Maynard Paton

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20 April 2026
By Maynard Paton

Can you imagine company directors working for £14.80 an hour?

If not, then say hello to Andrew Page and Andrew Denton, the two primary executives of Alfa Financial Software.

Last year both men collected salaries of just £29k after each committed to being paid only the London Living Wage. Alfa’s 2025 annual report confirmed:

“The Chairman and CEO will continue to have their salaries aligned to the London Living Wage and will receive an increase of 6.6%, marginally below the rate announced by the London Living Wage Foundation of 6.9%. Both have also chosen to waive any variable incentive award or pension contribution for 2026. As significant shareholders, they have expressed a clear preference for their remuneration to remain closely aligned with that of other shareholders.”

I discovered this commendable remuneration after pinpointing Alfa during one of my regular ShareScope searches.

Alfa appeared on an old ShareScope screen that sought respectable companies that had expanded without acquisition:

This screen’s filter criteria demanded:

• Positive five-year turnover and operating profit growth;
• A minimum of 15% for both operating margin and return on equity (ROE);
• Net bank borrowing of no more than zero (i.e. a net cash position), and;
• A five-year acquisition spend of zero.

I selected Alfa because the share was also highlighted by three other ShareScope filters (here, here and here), which suggested the company’s combination of organic growth, high margins, robust ROE, net cash, significant director shareholdings and reasonable valuation was very worthy of further investigation.

Plus there are those two executives on just £29k salaries working at a business that last year reported a £40 million profit.

Let’s take a closer look.

Read my full ALFA FINANCIAL SOFTWARE article for ShareScope >>

Maynard Paton

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22 March 2026
By Maynard Paton

Oh dear. This ShareScope report has not turned out as I first hoped.

I had wondered whether Brave Bison — an £83 million “next-generation marketing and technology partner for global brands” — might have been a dynamic small-cap suitable for my portfolio.

You see, Bison suddenly loomed into view the other week after acquiring a 28% stake in System1 — an advert-testing business in which I am a shareholder — through a somewhat remarkable transaction.

System1’s founder John Kearon exchanged his entire System1 shareholding for Bison shares worth £7 million, and effectively told the market Bison had become a better investment than his old company.

I therefore asked myself whether I should follow Mr Kearon and switch from System1 into Brave Bison as well.

Indeed, Bison — unlike System1 — appears to be performing very well at present. The group’s January update confirmed net revenue, adjusted Ebitda and net cash had all finished 2025 “ahead of consensus expectations“.

But after delving into Bison’s history, I just could not get comfortable with what has been a very hectic acquisition strategy. Simply put, I don’t foresee Bison delivering the progress necessary to re-rate its shares to a premium valuation.

Let’s take a closer look.

Read my full BRAVE BISON article for ShareScope >>

Maynard Paton

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21 February 2026
By Maynard Paton

Last month I revisited a ShareScope screen that applied two ratios favoured by ‘quality’ investors — operating margin and return on equity (ROE).

The filtering then returned 19 matches and I opted to study Hollywood Bowl.

This month I have re-run the same ShareScope screen and once again received 19 matches. As a reminder, the primary criteria of this screen are:

• An operating margin (latest and 10-year average) of 20% or more, and;
• An ROE (latest and 10-year average) of 20% or more.

Any business with a margin and ROE of at least 20% is probably quite special.

To narrow the field down further, I also sought companies that carried net cash (i.e. net borrowings excluding IFRS 16 finance leases of less than zero):

This time I selected AJ Bell, primarily because I have been a customer of the investing platform for 25 years. ShareScope also shows AJ Bell registering a wonderful 40%-plus margin and ROE since 2023:

Let’s take a closer look.

Read my full AJ BELL article for ShareScope >>

Maynard Paton

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23 January 2026
By Maynard Paton

Today I have revisited a ShareScope screen that applies two ratios favoured by ‘quality’ investors — operating margin and return on equity (ROE).

The exact criteria I re-used were:

• An operating margin (latest and 10-year average) of 20% or more, and;
• An ROE (latest and 10-year average) of 20% or more.

Any business with a margin and ROE of at least 20% is probably quite special.

To narrow the field down further, I also sought companies that carried net cash (i.e. net borrowings excluding IFRS 16 finance leases of less than zero):

This time the filter returned 19 matches, including Games Workshop, IG Group, Rightmove, Plus500, Polar Capital, Cerillion, Tatton Asset Management, Record and Jarvis Securities.

I selected Hollywood Bowl because ten-pin bowling did not strike me as an activity that could lead to super operating margins and robust capital efficiency.

But sure enough, ShareScope shows Hollywood Bowl reporting an average 21% margin and average 21% ROE since 2016 — despite the group suffering badly during the pandemic:

Let’s take a closer look.

Read my full HOLLYWOOD BOWL article for ShareScope >>

Maynard Paton

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20 December 2025
By Maynard Paton

I can’t be the only investor who likes to see directors aligned with ordinary shareholders by owning lots of stock.

