INVESTMENT
he fastest-growing city in the UK, home to some of the UK’s largest companies, and a world
The turnover of Cambridgeshire’ s largest companies leapt 10% last year to £10.7bn, according to a report"
leading university renowned for launching innovative spin-off companies means Cambridge's economy is booming. While many of us are immersed in the region’s economy as homeowners, business owners, employees or consumers, we might not have considered how we could benefit from this prosperity through our own personal investments. This is the first in a series of articles exploring how you can invest directly and indirectly in the Cambridge Phenomenon through different investment vehicles, from ISAs and pensions to crowd-funding and more. In this article, we look to the region’s largest companies, those listed on a public stock market – meaning anyone can become a shareholder and buy a slice of the profits. Cambridge’s listed companies The turnover of Cambridgeshire’s 100 largest companies leapt 10% last year to £10.7bn, according to a report by Grant Thornton. The figure excludes AstraZeneca, whose global headquarters are in Cambridge, because of the firm’s large global footprint. Other multinationals are also excluded – such as Apple and Microsoft – that have offices in Cambridge. Even larger than this strong 10% sales growth in 2018 was a mighty 17% rise in profits, hitting £780m. Out of the largest 100 companies in the region in 2018, 17 were listed on the UK
stock market. This brings added skills, experience and kudos to the region, commentators believe. Peter Hewkin, chief executive of the Centre for Business Innovation, a think tank that helps businesses collaborate on technology and business process projects, says: “I’m a big fan of large enterprises being based here, because it shows the region on the big boys’ landscape.” He continues: “Also, it brings large company skills to the region. We are overweight in innovation and entrepreneurship in Cambridgeshire but underweight in running really big companies, so it helps us to have the skills in the region that will enable our companies to grow that bit larger.” Claire Ruskin, chief executive of Cambridge Network Ltd, says it is “excellent” to have listed companies in Cambridge, because their experience in areas such as exporting and international supply chains, as well as their scale, “sets an example and aspiration to some of our growing businesses”. “We also see useful and generous support coming from some of the bigger companies to help fund and resource
COMPANY / TICKER
INDEX
MARKET CAPITALISATION (£M)
AstraZeneca (AZN)
FTSE 100
80.07bn
Hilton Food Group (HFG)
FTSE 250
779.3
Abcam (ABC)
FTSE AIM UK 50
3.01
Xaar (XAR)
FTSE SmallCap
60.7
Quixant (QXT)
FTSE AIM 100
152.7
Amino Technologies (AMO)
FTSE AIM All-Share
75.4
Science Group (SAG)
FTSE AIM All-Share
81.8
Horizon Discovery (HZD)
FTSE AIM 100
221.1
Creightons (CRL)
FTSE AllSmall
18.9
Frontier Developments (FDEV)
FTSE AIM UK 50
412.2
Elektron Technology (EKT)
FTSE AIM All-Share
81.8
IQGEO Group (formerly Ubisense) (IQG)
FTSE AIM All-Share
34.1
Quartix Holdings (QTX)
FTSE AIM All-Share
120.3
Brady (BRY)
FTSE AIM All-Share
47.7
Avingtrans (AVG)
FTSE AIM All-Share
67.4
Source: Grant Thornton / company accounts
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ISSUE 02
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