Small caps news round-up

Oxford Pharmascience's losses widened in 2015, as the specialty pharmaceutical company spent more cash in a bid to move a number of products towards registration. The AIM-traded company's revenues jumped to £749,000, from £705,000 in 2014. Gross profit was down, however, to £158,000 from £223,000. Oxford's operating loss hit £3.97m, wider than the £3.5m in 2014. It reported a loss before tax of £3.88m, from £3.46m in 2014. Losses per share were 0.28p on a basic and diluted basis, compared with 0.29p a year prior.

Dart Group was looking on solid ground on Friday, with the company updating the market on its expectations for the current and next financial years. The AIM-traded leisure travel, and distribution and logistics group, which operates Jet2 Airways, said operating profit for the year ending 31 March 2016 would be slightly ahead of current market expectations, as a result of lower-than-anticipated winter losses.

Sweett Group has confirmed its chief financial officer Patrick Sinclair will be stepping down. In a statement on Friday, the AIM-listed independent business provider of professional services for construction and infrastructure projects said Sinclair would be stepping down from the board in "due course."

AIM-listed LGO Energy has reached an agreement with BNP Paribas that will see its debt repayment reduced. Under the new agreement, the March 2016 installment will be cut to $100,000, after which the remaining outstanding balance will be recovered over the following 18 months.

UMC Energy announced its impending delisting on Friday, after repeated failed attempts to raise equity funding. The announcement came after discussions with its major shareholder, Natasa Mining. The AIM-traded firm's principal activity was investment directly and indirectly in resource exploration and development projects, as well as their operation.

After a lengthy delay due to auditing, vending machine operator SnackTime warned the market that it was expecting a loss in the year to 31 March 2015, though a much smaller one than in the 12 months prior. The AIM-traded company said that, following extended audit work that was only just concluding, the company expected to report a loss for the year of around £4.4m, before a small taxation credit. It would still be a smaller loss than in the 2014 year, which stood at £8.5m.

Gear4music was celebrating a successful maiden year as a public company on Friday, updating the market on its sales volumes ahead of its final results in May. During the year, the music equipment e-tailer saw a 46% increase in total like-for-like sales, following strong growth in both the UK and Europe. Total sales were £35.49m in the year to 29 February, from £18.76m a year earlier.

Guscio warned the market it was facing cancellation on AIM on Friday, as the final deadline to implement its investing policy loomed. The AIM-traded firm's shares had been suspended from trading on 9 September, as it had not made an acquisition which would constitute a reverse takeover, or otherwise implemented its policy by the deadline of 8 September.

AIM-listed mobile payment processor Monitise confirmed on Friday that it is in very early stage discussions regarding a possible disposal of the content business, Markco Media. “There is no certainty that a disposal will take place or what the terms of any such disposal may be,” it said.