Capital for Colleagues Plc - Audited Results for the year ended 31 August 2025

Capital for Colleagues plc / EPIC: CFCP / Market: AQSE / Sector: Financials

 

21 January 2026

CAPITAL FOR COLLEAGUES PLC

(‘Capital for Colleagues’, ‘C4C’ or the ‘Company’)   

 

AUDITED RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2025

 

Capital for Colleagues, the investment vehicle focused on opportunities in the Employee Owned Business (‘EOB’) sector, is pleased to announce its audited results for the year ended 31 August 2025.

 

Chief Executive’s Report

The Net Asset Value per share (NAV) as at 31 August 2025 was 72.86p (2024: 82.02p). In addition, a dividend of 2.1p for the year to 31 August 2024 (2023: 2.0p) per share was paid in March 2025.

 

The NAV fell by 11.2% during the year under review on the back of a challenging UK economy and a particularly unhelpful environment for small early stage businesses seeking to raise additional growth capital. One of our space sector investments, Bright Ascension Limited (BAL), C4C’s largest holding, had to raise new funding at a significantly reduced valuation compared to the previous carrying value. In addition it became clear during the year that one of our other early stage investments would be likely to have to raise additional funding at a lower valuation than was previously anticipated. The reduction in value of these two investees accounted for all of the fall in the company’s NAV. The longer term outlook for both companies remains positive and we anticipate that their valuations will rapidly return to previous levels.

 

In spite of the issues highlighted above, it is pleasing to report that a number of investments made good progress during the year. More detail of some of these investments is provided in the highlights below.

 

Revenue from operations rose to £1.040m (2024: £1.031m). As anticipated, dividend income was lower at £0.125m (2024: £0.219m) due to the sale of part of our holding in TPS Investment Holdings Limited. Administrative costs increased to £1.175m (2024: £1.078m).

 

Board Changes

 

Our Chairman, Richard Bailey, who has led the Company since its inception in 2013 will be retiring from the Board following the Annual General Meeting on 11 February 2026. On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, I would like to express our gratitude to Richard for his years of leadership and commitment to the Company.

 

Ed Jenkins, the senior Independent non-executive Director has agreed to become Chairman thereafter for a two-year period until the Annual General Meeting following the financial year to August 31, 2027. The Board recognises that Ed has been in situ for longer than the 9 years recommended under the UK Corporate Governance Code. However, having consulted with most of C4C’s major shareholders, we have established that there is broad agreement that this continuity makes sense at this time as the Company considers the next stage in its evolution.

 

John Lewis stepped down from the Board and from his role as Finance Director during the year moving to a part time investment management role. John will remain as Company Secretary until the Annual General Meeting on 11 February 2026. John will be retiring from the Company in March 2026, and I would like to thank him for his wise counsel and significant contribution to the development of C4C since 2013.

We were delighted to welcome Lesley Watt as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) during the year. Lesley is as an experienced commercial CFO with over 30 years in board and senior finance positions across private, public and third sectors, including Scottish and Newcastle plc and Miller Developments Group. She is currently a non-executive director at Sosandar plc and Tatton Asset Management plc and has significant experience with high growth strategic start-ups and blue chip companies. Lesley is a chartered accountant having qualified with PWC.

 

Bill Ainscough stepped down as a non-executive Director following the Annual General Meeting in February 2025. Bill’s support as a director, shareholder and co-investor has been and remains invaluable to C4C.

 

Malcolm Edge was appointed to the Board as a non-executive director with effect from 1 March 2025. Malcolm is a former vice chairman of KPMG in the UK and a former board member of KPMG in Europe. Malcolm spent most of his career at KPMG, but is now involved in various other activities, including as chair of the North West Business Fund and as a non-executive director at a number of companies. Malcolm also provides consultancy services to Harrock Capital Partners, an investment company owned by Bill Ainscough.

 

Senior Employees

Peter Matthews will also be retiring in March 2026, having been involved with the Company since inception in various roles and I would like to place on record my thanks to Peter for his positive contribution over the years and, in particular for his enthusiastic promotion of EO.

 

During the year Nicky Davies joined C4C as our Senior Legal Counsel, enhancing our internal capabilities and giving us the ability to provide additional services for our investee companies. Nicky will also be taking over from John Lewis as Company Secretary from 11 February 2026.

 

We further strengthened our senior management team when Glen Nimmo joined the Company at the end of the year under review. Glen is a highly experienced investment manager and was a founder and Chief Executive of Revera Asset Management until the sale of the business at the end of 2022.

 

Additional Investment

 

Bright Ascension Limited (BAL)

 

During the year C4C invested £1.000m into a second Convertible Loan Note (CLN) with an interest rate of 10% per annum. The interest on the CLN will be rolled up until the conversion date and will then either be paid in cash or converted into equity. This investment formed part of a £2.350m funding round alongside other existing investors to enable BAL to continue the development and market release of its HELIX products, which offer a comprehensive end-to-end space software solution, covering the entire mission lifecycle. As previously announced, HELIX has been selected to form the foundation for the 3-4 year OS2-VOLT mission, led under the ESA ScyLight Programme. The OS2-VOLT mission is led by another C4C investee company, Craft Prospect Limited.

