18th September 2026

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.

Blencowe Resources 5.80p £29.78m (BRES.L)

Financial Calendar:

Year End 30 September, Finals reported 30 January, Interims to 31 March, reported 26 May

Three Largest Shareholders:

GHC Nominees Limited 4.80%, The Bank of New York (Nominees) Limited 3.63%, Interactive Brokers LLC 3.53%

Key Investment Points:

Significant potential, will recover from recent stumble

Blencowe owns 100% of the Orom-Cross graphite project in Northern Uganda. Graphite is essentially stacked layers of graphene - single atom-thick sheets of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice – and it is noted for having high thermal and electrical conductivity. This makes it integral to supercapacitors, carbon brushes for electrical motors, and lithium-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles. As it is chemical inert and highly refractory, with high corrosion resistance, it is also used in a wide array of industrial applications (e.g. in fire-resistant materials, synthetic diamonds, and refractories that line furnaces and kilns).

The Company hit the headlines earlier this week on 14 September, when the CEO resigned with immediate effect. This accompanied a declaration of share purchases dating back to September 2025. The Company stressed that operational activities and key development workstreams on the Orom-Cross project will continue under the Chief Operating Officer, Iain Wearing, and the rest of the senior management team.

The current JORC resource at Orom-Cross amounts to 64.3m tonnes at 6.03% total graphitic carbon (TGC). It is a thick, easily mined, shallow resource, which already translates to a mine life of over thirty years, but there is significant scope for additional reserves/resources within the 19km long and 2km wide project given evidence of additional mineralisation along strike and at depth.

An updated definitive feasibility study (DFS) announcement was released by Blencowe on 29 May. This highlighted low capex requirements (phase 1: $45m, phase 2: $125m); a net present value (NPV) of $1.25bn over the first 15 years life of mine (based on a conservative discount rate of 10%); and the potential for annual EBITDA of $333m. The robust project economics are aided by the ease of mining (surface to thirty metres); low impurities such as thorium, and sulphur; access to hydropower from the Ugandan national grid; and the fact that the site is only a few km from a main road. Crucially, metallurgical testing also suggests that graphite from Orom-Cross will prove appealing to US/EU parties looking to reduce their reliance on Chinese supply chains in critical minerals.

Earlier this year, Blencowe revealed that a European specialist processor called Alkeemia had successfully purified Orom-Cross graphite to 99.99%, or ‘four-nines’ purity, the highest commercially recognised grade for graphite. And more recently, there has been a spate of announcements testifying to successful testing of the Orom-Cross product by US Government agencies, and organisations such as American Energy Technologies Co, within a variety of within advanced aerospace and defence applications (which extended to advanced electromagnetic shielding and anti-radar technologies).

The updated DFS suggests that phase one production could begin in late 2027. This should lead to an output of 20,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of 97% TGC, plus up to 3,000 tpa of spheronised purified graphite (SPG) from a proposed Ugandan beneficiation facility. The site chosen for this facility is near Gulu, which is a regional hub for trade and administration, about 320km by road from the capital Kampala, and near the rail corridor that links the north of the country. Under Blencowe’s current thinking, debt funding will then be used to progress to phase two (70,000 tpa of 97% TGC concentrate and up to 10,000 tpa of uncoated spheronised graphite).

Chart 1: Location of Blencowe’s Orom-Cross project in Uganda

Source: Blencowe Resources PLC (with SPG marking the site of their proposed spheronised purified graphite facility).

Hybridan Comment: This is a value-added product as it provides battery manufacturers with a higher ‘tap’ density (more active material fitted into same space inside a battery anode). The beneficiation plant is included in the capex estimates noted above, and the ‘in-country’ location is clearly a value-added strategy designed to appeal to the Ugandan authorities.

Offtake agreements have been signed for the sale of all the planned phase 1 output. These will convert to binding agreements once project finance funding is in place. The good news therein is that interested capital providers are now in the ‘data room’ and conducting due diligence on phase one project finance at Orom-Cross.

The CEO’s resignation was not taken well by investors, but given the scale of the potential, and the involvement of various deep-pocketed parties (including the US Development Finance Corporation, the organisation who funded the Company’s DFS), we suggest that Blencowe has potential.

