Small caps news round-up

LSL Property Services has acquired a 65% interest in Group First Limited for £9.1m in cash. The deal, which is being funded from existing banking facilities, was done through a wholly-owned subsidiary, with 50% payable on completion and a further 50% in 2017.

Legendary Investments was celebrating further milestones at one of its investments on Friday, announcing the continued expansion of Virtualstock (VS) in the retail sector. The AIM-traded company said VS had contracted two unnamed clients, both of which it claimed were household names and leaders in their respective fields, to use its The Edge product.

Milestone Group was moving from a phase of development to one of active trading on Friday, launching the MusicRoo streaming platform in partnership with Australian company Black Cactus Holdings, and announcing an issue of equity. The AIM-traded provider of digital media and technology solutions said the MusicRoo platform would be a standalone multichannel music and video distribution platform, gathering music content from a number of suppliers and allowing customers to purchase from a single and substantial library.

Vela Technologies was starting to see the fruits of its investment in one of its more recent targets on Friday, with Vancouver-based blockchain technology developer BTL Group combining with one of its partners. The AIM-traded investing company focused on early-stage and pre-IPO disruptive technology investments said that BTL had entered into a binding letter of intent to acquire all of the issued and outstanding securities of Xapcash Technologies.

AIM-listed imaging company DDD Group said its GenMe subsidiary had signed a distribution agreement for its TriDef SmartCam software with Taiwan-based multimedia specialist AVerMedia Technologies. The software will be used with AVerMedia's LGX Live Gamer Extreme game capture and streaming solution.

NU-Oil updated the market on one of its Irish interests on Friday, in which one of its investments - Marginal Field Development Company (MFDevCo) - was undertaking a farm-in to the Helvick and Dunmore oil discoveries. Its stake in MFDevCo was 50%, and the farm-in agreement was initially announced on 13 November 2013.

Social care provider CareTech said it had raised £30m in cash to support its growth strategy through a ground rent deal. Under the terms of the agreement, the freehold to 41 CareTech properties will be transferred to Alpha Real Capital's managed funds in exchange for the cash and security of tenure with a 150 year term.

Strat Aero was out proving the capabilities of its drones in Friday, having been awarded a wind turbine inspection contract with the largest electricity provider in the US state of Kansas, Westar Energy. The AIM-traded aerospace company, with a focus on the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sector, said the contract was its first wind inspection and data analysis contract utilising its UAVs and proprietary software.

GameAccount Network (GAN) announced a new partnership with a major US casino on Friday, teaming up with Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, New Jersey for the launch of a Simulated Gaming online experience. The AIM-traded developer of enterprise-level internet gaming software said the agreement also provided GAN the opportunity to service Borgata's real money Regulated Gaming online experience if certain conditions were met.

Cluff Natural Resources said it had extended its memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Halliburton Manufacturing and Services Limited to collaborate on the development of its Southern North Sea gas assets as well as its Underground Coal Gasification assets, for a further two years.

Industrial fuel cell power company AFC Energy has inked a strategic engineering partnership and services agreement with German engineering consultancy plantIng to support the rollout of its alkaline fuel cell system. PlantIng will invest time and resources in supporting AFC Energy to address the identified deployment opportunities that exist in Germany, Europe and internationally.