Small caps round-up

Diamond development company Firestone Diamonds revealed its Liqhobong Diamond Mine project was getting closer to completion on Thursday. It was a joint venture, with Firestone holding 75% and the Government of Lesotho 25%.

Petards Group expanded its presence in the law enforcement market on Thursday, announcing the full acquisition of QRO Solutions for a maximum consideration of £1.26m. The AIM-traded developer of security and surveillance systems said the consideration, which will be satisfied in cash, includes deferred consideration of £140,000 subject to QRO achieving revenues of £1.75m and profits before tax of at least £240,000 in the year to 30 November.

Sierra Rutile had an extra £14m to play with on Thursday, completing a share placing with both new and existing institutional investors. The AIM-traded firm said the placing was oversubscribed, with the net proceeds being used to provide additional working capital and financial flexibility, enabling it to continue to implement its strategy of growing production by expanding its dry mining operations.

Steppe Cement struggled with a depressed Kazakh cement market in the first quarter of 2016, with both sales volumes and income down. The AIM-traded company sold 190,935 tonnes of cement for KZT 2.004m, compared to 192,884 tonnes for KZT 2.277m in the first quarter of 2015, representing a decrease in volume of 1% and a 12% drop in value.

Industrial chains and transmissions maker Renold said its full year results will be not quite as bad as indicated in a profit warning in February. At that time, Renold said annual sales would be 9% lower than the previous year and profits down 13% due to weakness in many of its end markets in recent months.

Natural resources investor Metal Tiger reported some promising copper and silver data from Botswana on Thursday, having received further assay results from the drilling programme at target three (T3) in the Kalahari Copper Belt. Metal Tiger held a 30% interest in the project, as part of a joint venture with ASX-listed MOD Resources.

Under pressure from a major shareholder to shake up its performance, Stock Spirits has served up a strong measure of its first-quarter trading. The vodka and schnapps maker said it broke back into the black, with an operating profit of €6.3m on total revenue up 29% €55.3m in the three months to 31 March.

Businesses could soon have their customer service representatives chatting with consumers on Facebook Messenger, with IMImobile launching support for the platform on its IMIconnect cloud communications and IMIchat contact centre software products. The AIM-traded company said the IMIconnect cloud communications platform enables enterprises to communicate to any consumer anywhere in the world, through a single API which supports telecom, in-app and over-the-top messaging channels.

Asa Resource Group continued its expansion into agriculture on Thursday, completing the acquisition of 62% of the KEPL Slaughterhouse business in South Africa for a total cash consideration of ZAR 6.2m (£0.29m).