Wishing you all Merry Christmas! Back 9 January 2026.
This will delve a little deeper on individual companies and focus on non-house stocks under £200m market capitalisation to raise awareness
19th December 2025
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.
Recovery in these companies prospects could impact in 2026.
CGNR Golden Shot
FIPP Double up in Small Caps
RCFX Battling Defence
Conroy Gold and Natural Resources 11.00p £8.5m (CGNR.L)
Financial Calendar:
Year End May, reported 26 November 2025, Interims to November, reported 28 February 2025
Three Main Shareholders:
Philip Hannigan 13.07%, The Estate of Professor Richard Conroy 6.53% Ryan Matthiesen 6.27%
Key Investment Points:
Drilling Started, Large Gold Target, New Investors
Building on Conroy’s extensive experience of metal exploration in Ireland, largely focused on gold, the company has this week initiated a new exploratory drilling program at the “Discs of Gold” prospect.
The 2,000-metre initial programme is commencing at the Clontibret gold deposit where there are two district-scale gold trends (Orlock Bridge and Skullmartin), and several gold targets with multi-million-ounce potential. The exploration thesis is that the metallurgy of arsenic, gold and antimony and clear geological analogies are like large and deep gold deposits in Southeastern Australia and Atlantic Canada.
This programme could significantly advance the potential of the Clontibret deposit. The drilling will follow up on the shallower gold and antimony plunge trends identified during the detailed re-logging project. The first drill is for around 500m deep targeted at stockwork zone located beneath the historic Tullybuck Antimony Mine. This hole represents the deepest drilling undertaken on the Clontibret deposit to date and could be significant. Antimony is a valuable critical metal used in batteries and electronics, hardens lead alloys, and is also used as a flame retardant and in semiconductors; however, exposure to high levels can be toxic.
A significant event in Conroy’s established history was the appointment of John Sherman, as chairman in November 2024 following the passing of inspirational founder Professor Richard Conroy and originator of the “Discs of Gold” project. In September 2025 over £1.7m was raised with mainly North American investors at 10p. The funding was supported by two notable investors: Mr. Ryan Matthiesen taking his holding to 6.27% and Mr. Lowell Schmidt with 3.45%. Ryan is a serial entrepreneur, and Lowell is an experienced Canadian Investment Advisor. An agreement was reached regarding debts of EUR3.36m owed to current and former Directors. This was restructured into c80% capped net smelter royalty and c20% in 7-year options with an exercise price of 30p.
Hybridan Comment: Whilst exploration is inherently high risk, the shares are up circa 261% year to date, so the market is reacting positively to the newsflow. If over the next few months the exploration results continue to be positive and the potential for gold in the system at depth is shown, this could be the value inflection point for a development partner to come in.
Frontier IP Group 15.5p £11.5m (FIPP.L)
Financial Calendar:
Year End June, reported 8 December 2025, Interims to December, reported 26 March 2025
Top Three Shareholders:
Octopus Investments 16.02%, Canaccord Genuity 8.81%, Oakglen Wealth 6.13%
Key Investment Points:
Geared to Recovery, Mature Portfolio, Recent Funding
FIPP is a specialist active manager in commercialising intellectual property with a portfolio of equity stakes and licences. The investments are predominantly earlier stage companies with supported disciplined financing and collaboration with relevant industry partners. This week £870k was raised at 15.5p which is c.7% dilution and the funds will contribute to supporting portfolio companies, prime realisations and to launch the South Cambridge Science Centre.
Finals to June reported a near unchanged equity portfolio value of £33.4m and as a result of reducing the debt portfolio to £3.1m from £5.6m, the FY cash was £2.7m. The net assets value per share fell to 61.0p from 79.7p in part due to the additional 12.7m shares issued in December 2024 raising £3.6m at 28p. The Loss before tax of £6.3m was a significant increase versus £1.3m primarily due to non-cash unrealised losses across the equity and debt investment portfolio combined to £3.0m against a £1.3 profit. Operating expenses were little changed at £3.5m.