Hence this revisit to an old screen to identify companies offering robust financials, respectable growth, a reasonable valuation… and useful insider ownership.

The exact criteria I redeployed for this search were:

• Net borrowings less total leases of no more than zero (i.e. a net cash position excluding IFRS 16 lease obligations);
• An operating margin of 20% or more;
• A five-year uplift to operating profit of at least 50%;
• A forecast P/E of 20 or less, and;
• The board owning at least 10% of the company.

I applied the screen the other day and ShareScope returned only six matches:

I selected GlobalData because:

• The £770 million market cap was the largest on the list;
• The 64% board shareholding was the largest on the list, and;
• The shares were trading 56% below their five-year high.

ShareScope reveals the board’s huge shareholding is held by GlobalData’s chief executive, Michael Danson:

Mr Danson’s stake is currently worth approximately £500 million, and was worth more than £1 billion last year when GlobalData’s shares reached 240p:

Mr Danson might well be very motivated to return to billionaire status, or at least be very motivated not to see his immense wealth deteriorate further.

Let’s take a closer look.

Read my full GLOBALDATA article for ShareScope >>

Maynard Paton

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23 November 2025
By Maynard Paton

I love activists.

The investors who roll up their sleeves and:

• Buy large stakes in underperforming companies;
• Engage with boardrooms to instigate change, and;
• Are prepared to call general meetings to eject sub-par directors.

In a small-cap market awash with tame fund managers, indifferent chief execs and docile chairmen, it seems only those stock-pickers willing to kick up a real fuss are currently able to generate excellent returns from UK smaller companies.

One of this year’s most high-profile activist campaigns was led by Science Group and centred on Ricardo.

Science started buying Ricardo shares during February and by April had invested £32m for a 20% stake. A series of acrimonious RNSs culminated with Science requisitioning a general meeting to oust Ricardo’s chairman and trigger a recovery:

“Following poor operating performance and ineffective governance at Ricardo, resulting in a significant destruction of shareholder value, on 30 April 2025 Science Group requested the Ricardo Board to requisition a general meeting (“General Meeting”) for Ricardo shareholders to consider a single resolution to remove Mr Mark Clare as a director of the Company and Chairman of the Board.

In effect, the General Meeting is a vote of no-confidence in the leadership of the Ricardo Board and to initiate change to enable a positive, shareholder-aligned recovery to benefit all Ricardo shareholders, large and small. The date has now been set for 18 June 2025 and a shareholder circular has been posted by Ricardo.”

The general meeting did not take place because Ricardo agreed to a bid just a week before. The investment outcome for Science was very impressive:

Science’s £32 million investment led to a £24 million pre-tax profit within five months. Not a bad return for a business now capitalised at £240 million at 545p a share:

Prior to Ricardo, Science had undertaken activist positions at two other quoted companies that necessitated RNS ding-dongs and general-meeting requisitions before the targets eventually relented.

Let’s take a closer look.

Read my full SCIENCE GROUP article for ShareScope >>

Maynard Paton

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17 October 2025
By Maynard Paton

I  can’t be the only investor who likes to collect a reliable dividend.

Hence this revisit to an old screen that pinpoints companies boasting a long-running payout, a meaningful yield and respectable prospects.

The exact criteria I redeployed for this search were:

• A history of dividend payments spanning at least 20 years;
• A 10-year dividend growth record of 5% or more;
• A minimum forecast three-year dividend growth rate of 5%, and;
• A forecast dividend yield of at least 4%.

I applied the screen the other day and ShareScope returned 16 matches:

I selected MP Evans primarily because the company has never cut its dividend during the last 33 years:

The payout has in fact advanced by a near-20% CAGR during the last decade, while future income growth also appeared very reasonable.

Let’s take a closer look.

Read my full MP EVANS article for ShareScope >>

Maynard Paton

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18 September 2025
By Maynard Paton

I am once again looking for ‘value bargains’ and revisiting a screen that identifies companies trading at less than book value.

Importantly, this screen attempts to avoid ‘value traps’ by demanding the shares offer net cash, dividend payments and a history of trading above book value.

The exact filter criteria I redeployed were:

• A price to net tangible assets of no more than 1;
• A dividend being paid during the most recent year;
• A 10-year average price to net tangible assets of at least 1;
• Net borrowings less total leases of no more than 0 (i.e. a net cash position excluding IFRS 16 lease obligations), and;
• A share price denominated in pounds sterling.

This time ShareScope returned 14 companies:

I selected Churchill China because, among the 14 shortlisted companies, its shares had previously traded at the highest average multiple of net tangible assets.

Sure enough, Churchill’s 430p shares are priced at 21% less than the 545p per share net tangible asset value:

And yet the shares have in the past traded at beyond 5x net tangible value.

Let’s take a closer look.

Read my full CHURCHILL CHINA article for ShareScope >>

Maynard Paton