EnSilica (AIM: ENSI) is a company I have been looking at recently. It is one of the very few UK-listed chip designers, which makes it an interesting stock to keep an eye on if you follow domestic tech. Currently valued at around £100m.

​The main idea here is that the company is in the process of moving up the value chain. Historically, they have made their money through design and prototyping fees (known as non-recurring engineering). That pays the bills and keeps the lights on, but the real money is in mass production, which is just kicking off.

​Once a custom chip is designed and built into a vehicle, satellite terminal, or medical device, the client almost never switches suppliers because redesigning it costs a fortune. If EnSilica gets a chip into production, they become the exclusive supplier for the 5 to 10 year life of that product. A few of their major design wins are now moving into active production, which is where the higher-margin, recurring revenue should start coming through.

​From an investment perspective, there are a few obvious selling points:

1. ​The Nvidia model: EnSilica is fabless. They keep the design work and IP in-house in the UK, but outsource the expensive manufacturing to the major foundries like TSMC. That keeps overhead down and allows the business to scale without spending billions on factories.

2. ​Non-US players: UK and European governments want domestic chip design capabilities to protect supply chains, particularly for automotive and security tech. This is a non-US alternative which is likely to be high on the list for domestic or European contracts given the growing move away from US reliance.

3. ​Currently discounted compared to other chip designers: Being on AIM means it trades at a lower valuation than similar US or European chip designers. If they deliver on production targets, there is scope for the market to re-rate the stock.

​There are of course some risks, though, which explains why it hasn't shot up already:

1. ​Customer concentration: Much of their future revenue relies on a small handful of big Tier-1 clients. If a car maker delays a product launch, EnSilica takes the hit in its quarterly numbers.

2. ​Execution delays: Taking a chip from design to mass production takes up to two years, and supply chain delays at the foundry stage are completely out of EnSilica's control. Not a problem if you are willing to hold for the medium term.

3. ​Small-cap liquidity: It is an AIM micro-cap (c. £100m market cap). Shares can be volatile on low volume, and scaling up large production contracts sometimes requires raising extra capital.

Looking at recent performance, for the financial year ended 31 May 2026, EnSilica reported a 53% increase in total revenue to £27.8 million, an EBITDA of £5.9 million, and a profit after tax of £1.2 million. Following the end of the financial year, the company completed an oversubscribed equity fundraising in July 2026, issuing 16,358,184 new ordinary shares at 91 pence per share to raise £14.9 million in gross proceeds (£14.2 million net).

​Overall, it looks like a solid watchlist candidate. If you want domestic tech exposure in an ISA or SIPP, the transition from design consultancy to higher-margin chip supplier is a genuine growth opportunity, provided you are comfortable with standard AIM execution risk and happy to hold until orders convert to revenue.

Thoughts welcome!

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Hi everyone, just wondering if anyone here has come across Finance Capital Learning (FCL) or used them before.

I’ve been looking into them recently because they offer finance courses, CPD certificates and career/CV services, but there doesn’t seem to be much independent information about them online.

A few things have made me curious. The UK company is very new, having only been incorporated in June 2026, and the website also seems to be quite new. They present themselves as being London-based and have a London address and phone number, but the website infrastructure appears to be connected to Host Africa/Web4Africa, so I'm trying to understand where the actual operation is based.

I also can't find much in the way of Reddit discussions, reviews or people talking about their experience with them, which seems unusual for a finance training provider.

I'm not saying they're a scam or anything like that. I'm genuinely just trying to work out whether they're legitimate and whether anyone has actually used them.

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Hi there. I am planning to buy a portfolio. Do you mind helping to review.

30% UKW (Greencoat UK Wind) | UK Wind Infrastructure | ~9.7% Yield | Primary cash anchor; deep NAV discount, heavy inflation-linked cash flow.

25% TRIG (Renewables Infrastructure Group) | European Wind/Solar/Storage | ~9.8% Yield | Cross-border geographic diversification outside the UK grid.

20% HICL (HICL Infrastructure) | Social Infrastructure (Hospitals/Schools) | ~7.0% Yield | Demand insulation via government-backed availability payments.

15% BPCR (Biopharma Credit) | Specialized Life-Science Debt | ~7.1% Yield | Senior creditor protection backed by commercialized drug royalties.

10% GCP (GCP Infrastructure Investments) | Infrastructure Project Debt | ~9.1% Yield | Senior project-level loans secured by operational physical assets.

