PIWORLD Investor Podcasts

This video can be seen at: https://www.piworld.co.uk/2021/04/30/piworld-andy-broughs-3-minute-stockslam-other-gems/   Andy commented on Twitter on the Stockopedia/piworld StockSlam from April; we catch up with Andy to hear what caught his eye, how he perceives the retail investor, how to ‘Slam a stock’ and reflections from his career as a Fund Manager. A stream of investing gems to entertain and inform. 00:30 Stockopedia/piworld StockSlam & the PI community; mentions of John Menzies (MNZS), Tandem (TND) & Micro Focus (MCRO) & DX Group (DX.) 03:09 Liquidity and size of position in the fund with reference to Xaar (XAR) 04:17 What can the retail investor learn from the Fund Manager? 07:11 If you have 3 minutes to pitch a stock, what do you need to cover? 09:07 Selling: How do you know those stocks that keep growing and those that don’t. 11:13 Dart Group (JET2) 11:44 What did you learn from selling too early? ITM Power (ITM), AFC Energy (AFC) 14:03 3 minute StockSlam: Studio Retail Group (STU) 18:56 How important is the retail investor to listed companies? 20:09 Andy’s children and investing 24:24 What advice would you give to your younger self? 28:32 Should companies be communicating with retail investors? 29:22 Do you favour meeting management? 31:55 Ted Baker (TED) 32:55 Placings: will they continue? 34:26 What do you think of markets at the moment? 36:28 How do you feel about inflation? If you want to join us for the next StockSlam on Wednesday 19th May 6pm, register here.  At several points, Andy refers to a piworld interview with Rosemary Banyard, Fund manager at VT Downing Unique Opportunities Fund, watch here.  About Andy Brough: • Head of the UK & European Small and Mid Cap team • Manager of the Schroder Mid 250 Fund and the Schroder UK Smaller Companies Fund • Co-Manager of the Schroder UK Mid Cap Fund plc and Co-manager of the Schroder Institutional UK Smaller Companies Fund • Co-manager of Schroder ISF European Smaller Companies • Investment career commenced on joining Schroders in 1987 • Chartered Accountant • BSc in Economics, Manchester University          

This video can be seen at: https://www.piworld.co.uk/2021/04/27/the-property-franchise-group-tpfg-full-year-2020-results-overview/ Gareth Samples, CEO talks through The Property Franchise Group full-year 2020 results, he gives an update on the Hunters acquisition, and he talks more about the strategic partnership announced with LSL today. 00:33 Summary of the period 01:50 Financial highlights 02:39 Growth strategy 04:47 Hunters 06:00 Q1 FY21 Trading Update 07:07 LSL strategic partnership 08:10 Outlook The Property Franchise Group plc, formerly MartinCo PLC (MartinCo), is engaged in residential property franchise business. The Company operates as a franchise model focused on the United Kingdom residential lettings and property management services offered to private clients. It also offers estate agency services. Its brands include Martin & Co, Xperience, Ellis & Co, CJ Hole, Parkers and Whitegates. Martin & Co is a national brand with approximately 200 offices distributed across the United Kingdom. Martin & Co is a specialist lettings and property management business. Xperience brand includes is the property franchise business. Ellis & Co has over 20 offices within the M25 and one office in Tonbridge, Kent. CJ Hole is engaged in selling property within the estate agency market in the South West with over 20 offices throughout Bristol, Somerset and Gloucestershire. Its subsidiaries include Martin & Co (UK) Limited, Xperience Franchising Limited and Whitegates Estate Agency Limited.

