Friday Takeaway—delving a little deeper into UK small caps
Happy New Year! Wishing our readers a joyful start to 2026.
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.
News flow could reveal the fruits of these companies investing
CRDL Faster Tracks
N4P Targeted Therapy
Cordel Group 6.25p £13.56m (CRDL.L)
Last Reported in Friday Takeaway, 10 January 2025 at 7.13p
Financial Calendar:
Year End June, reported 4 November, Interims to December, reported 22 January
Three Main Shareholders:
Aaron Hoye Family Investments Pty Ltd (Aaron Hoye is a Director and CTO) 11.80%, Nicholas Smith 11.80%, Rathbones 9.43%
Key Investment Points:
Follow-on Contracts, Improved Interims, Net Cash
The developer of an AI platform for transport corridor analytics has announced that significant new customer contracts have been signed in the USA, Europe and APAC, which are all expected to be expanded.
On 17 November, a new contract was announced with V/Line, the statutory authority that operates regional passenger train services in the Northern Corridor and Western Corridor of Australia, totalling 820kms of mainline track and passing loops. The initial contract is for an eight-week rail corridor data capture program using Cordel's Rugged LiDAR, (Light Detecting and Ranging) sensing technology hardware, including high-resolution video aligned to the customer's network model with precise locational information. LiDAR data and Synchronised video footage will be processed by Cordel's Multimodal AI which produces safety assessments on the structural clearance of signals, platforms and overhead wires, as well as level crossing sight lines and vegetation encroachment. The data enables railway operators to obtain safety information rapidly and efficiently for all routes in their network.
Amtrak in the US is a client with a six-year deal worth $6.7m to help reduce passenger delays and deal with maintenance backlog. There is a five-year deal with Network Rail, hopefully with increasing income. An innovation partnership with Transport for London (TfL) was signed on 24 September where Cordel is conducting an initial Proof of Concept project with TfL to demonstrate the technical capabilities of LiDAR and AI technology. The key aspects of the project is capturing point cloud data along the complete Central line route and processing it through Cordel's AI platform. On 13 October, a Middle Eastern Contract was extended following the successful conclusion of the initial 6-month contract. Cordel has been awarded a second phase covering approximately double the amount of track mileage to be delivered over the next 6 months. Rail corridor data will be captured, analysed and aligned to the customer's network model with precise locational information. There is considerable further investment being made in rail across the Middle East.
The finals to June 2025 reported a 10% increase in revenue to £4.79m with Gross Margins improving to 73.7% from 63.6%. There was a 74% reduction in losses to a loss of £358k, and EBITDA losses were down to £158k from a loss of £945k. Cash balance and trade receivables were £2.2m compared to £1.5m, following a £1m fund raise in October 2024 at 6.5p.
This week on 6 January, Jeffery Songer joined as an NED. He is a US rail industry executive with over 30 years of experience and led the merger and integration activities for the Kansas City Southern Railway, acquired by the Canadian Pacific Railway for $31bn in April 2023. Directors including the Chairman bought shares on 11 and 15 September at 6.25p.
Hybridan Comment: The commercial phase is gathering pace and the Interims should show evidence of scalable profitable growth.
N4 Pharma 0.50p £4.16m (N4P.L)
Financial Calendar:
Year End December reported 6 June, Interims to June, reported 25 September
Top Three Shareholders:
Tracarta Ltd 18.02%, Marc Mathenz 8.89%, Patrick Byrne 5.19%
Key Investment Points:
Double Impact, Firm Foundations, Studies in Progress
Established in 2014, this biotech Company is developing Nuvec, a proprietary gene (RNA) delivery system to enable advanced therapies for cancer and other diseases. Platform biotech companies don’t sell products; they build engines for creating them. The size of the global RNA therapeutics market was $13.7bn in 2023 and is expected to reach $18.0bn by 2028. N4P is also developing an oral inhibitor for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). This treatment market was worth $20.4bn in 2023 and is expected to grow to over $27.6bn by 2030.
The Business and Operational update on 17 December reported an increasing pace of development with the analysis of data from its collaboration with world-renowned non-profit R&D institute SRI International. The research demonstrated the ability to specifically target cancer cells for the delivery of RNA, using Nuvec. This effective targeting is widely regarded as the 'holy grail' for pharmaceutical companies developing RNA-based therapeutics.
Progress was also reported in the collaboration with the Centre for Continuous Manufacturing and Advanced Crystallisation in the field of nanoparticle drug delivery, based at the University of Strathclyde. The programme remains on track for key in vitro and in vivo studies planned for H1 2026 to build out the commercial data package and bring Nuvec towards clinical readiness. The latest studies indicate that Nuvec nanoparticles would offer a significant commercial advantage, particularly in terms of stability and showing a marked decrease in inflammation.
This is also essential work towards the development of N4 101, an oral anti-inflammatory product for the treatment of IBDs such as Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis. This lead preclinical programme is an inhibitor, while also aiming to promote the body’s own anti-inflammatory response.
A strong flow of data-driven news can be expected in the coming months, positioning the Company as an RNA therapeutic company, as well as having a unique delivery platform.
The Company is pre-revenue and the interims to June 2025 reported a 4% reduction in operating losses to £0.47m, with general Administration costs increasing 6% to £406k and R&D costs were 41% lower at £67k. Net cash was £1.7m, compared to £1.2m, following a £1.75m fund raise in April 2025 at 0.4p per share. This implies a cash burn of £78k per month and a 15-month cash run rate to further improve the quality of the data package which will support any commercial discussions with third parties and potential partnership collaborations.
Hybridan Comment: These developments could interest a partner, potentially adding significant value.
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