Category: Market News

  • GetBusy Reports 12% Increase in Group ARR as SmartVault Grows 22%

    GetBusy Reports 12% Increase in Group ARR as SmartVault Grows 22%

    GetBusy (LSE:GETB) reported group annualised recurring revenue of £24.0 million for the first half of 2026, representing growth of 12% at constant currency, as its SmartVault business recorded higher recurring revenue.

    SmartVault ARR increased 22% year-on-year to $19.1 million. The company said new business increased 19%, including growth of 52% from Thomson Reuters UltraTax users and 8% from Intuit users following integrations with the platforms.

    According to GetBusy, SmartVault is integrated with the major U.S. tax software ecosystems and is used by more than 31,000 professionals across 7,000 firms. The platform manages more than 650 million client documents.

    GetBusy said it expects SmartVault ARR growth of approximately 20% for 2026 and anticipates operating leverage will move the business’s EBITDA margin towards 20% during the year.

    Wórkiro ARR increased 1% year-on-year to £9.7 million and was 4% higher compared with the start of 2026. The company said growth was supported by customer migrations from Virtual Cabinet and an expanded collaboration with TaxCalc, which provides access to approximately 11,000 accountancy firms.

    At group level, recurring revenue increased 11% at constant currency to £11.6 million, while total revenue rose 11% to £12.0 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased to £0.6 million, while the company reported a narrower loss before tax. Net bank debt stood at £0.7 million, representing a modest increase.

    Management expects SmartVault to remain the main contributor to group growth and plans to continue migrating customers to Wórkiro. The company also intends to pursue additional integration partnerships for Wórkiro in the UK and Australia and New Zealand.

    More about GetBusy Plc

    GetBusy plc provides SaaS document workflow software for professional and financial services businesses, with products focused on document management, workflow and compliance requirements.

    Its platforms include SmartVault, which serves the U.S. tax preparation market, and Wórkiro, which is designed for professional services businesses and cloud ERP environments. GetBusy’s platforms manage workflows involving more than 1.3 billion documents for over 60,000 users globally.

    The company is also migrating customers from its legacy Virtual Cabinet product to Wórkiro as part of its product strategy.

  • TheWorks Raises FY27 Earnings Guidance After 10.4% Like-for-Like Sales Growth

    TheWorks Raises FY27 Earnings Guidance After 10.4% Like-for-Like Sales Growth

    TheWorks.co.uk plc (LSE:WRKS) has raised its FY27 earnings guidance after reporting a 10.4% increase in like-for-like sales during the first 18 weeks of the financial year.

    The sales increase compares with like-for-like growth of 5.9% during the corresponding period of FY26. The retailer said growth was recorded across all four of its product categories.

    Following the trading performance, the board increased its expectation for FY27 pre-IFRS 16 adjusted EBITDA to at least £16.0 million, compared with its previous guidance of £15.0 million.

    The company attributed the sales performance to its product offering and the execution of its Elevating The Works growth strategy.

    TheWorks said the wider macroeconomic environment remains uncertain and noted that the Christmas trading period will be an important part of its full-year performance.

    More about TheWorks.co.uk plc

    TheWorks.co.uk plc is a specialist retailer of arts and crafts, stationery, toys and games, and books, with a focus on affordable, screen-free activities.

    The group operates more than 500 stores across the UK and Ireland, selling products aimed at families and consumers seeking value-focused leisure, creative and educational activities.

  • Forgent Completes Curley’s Drilling and Moves to Cathedral Target at Peak Hill

    Forgent Completes Curley’s Drilling and Moves to Cathedral Target at Peak Hill

    Forgent plc (LSE:FORG) has completed the first component of its Phase II drilling programme at the 99%-owned Peak Hill Gold-Copper Project in Western Australia, with the drilling rig now moved to the Cathedral prospect.

    The company completed 18 holes totalling 710 metres at the Curley’s prospect. The drilling was designed to test the continuity and extent of previously identified mineralisation, with samples now being submitted for assay.

