Small caps news round-up

Premier Veterinary Group’s shares fell on Monday after the company almost doubled its first half pre-tax loss to £1.07m from £0.57m the previous year. The firm, which provides services to third party veterinary practices, attributed the wider loss to an increase in administrative expenses to £2.2m in the six months to end of March from £1.2m a year earlier.

Investors were gathering for the annual general meeting of Fairpoint today, which was performing in line with management expectations in its first quarter, though its board did describe the period as “quieter”. The AIM-traded consumer professional services provider said at this stage, it expected the first half to consist of growth in the legal services division to reflect the additional contribution from the acquisition of Colemans-CTTS and CT Support Services.

Rambler Metals and Mining announced a new engineering evaluation and services agreement with Maritime Resource Corporation on Monday, to evaluate the economic potential of reopening the past-producing Hammerdown gold mine in Maritime’s Green Bay property. The AIM-traded company said that, under the agreement, the two firms will work together and appoint an independent third-party consultant to prepare and complete a pre-feasibility study, funded by Maritime, on the property in Canada’s Newfoundland and Labrador province.

Forbidden Technologies has agreed to raise a net £1.2m from a discounted institutional placing to invest in its sales growth. The fundraising, which broker Allenby Capital has arranged at 7p per share compared to share price above 10p for much the year to date, is dependent on shareholder approval at a coming shareholder meeting.

Botswana Diamonds said on Monday that it will shortly begin a large diameter drilling (LDD) programme on one of its licenses in the Gope region to establish the grade and quality of diamonds it knows to be present. The AIM-listed company has a 15% stake in Maibwe Diamonds, which owns the licence. Maibwe is a privately-held company controlled by BCL, a state-owned copper and nickel producer in Botswana. BCL is the operator.

Iofina impressed investors with confirmation of record iodine production, annual losses cut more than expected and encouraging sounds from its bond talks. The company was positive at the earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) level for the first time since opening its current IOsorb plants, and produced a record 569.1 metric tonnes (MT) of crystalline iodine, to become the second largest iodine producer in North America.

Bango has acquired US direct carrier billing (DCB) rival BilltoMobile from its Korean parent company for an initial $3.5m mostly in cash. The purchase will allow the London-listed company, which claims to be the leading provider of DCB technology to mobile networks and app stores, to accelerate end user spend growth in the high value US market, it said.