Mello Central this Thursday featuring Innovation Group, IDOX, Rheochem & IS Pharma

As previously highlighted six weeks ago as a one off special Mello is moving into Central London and the whole event will be free for our 'regular' Mello investors. There will be free drinks, a free buffet meal, and Four companies presenting to us on the evening.  When I first mentioned the event demand was overwhelming and we filled the allocated room and numbers within a few hours so I restricted numbers to those who have attended the Mello events before. I am pleased to say we have now increased the capacity and I have twenty additional places for those who have not already contacted me but do be aware that if in the next 24 hours there is considerable demand for these places then first come first served will operate except that priority will still be given to those who do attend the Beckenham Mello events.

So where will we be meeting ?

The event is at the FinnCap HQ at 60 New Broad Street, London EC2M 1JJ

What time and how is the format if there are four companies ?

We will meet at 5.15pm onwards for drinks and a brief intro and the first presentation will start at 5.45pm. There will be two then a drinks break and another two after that. The food and further drinks will be at about 8pm. The directors will no doubt be around all evening for further questions if the shorter presentations and Q&A compared to our Monday Mello format do not satisfy your desire to learn more about an individual company.

Most importantly which companies are presenting ?

There are four and in no particular order and not necessarily the order on the night...

Innovation (LON:TIG)

The Innovation Group provides business process outsourcing and software solutions to the insurance sector and associated fleet, automotive and property industries, with a roster of blue-chip clients across the globe including AXA, RSA, Aviva, Toyota and the Ford Motor Company. With a market capitalisation of around £160m, the group last year underwent a fundamental restructuring. Under the leadership of group CEO Andrew Roberts, the company stripped back operations, streamlined and upskilled its management team, cut costs and repositioned for growth via a BPO-led strategy. Twelve months on, the repositioned group has returned all of its regional operations to operating profitability and is now on-track to achieve its goal of creating a sustainable, profitable and technology-led outsourcing leader for the insurance sector.

Idox (LON:IDOX)

IDOX, a provider of software and services to the UK public sector and increasingly to the wider corporate sector, has emerged confidently from the turmoil created by the coalition government’s spending cuts, with a great deal of uncertainty having been removed by the Comprehensive Spending Review last year. The strongly cash-generative company saw EBITDA rise 16 per cent to £8.7m over the year to end October, finishing the period with £0.9m of net debt after funding £10.6m of new earnings-enhancing acquisitions. IDOX, which has completed a further acquisition since the year-end, is still on the look-out for new opportunities to scale the business by expanding into new markets and geographies.

Rheochem (LON:RHEP)

AIM and ASX-listed Rheochem has two strings to its bow (or at least did have until a few days ago !) It provides drilling fluids and engineering services to the oil and gas exploration industry in Asia and Australasia while also driving a push into oil and gas E&P in the UK and US. In the UK, its E&P assets include a 90% interest in seven North Sea Blocks and a 10 per cent interest in the Athena field, operated by Ithaca Energy. The Athena partners are currently drilling a water injection well ahead of a fourth production well at the site and anticipate first production in Q4 this year at a gross rate of 22,500 bopd. Rheochem’s drilling fluids division brought in A$20.4m (£12.8m) of revenue from trading operations in the full year to June 2010, feeding down to an EBITDA figure of A$3.6m for the division. The company announced a few days ago that it will be selling the drilling fluids business

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201103040700103...

Is Pharma (LON:ISPH)

IS Pharma is a fast-growing, profitable speciality pharmaceutical company which focuses on the hospital medicine sector in Europe, particularly in the areas of critical care, oncology and neurology. The company’s strategy is centred on acquiring and developing late-stage pharmaceuticals and medical devices which it then markets and sells to specialists in the hospital setting. Capitalised at around £45m, the company had £5.1m of cash on the balance sheet at 30 September 2010 and recently announced its intention to start paying a dividend. IS Pharma, which has raised over £16m from new and existing investors since October last year, announced on 14 February that it is in advanced discussions regarding a merger with larger peer Sinclair Pharma. Under the terms of the proposed deal, IS Pharma shareholders will receive 2.69 Sinclair shares for each IS Pharma share held.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201102140700071...

I think you will agree that there is a good mix of presentations with companies spread across different sectors. The Innovation Group was certainly heavily discussed in the Pub a couple of years ago when I think the landlord took an initial shine to it after a failed takeover attempt. The other three have not been discussed to my knowledge and I only have shares in IDOX which I personally like and invested when the company advised that they should not be materially affected by the public sector spending reviews. Significant growth is forecast for 2011. Does anyone know anything to help with research on these companies ahead of the event on Thursday ? Has any Fool picked one in the NFSC ? I have refrained from writing too much about the companies as it is better to DYOR and as I only really know about one of them it would probably seem too biassed and my research would be limited. I hope you all enjoy getting to learn more and meeting the directors. 

Anyway do email to confirm you are coming on Thursday as places not taken can be given out to others and if I have spares then I will post on the company boards to attract a few shareholders into the audience. I am pleased to say there will be a number of institutional investors attending and two representatives from ShareSoc as I am keen to foster links with all those investing in smaller companies and promoting good corporate governance.

See you all on Thursday.

David