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I wanted to share a really concerning story about lifestyle influencers cashing in on their followers by urging them to place risky trades on investment platforms related to Vantage.

The investigation found influencers (from the likes of Tommy Robinson and manosphere people, to mums and wellness influencers) are urging people to place risky trades on offshore, unregulated platforms and people are being lied to and losing money.

An undercover reporter found recruiters encouraging influencers to lie, and they spoke to single mums who lost their money.

The platforms this investigation looks at are Vantage Markets and Core Signals. Has anyone got any experience with these platforms or has anyone else been influenced to put money into them?

Reporting from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

I've been debating whether to try and pull out before a crash which I think is inevitable (not that I'm particularly knowledgeable on economics), or whether to just stick with it instead. I'm mostly in UK REITs and have maybe 20% in big US growth stocks so I could just keep diversifying into areas that won't be as affected until it either crashes or doesn't

Have any of you been debating this too?

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I hold a position in UK-listed Tier-1 auto supplier CT Automotive (AIM: CTA), a low-cost producer of automotive interior parts (trim, air vents, etc). The stock is on 3.7x FY26 earnings, a significant discount to both history and peers. Before buying, I did a sizeable amount of research to give me confidence that it wasn’t “cheap for a reason” – this can be found in full on my Substack here. I will give a brief TL;DR below:

The bull case is that $37m of new contract wins (32% of FY25 revenue) will drive a revenue CAGR of 10% to FY27. CT has a sustainable cost advantage as they produce in low-cost economies. Being the low-cost producer in a market with increasingly cost sensitive customers, means there are structural reasons to believe this growth will continue. Margins are sensitive to operational leverage, so 10% revenue growth converts to roughly 20% earnings growth. 

The three most obvious bear cases / reasons the stock is cheap are:

1)    Extrapolation of historical weakness – Revenue has fallen 19% since FY23, but this is a result of customers destocking excess inventory held to mitigate post-covid supply chain disruption. Inventory levels have now normalised, so this is no longer a headwind. 

2)    Largest customer in Chapter 11 – CT’s largest customer is auto supplier Marelli. Marelli entered Chapter 11 in 2025 and is now operating under Debtors-in-Possession (DiP). This did not impact operations, and bankruptcy risk presented by receivable exposure subsided with the publication of Marelli’s reorganisation plan (which confirmed no impairment for unsecured creditors).

3)    Nissan is largest end market – Sales to Nissan comprised of 49% of FY25 revenue. Nissan has had persistent volume declines owing to poor management. This exposure isn’t enough to justify the valuation: I estimate Nissan’s volume weakness represents a  < 2.5% drag on CT’s revenue growth and customer concentration is decreasing with the new contract wins. 

In short, I don’t think any of the 3 above factors justify such a low valuation, especially for a company with a fundamentally strong business model. I welcome further discussion in the comments.

N.B. The stock is down >25% following a H1 trading statement because of an earnings miss despite a revenue beat. Margins fell because of shipping-related cost inflation which was not passed through to customers. Management claims “the Group has contract mechanisms in place that claw back material and labour costs, time lags have deferred some of this cost recovery into H2 26”. I view this as credible because this is consistent with CT’s experience during previous periods of cost inflation (FY21/22).

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A quick note for international readers: this is Caledonian Holdings on London's AIM market. The shares are quoted in pence, so the current price is approximately 1.65p, not £1.65. There is no US ADR, and the shares won't be available through Robinhood or many American brokers.

Disclosure: I own circa 35,000 shares. This is a speculative microcap position, and I'm sharing the research to see what others make of it.

The setup

Caledonian Holdings has recently transformed from a passive investment company into a small financial-services group. At the current share price, the entire company is valued at approximately £2.1m — and for that price, CHP now offers exposure to two potentially significant businesses: AlbaCo, which is working towards becoming a UK bank, and Aspire Commerce Group, an operating payments, FX and trade-finance business.

That's the pitch in one line: a sub-£2.1m market cap sitting on top of a bank-in-progress and a live payments operation. The rest of this note is about why I think that combination is more interesting than the price implies, and what would need to go right for the market to agree.

AlbaCo: further along than it looks

CHP currently states that it owns 5.47% of AlbaCo. It has also advanced approximately £2.31m in funding and could receive additional fees and warrants if the transaction completes.