This video can be seen at: https://www.piworld.co.uk/2021/04/23/mercia-asset-management-merc-virtual-shareholder-event-april-2021/   This showcases Mercia’s team, portfolio companies and an overview of the Group’s recent performance. Led by Mercia’s CEO Dr Mark Payton, this provides insight on the progress that Mercia is making on its three-year strategy. Mark was joined by Martin Glanfield, CFO, Julian Viggars, CIO and Jill Williams, Investment Director. The event includes short presentations from the CEOs of several Mercia investee companies within both its direct investment portfolio and third-party manage funds’ portfolios. At the end there is a short Q&A. 00:16 – Introduction Dr Mark Payton, CEO 00:29 – CEO Update Martin Glanfield, CFO 10:47 – Financial highlights Julian Viggars, CIO 14:04 – Portfolio review 17:58 – James Quinn, CEO, Faradion & Dave Carruthers, Co-Founder & CEO, Voxpopme Interview Jill Williams, Investment Director 31:07 – ESG Emilie Vanpoperinghe, Co-Founder & CEO, Oddbox 35:58 – Overview of Oddbox Sarah Ellerby, CEO, Nova Pangaea Technologies 39:38 – Overview of Nova Pangaea Dr Mark Payton, CEO, Martin Glanfield, CFO, Julian Viggars, CIO & Jill Williams, Investment Director Q&A – 42:38 Dr Mark Payton, CEO 1:00:24 – Closing Remarks Mercia Asset Management PLC, formerly Mercia Technologies PLC, is a specialist asset manager focused on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the United Kingdom’s regions. The Company provides venture, private equity and debt for the enterprises. The Company invests in various sectors including in digital and entertainment; electronics, materials, manufacturing/engineering; software and the Internet sectors. The Company’s funds include North East Venture Fund, MEIF- Mercia Proof-of-Concept, NPIF- Mercia Equity Finance, Mercia EIS Funds, EV Growth II, EV SME Loan, Mercia fund 1 and Finance Yorkshire Seedcorn Fund. The Company’s portfolio consists of over 400 companies.

This video can be seen at:    The first in a series of introducing your kids to investing. Here, Edmund Shing outlines why we should all be interested in investing summarised by The Rule of 72, the number of years required to double your money at a given interest rate. Powerful! Edmund shares his experience of engaging his children in investing and covers some considerations valuable to introduce anyone to investing. Later episodes will cover further steps of the investing journey. 01:01 How many children do you have? And, are interested in investing? 03:00 How did you get them interested? And, how old were they when you started their accounts? 11:48 Why should children or people generally take an interest in investing? 14:45 What attributes does a child or a person need to be able to successfully invest? 16:20 How much money does an individual need to start investing? 17:07 What sort of returns and goals should an early stage investor look to achieve from their investments? 19:06 How do you deal with risk? 22:05 Where should people start? Edmund on Twitter: @TheIdleInvestor Edmund Shing has over 25 years of experience in financial markets in a wide variety of positions, ranging from proprietary trading to portfolio manager in a number of financial institutions in London and Paris. Since 2015, he has held the role of Global Head of Equity and Derivative Strategy at BNP Paribas in London. Edmund has a PhD in Cognitive and Computing Science from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, and has done advanced studies in Knowledge-Based Systems and in Experimental Psychology. He is an EFFAS-certified financial analyst. He has also authored the book “The Idle Investor” published by Harriman House in 2015, proposing 3 simple investment strategies that take only a few minutes to execute per month. He is married with four children.

This video can be seen at: https://www.piworld.co.uk/2021/04/22/inspired-energy-inse-full-year-2020-results-presentation/ Mark Dickinson, CEO & Paul Connor, CFO present Inspired Energy FY20 results for the period ending 31 December 2020, and further, outline the rational for the rename to Inspired PLC, to better reflect the Group as a technology enabled service provider for energy procurement, utility cost optimisation and sustainability enhancement in the UK and Ireland. Mark Dickinson, CEO 00:18 – Introduction 00:44 – Operational highlights 02:39 – ESG Paul Connor, CFO 06:15 – Financial Performance Mark Dickinson, CEO 10:16 – Strategy Mark Dickinson, CEO, Paul Connor, CFO 16:30 – Acquisitions Mark Dickinson, CEO 19:26 – Outlook Inspired Energy PLC is a United Kingdom-based provider of assurance and optimization services. The Company offers consultancy services for energy procurement, utility cost optimization and legislative compliance in the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland. It offers its services to corporate energy consumers. It operates through its Corporate Division, which includes four divisions: Energy intensive, Estate intensive, Public sector and Mid-market. Its services in Energy intensive division is focused on optimizing the timing of the buying decisions, securing tax breaks and incentives available to the client and monetizing any flexibility in the portfolio through demand side response. Its services in Estate intensive division are focused on managing the movements in the property estate, accounting for the energy across a portfolio, providing repeatable energy saving projects across different properties.

