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.
Cora Gold Ltd 10.15p £75.38m (CORA.L)
Financial Calendar:
Year End 31 December, Finals reported 18 May 2026, Interims to 30 June, reported 4 September 2026
Three Largest Shareholders:
Eagle Eye Asset Holdings Pte. Ltd 29.85%*, Brookstone Business Inc 20.41%**, Lord Farmer 12.66%
Eagle Eye Asset Holdings Pte. Ltd. is a Monetary Authority of Singapore registered single-family office, managing the investment portfolios of the founding & promoter family, of which Aryann Gupta (Non-Executive Director of Cora) is a family member. Eagle Eye Asset Holdings Pte. Ltd. is established as a trust, of which Aryann Gupta (Non-Executive Director of Cora) is a beneficiary. **Wholly owned & controlled by First Island Trust Company Ltd as Trustee of The Nodo Trust. Patrick Quirk, father of Paul Quirk (Non-Executive Director of Cora), is a potential beneficiary of The Nodo Trust.
Key Investment Points:
Financing in place, drill results adding to project potential
Cora is a West African gold (Au) developer, whose primary focus is the development of the Sanankoro project in south Mali into an open pit oxide mine, with first production by March 2028. The pre-production capital requirement to cover machinery and equipment, a tailings storage facility, civil works, and so on, has been put at US$124m. A definitive feasibility study (DFS) in September 2025 estimated that Cora’s all-in sustaining cost would be approximately US$1,478 per ounce (oz) of gold (Au). This DFS was put together by SENET, one of the leading project management and engineering firms with strong West African experience.
With projected production of 55,000 (k) oz in year one, and 70k oz in each of the following two years, we note that the Sanankoro mine could deliver revenues and gross profits of US$838m and US$550m respectively between 2028 and 2031 if Au prices remain at c.US$4,300 per oz. Mining in the first few years will be actively helped by the fact that Sanankoro is characterised by heavily weathered ‘soft’ rock down to about 120m. This weathering is why the material is oxide (i.e. has been exposed to oxygen/rainwater/surface moisture).
Cora’s largest shareholder, Eagle Eye Asset Holdings (EEA), is a Singapore-based single-family office, and a major strategic shareholder/funding partner for an Australian-listed business called Toubani Resources. Via this involvement, EEA is backing the development of Toubani’s Kobada mine, another Au project in Mali that is open-pit, oxide-dominant, and only 10km or so from Sanankoro.
EEA was the largest participant in a £15.7m fund raising that Cora undertook in March, and it subsequently agreed to fund a US$120m ‘gold stream’ financing package to support the development of Sanankoro through to production. In return for the funding, EEA is entitled, for the life of the mine, to purchase 30.44% of Au production from Sanankoro at a price equal to 20% of the prevailing spot price. This will reduce to 15.22% if Cora is able to replace half of the promised funding with traditional senior debt by the later of (i) 30 October 2027 and (ii) a date that is 6-months after the granting of a mining rights permit by the Malian government. EEA's appointee to Cora’s board, Mr Aryann Gupta, is a member of the family behind EEA and Head of Mergers & Acquisitions at A2MP Investments FZCO, a platform dedicated to unlocking Africa's potential in minerals and metals processing.
The project manager at Sanankora is Lourens Steenekamp, who has over 30 years of experience with groups such as Gold Fields, Barrick Gold, Resolute Mining and Perseus Mining. This has seen him managing construction projects in Mali and the Ivory Coast. To expedite the development of Sanankoro, Cora also appointed Russell White as a Non-Executive Director on 1 September. He was described as having “over 40 years' experience in mineral processing, project delivery and mine operations, predominantly on West African gold projects.” The front-end engineering and design process for a proposed Au processing plant near the mine site is said to be progressing well.
A 12,000-metre drill programme is also underway to target near-mine greenfield targets and extensions to existing deposits. This is in the belief that there is great scope to add to Sanankora’s Maiden Resource Estimate (MRE) of just over 1.04m oz of Au (which was released by external consultants in 2024). Assay results for several holes from ‘Zone B’ of the new drilling programme were released earlier this week, with highlights including 34m @ 6.78g/t (grams per ton) Au, 22m @ 2.24g/t, and 54m @ 1.06g/t. In total, Zone B (which will host the planned open pit mine, and which can be seen on the map below) should account for about 40% of the drilling programme. It is a priority target due to limited deeper drilling, the sheer size of the zone, and the potential to improve continuity within the existing resource area.