EnergyPathways 8.55p £21.52m (EPP.L) 

Financial Calendar:

Year End 31 December, Finals reported 30 June, Interims to 30 June, reported 26 September 2025

Three Largest Shareholders:

Ben Clube (CEO) 9.03% (held through Painkalac Holdings Pty), NonFinite SA Sicav-SIF Absolute Return Fund 5.28%, Zeta Petroleum plc 3.99%

Key Investment Points:

Large target market, proprietary IP, noteworthy partners

EnergyPathways secured approval for a gas storage licence on 6 May, but a healthy year-to-date gain in its share price reflects investor appreciation of the progress that it has been making with a proposed system for use in wind-power long-duration energy storage (LDES) projects. EPP’s LDES partners include Siemens and Jacobs, a US technical consultancy company, which has annual revenues of approximately $12bn.

The LDES scheme is based around a modular compressed air energy storage (CAES) facility. When surplus power is generated, the system enables wind power to be compressed and then stored inside an appropriate structure. The energy is then released through a turbine to generate power when energy demand recovers. EPP intend to use underwater salt caverns that sits in shallow 18 metre water off the coast of Cumbria for their first CAES project, and for a market such as the UK (where wind turbines are an increasingly significant part of the overall energy mix), there are three very clear benefits:

Energy security is strengthened -with the renewable wind power stored rather than wasted. Energy security is also a consideration in their gas storage plan;

‘Constraint’ payments are reduced -these are made to turbine owners when the grid is at capacity and cannot accept any more power; and

Additional power is provided - which is useful given rising demand stemming from the energy transition, data centres.

EPP’s initial LDES project is being designed to provide 300MW (megawatts) of power and over one hundred hours of duration. The modular, and turbine-based nature of the system (and this is where the collaboration with Siemens has been pivotal) means that other CAES operations could be rolled out once the first one is proven. There should be demand as the Government is targeting 20GW of LDES and ultra-LDES for the UK, and it has already deemed EPP’s CAES scheme as a project of national significance. That should translate to fast-tracking of approvals; a start date of 2031; 30+ years of asset life; and a supporting price environment courtesy of a ‘cap and collar’ mechanism from the UK’s energy regulator, OFGEM. Successful deployment has the potential to be a company maker, because as EPP’s CEO has stated:

"The potential to deploy our MESH energy storage modular system many times over elsewhere in the UK and globally is vast…We have already identified a number of further locations in the UK that are ideally suited for MESH technology."

Chart 2: The potential return from EPP’s proposed projects

Source: EnergyPathways PLC (NPV8 is net present value calculated using an 8% discount rate, FID is final investment decision)

The ‘MESH’ name of the project is short for Marram Energy Storage Hub. Marram is a gas field discovered in 1993, which sits circa eleven miles off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness in shallow waters of about eighteen metres in depth. Proximity, and the potential to ‘tie-back’ into existing infrastructure, really helps with the economics of the proposed gas storage plan. The field is ideal in another sense, however, because it is also host to a 500m thick layer of sub-surface salt, which can be used to make a series of caverns four times the height of St Paul’s Cathedral. This is not the first time that salt caverns have been redeployed for energy storage as a cavern with 19.8m cubic metres of compressed air storage capacity has been successfully deployed at a similar CAES project in Alabama. The potential of CAES systems can be determined by reference to the fact that one full charge from the 110 MW plant that is in place in Alabama, provides enough electricity to supply the electric demands of 11,000 homes for 26 hours. In addition, it also burns circa one-third of the natural gas per kilowatt-hour of output compared to a conventional combustion turbine. This means that it only produces about one-third of the pollutants that a conventional combustion turbine would generate.

Patent applications were filed this week on EPP’s proprietary technology for storing thermal energy created through the compression phase of its compressed air energy storage system, and an announcement yesterday, 17 September, detailed a hydrogen-focused tie-up with a Finnish group called Hycamite TCD Technologies.

The technology that EPP is looking to protect with patents is in place because thermal energy needs to be stored in the Marram sub-surface salt cavern in advance of being released when required. EPP has highlighted that their technology reduces the need for expensive high-pressure thermal storage equipment, and because it has a compact surface footprint, they are hoping that the technology could be licenced globally.

Natural gas will be extracted from the natural underground reservoirs on the Marram field to create valuable physical space. Methane will also be extracted as part of the extraction of natural gas. This has value, as EPP intends to split the methane into its two component parts – hydrogen and carbon - using methane pyrolysis technology for which EPP has exclusive rights of use within the UK. The carbon comes out as synthetic graphite because of the specific catalysts used in the splitting technology.