This video can be seen at: https://www.piworld.co.uk/2021/04/21/tracsis-trcs-2021-interim-results-presentation/   Chris Barnes, CEO and newly appointed Andy Kelly, CFO present Tracsis' interim results for the six months ended 31 January 2021. Revenue growth in the Rail Technology & Services Division was offset by lower sales in Events and Traffic Data businesses due to CV19. They have a strong cash balance of £20.8m. There are two large multi-year rail opportunities in the final stages of being awarded. Post period end saw the win of a hardware and software contract with a major transit agency in North America. They are starting to see an increase in new business enquiries across the businesses that were hardest hit by Covid. Chris Barnes, CEO 00:16 – Introduction 02:13 – Overview 07:36 – Current Situation & Outlook Andy Kelly, CFO 13:03 – Financial Highlights Chris Barnes, CEO 17:13 – Growth Opportunities Andy Kelly, CFO 28:27 – Looking Forward 32:01 – Outlook Andy Kelly, CFO & Chris Barnes, CEO 32:54 – Q&A Chris Barnes, CEO 39:08 – Closing remarks Tracsis plc is a holding company. The Company is engaged in the business of software development and consultancy for the rail industry. Its segments include Rail Technology and Services, and Traffic & Data Services. The Rail Technology and Services segment includes its Software, Consultancy and Remote Condition Monitoring Technology, and also includes Ontrac Limited and Ontrac Technology Limited (together being Ontrac). The Traffic & Data Services segment includes data capture, analysis and interpretation of traffic and pedestrian data to aid with the planning, investment and ultimate operations of a transport environment and it also includes SEP Limited (SEP). It provides software products, consultancy services and delivers customized projects to solve a range of problems within the transport and traffic sector. It specializes in solving a range of data capture, reporting and resource optimization problems along with the provision of a range of associated professional services.

This video can be seen at: https://www.piworld.co.uk/2021/04/16/a-piworld-interview-rosemary-banyard-launching-a-fund-during-covid19/ Rosemary launched the VT Downing Unique Opportunities Fund on 23rd March 2020, just days from the nadir of the market crash. Here, she discusses launching a fund when there is 'blood on the streets'. She outlines some of her investing criteria including intrinsic valuation and Return on Equity, with a disregard to PEs. Where she finds ideas. Then, she goes on to discuss a few of the holdings. A very informative interview. 00:40 Rosemary’s background 02:36 What inspired the Downing VT Downing Unique Opportunities Fund? 04:47 How’s it performed in its first year? 05:53 How did it feel to launch a fund in the nadir of the market crash? 08:45 Retrospectively what would you have done differently? Have you sold anything? 12:00 Investment criteria. Intrinsic value, versus other metrics and qualitative factors. 18:50 Valuations and PE 22:23 Why would you sell? 25:23 What is the ideal number of holdings and percentage weighting? 29:10 Of your holdings do you think is the most undervalued: Elementis #ELM 32:40 Which of your holdings is the most risky? James Fisher #FSJ 35:10 Which of your holdings is a buy and forget? Impax Asset Management #IPX 36:17 Where do you get your ideas from? 39:57 Does liquidity limit positions you can get into? 42:40 Outlook for the market Rosemary Banyard began her career with James Capel & Co where she was a senior investment analyst for 12 years before becoming a fund manager at AIB Govett. She rose to prominence and developed a reputation as one of the leading female fund managers in the UK after she joined Schroders in 1997. For almost 20 years she was known for running the acclaimed Schroder UK Smaller Companies Fund with Andy Brough, and was for many years lead manager of the award-winning Schroder Mid Cap Fund PLC as well as heading up several other segregated UK equity mandates, managing total assets of c £1 billion. In 2016 she joined Sanford DeLand to launch and manage the Free Spirit Fund. The Schroder UK Mid Cap trust returned 17% pa while she was manger and in her two and a half years managing money at Sanford DeLand the Free Spirit Fund returned 31% placing it in the top decile of the IA UK All Companies sector. She joined Downing in March 2020 to launch the VT Downing Unique Opportunities Fund.      

