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Thursday 02 June 2016 4:30 am

Revealed: The UK’s thriftiest small companies – from Match.com to the Royal Collection Trust

By: Billy Bambrough

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Dating site Match.com, White Dark – the artistic company of sculptor Anish Kapoor, and the Royal Collection Trust, have all been named as some of the UK's thriftiest small companies. 

The research, carried out by company intelligence provider DueDil, named 156 companies in the UK with positive net assets and a turnover between £30m-£50m, and who hold between 50 per cent and 80 per cent of their assets as cash.

Others include the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain, BBC Media Action – the BBC’s international development charity – and the Scottish Football Association.

The full list can be viewed here.

Having a lot of cash on the books isn't always a good thing – though may be because the company is saving up for an acquisition or has had higher than expected sales recently – and could mean assets are not being used effectively. 

Read more: Common investment errors that are losing you money

Credit rating agency Moody’s issued a report last year suggesting that 672 major European companies were together holding about €870bn (£674bn) at the end of 2014.

In Japan listed companies were thought to have amassed a combined cash pile of $2.2 trillion (£1.53 trillion) – a staggering 40 per cent of the country's gross domestic product. 

Some of the biggest tech companies in the world are the worst offenders when it comes to hoarding cash – though this means they have plenty of cash on hand when the market quickly shifts, allowing them to buy up competitors. 

iPhone maker Apple has hoarded over $233bn in cash. There have been repeated calls from investors for the company to return more of its cash to shareholders – despite the Cupertino based company paying out $2.9bn in mid-May. 

Apple's share price has dropped eight per cent for the year as investors fret over slowing sales.

Read more: End of the Delaware flip – Why US investors are targeting UK startups

Microsoft is sitting on a whopping $105bn cash pile. The Windows software giant is trying to work out which way to turn as both its revenue from cloud computing services and its PC business showed slower growth recently. 

Microsoft's share price is down nine per cent on the year. 

Google parent Alphabet has amassed $75bn lump of cash and a stock that is down seven per cent this year.

Cisco's shares are up by three per cent on the year as the company clutches $63bn in cash. Cisco recently has seen its revenue accelerate beyond expectations however, somewhat excusing its cash pile. 

Oracle has $50bn in cash and its stock is up seven per cent for 2016 as it tries to pull off a hard turn into the cloud computing market.

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