Small caps news round-up

Consumer professional services firm Fairpoint Group posted a trading update on its performance for the six months to 30 June on Wednesday, ahead of revealing its full half-year results on 15 September. The AIM-traded company said overall group trading for the first half of 2016 was in line with the board’s expectations, with overall revenues increasing in excess of 20% compared to the prior period.

Hydrodec Group, a company which re-refines waste oil have announced record sales numbers for the first half of 2016, following on from their reported loss last year. The main drivers have been the firms refocusing on core transformer oil re-refining technology by optimising the performance of its Canton facility.

Shares in LED International, the Chinese provider of energy saving specialist, have been suspended for seven months and could be cancelled from AIM within a month after nominated adviser Allenby Capital quit as the company continued to delay reporting another set of accounts. Adding to the worries for investors, LED chairman Stephen Weatherseed, a former senior partner and national head of audit services at Grant Thornton in London, where he advised dozens of AIM companies, has also resigned with immediate effect.

Scancell, the developer of immunotherapies for cancer treatments, was granted a product licence option extension from Ichor Medical Systems. The extension is to licence the commercial use of Ichor's TriGrid electroporation delivery system with SCIB1, Scancell's ImmunoBody vaccine, which treats melanoma.

Judges Scientific posted a trading update on its first-half performance on Wednesday, including the first full first-half contribution from Armfield, and the post-acquisition contributions from CoolLED and Dia-Stron, which were acquired in the first quarter of 2016. The AIM-traded firm said that for the third year in a row, order intake in the first quarter was weak, lasting until the end of May until a healthy rebound with five consecutive weeks of strong bookings narrowing the decline in organic order intake for the first half to just 1.6% below 2015.

IQE expects to deliver a significant increase in revenues and profits for the first half of 2016 compared to the same period a year ago as it continues to diversify its revenues. In a trading update for the six months ended 30 June, the compound semiconductor specialist said sales in the first half are likely to be at least 15% higher than in the same period last year.

MayAir, which provides air purification technology, has secured new contract wins in its industrial and commercial divisions with a combined value of $10.6m. The company said its industrial division was awarded a contract by China’s Nanchang O-film Tech Co on 17 July for the supply and commissioning of its fan filtration units and for the provision of filters in a cleanroom environment, which is expected to generate around $5.3m of revenue.