Cora Gold’s Sanankoro’s project in Mali
Source: Cora Gold Ltd
Hybridan Comment: The assay results released earlier this week on Monday 7th make it clear that gold-bearing mineralisation does extend beyond areas incorporated into the current MRE model. If additional high-grade zones can be identified, it is possible therein that Sanankora’s planned mine life could be extended via a deeper pit/an underground development.
The drill programme at Sanankora remains ongoing, and further assay results can be expected. They will be interesting in their own right, but they may also assist in any background senior debt discussions.
Cora will also be hoping to announce that a mining permit has been granted by the Malian authorities. As such, any potential investors are advised to keep a close ‘eye’ on related news flow.
Medpal AI 6.6p £52.20m (MPAL.L)
Financial Calendar:
Year End 31 August, Finals reported 27 February 2026, Interims to 28 February, reported 29 May 2026
Two Largest Shareholders:
Jason Drummond (CEO) 21.8%, Justin Drummond (Executive Director and the CEO’s brother) 4.8%
Key Investment Points:
Growing rapidly, well-positioned assets, large target market
Medpal AI is building a scalable digital health and pharmacy business. Its platform includes a robot-led pharmaceutical prescription dispensing service, and a private health clinic called ‘New Health’, which specialises in the supply of GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) weight loss medications.
The release of a trading update earlier this week on Monday 7th September was testament to the progress that has been made over the last year, with annualised revenues climbing to £28m for the month of August vs. £8.6m in July, and £5m as of 1 June. Annualised figures are the monthly revenue multiplied by twelve and are not a forecast, but they are in sharp contrast to the revenue of just £1.6m that was reported for the first six months of the current financial year.
The GLP-1-focused New Health private health clinic business is clearly the main engine driving Medpal’s current growth as it is now running at annualised private prescription revenues of approximately £21.9m, with recent growth assisted by the direct supply agreements that the Company has with both Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk for current GLP-1 medicines. Growth from this point is uncertain, but it should be boosted by the US FDA’s (Food and Drug Administration) decision to approve Eli Lilly’s main Mounjaro GLP-1 offering for adults with type 2 diabetes who are at high risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (such as heart attacks and strokes). Growth should also be assisted by the UK’s 10 August decision (implemented through the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) to approve Foundayo, Eli Lilly's once daily oral GLP-1 weight loss pill.
Medpal’s full-year results will be released late February, and it will be interesting to see the level of sales generated by the Company’s prescription distribution arm. It benefits from human-validated prescribing, robotic dispensing, an NHS distance prescribing pharmacy licence, and nationwide delivery.
Medpal has also added to its potential with:
The launch of a retail pharmacy website (MedPal.clinic).
An agentic AI health companion called Juno….which is built on Anthropic's Claude platform, and which proactively watches over a patient's health information, and which engages via the web and by text over WhatsApp. A proprietary triage system connects users with qualified prescribers, with any required medication then dispensed by robot and shipped to the user’s door. In addition, Juno then check that you are getting better!
A Medpal AI wellness app…..which is partially differentiated by its ability to aggregate data from Apple Health, Garmin, Fitbit etc.).
eMARx……an electronic medication administration record software offering for care homes, which they acquired in early September.
These complementary capabilities form what the Company now describes as the MedPal Health OS (operating system): a single, vertically integrated platform delivering personalised, AI-driven health support, with Juno and the MedPal app as the consumer interfaces.
Adoption of this platform should be boosted via a partnership agreement with Epassi UK Limited (digital employee benefit platform), which will, for a limited time, grant exclusive, zero-cost access to the MedPal AI app across Epassi's network of 11m+ employees at major firms like Siemens and Volvo.
Beyond consumers, MedPal AI plans to expand via B2B licensing to healthcare providers, businesses, and insurers. The recent acquisition of the eMARx care home administration software business fits in with this ambition.
The Company also believes that there is potential use in insurance-linked wellness programs to reduce premiums and drive new revenue through institutional partnerships.
A partnership agreement is in place with Independent Gyms Ltd (an alliance of c.2,000 gyms across the UK and Ireland), and this may play a part in Medpal’s future insurance-linked wellness plans.
Hybridan Comment: Credit must be given to Medpal’s management team for the rapid growth that the Company is enjoying, and their success in establishing a comprehensive and synergistic health related offering should be made abundantly clear when they publish results for the financial year to 31 August 2026. In our view, there is a strong chance that a further trading update is released ahead of that event.
