22nd May 2026
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.
Increasing Defence budgets may boost earnings
RCFX Intelligent Buyers
LPA Flying Parts
RC Fornax 7.60p £7.29m (RCFX.L)
Last Reported in Friday Takeaway, 19 December 2025 at 7.25p
Financial Calendar:
Year End 31 August, reported 24 February, Interims to 28 February, reported 17 April 2025
Three Main Shareholders:
Paul Reeves (CEO) 24.3%, Unicorn Asset Management 11.1%. Puma Investment Management Ltd 8.7%
Key Investment Points:
Defence Procurement, New Team, Recovery
A UK-based defence industry consultancy specialising in delivering outcome-based engineering solutions to drive critical military projects gave a Trading Update on 31 March. RC Fornax specialises in the definition and execution of engineering projects by providing traditional consultancies with supply-chain and recruitment solutions. Defence is a large and complex, regulated and multidisciplinary market and the Government has reiterated that funding is available to strengthen military readiness.
The Trading Update on 31 March for the Interims to 28 February reported a sustained level of order intake in Q2 of FY August 2026 with orders secured of around £1.9m. There is firm visibility over more than £5.1m in sales under purchase order and subject to contract for FY 2026.
The consultancy business is complemented by the SME Procure platform to connect verified SMEs with buyers. The platform materially reduces procurement overheads and enables faster, more transparent engagement across the supply chain. The Board believes this scalable platform can be applied to other industries.
After listing on 5 February 2025 with a £5.15m fundraise at 32.5p, a profit warning followed on 17 June. The Board changes between September 2025 and January 2026 have recruited directors with military and industry experience aimed at enhancing client relationships.
On 14 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.
Since the fundraise and various operational changes, more purchase orders have been secured so far in FY 2026 for contracts on a recurring basis than in the entirety of FY 2025.
On 22 January the Company joined the Aurora Engineering Partnership (Aurora) as a Specialist Provider. Aurora has a £1.5bn engineering delivery partner framework. The priority for RC Fornax is to convert major framework agreements into sales. A sales director was appointed in October 2025. Expectations from Alpha Terminal for FY August 2026 are for turnover of £5.8m and a loss before tax of £2.0m.
Hybridan Comment: Commercial momentum seems to be (re) building and there could be a surprisingly strong recovery.
LPA Group 60.00p £7.91m (LPA.L)
Last Reported in Friday Takeaway, 6 June 2025 at 47p
Financial Calendar:
Year End 30 September, Reported 30 January, Interims to 31 March, due to be reported on 1 June
Top Three Shareholders:
Peter Gyllenhammar AB 29.75%, Michael Rusch 7.10%, Peter Pollock 5.92%
Key Investment Points:
Restructured, Orders Growth, Earnings on Track
Interim results to 31 March are due on 1 June from this innovation-led engineering specialist in electronic and electro-mechanical components and systems that are focused on the transport industries. An upbeat trading statement was delivered at the AGM on 26 March which anticipates delivering a significantly stronger operating performance in the current financial year to 30 September 2026 as a result of restructuring.
The CEO, Dr. Philo Daniel-Tran, joined LPA on 2 January 2025 leading the business restructuring and resizing and the implementation of a new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system into both manufacturing sites. On 9 February 2026, Dr. Daniel-Tran acquired 46,029 shares at 55p taking her holding to 0.64% which is topped up by 495,000 options related to earnings per share and market cap with a 52p exercise price.
The Company supplies aviation, defence, and rail markets and exports to over 50 countries mainly into Europe, Asia and Australia. Aerospace and Defence are both growing markets where there are several significant opportunities that will balance the historical reliance on the Rail sector. Leveraging the Group-wide capability, new integrated product solutions of connectors and power converters in new defence applications have been developed. There is significant demand for the Aviation products range which is a global market. Directors believe the three year+ £8.75m refinancing completed on 19 January will fund accelerated expansion whilst also mitigating any project delays. The Revolving Credit Facility is secured over property and receivables costing about the same as the previous arrangements.
The year ending 30 September 2025 marked a significant paradigm shift with the transformation of LPA into a single business entity, although a marginally increased loss before tax was made of £0.6m. The current year ending 30 September 2026 has started well and for the first time in over four years the business was reported to be profitable in the first quarter.
This progress gives confidence that expectations on Alpha Terminal will be met with Revenue of £27m, PBT of £0.6m and an EPS of 4.5p forecast. Further out to 2027, the PBT is expected to grow to £1.5m and EPS to 12.4p according to Alpha Terminal. The prospective P/E for FY 2026 is 13x, falling to 5x for FY 2027.
Hybridan Comment: The recovery could soon be recognised, and the growth journey is already underway.
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