Small cap round up

Axis Bank has become the first Indian bank to use Earthport’s, cross-border payments service, following approval from the country’s central bank. India's third largest private bank will allow its clients to make outbound cross-border payments through the AIM-listed company's network of over 60 countries.

Craven House Capital has raised $3m in cash through a placing of 240,000 new ordinary shares at $12.50 each to help further execute the company’s investment policy.The group said a number of prospective investment opportunities in its target markets are currently under evaluation and it will update the market further in due course.

Blue Prism said it expects trading for the year ended 31 October to be comfortably ahead of its existing expectations. It said this was based on momentum having continued in the final quarter of the financial year.

Shares in Instem plunged on Monday after the healthcare computer services company warned full year results would be behind expectations as its clinical business had “further deteriorated” from the first half of the year. Instem Clinical has been hit by a slowdown in the clinical market and while the company is focused on resolving the problem, the clinical business will fall "materially" short of its financial targets this year.

Kibo Mining, a Tanzania-focused mineral exploration and development company, has entered into a collaboration agreement with General Electric International (GE) to help with the development of the Mbeya coal power project. The agreement follows the memorandum of understanding announced on 16 September 2016 and sets out in detail the terms and conditions of said collaboration into a binding agreement.

Property investment company Palace Capital has hiked its first-half dividend by almost a third as it posted a much-reduced pre-tax profit for the period. Interim dividend was up 29% to 9p a share, from 7p. Pre-tax profit came in at £3.9m, from £7.6m. Net asset value per share was 419p, from 414p at the end of its full-year.