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.
New vigour in these businesses
PRM New Drugs in demand
TST Restructured to find growth
Proteome Sciences 1.38p £4.77m (PRM.L)
Financial Calendar:
Year End December, reported 15 April, Interims to 30 June, reported 25 September 2025
Top Three Shareholders:
Vulpes Life Science Fund 24.2%, CDJ Pearce (Executive Chairman) 10.53%, Spreadex Ltd 3.13%
Key Investment Points:
Specialist Market, Increased Capacity, Growth Forecast
The Company was founded in 1994 and the name Proteome stands for a complete set of proteins that can be produced by a genome. At the beginning of 2026 on 6 January, two contracts for the Good Clinical Laboratory Practice (GCLP) worth over $1.5m were won. GCLP contracts are regulated for a high standard of reliability with an audited process. The contracts are with drug discovery clients in the US and Europe and likely to be completed in 2026.
The finals to 31 December 2025 reported on 15 April showed revenues decreasing by 23.1% to £3.76m as reagent (DIY Tools) sales and royalties fell to £1.7m from £4.o1m, while the GCLP services increased from £0.87m to £2.06m. Operating Losses decreased to £3.06m from a loss of £3.41m, but with a higher EBITDA loss of £1.72m from £1.48m and net cash reduced to £0.78m from £1.13m in the prior period.
The Company raised £1m at 1.75p on 28 January and at the same time Christopher Pearce, the Executive Chairman, agreed to a significant variation to his £5m loan terms increasing the conversion price from 1p to 4p. There has already been significant investment made in additional capacity at the San Diego facility. The further funds are to drive the strategy of generating a range of new and complementary revenue streams both in the US and Europe.
The Company offers a full suite of Mass Spectrometric based protein discovery and detection services and tools on an outsourced client driven basis. Proteome’s differentiation is the use of the very latest and most sensitive mass spectrometry instrumentation and techniques, coupled with its proprietary Tandem Mass Tag (TMT) that allows tighter control on analytical variability and rapid development of assays for biomarker validation. TMT works like a car tracker system to monitor proteins and peptides. The global proteomic market is forecast to grow by 12.9% per annum from $27.8bn in 2024 to $58.16bn by 2030, according to Grand View Research https:// www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/proteomics-market. The growth is fuelled by the need for advanced protein analysis in identifying therapeutic targets developing novel vaccines and ensuring new drug efficacy and safety.
The Company is working closely with licensee Thermo Scientific to reinforce the global market position and advantages of TMTpro to drive increased uptake in the US and the Rest of the World.
The Company secured its third contract on 8 December from a US biopharmaceutical company using the mass spectrometry services to develop a new assay in anticipation of starting a new clinical trial programme. The CEO is optimistic about delivering a substantial increase in returns from the services business and a recovery in reagents. This could be the bottom of the cycle as the demand pattern has started to change and the level of orders are picking up in the first quarter.
Hybridan Comment: New capacity is coming on stream as demand is growing, while the shares are near their lowest in three years; consistent positive newsflow could spark a rebound.
Touchstar 62.50p £4.95m (TST.L)
Reported in Friday Takeaway, 2 May 2025 at 75.50p
Financial Calendar:
Year End December, reported 29th April 2025, Interims to 30 June, reported 16 September 2025
Top Three Shareholders:
Mr. Thomas W G Charlton 13.33%, Mr. Ian P Martin 10.48%, Robert & Virginia Millington 7.07%
Key Investment Points:
Decades of knowledge, New CEO, Restructured for growth
Touchstar is an established supplier of mobile data computing solutions and managed services used for a variety of purposes and industrial sectors and has generally broken-even, but with little growth. Lynden Jones was appointed as CEO on 24 June 2025 after 14 years as a director and is starting to transform the Company.
There is a legacy of decades of supplying systems, networks, and IT consultancy services with a base of over 500,000 installations. These are in oil & gas and warehouse logistics digitalisation, complete real-time proof of delivery systems, rugged mobile computer systems (for harsh environments), and access control. Last year, Touchstar installed its Android mobile computing devices for a family business founded in 1964, Bilsland Ltd, which is in heating oil and fuel delivery, across all of its depots as part of a fleet roll out. Other clients include Calor Gas, British Sugar, Certas Energy, Gulf Oil International, Lakeland, Tata Steel and Q8.
The Trading update for FY December 2025 made on 16 December reported reduced revenue expectations to around £6.7m compared to £6.9m in the prior period and a small pre-tax trading profit for the year.
The Company completed a share buyback programme on 29 October 2025 after last paying 72.5p per share. The net cash at the Interims to June 2025 was £2m, and after the share buy backs, the Company has said "Despite lower profitability, the Company's balance sheet remains healthy and year end cash should remain at over £2m". For 2026, the Company anticipates some acceleration of organic revenue growth while seeking acquisition opportunities.
The focus has been on strengthening the foundations of the business to enhance its growth prospects. To that end, a comprehensive restructuring is underway aimed at driving efficiency, collaboration and consistency into the business. The FY December 2025 is due to be announced before 30 June 2026.There will be two non-trading exceptional charges on the profit and loss account, one relating to the c. £0.2m costs of the reorganisation and the other relating to the treatment of software development costs with an impairment charge of £1.25m. The operational restructuring made by the ‘new generation’ management team should be complete.
The target is to invest ‘wisely’ in organic growth and management bandwidth allowing the integration of future acquisitions. Sectors being considered are in depot, the warehouse and retail markets. Since the 16 December trading update, Directors have been a persistent buyer of shares, the last announced on 24 March with the CEO Lynden paying 65p and taking his holding to 4.9%.
Hybridan Comment: We estimate EBITDA/EV of 4.25x for December 2025, which seems modest for a critical solutions provider under new management.
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