Small caps news round-up

Forbidden Technologies was celebrating its first contract win for its social video platform on Thursday, after a number of proof-of-concept trials. The AIM-traded technology firm's 'eva' platform described itself as "the real video social network", and allows users to create profiles to share videos with friends and other users. Forbidden Technologies said WAE - a London-based design agency - would license a channel for three months initially, with the option of extending for a further 12.

MX Oil completed the first of many steps on the road to production at its four Land Contract Areas (LCAs) in Mexico on Thursday, in conjunction with its local partner Geo Estratos. The AIM-traded oil and gas investing company said the four LCAs - Tecolutla, La Laja, Ponton and Paso de Oro - were all located in the prolific Tampico-Misantla Basin, which had produced around 6bn barrels of oil to date, and was currently producing at a rate of 70,000 barrels per day.

Rotala's buses were chugging along on Thursday, as the company updated the market on the year to 30 November, with language reflecting a relatively flat year. The AIM-traded omnibus company said pre-tax profit, off a slightly reduced level of turnover and before exceptional items, was broadly in line with management expectations.

Things are getting more serious at cartoon animation and events business DQ Entertainment, which fell to an all-time low after being threatened by its AIM nominated adviser, which said it could resign over the potential appointment of two directors. Allenby Capital, the company's broker and official 'Nomad' that all companies on AIM require, said if Anil Chintapalli and Suresh Chitturi are appointed it will resign immediately as due diligence on the pair has not been completed.

The UK's relatively buoyant property market made for a good start to the year at M Winkworth on Thursday, with the AIM-traded real estate franchisor passing the 100-office mark. Winkworth reported it was opening new offices in the first quarter in Colindale, Potters Bar and Milford-on-Sea.

Dillistone Group was warming up the market for some positive revenue growth in the year to 31 December, releasing a trading update on Thursday. The AIM-traded supplier of software for the international recruitment industry said pre-tax profits before acquisition-related items were expected to be in line with market expectations.

One of London's gay institutions was handed its death sentence on Thursday, with the Chariots Roman Spa sauna in Shoreditch to make way for a luxury development. US-based hotelier Highgate Holdings had their planning application approved by Hackney Council on Thursday.

Shares in South32 spiked higher after the miner decided to cut costs and production at its South Africa manganese operations, with 620 jobs axed and an expected 0.9m tons (Mt) removed from the market. The company, which was spun out of BHP Billiton last May, said that as a result of its write-downs of forecast commodity demand and prices, it now expects to book pre-tax, non-cash charges of approximately $1.7bn in the half-year to December 2015.

Avanti Communications, which provides satellite data communications services, said its loss for the half year narrowed. For the six months to the end of December 2015, the loss narrowed to $45.5m (£31m) from $48m, on largely flat revenue of $31m compared with $31.1m in the same period a year earlier.

Alba Mineral Resources was looking at a busy 2016 work programme on Thursday, with the company reporting encouraging results from its remote sensing study at the Amitsoq Graphite Project in southern Greenland. The AIM-traded resources firm said the remote sensing study was highly encouraging, highlighting several anomalies for a variety of commodities.

Amur Minerals' programme to rapidly advance its Kun-Manie nickel copper sulphide project in Russia was moving quickly on Thursday, with the company updating the market on its 2016 Field Programme. The AIM-traded firm said capital purchases and delivery of its newly acquired fleet components to the Verkhnezeisk base station was its first step in aggressively moving towards the completion of its Definitive Feasibility Study.

Noricum Gold tentatively struck the jackpot in Georgia on Thursday, revealing some very promising results from recent drill testing at the Kvemo Bolnisi Project. The AIM-traded European-focused base and precious metals resource development company said the results highlighted the potential for early stage, low-cost gold production at Bolnisi.

Jeremy Nicholds has joined the board of mobile financial services provider Vipera as a non-executive director. Nicholds, a marketing and commercial director in the global payments field, has worked for companies such as Visa, MasterCard, NatWest Bank and Reuters in the past.

AIM-listed Xtract Resources said the processing plant at its Chepica gold and copper mine in Chile has been granted permission to restart. The diversified metals and minerals producer said the Inspector of Mines visited the mine earlier this week and found management had implemented all the required recommendations.

Imperial Innovations, the UK technology commercialisation and investment company, said on Thursday it has proposed a £100m fundraising by way of placing 425p new ordinary shares. The placing of 425p represents a premium of about 8.0% to the mid-market closing price of the group’s ordinary shares on 3 February, according to a company statement.

Galasys said on Thursday that reported profit and earnings for the full year are likely to take a hit from certain one-off costs relating to the ongoing litigation over changes to its board, but the underlying performance should be in line with market expectations. In a trading update for the year ended 31 December, Galasys said that if legal costs are ruled by the courts to be for the account of the company, profits for the year could be below market expectations. In a worst case scenario, they could fall materially short, the company said

Queuing and ticketing technology company Accesso Technology expects its performance for the year ended 31 December to be “comfortably” in line with expectations. The group attributed its strong performance to last summer’s agreement with Merlin Entertainments, despite significant investment in the business.

Synectics’ Integration and Managed Services division has won a major contract with a new UK power station. The AIM-listed surveillance technology and security system company said it designed and installed a complex integrated security and safety system for the station.