Companies: ATG   

Following a strong run in early March – spurred on by impressive results for the year to December – marketing and advertising agency Adventis has seen its share price ease back by around a third in recent months. Frustratingly for the company, but intriguingly for investors, however, this seems to reflect little more than a lack of news flow. At current levels, the shares, therefore, look a decent bet.

Adventis joined AIM – following a £3.6 million placing at 28.5p in July 2004 – and has enjoyed a largely positive first 15 months on the market. Already profitable when it listed, the company grew profits before tax by 83 per cent to £773,000 during the year to December, on sales up 32 per cent at £12.1 million. Released in early March, these figures initially helped drive the shares up to a high of 41p, though they have since eased back to 32p, hindered by a lack of liquidity.

To chief executive Charles Phillpot the success enjoyed to date owes much to the diversity of Adventis’ offerings. The group provides a range of marketing and advertising services – from campaign design and brand building, right through to media space buying – to businesses operating in four main sectors, namely residential property, commercial property, financial services and healthcare.

Historically, the residential and commercial property markets have been the strongest, with Adventis running campaigns for Capital & Provident, Berkeley Homes and Emblem Homes among others. More recently, however, financial services and healthcare have come increasingly to the fore and it is on these areas that Phillpot and his team have been focusing.

August 2004, for instance, saw the group enter into a joint venture agreement with NMG Financial Services Consulting to consolidate its position in the finance sector. In early January, meanwhile, Adventis concluded the £1.1 million acquisition of specialist healthcare advertising agency Affiniti, granting it access to a far wider customer base.

Phillpot hints at further deals in the not too distant future. ‘Of the money we raised on flotation we’ve only spent £500,000, so we’re confident there’s plenty more for us to do,’ he reasons. ‘[We’re looking for growth] but that could be organic, through joint ventures or via acquisition.’ A move into the automotive sector is deemed especially attractive, Phillpot explaining that ‘there’s a load going on in that market at present. Basically, we have a simple, very successful model and all we’re trying to do is expand it further.’

In June Adventis announced it was switching broker, with Seymour Pierce replacing WH Ireland as the company’s lead adviser. Prior to the switch, however, WH Ireland was forecasting a £980,000 profit on £15 million of sales for the full year. At the halfway stage profits hit £500,000 and sales jumped 75 per cent to £10.7 million. The next six months promise to be very interesting. Buy.