| CATEGORY: SMALL CAPS ROUND-UP |
Weekly Small Caps Review |
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Thu 07 Aug 2008
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LONDON (SHARECAST) - QuestAir Technologies took a hiding after sales orders of gas purification equipment for the first nine months of its financial year and the third quarter missed forecasts.
The company, which blamed delays in certain projects that were expected to start earlier, said it would try to bag extra orders during the fourth quarter.
“Although we expect to meet our financial guidance for the year, the lower than expected level of sales orders will make it difficult for us to meet our goal of growing our industrial hydrogen business in fiscal 2008,” said President and CEO Jonathan Wilkinson.
“Our objective to increase the number of hydrogen system sales is unlikely to be met, as we have not secured as many orders of larger PSAs as we anticipated at the beginning of the year."
The sales backlog at the end of the third quarter ended 30 June of C$14.5m was 9% lower than at the end of the previous three-month period. Third quarter revenue fell by 25% to C$2.7m.
That news offset news of a 38% decrease in third quarter net losses to C$1.58m and a 36% drop in nine-month losses to C$6.03m.
Marchpole Holdings was back in fashion as the clothing group raised £2.5m and signed a deal with French-owned fashion giant Donna Karan International Inc.
The UK small-cap said Atlas Design AB had subscribed for 1.36m shares at 11.5p and £2.34m of 7% Convertible Secured Loan Notes 2011.
Net proceeds of the fundraising will be used to fund growth and for general working capital purposes.
In a separate statement, the firm gave details of a joint venture and strategic licensing agreement that will see it source, design, produce and distribute a full range of DKNY menswear apparel in New York.
Marchpole’s first collection under the agreement will be for spring 2009 and will carry the DKNY Black Label.
The initial seven year deal has an option to double the length of the licence.
IT services group SiRViS IT was at its best since late February following news of a cash offer from Strand Partners on behalf of SiRViS IT Holdings at 160p a share in cash.
Oryx, a fund managed by NAV LLP, beneficially owns 29.7% of SiRViS. More than 58% of shareholders have backed the £5.28m recommended offer, including Oryx.
“SiRViS IT Holdings is confident of the overall prospects for SiRViS IT's operating businesses, but believes that SiRViS IT is better suited to a private company environment,” said non-executive chairman Peter Addison on behalf of the independent directors.
“Since the end of the financial year SiRViS IT has noticed some scaling back by retail focused clients and an increased pressure on margins.”
“Against this background the board believes that the all cash offer represents a fair and reasonable value for the business, which has struggled to generate enough scale as a public company,” he added.
In a separate statement, SiRViS posted a half year pre-tax profit of £936,000 versus a loss of £39,000 a year ago on revenue up 44% to £10.8m.
Data management specialist SDL said its half-year results were ahead of expectations but warned the macro-economic environment could reduce translation service or technology solutions spend.
“Despite a deterioration in the global macro-economic environment, SDL is continuing to see positive trading across most of the markets for the services and technology businesses,” said the group.
“We continue to carefully monitor the macro-economic conditions, which could cause a reduction in translation services or technology solutions spend,” it added.
However, the group added that it has entered the second half with a strong sales pipeline, which gives it confidence for the year.
Dental lab products supplier 1st Dental Laboratories confirmed that it has received a cash approach of not more than 8.5p per share and said it is currently in preliminary talks that may or may not lead to an offer for the group.
The company said there can be no certainty that any offer will be made nor as to the terms of any such offer and advised shareholders to take no action at this time.
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