Concurrent upgrades

The Market Call

Macro & Overnight

Following the US holiday, there is a busy week of macroeconomic data to catch up on.

We have the German GfK consumer confidence series tomorrow and Eurozone economic sentiment indicators on Wednesday.

Also, on Wednesday, we get US Q3 GDP estimates.

Thursday brings inflation data for the Eurozone and the US. Expectations are for a flattening out following recently reported declines, raising fears that rates must stay higher for longer.

China will report on its manufacturing PMI surveys this week, which will be closely watched for indications of the direction of travel for the world’s second-largest economy.

Fed chair Powell speaks on Friday.

The COP-28 Climate Summit opens in Dubai on Thursday as 7,000 delegates fly into the oil-rich nation and spend the next two weeks devising and agreeing on plans to reduce the world’s carbon emissions.

There is no sign that last year’s COP-27 commitment for Western countries to compensate developing countries for coping with the impact of the green transition has progressed. The pre-event in Berlin this Summer took nine days to reach an agreement on the agenda for this year’s event. Don’t expect much by way of concrete outcomes from Dubai.

UK Company News

Things are happening in the listed VC space. Chrysalis has agreed with Jupiter and its managers that they will leave Jupiter to launch a new management entity. Molten Ventures will acquire the smaller VC Forward Partners in an all-share merger and looks to raise an additional £50m via an equity raise.

Concurrent Technologies, the electronic component supplier to the defence sector, now expects to deliver revenue ahead of market expectations and substantially higher than any prior half-year in the company’s history. Order intake has continued growing strongly, giving the Board confidence in material revenue growth this year. The anticipated lifetime value of “major design wins” secured in FY23 is estimated to be more than £100 million. The management has continued to invest in the company’s operational scale to deliver an increasing level of revenue in the coming years. Accordingly, profit in FY23 will align with current market expectations.

Concurrent CEO Miles Adcock has professionalised and upgraded the capabilities of this company in recent years. Despite material supply chain disruptions last year, Concurrent did not lose orders. Today’s update highlights the growing scale and quality of this company’s order book. Its large order intake in 2023 alone is estimated to bring total revenue to the group 4x larger than last year’s total.

Prognosticator