Fund manager foibles | Electrifying growth | Chocolate concerns
News covered in our free Blog here includes updates from two more of AIM’s fund management groups. One of them is proving significantly more resilient than the other in the challenging stock market environment, but both look interesting value to us. Elsewhere, two retailers have had contrasting experiences over recent years, but the valuations of both look up with events to us. Read on here for our thoughts on this and other news. (Free to read)
Marks Electrical: defying the gloom, but… Marks Electrical Group (AIM:MRK), the fast-growing online electrical retailer, reported impressive growth in revenue for the six months ending 30 September 2023. While the market has been broadly flat in the first half, Marks’ saw its revenue climb 24.8% to £53.9m, a terrific performance in the circumstances. Its gas, electric and television installation services achieved over 7,000 installation orders in the first half compared to 2,500 in the prior year. Across the different product categories there was particularly high growth in televisions (+71%), washer-dryers (+74%) and American fridge-freezers (+36%). However, now for the bad…