In spite of these uncertain times, broker Arbuthnot has identified a brace of AIM companies about which it is extremely confident. Document management software provider Invu is a strong buy at 31.5p, according to analyst Rob Saunders, who expects ‘much more progress in the future’ following a ‘transformational year’ from the group in which it produced £2.7 million of profit.

Invu is rolling out its next generation ‘Ergo’ software, a development yet to be factored into forecasts. Since sales ‘would most likely be at 99 per cent plus gross margins, there could be a serious upside to numbers’, remarks Saunders, while maintaining his profit forecast for this year and setting a 42p target price.

Blow by blow
Even more optimistic is David Cunningham, who provides a preview of diversified cleantech investor Renewable Energy Holdings (REH). He expresses confidence in his valuation of the company’s German wind assets ‘due to the numbers of transactions taking place for similar assets’, where every megawatt produced is going for around £1.1 million.

This means REH’s two German sites should be ‘valued at around £44 million’. Adding the wind sites in development in Poland and Wales as well as REH’s Welsh landfill gas assets, he arrives at a £72.2 million value, over double today’s £32.5 million market cap. He has worked out the contrasting sums that potential buyers could pay for the group – which includes a wave power technology still in development – namely a bear scenario of £169 million and a bull case of £263 million.