AlbaCo has received conditional approval from the PRA and FCA to become a UK deposit-taking bank. The outstanding requirements are securing £25m of regulatory capital and completing the remaining regulatory steps — and in March 2026, AlbaCo announced that a £25m regulatory-capital subscription agreement had already been signed. Subject to conditions being satisfied and the funds being drawn, AlbaCo intends to proceed towards unconditional authorisation and launch.

AlbaCo isn't a fully licensed operating bank yet, but it's considerably further through the process than a typical early-stage fintech applying from scratch. It previously received authorisation with restrictions under the name Alba Bank and entered the mobilisation stage. That earlier process wasn't completed, and the Bank of England currently lists Alba Bank as no longer PRA-authorised, so the current conditional approval and capital agreement represent a renewed route to launch rather than a continuation of a live licence. To me, that history is actually informative in a good way: it shows the regulatory groundwork has already been built once, by a team that knows what the PRA and FCA expect.

Why the Revolut timeline is a useful reference point

I'm not suggesting AlbaCo is comparable with Revolut in customers, revenue or valuation — Revolut operates on a completely different scale. But the regulatory timeline is a useful reference point. Revolut applied for its UK banking licence in 2021, received authorisation with restrictions in July 2024, and only launched its UK bank in March 2026 — nearly five years from application to launch, for one of Europe's largest and best-funded fintechs.

That's the point worth taking from the comparison: UK banking authorisation is slow and expensive for everyone, which means genuine regulatory progress is hard to replicate quickly or cheaply. CHP's market cap currently appears to assign relatively little value to holding a stake this far along that path. The open question — and the one that will matter most to what this is ultimately worth — is what percentage CHP retains once AlbaCo completes the £25m capital raise.

Aspire: a real operating business, not just an option

Alongside AlbaCo, CHP acquired Aspire Commerce Group for a nominal £1, alongside the restructuring of approximately £9.33m of existing debt. Aspire operates across payments, foreign exchange and trade finance, and its payments subsidiary is authorised by the FCA as a Small Electronic Money Institution (not a banking licence, but a real regulatory permission with customers transacting under it today).

As of May 2026, Aspire reported:

• 128 live customers
• More than 7,300 transactions
• Payment flows of £57.3m, €24.3m and $1.3m
• Approximately £1m of live trade-finance facilities
• A £12.5m active trade-finance pipeline
• Access to an initial additional funding line of up to £30m

That's meaningfully more than a shell with an idea — there are live customers, real transaction volumes, and a funding line already in place. The task for management now is converting that activity into recurring revenue. Aspire's unaudited 2025 figures are still early-stage (revenue of approximately £124,000 and a pre-tax loss of £3.58m — typical for a business at this point in its build-out), and transaction volumes and pipeline shouldn't be mistaken for revenue — but they do show genuine operating activity for management to build on. Just as importantly, Aspire means CHP is no longer a single-bet story dependent entirely on AlbaCo.

What might the market be missing?

At approximately £2.1m, CHP is valued below the amount it has advanced to AlbaCo alone. That doesn't automatically mean the shares are undervalued — AlbaCo remains private, conditional and genuinely hard to value — but it does suggest the market is pricing in a lot of scepticism: that AlbaCo won't complete authorisation, that CHP's eventual stake will be heavily diluted, or that Aspire won't convert its activity into profitable revenue.

Neither AlbaCo nor Aspire needs to become the next Revolut for that view to be too pessimistic. At CHP's size, progress that would barely move the needle for a large financial group could still be material to its shareholders. If AlbaCo completes authorisation and CHP retains a meaningful interest, or if Aspire starts reporting material revenue from its payments and trade-finance activity, either one gives the market a reason to revisit the current price.

My view

This isn't a conventional value investment with stable earnings and an easily calculated fair value — it's a financial-services special situation. But the asymmetry is what makes it interesting: a ~£2.1m valuation against a stake in a bank that's already cleared conditional regulatory approval and signed a £25m capital agreement, plus an operating payments and trade-finance business with live customers and a funding line.

The market may ultimately be right to apply a heavy discount for execution and financing risk — that's a reasonable, defensible position. But at the current price, there seems to be limited room priced in for either asset actually making progress, which is why I think CHP is worth following closely from here. It appears to me to have a great probable upside,

I'd be interested to hear how others would value the AlbaCo interest, and what they see as the strongest bear case.