This video can be seen at: https://www.piworld.co.uk/2021/04/14/quixant-qxt-full-year-2020-results-overview/ Jon Jayle, CEO & Andrew Jarvis, Interim CFO give an overview of Quixant’s Full Year 2020 results. On the gaming side, Q1 was strong but Q2 was marked by casino closures, this was followed by a very rapid  recovery in H2. Densitron traded resiliently with double digit growth in broadcast and medical. Looking forward, the Q1 group order intake has been strong with 106% order coverage of the Group budget for H1 2021. Jon Jayle, CEO 00:36 FY20 overview Andrew Jarvis, Interim CFO 02:00 FY20 financial summary Jon Jayle, CEO 03:47 The gaming market & how Quixant’s positioned 05:15 Densitron’s markets and how it’s positioned 05:46 Outllook Quixant Plc is a United Kingdom-based company engaged in development and supply of computer systems. The Company's range of gaming platforms includes personal computer (PC) compatible systems designed and catered to the gaming industry. The hardware integrates the features to drive pay to play machines in various gaming jurisdictions. Its software support Windows and Linux, including device drivers, gaming protocols, example code and even SAS support. The Quixant gaming platform range represents all-in-one logic box solutions for pay to play gaming machines. The Company's products include QMax-1: the ultimate 4K gaming platform; QX-50: high performance 4K ultra HD gaming platform; QX-40: high performance multi-screen gaming platform; QXi-4000: high performance four-screen gaming platform; QXi-307: compact high performance gaming platform; QXi-106 : COMMA 6a gaming platform; Ultra High Definition Monitors; Curved Screen Monitors, and Button Deck/Cut Glass Monitor.

This video can be seen at: https://www.piworld.co.uk/2021/04/14/the-mission-group-tmg-full-year-2020-results-overview/ James Clifton, CEO gives an overview of TMG’s full-year 2020 results for the period ended 31.12.20. Trading recovered in H2, reversing the H1 Covid-19 hit to deliver a headline PBT ahead of market expectations. Q1 2021 is in line with expectations with a growing pipeline of new business opportunities. James Clifton, CEO 00:20 – Overview 02:47 – Business highlights 05:50 – Group structure & performance 09:36 – MISSION Advantage 11:48 – ESG Manifesto 13:04 – Outlook The Mission Group Plc, formerly The Mission Marketing Group Plc, is a United Kingdom-based marketing communications and advertising company. The Company's portfolio comprises integrated, multi-discipline, multi-sector agencies, specialists in specific marketing/communications activities and specialists in particular market sectors. The Company's segments include Branding, Advertising and Digital; Media; Events and Learning, and Public Relations. The mission includes a network of entrepreneurial marketing communications agencies in the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia and the United States. Its subsidiaries include April Six Ltd, which is engaged in marketing communications and specializes in the technology sector; Big Dog Agency Ltd, which is engaged in Marketing communications, Speed Communications Agency Ltd, which is engaged in public relations, and Bray Leino Ltd, which is engaged in advertising, media buying, digital marketing, events and training, among others.

This video can be seen at: https://www.piworld.co.uk/2021/04/13/sumo-group-sumo-full-year-2020-results-presentation/   Carl Cavers, CEO & David Wilton, CFO outline Sumo Group's FY20 results, which were ahead of expectations. The headcount as at December 2020 was 1,043, up from 277 at December 2019! The acquisitions in the period include Lab42, Pipeworks; and PixelAnt post period end. Overall there's a very strong market backdrop, and a very positive outlook for FY21. SUMO are now working on more than 40 projects with 28 different clients, up from 21 projects with 12 different clients at April 2020.   Sumo Group plc is a United Kingdom-based company that provides development services to the video games and entertainment industries. The Company's operating businesses include Sumo Digital Ltd. (Sumo Digital) and Atomhawk Design Ltd (Atomhawk). Sumo Digital is a developer of AAA-rated video games, providing both turnkey and co-development solutions to blue-chip client base. Atomhawk is a visual design company that provides services to the games, film and visual effects industries. Together, the Company delivers visual and development solutions, which include initial concepts and pre-production, production and development, and post-release support. The Company through its Lab42 Limited (Lab42), which is a cross-platform work for hire studio, provides co-development and full game development services.