Updates and Ideas

SMC - High gear in Scotland

October 2006

Investing in shares may lose you all or some of your money. Past performance is no indication of future performance. Some of the shares recommended here may be small company shares, which can be relatively illiquid and hard to trade and this makes such shares more risky than other investments.

Just when investors might have thought architect firm SMC Group (SMC; 160p) was about to deliver a pause in its natural growth rate, it has announced the acquisition of five more practices. One operates in the Midlands and the other four in Scotland, now making SMC the largest architectural firm in Scotland with sales of £13m and employing 81 fee earners. The five firms add combined turnover of £15.5m and a profit before tax of £3.4m. SMC has paid up to £21.9m for the five businesses. Of that, £11.7m is paid upfront with the remainder based on profits over three years of £9.3m. On that basis, the businesses should effectively end up paying their own earnouts themselves and SMC has again bought ...

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Morson - Strong visibililty to earnings

Interactive Prospect Targeting - PEG of 0.5

SMC (June 2007)

SMC (May 2007)

SMC (February 2007)

SMC (January 2007)

SMC - Soon to be prospective PE of 9.3 (December 2006)

SMC (September 2006)

SMC (August 2006)

SMC - Largest acquisition to date (June 2006)

SMC Group (May 2006)

SMC Group - Gain since September: 286% (April 2006)

SMC - Results in April shouldn't disappoint (March 2006)

SMC - Buys two small architectral practices (February 2006)

SMC - Very eps enhancing acquisition (November 2005)

SMC - Acquisitions believed imminent (October 2005)

SMC - Attractive ground floor opportunity (September 2005)

With small companies there is an above average degree of risk compared to buying blue chips. Please be aware that we have not assessed the suitability of any of these investments for you. The newsletter simply states a personal view and diarises the editor’s investment decisions. Please speak to your stockbroker or other qualified individual to ascertain whether any of these companies mentioned would form useful additions to your own portfolios. Past performance is no indication of future success.

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