The Hycamite tie-up referenced above covers the Finnish group’s high-grade graphite and hydrogen production technology, which will be evaluated alongside the technology that EPP has already secured rights to. EPP plans to develop a 20,000 tonne per annum (ktpa) hydrogen plant and a c.60 ktpa graphite plant at Associated British Port’s facility in Barrow-in-Furness. Both products have attractive end markets, with graphite categorised as a critical mineral by a variety of Western Governments, so this aspect of the overall development plan could add to the revenue and profit generated by the main LDES facility. The hydrogen can also be used in the MESH power generation system as the Siemens-supplied turbine system that it intends to deploy is hydrogen compatible. This strategy is a low carbon one and in addition, the hydrogen could be used to make ammonia (which could then be traded).

Hybridan Comment: EPP’s CEO is a former VP of Finance at BHP Petroleum and helped to execute international development and gas commercialisation projects. As a director at FAR Ltd, he was responsible for building the Africa business, which made world-class oil discoveries off the coast of Senegal.

EPP has a £10m ‘ATM’ or At-The-Market equity facility and this deserves an additional comment because such facilities can unnerve investors (on the basis that shares issued tend to be sold immediately in the market, with no regard for impact that may have on the day in question). The ATM is capped at 2.99% of issues share capital per tranche, and crucially, there are two protective elements in place – a volume participation limit, and a stipulation that shares cannot be sold below the current close.

EPP is well-positioned, well-resourced, and well-managed. We look forward to charting its progress.

Personal Group Holdings 435.00p £137.51m (PGH.L)

Financial Calendar:

Year End 31 December, Finals reported 24 March, Interims to 30 June, reported 15 September

Three Largest Shareholders:

Christopher W T Johnston (Founder & former Chairman) 36.29%, Premier Miton Investors 10.01%, Trinity Bridge 9.10%

Key Investment Points:

Good growth, cash generative, solid balance sheet

Personal Group is a Milton Keynes-based business specialising in providing workforce benefits and insurance to clients such as B & Q, British Transport Police, British Airways, Randstad, The Royal Mint, and the bus group, Stagecoach.

Recurring revenues account for over 90% of its income. This week, on 15 September it released a strong set of interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2026 (H1 ’26), with record insurance sales helping to deliver a +10% year-on-year (YoY) increase in revenues to £25.7m, and a +22% YoY increase in adjusted EBITDA to £6.7m. This translated to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 26.1%. As the chart below suggests, this means that the Company is continuing to build on solid progress made over the last few years.

Chart 3: A snapshot of results reported by PGH over the last three years

Source: Personal Group Holdings PLC and Hybridan LLP

The H1 ’26 EPS increased by +28% YoY to 12.3p, and this paved the way for a +10% YoY increase in the interim dividend to 9p a share. This will be paid on 30 October to shareholders on the register as of 25 September. We note that the dividend for the financial year to 31 December was increased YoY by +41% to 23.3p a share. FY ’25 was also hallmarked by free cash flow of £7.3m, a healthy end of year cash position, and a return on equity of +20%.

Operationally, the Company is continuing to trade well, as the CEO stressed that she was happy with the Group’s third quarter performance. The accompanying message was that full year results should be in line with market expectations. The CEO is targeting 2030 revenues of over £100m and an adjusted EBITDA of at least £30m, with the forecast growth premised on further success in markets that are held to be relatively “unpenetrated.” At present, Personal Group supports the health and wellbeing of circa 1.25m UK employees.

Hybridan Comment: Insurance sales hit “another record” in H1 ’26, with annualised insurance sales up +9% YoY to £8.1m on the back of new business and higher average premiums. This side of the business provides employees of client firms with access to affordable, individual policies for hospital, recovery, and death benefit plans.

A year-to-date share price gain of +35% serves as de facto evidence that investors are appreciative of the progress being made, and at the current price, PGH is trading on a prospective FY ’26 dividend yield of 5.8%. Good dividend growth is expected over the years ahead, with the management team targeting an increase to over £20m in annual recurring revenue (ARR) from the smaller Benefits & Rewards division by 2030 (relative to £7.6m of ARR in FY ’25), and an increase to over £70m in ARR from their main Insurance arm (vs. £36m of ARR in FY ’25).