Small cap news round-up
Retailer Mothercare reported a drop in fourth-quarter and full-year sales on Thursday, mostly due to a weaker performance in the international business.
International retail sales at constant currency were down 1.7% but up 15.4% in actual currency in the fourth quarter, reflecting ongoing currency headwinds. In the 52 weeks to 25 March, sales were down 2.4%.
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Daily Mail and General Trust has appointed Tim Collier as its new group chief financial officer with effect from 2 May.
This follows the resignation of Stephen Daintith, as announced back in September.
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Trinidad-focussed oil and gas company LGO Energy announced on Thursday that its second new development well, GY-683 - part of the 2017 drilling campaign on the its Goudron Field - had successfully reached total depth at 1,250 feet, on 4 April.
The AIM-traded firm said electric log interpretation of the Mayaro Sandstone target interval confirmed the presence of oil, and it was decided to perforate and place on production 269 feet of the best net oil pay within the Mayaro reservoir.
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Drug discovery company E-Therapeutics confirmed on Thursday that Raymond Barlow had assumed his position as chief executive officer.
The AIM-traded firm initially announced his appointment on 9 January.
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AIM-listed tissue converter Accrol Group has announced the official opening of its new 168,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility in Leyland, Lancashire.
This facility has had two tissue converting lines installed, which will increase the company's total converting capacity to 143,000 tonnes a year. Manufacturing began at the end of January and output will steadily increase as new shift patterns are added over the coming weeks.
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Tavistock Investments announced the appointment of Mark Evans as business development director on Thursday.
The AIM-traded firm said Evans would work closely alongside the firm's chief executive, Brian Raven, and would be responsible for all business development activity across the group.
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Cloud-based software-as-a-service accounting technology company FreeAgent Holdings updated the market on its trading for the year ended 31 March on Thursday, ahead of its final results.
The AIM-traded firm said that, for the full year, the board expected to report both revenue and annualised committed monthly recurring revenue in line with market expectations at £8.0m and £8.6m respectively.
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Developer and provider of advanced surface coating technology, Hardide, updated the market on its trading for the first six months of the current financial year to 30 September on Thursday.
The AIM-traded firm said that, as expected, sales to the oil and gas sector more than doubled compared to the same period in 2016, and overall trading was “comfortably” ahead of both the first half and the second half of the last financial year.
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Murgitroyd Group updated the market on its trading on Thursday, in respect of the third quarter of the financial year ending 31 May.
The AIM-traded company said its third quarter revenue of £11.3m represented a 6% increase on the equivalent period in the 2016 financial year.
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Griffin Mining's shares slipped as it reported a swing to full-year 2016 pre-tax profit, but said lower zinc, lead and silver concentrate was produced and sold than in 2015.
"Although record throughput was achieved in 2016, lower zinc, lead and silver head grades caused by restricted mine access following the suspension in mining operations, resulted in lower zinc, lead and silver in concentrate being produced and sold than in 2015," it said.
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Shares in Greka Drilling have risen by more than half after it won a three-year integrated drilling contract with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) for that company's Bokaro CBM asset in India.
Indian Government-owned ONGC was the largest exploration & production (E&P) company in India and was engaged across the E&P and refining businesses. ONGC also had extensive joint-ventures globally.
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Shares in Gresham House Strategic are up almost 2% after confirming it intends to pay a dividend of 15p a share, and undertake a share buyback, after a strong performance from its portfolio of realised investments.
Together, these would represent half of the company's profit from recent realisations.
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AIM-listed investor Touchstone Innovations has provided £1.5m worth in seed money to Imperial College London spin-out Cardian, a medical products company.
Following the investment, Touchstone will hold a 53.7% stake in Cardian, comprising of founders equity and a 27.3% interest from investment.
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Diamond explorer Botswana Diamonds said on Thursday it completed the first phase of drilling at the flagship Vutomi project in Frischgewaagt, 280km north of Johannesburg.
The AIM-traded company said 34 percussion and nine diamond drill holes drilled were completed on the kimberlite dyke, with two "blows" discovered on the dyke system from the drill programme.
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Technology company Coretx Holdings has bought 365 ITMS, an IT support and services provider, for £5.4m.
The £5.4m paid, comprises of £1.6m in cash financed from the company’s existing bank facility, £3m worth in new shares at a price of 30.53p each, assumption of £600,000 cash balances, and a £1.4m debt balance.
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AIM-listed investor Energiser Investments has exchanged contracts to sell the final unit at the Kingswood Park property development in Surrey for £725,000.
The sale, which is expected to complete by the end of April, means that the company will now receive the balance of its profit share.
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Malaysian online retailer MySale Group has bought Identity Direct, an Australian personalised gifts retailer, for about AU$3m.
AIM-listed MySale has paid A$2.69m to the administrators of Identity Direct and Ortega Publishing and will pay AU$250,000 on the finalisation of certain post-completion matters, from existing cash resources.
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AIM-listed Corero Network Security has raised about £5.6m from an equity placing to support sales and marketing activities.
The security company raised the £5.6m from a placing and subscription of up to 112m new shares at 5p each, a 5% discount on the closing mid-market price on Wednesday.
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Shares in Blur Group surged on Thursday after the business services operator announced that a county council is continuing its programme of spend that could lead to a multiple six figure roll-out of its indirect spend management platform.
The platform, which combines cloud-based software and managed services, can be used for private and public sector organisations to streamline project management programmes.
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Chesnara said its acquisition of Legal & General Nederland Levensverzekering Maatschappij N.V. had completed.
Total consideration paid was €161.236m, comprising €160m plus interest for the period to completion of €1.236 million.