Small caps news round-up

Shares in Source BioScience are up more than 15% after it received a potential but firm 18p a share cash offer from Continental Investment Partners SA and Harwood Capital LLC. The potential offer was, subject to due diligence, expected to include an unlisted securities alternative, Source BioScience said.

Property services group Begbies Traynor said it had bought Pugh Auction Group for £2m in cash. Begbies said Pugh's 25 staff, including management, would be integrated with the group's existing Eddisons property services division.

Shares in Verona Pharma sagged more than 8% as it turned in a wider full-year pre-tax loss of £8.9m, from a loss of £3.8m, thanks to higher research and development more than doubling. Chief executive Jan-Anders Karlsson said Verona had made substantial clinical progress with its lead compound, RPL554, during the year. Shares in AIM-quoted Verona shed 8.27% to 3.05p.

Shares in Bond International Software jumped 15% after Canadian software outfit Constellationsaid it was thinking about making a cash offer for the company at 105p a share. Constellation already holds 29.6% of Bond shares and the offer values Bond at around £44m.

Energy developer Oracle Coalfields saw its share price move markedly higher on Friday afternoon, before issuing a statement confirming market chatter about a deal with a number of Chinese interests. The AIM-traded company - which is developing a combined lignite mineral resource and mine mouth power plant in Pakistan’s Thar desert, said it has signed a Shareholder Framework Agreement with a consortium of new and existing Chinese partners.

Five-a-side social football operator Goals Soccer Centres announced on Friday that it was raising £16.5m in a bid to refresh its locations, after years of underinvestment. The AIM-traded firm, which reported a £6.2m full-year loss for last year, said it was placing 16.75m shares at 100p each.