The Mello events are in great demand and FinnCap have offered me a one off special with all the usual hospitality but this time just two companies presenting and with each one given an hour including a Q&A session. The event will be at our usual Mello Central location at the FinnCap HQ at 60 New Broad Street next to Liverpool St station.

The event will start at 5pm for drinks and the first presentation will be at 5.15pm with Universe Group (UNG) who have recently appointed FinnCap as their brokers and Nomad. They are a company that develops and supplies leading payment and on-line loyalty systems for the retail sector with many blue chip customers. The 2011 results announced in April included the following highlights

Appointment of new Chairman and CEO

· Strategic review resulting in business reorganisation and renewed product and client focus

· Revenue up 7.0% to £12.08 million (2010: £11.29 million) driven by significantly improved second half performance

· Gross margin decreased to 32.9% (2010: 40.5%) due to changes to sales mix

· Profit before tax of £0.57 million (2010: £0.50 million)*

· Operating profit up 6.8% to £0.86 million (2010: £0.81 million)*


The appointment of a new CEO and chairman is particularly relevant as Universe has had a very poor history of underperforming over the last decade or so. Will this be the start of a much better period for shareholders ? The AGM statement last month suggests it may well be...

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201206260700130...

The chairman states..

"As previously reported, the year to 31 December 2011 was a year of change for Universe. Under the new management team, Universe was restructured and reorganised in line with a new three year growth plan. We now enter the second year with a more efficient structure and customer-led focus.

I am pleased to report that trading in the new financial year to date is ahead of the comparable period last year and in line with market expectations. We continue to view the Group's prospects positively. A key objective for the year is to complete our product enhancement programme, which will open up new opportunities for us with both existing and new customers. I look forward to providing a further update on the Group's progress in due course."

The forecasts are for PBT to increase to £700k from £570k and earnings to increase to 0.6p per share this year. The current share price is just 2.6p and was below 2p until a couple of weeks ago. The FinnCap target price is 5p which would put UNG on an EV/EBITDA multiple of just 3.9 so not too demanding.

Well hopefully Tuesday will be exactly the right time to update further and Robert Goddard the chairman , new CEO Stephen McLeod and FD Bob Smeeton should all be there to tell us about the potential at Universe Group and to see why we should believe that this is not just another false dawn for the company.


The second presentation will be from Pieter Totte of the Real Good Food company (RGD) who need very little introduction and actually presented to us at a Beckenham Mello two years ago when the share price was just 21.5p and now the digits are in reverse order at 51.2p so congratulations to all those who backed the company after that presentation they gave to a full house audience. Pieter Totte has stated that he has a three year plan to 2014 which is only in the early phase.

There has been a recent significant investment by Omnicane International Investments Ltd who are the biggest sugar producer in Mauritius and one of the largest ACP* producers of refined white sugar. They are looking to cooperate as partners going forward and the stake of 20% in RGD as recently reported certainly backs that up. Anyone investing now can get the shares at a 16% discount to the price paid by Omnicane.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201206180700065...

RGFC will also be issuing 4,065,652 ordinary shares of £0.02 each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") to Omnicane at a price of 60p (the "Placing"), being a premium of approximately 9.1% to the closing share price on 15 June 2012 , being the last business day prior to this announcement.

This will increase Omnicane's total holding in RGFC to 13,818,954 Ordinary Shares, representing approximately 20.0% of the enlarged share capital and voting rights of the Company. In addition, it is intended that a representative of Omnicane will shortly be appointed to the board of RGFC. The net proceeds of the Placing, approximately £2.4 million, will be used to reduce the group's borrowings.

The latest RGD results for their quietest quarter were effectively released last week as the year end was changed to March...

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201207030700047...

They were followed the same day by a significant purchase by a non executive director of 40,000 shares...

The Group announces that it was notified today that on 3 July 2012, Christopher Thomas, Non-Executive Director, purchased 40,000 ordinary shares of 2p each ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 54p per Ordinary Share. Following this purchase, Christopher Thomas holds 240,363 Ordinary Shares, representing approximately 0.35% of the issued share capital of the Company.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201207041305089...

That purchase at 54p and Omnicanes at 60p are big votes of confidence in the three year strategy plan and so the presentation by Pieter should be worth listening to especially as forecasts put the RGD rating at just seven times earnings and with the plan to double turnover and triple earnings.


We have two companies with interesting stories and plans for the future. All shareholders and potential investors are welcome to attend and these events are very popular so please email me by replying to this post to let me know if you are attending the numbers attending so that FinnCap can prepare the room and hospitality accordingly.

One of our regulars has been Lord John Lee who celebrated his 69th birthday at Mello in Beckenham with us last year and has just written about his big birthday and 50 years of investing in his regular FT column which is well worth a read for small cap investors... John will be joining us again on Tuesday

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/296043da-c505-11e1-b6fd-00144feabd...

Having just passed my 70th birthday, perhaps it is time to reflect on more than 50 years of personal investing – and a happy 12 years of writing this column.

As readers will know, my investment approach has changed little over the years: I focus on “proper”, profitable, conservative, dividend-paying small caps. Sadly, I think most private investors overcomplicate matters: agonising over the problems of the eurozone, tying themselves in knots over respective portfolio allocations, fixed interest versus equities, debating how much they should invest in the East rather than the West, and – above all – trading far too frequently.

I believe in simply keeping a large enough cash reserve for family emergencies and then being fully invested in UK equities – and I am certainly not going to change now!


I certainly agree with John and remain pretty much fully invested in small and mid caps with a few hedges in place and RGD are one of my top ten holdings as listed in more detail here....

http://boards.fool.co.uk/small-caps-with-big-ambition--12572...

I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible on Tuesday evening and thank you to FinnCap for offering such excellent hospitality to our group of serious investors who never fail to provide challenging questions and real good food for thought on which ones to invest in ! Why not come and join us ?

The Mello website has all the useful background information and as ever the next monthly Monday Mello in Beckenham is just one week away and I hope to have Public Service Property (PSPI) attending that one. www.freesharedata.com/mello

David

Twitter @Carmensfella