    Drilling has subsequently moved to Cathedral, a large target situated between the Curley’s and Junction prospects that has not previously been drilled.

    Forgent plans to drill 112 holes at Cathedral as part of the wider Phase II programme, which comprises 130 holes for approximately 8,700 metres across the project.

    According to the company, Cathedral represents the principal discovery target of the current drilling phase. Results from the programme will provide additional geological information on the target and the broader Peak Hill project.

    More about Forgent plc

    Forgent plc is an Australian-focused explorer targeting gold, copper and nickel assets. Its portfolio includes the 99%-owned Peak Hill Gold-Copper Project, an option over the Mount Sholl nickel-copper-PGE project and the Green Rocks copper-gold project.

    The company’s exploration strategy focuses on advancing projects with existing mineralisation and historical geological data through further exploration and drilling.

  • Fulcrum Metals Reports Seven Uranium-Related Anomalies at Saskatchewan Project

    Fulcrum Metals Reports Seven Uranium-Related Anomalies at Saskatchewan Project

    Fulcrum Metals (LSE:FMET) has reported preliminary airborne geophysical survey results from the Charlot-Neely Lake uranium project in northern Saskatchewan, identifying seven uranium-related radiometric anomalies.

    The project forms part of Fulcrum’s approximately 594 km² Saskatchewan uranium portfolio, which is currently under option to Terra North Resources. The exploration programme is being funded by Terra North.

    One of the identified anomalies is located north of Neely Lake, an area where previous exploration recorded uranium grades of up to 0.8% U₃O₈. Preliminary magnetic data from the survey has also identified two major magnetic domains separated by the approximately 20-kilometre Black Bay Fault.

    The airborne programme is expected to cover approximately 2,441 line kilometres across the 163.7 km² Charlot-Neely claim area. Survey work remains underway, including closely spaced east-west flight lines, with further interpretation expected as additional data is collected and processed.

    Fulcrum retains exposure to the Saskatchewan uranium portfolio through equity interests in Terra North and Terra Balcanica, as well as rights to future cash and equity consideration and a net smelter return royalty.

    The arrangement allows exploration of the uranium assets to be funded by Terra North while Fulcrum directs its own corporate resources towards its mine tailings recovery activities.

    More about Fulcrum Metals Plc

    Fulcrum Metals Plc is an AIM-listed natural resources company focused on recovering precious and critical metals from mine tailings in Canada using cyanide-free leaching technology developed by Extrakt Process Solutions.

    Its core tailings projects are located at the former Teck-Hughes and Sylvanite gold mines in Ontario. The company also holds mineral exploration and development assets in Ontario and Saskatchewan.

    Fulcrum has exclusive rights to deploy Extrakt’s technology across legacy gold mine waste sites in the Timmins and Kirkland Lake districts. The company is working to advance its initial tailings projects towards production while evaluating opportunities to apply the recovery model across additional sites.

  • Organic patient growth, recurring revenues and a connected digital healthcare platform are creating a powerful new phase of growth for MedPal AI

    Organic patient growth, recurring revenues and a connected digital healthcare platform are creating a powerful new phase of growth for MedPal AI

    For digital healthcare companies, demonstrating sustainable growth is often more important than simply generating an initial surge in revenue. For MedPal AI plc (LSE:MPAL), August provided a significant indication of what could be possible as its growing healthcare platform begins to scale.

    Following the launch of marketing for its New Health private healthcare proposition in July, MedPal AI saw its annualised revenue run rate rise dramatically from approximately £8.6 million to around £28 million in August.

    Importantly, the growth was achieved through organic trading, rather than acquisition-led expansion, highlighting the traction the company’s proposition has achieved with patients.

    At the heart of the acceleration was New Health, which attracted more than 16,000 purchasing customers within weeks, significantly exceeding the company’s initial expectations.

    According to CEO Jason Drummond, the catalyst was relatively straightforward: New Health’s proposition of fair pricing, ongoing clinical support and technology designed to reduce the cost of healthcare delivery appears to have strongly resonated with consumers.

