Xenon MRI System for the Clinical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland, on 29 September, the Company has entered into a new supply agreement with the University of Virginia Health to complete the implementation of full clinical Xenon MRI capabilities. This MRI Centre faculty pioneered applications for a variety of lung diseases; including asthma, cystic fibrosis, and bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Their research programme was recently strengthened by a $7.4m NIH grant, awarded to evaluate lung transplant rejection and abnormalities in the lungs of electronic cigarette users using Xenon MRI, focusing on improving diagnosis and treatment monitoring.
The second noteworthy event, and the third in three weeks, on 6 October is the expansion of its Representative Agreement with Ascend Imaging LLC. Under the expanded agreement, Ascend Imaging will continue to act as a non-exclusive, independent manufacturer's representative, supporting the promotion and sale of the Company's Xenon MRI platform, increasing the coverage in US to 19 from the 4 states in the original agreement. Ascend has long standing relationships with healthcare providers which should accelerate Polarean's targeted expansion into functional lung imaging.
The net cash reported in the interims was $7.3m, compared to $12.1m in the prior period to 31 December 2024 and management expects there are sufficient funds to support operations through to the end of Q2 2026. The focus is on cash management and cost cutting which could extend the runway. The world market for MRI Imaging was valued at $6.5bn and expected to grow at around 6.5% per year from 2025-2034.
Hybridan Comment: Puzzlingly the share price is near a 52-week low despite the commercialisation progress which surely expands its funding options.
Xeros Technology Group 1.775p £9.2m (XSG.L)
Last Reported in Friday Takeway, 16 May 2025 at 1.4p
Financial Calendar:
Year End December, reported 20 May, Interims to June, reported 1 October
Three Main Shareholders:
Maven Capital 12.78%, Dowgate Capital 10.48%, Lombard Odier 7.77%
Key Investment Points:
Manufacture Launch Agreement, Paid for Trials, Licensing Model
The creator of laundry care technology that reduces the impact on the planet this week on 8 October reported a launch agreement with a global leading washing machine manufacturer. The manufacturer sells around seven million domestic washing machines per year, operating predominantly across North and Latin America. The agreement is paid-for, is a time-bound process with defined milestones and deliverables, and is anticipated to complete in around 12-18 months. The intended outcome of the Launch Agreement is the mass production of domestic washing machines using Xeros' technology.
The recent Interims reported revenue of just £65k which was £6k lower comparatively, but with a reduced EBITDA loss to £1.6m from £2.2m, implying a cash burn per month of £266k. There was a reduction in cash outflow leaving net cash at £0.8m at the end of September. The expected cash inflow from the manufacturing launch agreement is unreported.
This first agreement may stimulate other manufacturers and similar paid for agreements are anticipated as there are currently three further global washing machine manufacturers in technical verification with the Company. Xeros' technology licensing model will become highly scalable as incremental sales have few extra costs so giving significant operational leverage.
Hybridan Comment: Paid for agreements contracts will increase the cash runway and once XSG are funded to break-even, the prospects of operational leverage become highly attractive
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