 

Working Capital Funding

 

We advanced short term loans totalling £3.04m (2024: £1.053m) to six existing investees; Bright Ascension Limited, Hire & Supplies Limited, Computer Application Services Limited, Emerald Specialist Logistics Limited, Carpenter Oak Group and The Real Outdoor Xperience Limited, along with £0.120m to a new investee company, Ninety Days Limited, providing those companies with additional short term working capital.

During the year, loan repayments of £2.319m (2024: £1.331m) were returned from six existing investees.

Loan impairments during the year under review were £0.586m (2024: £0.395m).

Realisations

During the year the Company sold a significant part of its shareholding in TPS to Harrock Capital Partners (HCP) and TJ Morris (Investments) Limited (TJM) realising a substantial gain on the investment. Both HCP and TJM are shareholders in C4C and co-investors in a number of our investees.

There were no other major realisations during the year, but we again reduced our exposure to The Homebuilding Centre (Holdings) Limited, resulting in a healthy gain over the original cost.

Highlights

Many of the companies in the portfolio made good progress during the year at the operating level and some highlights are provided below. Further details on all of the Company’s equity investments can be found in the following section of the Annual Report and on C4C’s website.

Emerald Specialist Logistics Limited (ESL)

Following the administration of Place 2 Place Logistics Limited (P2P), ESL was established as a new company to acquire from P2P’s administrator certain assets and the part of P2P’s business which related to the time-critical delivery of radiopharmaceutical products. P2P’s challenges related entirely to its traditional haulage activities, which ESL did not acquire. It is pleasing to report that ESL has performed ahead of expectations with the management team and employees deserving huge credit for providing the high levels of service and adherence to the demanding regulatory standards that are required in this sector. The strong performance of the business has resulted in a significant increase in the valuation of our investment in ESL.

Hire & Supplies (H&S)

Hire & Supplies continues to outperform the sector in which it operates by offering exceptional levels of product availability and customer service in the mostly rural and remote areas it serves. At a time when many competitors are reporting declining revenues and reducing capacity in a very difficult sector of the economy, H&S hire revenues are significantly higher year on year. The company has re-invested heavily in achieving this position but now anticipates returning a greater proportion of cash generated to investors, initially through dividend payments. The valuation of H&S has seen a meaningful increase during the year under review.

The Security Awareness Group (TSAG)

TSG delivers cyber security awareness training for employees of blue-chip and SME companies in the UK and internationally. It is recognised for the creativity and quality of its on-line content, which includes an expanding library of over 30 languages. Having taken the strategic decision earlier in the year to partner with Keepnet Labs, a provider of a Human Risk Management (HRM) project delivery platform, business has increased significantly, and TSC is now the preferred content provider for the platform.   Not only has revenue increased, but an increasing number of clients are contractually providing multi-year recurring revenue.   This has resulted in the company returning to profitability during the financial year and has led to a significant increase in the company’s valuation.

Dividend

The Board of C4C believes that where profitable realisations occur, it would be appropriate to distribute some of these gains to shareholders. Although C4C realised some healthy gains during the year under review, the challenging conditions highlighted earlier in this report for early stage investments mean that we have to preserve our cash reserves. We have therefore made the difficult decision to suspend the payment of a dividend for the year to 31 August 2025. The Board is confident that the company will be able to resume the payment of dividends in future years.

Outlook

As anticipated in last year’s report, the last twelve months have been challenging for many of the companies in our portfolio with the 2024 Autumn Budget imposing unexpected, additional costs on business. For many forecasters, the economic outlook for the UK in the next twelve months remains demanding, and consensus economic growth forecasts are anaemic.   If that scenario plays out, this will provide further headwinds to many of the companies in our portfolio.   EOBs will need to display all their additional resilience and flexibility to prosper in that environment.   However, there are a number of catalysts that could cause the UK economy to surprise on the upside – falling interest rates, greater clarity in tax policy, falling consumer price inflation, and possibly a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine could all lift business and household confidence.   So, whilst our investees are likely to approach the next twelve months with caution, we will also support them to be ready to exploit opportunities as they emerge.

Notwithstanding the uncertainty surrounding the general UK economy, our space-technology investees - Bright Ascension and Craft Prospect - have the potential to benefit from the rapid growth in the space sector driven by cyber-security, communications and defence spending.   We anticipate that both of these businesses will perform well in the next year and will balance any downside risk from the domestic facing businesses in the portfolio.

Alistair Currie

Chief Executive Officer

 

 

CAPITAL FOR COLLEAGUES PLC

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2025

 

 

 

CAPITAL FOR COLLEAGUES PLC

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION

  FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2025

 

 

For further information, please visit www.capitalforcolleagues.com or contact:

 

Capital for Colleagues

Capital for Colleagues is an investment company focused on the UK EOB sector. The Company has a proven management team, with a wide network of contacts and affiliates, as well as established access to investment opportunities, enabling the Company to execute its strategy and capitalise on EOB-focused investment opportunities. In addition, the Company educates and assists companies that are looking to launch employee ownership schemes, advising them, amongst other things, on how to secure investment and achieve their objectives.

 

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation EU 596/2014 as it forms part of retained EU law (as defined in the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018).