    The scale and speed of that response could prove particularly significant because the customers being acquired are not simply one-off transactions. MedPal AI’s strategy is increasingly centred on building recurring relationships with patients across multiple healthcare services.

    A rapid transition to recurring revenues

    The August numbers represent an important milestone in a remarkable period of development for MedPal AI.

    The company has moved from effectively zero revenue in October 2025 to approximately £28 million of annualised revenue in just ten months.

    While management is rightly cautious about extrapolating a single month’s performance into a forecast, the underlying structure of the business provides an important reason for optimism.

    Multiple parts of the platform generate recurring revenue, including monthly private healthcare treatment plans, NHS prescriptions and software subscriptions.

    That creates a fundamentally different growth dynamic from a business dependent on continually finding new customers simply to replace lost revenue.

    As Drummond explained, each month begins with the previous month’s customer base, providing a growing foundation from which the company can build.

    And importantly, MedPal AI says its existing infrastructure has the capacity to support volumes many times higher than those currently being processed.

    New Health opens the door to a much larger opportunity

    The rapid adoption of New Health also gives MedPal AI exposure to a rapidly expanding private healthcare market.

    Demand for GLP-1 weight-management treatments continues to develop, while the recent availability of oral GLP-1 treatment in the UK creates another potential avenue for patient growth.

    MedPal AI’s positioning is built around providing consumers with accessible pricing while maintaining clinical support and technology-enabled healthcare delivery.

    That combination could become increasingly attractive as consumers look for alternatives that deliver both value and quality.

    For MedPal AI, however, the opportunity extends beyond simply acquiring private healthcare patients.

    Every New Health customer represents a potential long-term relationship with the wider MedPal platform.

    One patient, multiple revenue opportunities

    This is arguably one of the most compelling elements of the company’s strategy.

    MedPal AI is developing operations across private healthcare, NHS prescription dispensing, care home medication and digital healthcare software, with the different businesses increasingly designed to work together.

    The NHS prescription market alone represents a substantial opportunity, with the NHS spending close to £1 billion a month on prescription medicines, according to management.

    MedPal’s dispensing infrastructure, including its large-scale robotic dispensing operation, provides the company with the capacity to participate in this market as volumes grow.

    Meanwhile, its EMRX care home software provides another route into the medication-management market, while Juno is positioned as a technology layer capable of supporting patient engagement across the wider ecosystem.

    The result is a potentially powerful model: acquire a customer once, then serve that customer through multiple parts of the healthcare platform.

    For investors, that creates the possibility of increasing customer lifetime value without requiring the company to repeatedly incur the full cost of acquiring the same patient.

    Infrastructure already in place

    Another important factor behind MedPal AI’s growth strategy is that the company has already invested in the infrastructure required to support significantly greater volumes.

    That means the next stage of growth does not necessarily require a proportional increase in physical infrastructure.

    As additional patients and prescriptions move through the platform, incremental revenue can potentially flow through an established operational base, providing an opportunity for margin expansion as scale increases.

    The economics of the group’s software operations are also noteworthy. Management highlighted EMRX’s 82% gross margin, demonstrating the potential value of combining high-margin software revenues with the group’s healthcare and dispensing operations.

    This combination of infrastructure and recurring software revenue could become increasingly important as MedPal AI scales.

    Three major markets, one connected platform

    MedPal AI is effectively operating across three substantial healthcare markets: NHS prescription dispensing, care home medication management and private healthcare.

    What makes the strategy particularly interesting is the connectivity between them.

    A New Health patient who initially joins the platform for private treatment could potentially become an NHS prescription customer.

    A care home using EMRX could become a customer of the group’s pharmacy supply operation.

    And Juno can sit across the ecosystem, helping maintain patient engagement and creating another technology-enabled relationship with the end user.

    This creates the potential for a flywheel effect, where growth in one part of the business generates opportunities for another.

    Rather than operating as a collection of disconnected healthcare businesses, MedPal AI is attempting to build an integrated digital healthcare operating system.