Pebble Beach Systems Group 26.00p £32.92m (PEB.L)
Last Reported in Friday Takeaway, 22 August 2025 at 18.67p
Financial Calendar:
Year End 31 December, Finals reported 28 April 2026, Interims to 30 June, reported 9 September 2026
Three Largest Shareholders:
Kestrel Partners 24.24%, Dowgate Capital 10.03%, Interactive Investor 7.98%
Key Investment Points:
Undervalued global leader, rock solid balance sheet, enjoying good growth
Pebble Beach Systems (PBSG) provides automation solutions for the broadcast and streaming markets. It has made solid progress since its formation in 2000 and over the last five years, it has gone from strength-to-strength, with systems now installed in over 60 countries. It has over 120 customers and these include such readily recognisable names such as Fox News, Bloomberg, and CNBC.
It estimates that over 1,000 channels currently on air are under the control of its automation technology, and in the last six months alone, it has completed installations for a North American sports broadcaster, an existing Dubai-based customer, and a specialist sporting network in Europe. In addition, it has also secured four major new clients (two streaming companies based in the US and Romania respectively, and two Tier 1 broadcasters based in Singapore and Australia respectively), and a major new contract with an existing customer in the Middle East.
One of the key underlying drivers of growth in the market is streaming, and the coverage of live events, but technological progress also ensures regular ‘refreshes’ of the systems that any broadcaster utilises.
Support and maintenance contracts provide the Company with a healthy stream of recurring revenue (c.62% of the total in the last financial year if one excludes third-party hardware sales). To understand that revenue stream, it may be helpful to appreciate that their automated solutions (which are architected using modular services blocks) can be configured to include ad insertion tools to cater for regional opt-outs; multilingual audio; control over graphics; automatic caching; integration with web-based management and monitoring; control over migration tools (designed to simplify the transition from legacy and end of life automation solutions); and a secure application programming interface to enable direct third party integrations. In other words, Pebble Beach clients rely on the technology for more reasons than just pure ‘broadcasting’ and as any down time has ramifications, a service-level agreement (SLA) contract becomes a very justifiable add-on.
Total sales for the financial year to 31 December 2025 (FY 2025) were up 7% year-on-year (YoY), with Adjusted Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation, and exceptional items) rising by a very respectable +27% YoY to £4.2m. This lifted the adjusted Ebitda margin by 500 basis points YoY to 34%. UK and European revenues accounted for 52% of the total, the US a further 28%, with the Middle East/North Asia and Asia Pacific regions representing the final 17% and 3% respectively.
Further progress was revealed on Wednesday 9 September with the release of interim results for the half-year to 30 June 2026 (H1 2026). Adjusted Ebitda rose by +25% YoY to £4.2m on a +10% YoY increase in sales, and this lifted the Adjusted Ebitda margin to 37%. One of the key factors in this margin increase was a 600-basis point YoY increase in the gross margin (to 82%), as this was sufficient to offset a +16% YoY increase in operating expenses (to £2.9m), but PBSG also trimmed R&D expenditure to 19.5% of sales (FY 2024: 24.3% of sales). H1 2026 new orders were up +9% YoY at £6.3m, and the adjusted basic H1 2026 EPS was up +88% YoY to 1.5p. Impressively, net debt also fell by -76% YoY to just £0.8m, with Pebble Beach stressing therein that they expect to be in a net cash position by the year-end.
Profits over the last six months have benefited from the timing of software licence sales, which are high gross margin and are recognised on delivery, but it is clear that there is traction on more than one front as recurring revenues from support and maintenance contracts were running at an annualised level of £8.1m as of 30 June. If the interim SLA revenue figure of £3.44m was annualised, the implied FY 2026 figure would obviously be somewhat lower at £6.88m. Professional services revenue is recognised over the length of the project implementation while software licence revenue and third-party hardware revenue are both recognised on delivery.
PBSG’s global customer base
Source: Pebble Beach Systems Group
Hybridan Comment: It is clear that PBSG is trading well, and in the context of the current £32.92m market cap, we note that Pebble Beach is quite capable of generating full year free cash flows (FCF) of around £2m. That’s an appealing prospective FCF yield of 6.1%.
They are likely to be debt free by the year end (which should pave the way for a share buyback in FY 2027), and we end this update by also noting that their cash return on capital invested (CROCI) was a top tier 41.2% in FY 2025. This year’s outcome is likely to even better.
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