Small caps news round-up

Shares in Ascent Resources lost more than two-thirds of their value after the company failed to agree takeover terms with suitor Cadogan Petroleum, which did not share Ascent's view of the value of its Petišovci asset in Slovenia. Ascent said that its view of the value of the company was "considerably in excess of that contained in the preliminary approach received from Cadogan", which understandably made negotiations difficult.

Renewable power firm PowerHouse Energy said it had in February received a claim from RenewMe Limited relating to a settlement agreed in March 2014 and that its AIM-listed shares had been suspended. PowerHouse said it was in talks with RenewMe regarding the claim and a further announcement would be made in due course.

Nakama Group issued a warning over its full-year results on Friday, having spent much of its resources restructuring the company amid tough trading conditions. The AIM-traded recruitment firm said that, since the appointment of Rob Sheffield as group CEO in September, it had been through significant change as a result of a ‘holistic’ review of the business.

Fyffes expanded into the Canadian mushroom business on Friday, purchasing 100% of the equity of the country’s largest producer. The AIM-traded banana company said it paid CAD 145m (£77.9m) for Highline Produce, funded through new and existing bank debt.

UniVision revealed it was embroiled in the beginnings of a legal battle on Friday, after a share transfer deal in Hong Kong turned sour. The AIM-traded company supplies, designs, installs and maintains CCTV and surveillance systems, and sells security-related products.

MOD Resources and Metal Tiger expressed their joint pleasure to the market on Friday, posting encouraging results from the drilling project at their 70-30 joint venture in the Kalahari Copper Belt in Botswana. The natural resources companies said the style of copper mineralisation found in the drilling at T4 was similar to the MOD Mahumo and Cupric Canyon copper deposits. It was still awaiting drill assay results from T3.

Medical equipment maker MedaPhor said full-year pretax losses increased to £1.7m from £1.5m as it announced it had raised £3.2m in a cash call. Revenues were up 22% to £2.2m with the UK leading the way despite "weak NHS funding", the company said, adding that sales were boosted by a number of large multi-system sales orders from educational institutions. US sales rose 13%, thanks to a new partnership agreement with the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG).

Digital Barriers was set to shed its loss-making Services business on Thursday, announcing it was divesting it to management. The AIM-traded company’s board had indicated on 11 December last year that it no longer believed the Services division was strategic to the group’s future.

Preliminary results from Scisys confirmed a strong second half recovery that lifted the numbers above expectations Scisys, which recently won a £4m contract to develop a customs compliance management information system for the UK Ministry of Defence, reinstated the full year dividend with a payment of 1.78p.