    From proof of concept to the next stage of growth

    The most striking aspect of MedPal AI’s recent progress may ultimately be the speed at which the business has reached its current position.

    Going from zero in October 2025 to an annualised revenue run rate of approximately £28 million by August 2026 represents a dramatic transformation in less than a year.

    The August acceleration provides further evidence that the company’s strategy can translate investment in technology, infrastructure and patient acquisition into rapidly increasing revenues.

    There will inevitably be questions around how the exceptional August growth develops over subsequent months, and management itself has stressed that one month’s performance should not be treated as a forecast.

    However, the underlying ingredients are increasingly in place: a rapidly growing customer base, recurring revenue streams, significant addressable markets, established infrastructure and the potential to generate multiple revenue streams from individual customers.

    For investors watching the evolution of the digital healthcare sector, MedPal AI is therefore becoming an increasingly interesting company to follow.

    The transformation is already substantial.

    But with New Health still in its early stages, the wider platform continuing to develop and significant spare capacity across the group’s infrastructure, Jason Drummond’s assessment that “we’re at the starting line, definitely not the finish” could prove to be one of the most important takeaways from the latest update.

  • Brent forecasts rise as Citi targets $86 and ANZ sees $95 in short term

    Brent forecasts rise as Citi targets $86 and ANZ sees $95 in short term

    Citi and ANZ have revised their Brent crude oil forecasts higher as the banks assess continuing disruptions to oil supplies from the Middle East.

    Citi now forecasts Brent at $86 per barrel for the third quarter of 2026. The bank said the current conditions, including the U.S. blockade of Iran and reduced flows through the Strait of Hormuz, are unsustainable.

    The bank expects renewed dealmaking or other developments to result in the Strait reopening during the fourth quarter.

    According to Citi, restoring flows through the Strait of Hormuz would leave the global oil market with an estimated surplus of 3 million to 4 million barrels per day. Its previous estimate was approximately 2 million barrels per day.

    ANZ has meanwhile increased its short-term Brent forecast to $95 per barrel as it assesses the effects of declining inventories.

    The bank said the market is moving into a delicate adaptation phase and expects further demand destruction will be necessary for inventories to rebuild.

    ANZ estimates that between 2.3 billion and 2.4 billion barrels of Persian Gulf supply will be removed from the market during 2026 as a result of the conflict.

    According to the bank’s estimates, cumulative losses will exceed 2 billion barrels by the end of October.

    The forecasts from Citi and ANZ incorporate different assumptions about the duration and scale of Middle East supply disruptions, including future developments affecting the Strait of Hormuz.

  • Evercore sees third-quarter bank capital markets indicators running below expectations

    Evercore sees third-quarter bank capital markets indicators running below expectations

    Evercore expects banks to provide third-quarter investment banking and trading guidance below consensus forecasts after quarter-to-date capital markets indicators tracked behind expectations.

    The firm’s August 2026 Capital Markets Monthly report showed investment banking volumes declining 6% year over year during July, reflecting lower debt capital markets activity despite increases in equity issuance and mergers and acquisitions.

    Debt capital markets and syndicated lending volumes declined 18% from the prior-year period. Equity capital markets activity, meanwhile, increased 119%, and M&A volumes rose 11%.

    Trading activity showed improvement following a slower July. Evercore said most fixed income, currencies and commodities indicators were tracking at low- to high-double-digit year-over-year growth rates for the quarter to date.

    Foreign exchange and commodities volumes each increased 17% year over year, while credit activity rose 10% and rates volumes increased 2%.

    Equity-market indicators presented a mixed picture. CBOE volumes were 4% lower than a year earlier, while retail trading activity increased 43% and options activity rose 14%.

    Average margin balances were up 32% year over year on a quarter-to-date basis. Evercore said balances remained stable despite some deleveraging associated with artificial intelligence during July.

    Based on the quarter-to-date indicators, the firm said third-quarter earnings-per-share estimates may be higher than current activity levels imply.

