companies

The Business

Worship Street Investments is an investment vehicle been formed to invest in companies which are quoted on PLUS Markets. The group was admitted to trading on PLUS on the 8th June 2009, following the completion of a successful offer for subscription which raised £1.342 million at 2p per share.

In terms of its investment criteria the firm is not sector or geographically specific, but the company does aim to spread risk in a range of firms. The aim of the company is to deliver long-term capital returns by investing in what it believes to be undervalued businesses. The board believes that the illiquidity of PLUS allows long term investors to buy shares from forced sellers at highly attractive prices.

Management

The adviser to the fund, t1ps Investment Management, run by Tom Winnifrith & Robert Sutherland Smith, has an excellent track record. Its first fund, the SF t1ps Smaller Companies Growth Fund, as we write, is the best performing small cap fund in the UK in the past 12 months according to data from Trustnet, recording – as at 12th August – a 1 year gain of 47%. The sector average during the same period is minus 10%.

Investments

Since its successful admission to PLUS the group has made four investments On 29th June 2009, the group invested in business to business music and videos rights provider, One Media Publishing Group, obtaining 6,043,017 shares at 0.5p each, which equates to a 6.6% holding. One Media’s shares now trade at 0.75p. On 16th July, the firm spread its net wider as it subscribed for £100,000 worth of convertible loan notes, paying an 8% coupon in English Wines Group. The notes convert at 10p and EW shares now trade at 16p. The company followed up this investment with the acquisition of 57,766 shares in profitable technology infrastructure specialist, ANS Group, representing 0.48% of the total issued share capital. ANS now trades at 135p and, we believe, that Worship Street managed to secure stock from a distressed seller at 85p. The group’s most recent investment has been the acquisition of 2,500,000 shares in Lotus Resources at 3p per share, representing 5.5% of the share capital. Lotus acquires mining assets in or close to production in China and Mongolia.

• t1ps Investment Management is owned by Rivington Street Holdings, the ultimate owner of UnQuoted-Analyst.co.uk. Rivington Street Holdings also owns shares in Worship Street Investments. English Wines and Lotus resources are corporate clients of Rivington Street Holdings.