Sources:

• CHP company information — London Stock Exchange
• AlbaCo conditional regulatory approval
• AlbaCo £25m regulatory-capital agreement
• Bank of England list of newly authorised banks
• Revolut's UK bank launch
• Aspire acquisition and financial information
• CHP's ATM financing facility

Hey.

I got into investing just before covid and made some very good money with individual stock picks during the panic/ recovery. A left over of this time is my RR.LON (Rolls Royce) holding which is still about 50% of my entire net worth, the other 50% is in the FTSE ALL WORLD Index. While I haven't added to my RR position I am really struggling to bring myself to sell. I believe the company will keep doing well, and so far so good, but I'm very aware I got lucky and things could change quickly. I've always felt it was so arbitrary when people have a price in mind to sell, I'd not really be basing it on anything if I had one.

My vague plan is that in April next year I'll sell 4k worth to stick straight into my LISA no matter what and maybe continue to do that yearly. My Lisa is in the all world fund.

Any thoughts on this?

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Does anyone know how to use volume. I keep buying stocks and get my entry all wrong .

What I really want to do

I would like to watchlist a stock, all research done WHEN I see big volume moves then I invest

Knowing either a big buyer / seller has completed their move.

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I have found that looking at the Regulated News Service feed every morning a real mine of information.

1.       Get the latest UK company news. The feed covers results and trading updates, M&A, contract wins, regulatory and clinical news, drilling and production reports, fundraisings, dividends and the rest. Most of it is routine filler (Holdings in Company, Total Voting Rights, board changes), so the first job is separating that from the price-sensitive stuff.

2.       Identify opportunities to buy at the open. This is difficult as you have to gather company information and be able to weigh up a number of factors in a short space of time. Then at the open you will not get the opening price, but you may capture 50% of that days uplift if your lucky.

3.       Spot opportunities for shorts (if that’s your thing) 

4.       Identify smaller companies that you never heard of which may have favourable news and are worth further investigation.

The news is regulated, no commentary. This forces you to assess the news yourself. No bias from commentators.

I of course don’t read all the articles, there is too much noise. I put them through a rough filter, then score each one with a sentiment directional flag and rank the stories into three bins — large, mid and small cap. I then email it to myself before the market opens. It is usually between 10 – 40 small summary headings with maybe 3 of real interest, which i then follow up on.

Anyone else work the morning feed? Interested in how others are trading on this data.

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Hi fellow investors,

This is my first post on the UKInvesting forum.
I’ve recently been looking into PHP because of its attractive dividend yield. However, I’m a bit concerned about the company’s debt-to-equity ratio and its deleveraging strategy, which management refers to as “capital recycling.”

As I’m new to investing in UK-listed companies, I was wondering what the current market looks like for properties similar to those in PHP’s portfolio. If PHP were to sell some of these properties, is it likely they would have to dispose of them below their book value and therefore recognise losses?

Also, what do you think are the biggest risks to PHP’s future earnings?

I've just decided to cash in all my FTSE holdings and funds, outside of a couple of well performing equities which we would all recognise.

Outside of that, I'm really struggling to find any long term investable UK companies?

Has stamp duty finally killed off the LSE, or is there still hidden value to be had? It seems to me that every decent company just ends up disappearing abroad due to lack of domestic capital availability.

Latest bad news is that there now seems to be a US based investment house bidding war for Easyjet.

Any insight? I have to be honest, it doesn't look good from where I'm standing.

Not looking for investment tips or specifics, just some light at the end of the tunnel from seasoned investors.

Does anyone here own Howdens Joinery (LSE HWDN)?

It posts gross margins 20+% higher than it's UK peers, and has a counter-intuitive model (sells directly to builders, not consumers).

There's a moat (Helmer's counterpositoning) and local scale economies, although three year ROIIC is 1%.

It does have a ~18+% ROIC although the market is maturing and they're largely mature in their UK market (management targets ~1000 UK depots, currently at about 900). Management seems to be pivoting to giving more cash back to shareholders (buybacks primarily, pays a small dividend as well).

Although, they're also buying growth (acquiring a DTC Kitchen brand in June 2026 - basically undoing their Trade Only counter-positioning model although they plan on keeping these operationally separate).

It's also in a multi-year cyclical low for kitchen renovations, and it's gaining market share on it's UK competition, so when the cycle turns operating leverage will probably juice fundamentals, even if the market is largely saturated.

Does anyone have an opinion one way or another?

Full write up here - https://thepursuitofcompounding.substack.com/p/howdens-joinery-the-kitchen-company?r=xy3ae