    Evercore expects investment banking and trading guidance to come in below consensus, while guidance or commentary on wealth management and trust fees is expected to be in line with or slightly below forecasts.

    The firm also said investors appear aware of the slower quarterly trends, with share prices and valuation multiples adjusting against weaker data and increases in interest rates and oil prices.

    Broader equity markets increased 3%, while fixed income markets were unchanged month over month. Average H.8 loan and deposit balances each rose 6% compared with the prior year.

  • BofA’s Hartnett favours commodities and gold as policy intervention limits bond yields

    BofA’s Hartnett favours commodities and gold as policy intervention limits bond yields

    Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett continues to favour commodities and gold, saying policy measures aimed at containing bond yields are having an effect on financial markets.

    “Policy panic [is] working,” Hartnett and his team wrote. They pointed to gains in the Japanese yen while discussing efforts to defend market levels including $4-a-gallon gasoline, 160 dollar-yen and 5% Treasury yields.

    Hartnett said central banks are leaning towards rate increases as policymakers seek to maintain credibility and limit upward pressure on bond yields. He said investors should remain long commodities and assets he categorises as debasement hedges, including gold.

    His assessment also considered longer-term performance across asset classes. Ten-year rolling returns stand at approximately 15% for U.S. equities and 11% for commodities, while Treasuries have returned negative 2%, according to Hartnett.

    The Treasury figure represents the weakest 10-year performance in a century, he said. Hartnett compared the current long-term return environment with previous periods including 1939, 1974 and 2009 for equities and 1933 and 2018 for commodities.

    U.S. midterms add another factor to market outlook

    Hartnett said investors have largely looked through risks surrounding the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, while assessing several potential outcomes.

    He considers a Democratic sweep unlikely because of the Senate electoral map, while noting the administration’s increased use of executive action rather than Congress.

    At the same time, Hartnett said Trump’s approval rating has declined to between 35% and 40%, compared with a historical average of 53% two months before midterm elections. Prediction markets now indicate a 50% probability of a Democratic sweep, according to the report.

    Hartnett said such an outcome could produce a risk-off response, including an equity decline exceeding 10% alongside lower dollar and bond yields. Conversely, he said an unexpected Republican sweep could result in additional risk-taking.

    He characterised a Republican Senate combined with a Democratic House as a modest risk-on outcome, describing the scenario as “gridlock = goldilocks.”

    Weekly flows favour cash and fixed income

    Cash funds recorded $30 billion of inflows during the week through Sept. 2, the largest amount among the asset classes cited in the report. Bonds followed with $18.3 billion, while gold attracted $3.2 billion and equities received $2.8 billion.

    The equity inflow was the smallest in nine weeks. Cryptocurrency funds received $500 million, bringing cumulative inflows over five weeks to $5.5 billion, the highest since October.

    Investment-grade bonds attracted $9.2 billion for a 22nd consecutive week of inflows. Treasury funds received $6.2 billion for their 10th consecutive positive week, while high-yield bonds recorded $1.5 billion of inflows. Bank loans experienced $600 million of outflows, their first weekly withdrawal in 13 weeks.

    Japanese equities received $1.4 billion, marking a second consecutive week of inflows, while European equities attracted $800 million.

    U.S. equities recorded $5.9 billion of outflows for a second week, and emerging-market equities saw $5.4 billion leave. Chinese equities registered $5.3 billion of outflows for a fifth consecutive week.

    Technology funds posted $1.5 billion of withdrawals, their largest outflow since June, while financial funds recorded $900 million of outflows for a fifth consecutive week.

  • Piper Sandler lifts Brent outlook to $90/b while keeping U.S. gas forecasts below consensus

    Piper Sandler lifts Brent outlook to $90/b while keeping U.S. gas forecasts below consensus

    Piper Sandler increased its Brent crude forecast for the second half of 2026 to $90 per barrel from $80 per barrel, pointing to constrained Middle East supplies and reductions in Russian refining capacity.

    The firm said the oil market has tightened more than anticipated when its previous forecast was established in mid-July.

