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
12th December 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.
Share price rallies in these companies may still leave room for further growth.
AURR - The Globe on a Budget
HDD - US to the Rescue
Aurrigo International 80p £61.5m (AURR.L)
Last Reported in Friday Takeaway, 3 October 2025 at 44p
Financial Calendar:
Year End December reported 19 May, Interims to June reported 29 September.
Top Three Shareholders:
David Keene 13.99% (Director), Graham Keene 13.99% (Director), Octopus Investments Ltd 12.05%
Key Investment Points:
World Hub, Licensing Income, JV hub newsflow
The launch of the ‘Hub strategy’ programme will accelerate global commercialisation and licensing income from this manufacturer of autonomous airport vehicles. The 'Hub strategy' is designed to align local partnerships, funding, operations and manufacturing with Aurrigo's proprietary technology platform. The Hub partners and JVs will be at a local/subsidiary level to established regional ground operations and manufacturing capacity, to reduce risk, capital requirements and time to market. When the strategy is executed, this will greatly increase the operational leverage, accelerate international scaling and without significant capital dilution.
The global market for airport special vehicles is experiencing significant growth driven by increasing passenger traffic and is projected to reach $3.2bn by 2034 with an 8% CAGR. The Company’s smart airside purpose-built Autonomous vehicles are fabricated in collaboration with customers to meet the specific needs of the airport’s baggage handling. The solutions combine the autonomous proprietary hardware with a unique, patented software to increase the speed and accuracy of loading and unloading so ultimately driving a strong return on investment.
There are five hubs expected to be established through commercial collaborations or strategic partnerships. Covering the UK, which may be the first to progress, North USA, Southeast Asia, Middle East and Europe. Aurrigo is contributing its proprietary intellectual property, technical expertise, and operational knowhow, and local partners provide the required working capital and customers to accelerate product deployment into regional airports. There should be a flurry of newsflow as the hub strategy is deployed.
Our last comment was after the Interims to June reported a 10% reduction in revenue to £3.5m. Revenue at the automotive division (specialist components for electric vehicles) was adversely affected by production volatility, while the rising star of the Autonomous division revenues increased 41% to £1.1m. The increase was being driven by trial deployments in a number of airports and initial contracts progressing to larger orders. The gross margin improved to 42.3% from 35.0%, reflecting the increasing contribution from the higher margin licensing fees of the autonomous division. The net cash as of June was £1.8m and since then, in August 2025, £14.1m was raised at 45p to scale production and push forward with product development to support the ramp-up of the Autonomous projects. The FY December 2025 forecast on Alpha Terminal is for a loss before tax of £4m on revenue of £7.5m with net borrowing at -£11m.
Hybridan Comment: The innovate Hub structure is an opportunity for the low-cost global roll-out assisted by localised manufacturing, and targeted investment providing a scalable framework to capture the rapidly growing demand for automation solutions across the aviation industry. This could significantly accelerate earnings in the medium term and the 83% price rise since our last comment still leaves value.
Hardide 15p £11.8m (HDD.L)
Last Reported in Friday Takeaway, 16 May 2025 at 6.875p
Financial Calendar:
Year End September 2024 reported 29 January 2025, Interims to March 2025, reported 2o May 2025.
Three Main Shareholders:
A Boyce & Associates 12.8%, Canaccord Genuity Group 11.9%, Interactive Investor (EO) (Private Clients) 7.0%
Key Investment Points:
US Defence/ Upgraded Expectations/ Spare Capacity
At the beginning of December, the Company received orders from a significant new US customer in the energy sector with an aggregate value of £1.75m. It’s for the provision of advanced surface composite coatings whichsignificantly increase the life of critical metal parts operating in abrasive, erosive, corrosive and chemically aggressive environments. Discussions are continuing with this customer to plan for ongoing demand later in 2026.
These orders are expected to benefit Group revenues in the first half of Hardide's current financial year ending 30 September 2026 (FY26) and are greater in value than initially forecasted. The Board anticipates revenue and financial performance for FY26 to be materially higher than its previous expectations. The Group's net debt as of September 2025 was £1.6m compared to £2.1m and the cash balance was £0.8m against £0.7m. This is despite some working capital absorption due to strong trading in the final quarter. As well as development work with new customers within the energy sector in North America and the Middle East.
The growth is being driven by the aerospace business, including initial revenues from a contract to coat cargo door components for freight aircraft. There is also some recovery in oil and gas sector demand. The CEO, Matt Hamblin, appointed in June 2024, has a US coatings and sales development track record. He is focused on pursuing initiatives to accelerate revenue growth and utilise spare production capacity. There are production facilities in the US and UK providing clients with a patented coating process involving advanced tungsten carbide and metal matrix composite coatings which increase the toughness and ductility (high tensile stress). Hardide should be on track to deliver on full year 2025 market expectations for an EBITDA of £1.0m on £6m turnover, according to Alpha Terminal. For FY September 2026 turnover is forecasted to grow to £8m and the EBITDA to £2m.
Hybridan Comment: The shares have improved by 118% since our comments in May. Assuming the FY 2026 are met, which probably includes at least one further US contract, our calculated EV/ EBITDA using Alpha Terminal’s consensus is an undemanding 6.7x.
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