Small caps news round-up
Real Estate Investors was looking at the possibility of a combined West Bromwich development on Wednesday, announcing its intention to purchase the freehold of West Plaza on the high street from Bond Wolfe Estates for £8m. The AIM-traded real estate investment trust said the deal would be funded by cash from its existing resources and facilities. The property was valued at £8.1m by GBR Phoenix Beard on 5 February, it confirmed.
San Leon Energy secured a fourth extension on its takeover of Mart Resources on Wednesday, citing administrative hold-ups as the reason behind the delays. The AIM-traded company had initially announced its intention to acquire Mart Resources on 22 January, as well as an additional interest in MartWestern Energy, to facilitate its entry into the Nigerian onshore oil and gas market, in a deal worth $180m (£126.5m).
Breedon Aggregates was laying out a year of good growth on Wednesday, publishing its audited results for the 2015 calendar year, and signalling positive expectations going forward. The AIM-traded company saw revenue grow 18.1% during the year to £318.5m, from £269.7m. Underlying EBIT was up 55.6% to £37.8m, and profit before tax improved 46.3% to £31.3m.
Amerisur Resources had a bit more cash in its pocket on Wednesday, having completed a quick-fire placing it had announced first thing. The AIM-traded oil and gas producer said a total of 106 million new ordinary shares of 0.1p each had been placed by Stifel, Investec and RBC at a price of 25p per placing share, raising net proceeds of around $35m (£24.6m).
Fresh from its upbeat trading update, Vertu Motors has confirmed it aims to raise £35 million at a discounted fundraising to help fund acquisitions. Despite the automotive retailer's shares trading at above 75p a share into the new year and having topped 70p earlier this month, Vertu and its brokers Liberum and Zeus have priced the placing at just 62.5p per share.
Software Radio Technology has shaken hands on a maritime domain awareness deal in Asia that it expects to generate revenues of up to €90m over three years. SRT will work with the customer, a "large country in Asia", to advise and assist with the planning and implementation of a maritime domain management system (MDM system) and supply necessary equipment, software, data and services.
Shares in AIM-listed Tandem Group slid as the company said its bicycles and mobility division was in for a challenging year. Tandem, which designs, develops and distributes sports and leisure products, said it has produced a strong range of cycles for this year, but warned the mid-tier independent cycle market was "saturated and highly competitive".
Marketing group Proxama has teamed up with Google to employ its Chrome browser and Eddystone advertising 'beacon' to launch its MyStop real-time transport update service in London. MyStop delivers real-time transport updates to London commuters and travellers' mobiles when they use the Chrome browser, with advertising relevant to the shops, bars and restaurants nearest to them at the time.
AIM-listed Imaginatik said trading in the third quarter was positive, continuing momentum from the first half of the year. The consultancy and technology products company said gross bookings for the three months to the end of December nudged up to £1.28m from £1.26m the previous year.