    Piper Sandler characterised the $10-per-barrel increase as “mostly a mark-to-market exercise,” as Brent averaged $88/b through the third quarter. Its earlier forecast had a midpoint of $80/b, set when a memorandum of understanding existed and Strait of Hormuz traffic was operating at a higher baseline.

    “Not only has Mideast supply been more constrained, but there’s been zero diplomatic or military movement toward ending the conflict. The term Stalemate applies,” the firm wrote.

    Piper Sandler also pointed to lower Russian refining capacity as contributing to its revised oil outlook.

    “Drastic cuts to refining capacity in Russia add price support,” the firm said.

    The new forecast does not rule out Brent exceeding Piper Sandler’s estimate during the fourth quarter.

    “We fear that $90/b for Q4 may prove an under-estimate,” Piper Sandler wrote.

    The firm’s data showed Brent averaging $88/b during the third quarter, compared with its $90/b fourth-quarter projection.

    U.S. natural gas outlook remains below consensus

    Piper Sandler maintained its below-consensus position on U.S. natural gas, citing inventory levels and continued production growth.

    Natural gas inventories held a surplus of approximately 150 billion cubic feet compared with five-year averages throughout the injection season, according to the firm. Prices averaged below $3/MMBtu in both the second and third quarters.

    Piper Sandler said annual U.S. natural gas production growth of 4% to 5% has maintained what it described as “in easy equilibrium” between supply and demand.

    The firm reiterated below-consensus fourth-quarter forecasts and introduced quarterly detail to its 2027 projections. Specific quarterly estimates were not disclosed in the available report.

    Piper Sandler’s outlook assumes producers can increase output and supporting infrastructure to accommodate additional domestic electricity consumption and LNG exports at prices above $3/MMBtu.

    “US producers can comfortably grow production and infrastructure to meet strong domestic power-demand and LNG export scenarios at $3+ MMBtu,” Piper Sandler wrote.

    Under the firm’s assessment, increased electricity demand and expanding LNG export capacity can be supplied without requiring a substantial increase in U.S. natural gas prices.

  • Barclays trims equity risk as September brings seasonal and macro pressures

    Barclays trims equity risk as September brings seasonal and macro pressures

    Barclays has reduced some equity risk exposure ahead of September as its strategists assess seasonal market patterns, softer economic indicators and renewed pressure from interest rates and energy prices.

    The bank nevertheless continues to hold a constructive medium-term view on equities, citing economic activity, corporate earnings and relative valuations.

    Strategist Emmanuel Cau said the calmer market conditions seen during the summer have shifted towards a more volatile environment.

    “Less beta and more tactical hedges seem wise, but a lot of hawkishness is priced in now, while resilient growth & earnings remain a key anchor to the bull market,” he wrote.

    Among the factors identified by Barclays is September’s historically weaker seasonality, particularly before U.S. midterm elections. The bank also cited moderation in U.S. activity data and the fading contribution from the second-quarter earnings season.

    Interest rates remain another factor in the bank’s assessment. Barclays economists forecast two additional Federal Reserve rate increases in 2026 and also expect further tightening from the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan.

    Energy prices represent an additional source of uncertainty. The continuing U.S.-Iran standoff has kept oil prices elevated, with Cau describing energy prices as being in “the danger zone.”

    The strategists also said the artificial intelligence investment theme is maturing, with increasing dispersion between companies benefiting from the trend and those experiencing different outcomes.

    Barclays said it considers the current risks manageable within its broader equity outlook.

    “Big picture, however, we see these hiccups as manageable, as the key pillars supporting equities stay firmly in place,” Cau wrote.

    The bank pointed to resilient global activity, earnings-per-share growth of around 20% and valuations that it said continue to favour stocks relative to bonds.

    Reflecting its near-term assessment, Barclays reduced beta exposure and moved construction materials to marketweight. It raised insurance to marketweight while retaining a constructive view on capital-expenditure-related opportunities in industrials, technology and mining.