Small cap news round-up

Europa Oil and Gas

AIM-quoted Europa Oil and Gas is to sell 10% of its stake in two Lincolnshire licences to Upland Resources.

Upon completion of the sale, which is subject to approval from the Oil & Gas Authority and approval of the Wressle Field Development Plan, Europa will retain a 20% stake in the licences.

Utilitywise

AIM-listed Utilitywise performed in line with expectations in the first half of the year, although the business utility specialist endured a slowdown in the corporate division.

It traded in line with expectations with double-digit revenue growth compared to the last year and net debt narrowed about 60% to £4.1m, for the six months ended 31 January.

FairFX Group

Fintech firm FairFX Group’s customers are now able to make same day payments to mainland China.

This makes the AIM-listed company one of the few providers able to make multi-currency transactions with most credited within 20 minutes

Synectics

Shares in Synectics are up almost 8% after it turned in an improved first-half pre-tax profit, along with a rise in revenue and final dividend.

"The business is well positioned for significant further growth," said chief executive Paul Webb.

Image Scan

Real-time security and industrial inspection x-ray specialist Image Scan provided a trading update on Tuesday morning, ahead of its 2017 annual general meeting being held during the afternoon.

The AIM-traded firm reported a strong first quarter of trading, as remaining units from the large portable x-ray order were delivered ahead of schedule.

SigmaRoc

SigmaRoc said the trading performance of Ronez has been strong, adding the development of that company's required back-office systems was proceeding at a much lower cost and faster than expected.

Ronez, the company's Channel Islands-based acquisition, had enjoyed strong January sales volumes that were above budget. It also had a healthy order book for first-quarter 2017.

Netcall

Customer engagement software provider Netcall announced its unaudited interim results for the six months to 31 December on Tuesday, with the board reporting robust bookings in the period, and trading in line with management expectations.

The AIM-traded company recorded a significant increase in the mix of cloud services contracts, while its order book of contracted future minimum revenues increased by 14% to over £16.6m.

Abzena

Abzena sees full-year group revenues in line with its expectations, saying first-half momentum and strong demand for services has continued.

The life-sciences group said revenues generated by the UK businesses had remained strong, offsetting the lower than expected growth of the revenue from the US businesses.

Grafenia

Shares in Grafenia fell by almost a fifth as it confessed to a cautious outlook and warned its full-year earnings would likely be significantly behind market views.

"Although we are making progress with our transformation plan, a material part of our revenues continue to come from transactional print volumes," the company said.

Dotdigital

Digital marketing software-as-a-service and managed services provider Dotdigital announced its results for the six months to 31 December on Tuesday, with revenue from operations up 17% to £15.0m, from £12.9m.

The AIM-traded firm reported profit before tax as rising 30% to £4.3m, with monthly recurring revenue from dotmailer's software-as-a-service-based usage charges up 22% to £12.2m.

Airea

Shares in Airea are down more than 12% as its improved first-half pre-tax profit came with news of project delays, input price pressure, demand uncertainty and a rising pension deficit.

Its revenue for the six-month period was £12.8m, from £12.7m, while pre-tax profit rose to £0.84m, from £0.51m.

Lighthouse

Independent financial adviser group Lighthouse delivered a strong set of annual results as it generated higher revenue per adviser and the revenue mix shifted towards higher margin divisions.

For calendar 2016, revenues rose 2% to £48m, of which half is from a recurring base.

GoTech Group

Sports and wellbeing focused technology company GoTech Group announced on Tuesday that it remained in discussions with the NHS, which was looking to support a potential pilot with around 200 schools nationwide to assess the impact of the ‘skills2achieve’ product in the health education of four-to-11 year olds in the fight against childhood obesity.

The AIM-traded firm added that, as part of the discussions, it was proposed that GoTech subsidiary Sportsdata would work closely with the NHS to develop evidence-based and associated case study material, which may be used by the NHS to endorse a national roll-out of S2A.

Bacanora Minerals

AIM-listed miner Bacanora Minerals is to buy a 50% stake in, and gain joint operational control of, the Zinnwald lithium project in Germany from SolarWorld for an initial €5m that could rise to €40m.

The acquisition, which is line with the company's plan to become a global lithium operator focused on projects with significant value accretion potential, will see Bacanora contribute a further €5m towards the cost of completing a feasibility study on the project, which will take about 18-24 months to complete, and have the option but the remaining 50% stake held by SolarWorld within 24 months for €30m.

Trakm8

Trakm8 has warned annual operating profits will be "significantly" below the prior year, as it endures delays to new revenues coming on stream as its shifting revenue model towards more software-as-a-service and rental revenue continues to weigh on finances in the short term.

The telematics-focused big data company said revenues are now expected to be "only modestly ahead" of the last year as the installed base of units reporting to its servers has grown to 190,000 units, which was lower than it originally anticipated.