The portfolio consists of around 18 companies in essential sectors such as climate, health, energy, water and food. The portfolio holdings range from 0.4% in Platometre, to 36.16% in Alusid. Five companies raised funds during the year having attracted investment and support from major corporations, government agencies and other institutions. Dekiln, in which FIPP holds a 24.6% stake has reported a £3m funding round to improve its kiln free tile technology to industrial scale production. The award has been made as part of The Royal Academy's first Green Future Fellowship programme.
During 2025 a strategic partnership was formed with an associate company of Abstract Securities Ltd, to create an innovation hub, in the South Cambridge Science Centre which will be dedicated to science and technology. As an anchor tenant, FIPP was paid a fee of £1m and given 12 month rent free space. The plan is to sublet the space to portfolio companies, other start-ups and early-stage science and technology businesses which should generate a steady income from rental, advisory and management services.
The focus is on exiting investments and cash realisations which are key value inflection points. This week Alusid Ltd, announced it had raised £500k in a pre-IPO equity funding round. Frontier IP converted loans of £250k into equity to take its holding to 36.16%. The fundraising values this materials recycling company at a pre-IPO £10m valuation and investors included existing backer, Octopus Investments, and the University of Lancashire. The Interims to December 2025 should show a marked improvement and 2026 could see some cash realisations.
Hybridan Comment: The c.75% discount to NAV could be the nadir in the recovery cycle and although the speed of the recovery is unpredictable it leaves plenty of upside.
RC Fornax 7.25p £4.20m (RCFX.L)
Financial Calendar:
Year End August, reported by February 2026, Interims to February, reported 17 April 2025
Three Main Shareholders:
Paul Reeves (CEO) 24.3%, Daniel Clark 15.7%, Unicorn Asset Management 11.1%
Key Investment Points:
Defence Procurement, Rebuilding Confidence, Recovery Underway
Listed on 5 February 2025, £5.15m was raised at 32.5p with an £18.15m market capitalisation on admission. In June there was a profit warning because existing and prospective customers delayed or reduced spending and development activity. The expectations for FY August 2025 were reduced to revenue of £4.1m compared to £6.5m and a loss before tax of £1.5m against a profit of £0.8m. The net cash at August was down to £1.0m after a one-off investment in the Bristol HQ and planned investment in developing the operations platform.
The Company is a UK-based defence industry consultancy delivering outcome-based engineering solutions aimed at enhancing national security and drive innovation in critical military projects. The Trading update, in December for the FY August 2026 reported orders received for the first three months to November of around £2.5m, which is over 70% ahead year-on-year. Resulting from increased customer engagement following the publication in June of the Strategic Defence Review and the success of the recent operational improvements.
The sales pipeline was further revived by a contract extension valued at around £470k from an existing tier-1 defence client. The extension represents the next incremental phase of delivery under an ongoing engagement and relates to the continued provision of specialist engineering services to support a defined but secret programme. The delivery is across six-months and the order from the client is likely to expand further.
In November, £2.32m was raised at 6p and Richard Smith was appointed as a Non-Executive Director. Richard has held senior roles including CFO of Raytheon UK & Canada, Finance Director for the UK Ministry of Defence Submarine Programme, and CFO of Leonardo Helicopter Division. The funds are to re-establish momentum as the company is tendering for a framework agreement representing up to £80m of orders. RC Fornax solutions are differentiated as the consultancy solutions include expediting delivery with recruitment and supply chain management.
Procure X platform is an AI-powered marketplace platform to connect verified SMEs with buyers in minutes, not months. This materially reduces procurement overheads and should enable faster, more transparent engagement across the supply chain. This is a foundation of a new SME Alliance and is a scalable commercial model, strategically positioning RC Fornax in the UK Defence sector supply chain. The Board believes this scalable platform can be applied to other industries and regions.
Hybridan Comment: The commercial momentum seems to be (re) building and 2026 could even see a surprisingly strong recovery.
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