Small Cap Awards nomination shortlist has been announced

OREANDA-NEWS. May 28, 2015. The third annual Small Cap Awards nomination shortlist has been announced today and shines a light on the best companies and participants in the small and micro-cap community across twelve categories.

This year the Small Cap Awards are sponsored by ICAP Securities & Derivatives Exchange (ISDX) and supported by the London Stock Exchange. They are a once-in-a-year opportunity to recognise outstanding achievement focused on quoted companies.

The winners in each category will be announced at a black tie event at the Grange Hotel St Paul's, 10 Godliman Street, London, EC4V 5AJ on 11 June 2015 and will celebrate success for smaller quoted companies on ISDX and AIM.

The event will feature Peter Dickson, the voice of television programme The X Factor, as comp?re and will be attended by institutions, fund managers, brokers and small cap advisors, creating a chance for all attendees to network with those who have shown exceptional growth and performance in the last year.

The evening's speaker is Joe Mitton, recently appointed as Senior Adviser to the Mayor of London for Business and Science. Mr Mitton advises the Mayor and provides strategic direction to civil servants in the Greater London Authority on business policy. Areas of focus include supporting the life sciences sector, assisting SMEs to export, and encouraging the tech sector and digital innovation. He recently replaced Kit Malthouse.

This year the Small Cap Awards is delighted to have secured headline sponsorship from ISDX, a London based stock exchange providing UK and international companies with access to European capital through a range of fully listed and growth markets.

In addition, the event is co-sponsored by West End London law firm Hamlins LLP, the Social Stock Exchange and Yellow Jersey PR Limited, currently ranked 7^th across AIM. The event is also being supported by the London Stock Exchange and Quoted Companies Alliance.

"With world growth stagnating, it's becoming more important for investors to identify those that are able to buck the trend and sustain growth. Strangely enough, after the AIM downdraft over the last year, many of the companies with the best growth prospects are currently standing on some of the cheapest valuations when compared to the overall market" said Gervais Williams, a member of the judging panel and supporter of Small Cap stocks. Williams is also an active fund manager in the sector as Managing Director of Milton Group plc which recently launched a micro-cap fund, highlighting the increasing confidence the wider community is having in the SME quoted sector as the underpinning for UK economic growth.

The Small Cap Awards includes twelve award categories and an inaugural award; Alternative Financing Deal of the Year has been introduced. Alternative forms of financing outside traditional equity fundraising are becoming increasingly important to the quoted SME community and we are very pleased to help raise the profile of this fast growing category.

The nominations have been selected by a judging panel comprised of leaders in the Small Cap sector and is Chaired by Ken Ford, who received a lifetime achievement award at last year's Small Cap Awards event. Brian Basham, Chairman of Equity Development is the official Chair of the Event.  

There is a special award within the award categories set up to recognise Impact Company of the Year and this is sponsored by the Social Stock Exchange. To be eligible for this award the company must: have social or environmental impact as a core aim; have published an up-to-date independently verified impact report (2014); have securities that can be publicly traded on a Recognised Stock Exchange; and have a market cap not exceeding ?150m to fit the category of 'small cap'.

The nominations have primarily been chosen from the calendar year 2014. The judging panel consists of:

·     (Chair) Ken Ford - Veteran Entrepreneur and Private Investor

·     Andy Edmond - CEO at Equity Development

·     Richard Gill - ex-Editorial Director at t1ps

·     Andrew Hore - HubInvest and Editor of AIM Journal

·     Judith McKenzie - Head of Downing UK Micro-Cap Growth fund

·     Miles Nolan - Research Editor at WH Ireland

·     Claire Noyce - Managing Partner at Hybridan LLP

·     Gervais Williams - Managing Director of Miton Group plc

 

The nominations are:

 

IPO of the Year	Capital for Colleagues; Clipper Logistics; Entu; Flowtech Fluidpower; Nahl Group; Safestay
Company of the Year	Chapel Down; Fitbug Holdings; Solid State; Tracsis; Tristel
Impact Company of the Year	Accsys Technologies; Ashley House; Good Energy Group; HaloSource; ITM Power; ValiRx
Executive Director of the Year	Ben Stocks CEO of Porvair; Charlie Peppiatt CEO of Stadium Group; Frazer Thompson CEO of Chapel Down; Gary Marsh CEO of Solid State; Rob Proctor CEO of audioBoom
Transaction of the Year	Ducat Ventures; Fairpoint; Finsbury Food Group; One Delta acquisition of audioBoom; Victoria
Analyst of the Year	Andrew Darley, Research Director, TMT at Finncap; Eric Burns, Deputy Head of Institutional Research at WH Ireland; Paul Jones, Director at Panmure Gordon; Robert Sanders, Head of Growth Companies Research at Westhouse Securities
Journalist of the Year	Andrew Hore, AIM Journal, AIM Micro; Ben Jaglom, Growth Company Investor; David Thomas, Stocks and Share Markets; James Faulkner, Spreadbet Magazine; Simon Thompson, Investors Chronicle
Broker of the Year	Arden Partners; Cenkos Securities; finnCap; Hybridan; Peterhouse Corporate Finance; WH Ireland
Adviser of the Year	Baker Tilly; BDO; Cairn; Grant Thornton; Wedlake Bell
Fund Manager of the Year	Gervais Williams, Miton UK Smaller Companies; Guy Feld, and Giles Hargreave, Marlborough UK Micro Cap Growth Fund; Judith MacKenzie, Downing Active Management; Neil Hermon, Henderson UK Smaller Companies
Alternative Financing Deal of the Year	Capital for Colleagues; Chapel Down; Integritie (UK Bond Network); Mill Residential REIT; Worth Capital's Big App Fund
Lifetime Achievement Award	Not disclosed

 

The third annual event follows the success of the Small Cap UK network (http://www.smallcapuk.com) founded by Lily and Piper, a specialist integrated Events Company talented in building niche networks. SmallCap UK is supported by Hamlins LLP, a leading central London commercial law firm, along with ISDX.

Since it started in mid-2012 the Small Cap Club has successfully enabled leaders and participants in the micro-cap sector to regularly meet together, based on the premise that meeting people builds trust and creates new areas of thinking and opportunity and the regular networking events have gone from strength to strength.