Small caps news round-up

4D Pharma announced a major acquisition on Friday, gobbling up the production assets of Spanish-based contract research organisation Biomar. The AIM-traded pharmaceutical company, which focuses on the development of live biotherapeutics, said Biomar had been working as an outsourced development partner since 2014.

Plant Health Care reported on a year of growth on Friday, with both revenue and gross profit up as it continued to expand and develop its product range. The AIM-traded provider of patent-protected biological products to the agriculture sector saw revenue increase by 15% in constant currency and 9% in USD to $7.5m. It derived 60% of that revenue from proprietary sales of its Harpin and Myconate products.

Edenville Energy non-executive chairman Sally Schofield has resigned after six years with the company. In a statement on Friday, the AIM-listed firm said she had made the decision to step down for “personal reasons” and to allow her to fully manage her personal commitments outside of Edenville.

Music and radio services firm 7digital announced on Friday it had completed the acquisition of French digital streaming service provider Snowite, originally announced on 6 January. The AIM-traded company negotiated a slight reduction in the amount of existing debt of Snowite with the French Commercial Courts, from €1.8m to €1.7m, as part of its Procédure de Sauvegarde under French insolvency law, which is comparable to Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States.

Telecom and data services company Maintel reported a 19% jump in full year pre-tax profit as revenues were boosted following the acquisition of Proximity Communications. Adjusted pre-tax profit in the year to 31 December 2015 rose to £7.1m from £6.1m. Revenues increased 21% to £50.6m from £41.9m.

Mountfield Group was confident in the operational performance of subsidiary Mountfield Building Group (MBG) on Friday, updating the market on trading so far this year. The board of the AIM-traded company said that, by the end of March MBG had secured £2m of work for 2016. £1.5m of that has been secured since the beginning of the year, made up of 11 contracts - with the largest being worth £300,000.

Coal of Africa had its Integrated Water Use Licence on the Makhado Project suspended on Friday, following an appeal to the South African Department of Water and Sanitation, submitted by the Vhembe Mineral Resources Forum and other parties. The appeal automatically suspended the licence under the South African Water Act.

KBC Advanced Technologies bid farewell to its listed status on Friday, as its board confirmed the cancellation of its shares from trading on AIM. On Thursday, it announced that the proposed takeover offer from Yokogawa Electric Corporation had received court approval and was going ahead.

Oilex was celebrating the start of gas production from its Bhandut Field on Friday, located onshore Gujarat, India. The board of the AIM-traded company said the Bhandut-3 well was currently flowing at the expected stabilised rate of 120 barrels of oil equivalent per day, through an 8/64 inch choke.

Shares in Bonmarche slid on Friday after the retailer said full year pre-tax profit will be at the lower end of guidance. Back in December, the company said pre-tax profit would be between £10.5m and £12m.