Small caps news round-up

Clinical stage specialty pharma company focused on best in class treatments for orphan diseases, Amryt Pharma, posted its interim financial statements for the six months to 30 June on Tuesday. The AIM-traded firm was admitted to trading on AIM and the ESM market of the Irish Stock Exchange on 19 April following the reverse takeover of Fastnet Equity.

Renewable energy supplier and generator Good Energy Group posted its interim results for the six months to 30 June on Tuesday, with revenue rising 40% to £45.6m. The AIM-traded firm’s gross profit was up 50% year-on-year to £15.3m, with its gross profit margin improving to 33.5% from 31.3%.

Verona Pharma, a UK based drug development company focused on first-in-class medicines to treat respiratory diseases, reported positive results on new drug “RPL554”. The company’s lead drug, RPL554, is a first-in-class drug currently in Phase 2 trials as a nebulized maintenance treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients.

Independent petroleum exploration and gas storage company InfraStrata reported on Tuesday that its wholly owned subsidiary, InfraStrata UK, has acquired an additional 25% equity stake inIslandmagee Storage (IMSL). The AIM-traded firm said Islandmagee is the developer of the gas storage facility in Northern Ireland which is a joint venture with Moyle Energy Investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mutual Energy.

Multi-jurisdictional financial services company STM Group announced its unaudited interim results for the six months to 30 June on Tuesday, with revenue down to £7.9m, compared with £8.3m a year ago. The AIM-traded firm’s EBITDA for the period was £1.3m, down from £1.6m, and profit before tax fell to £1.2m from £1.4m.

Isle of Man communications services provider Manx Telecom announced its results for the six months to 30 June on Tuesday, with revenues of £39.2m, down slightly from £39.8m in the first half of 2015. The AIM-traded firm said fixed Line, broadband and data revenues were up 1.3%, driven by good take-up of high speed broadband, and core mobile revenues were up 4.7%, but offset by lower roaming charges.

Escher Group posted a rise in interim profit for the six months to the end of June. Pre-tax profit was up 43% to $1.81m, on revenue of $12.34m, up 4% from the same period a year ago.

Private equity investor Oakley Capital Investments said on Tuesday that Inspired, a premium schools organisation in which it has an interest through its shareholding in Educas, has completed the acquisitions of three schools. Inspired has bought the International School of Europe Group (ISE), St Louis School and St John’s International School for an undisclosed sum.

Video game technical service provider Keywords Studios’ revenue increased due to several acquisitions during the first half of the year. Revenue increased by 77% to €42.4m for the six months to 30 June, in comparison to the same period last year, which resulted in a 177% rise in profit before tax to €6m.

Shares in Hilton Foods reach an all-time high as the retail meat packing business posted strong half-year sales and profits growth on Tuesday. With almost 134,000 tonnes of meat processed in the 28 weeks to 17 July, a 4.5% increase on the same period last year, sales were lifted 9.1% to £631.9m.