Small caps news round-up

AIM-quoted Christie Group, a provider of business services and inventory systems to the leisure, retail and care industries, has said that its agency and advisory service has brokered the sale of a nursery business to a French firm, for an undisclosed fee. Christie & Co brokered the sale of Magic Nurseries to Les Petits Chaperons Rouges, a private nursery chain, which was the first provider of employer-sponsored childcare in France.

Specialist audio visual and document solutions distributor Midwich said 2016 pre-tax profit is likely to be “comfortably ahead” of its previous expectations following a strong performance in the second half. In a trading update for the year to the end of December, Midwich said trading momentum continued in the second half and the group benefited from the continued weakness in the pound. The company saw growth across all of its divisions, in particular the overseas business, and a better-than-expected contribution from its most recent UK acquisition, Holdan.

Quartix, a supplier of subscription-based vehicle tracking systems, anticipates revenue will be ahead of expectations and will therefore pay a supplementary dividend, along with a final dividend, as it focused on its core fleet away from low margin insurance sales. The AIM-listed company had a “strong” year, as the subscription base in its core fleet operations increased 14% in the UK to over 71,000 vehicles, by 95% in the US to more than 6,000, and by 26% in France to just under 10,000.

Shares rose in LoopUp Group as the remote meetings company profit announced it has traded ahead of expectations as revenue jumped 39%. Revenue grew 39% to £12.8m in the year ended 31 December 2016, which was up three percentage points from the previous year, and the company remains confident about delivering future growth.

AIM and Nasdaq-listed antibiotics developer Motif Bio appointed pharmaceutical veteran and former investment banker Robert Dickey as chief financial officer. He will succeed Peter Meyers, who will transition his responsibilities to Dickey over the next several weeks.

GAME Digital updated the market on trading ahead of its annual general meeting on Wednesday morning, with group gross transaction value over the peak Christmas trading weeks down 1.6%. The London-listed firm said over the first 23 trading weeks of the year to 7 January 2017, gross transaction value declined 6.3%.