Small Cap round-up: Headlam, Inspired Gaming, IQE...

19th Jan 2010 10:38

Floorings specialist Headlam's 2009 revenue reduced by 3.8% compared with the previous year, but a £12m currency benefit and full year contribution from Dutch business Silvester will mean earnings for 2009 are likely to be slightly ahead of market expectations.Headlam added that, overall, trading in the UK during the last quarter of 2009 was positive with the like-for-like performance up 1% on the final quarter of 2008 and it has entered the New Year with a little more optimism than previously.Semiconductor wafer specialist IQE's second half revenues are expected to be 45% higher than first half, while it expects expects to report more than a threefold increase in second half EBITDA from £1.9m in the first half, to deliver a full year EBITDA of approximately £8m.The strong second half performance reflects increasing demand for Gallium Arsenide wafers in the wireless communications market, as well as a diverse range of high growth opto-electronics markets, IQE added.Gaming software group Inspired Gaming posted a loss of £6.8m and adjusted profits of £2.6m (2008: a loss of £23.5m and profit of £6.9m respectively) in the year to end September, slightly ahead of expectations."I am very pleased with our progress in FY09 with underlying profits in line with expectations and cash generation being well ahead. More importantly the long term outlook for Inspired has been enhanced by several multi-year contract extensions and renewals across all four divisions" chief executive Luke Alvarez said. Asset management software specialist Statpro says results for 2009 are expected to be in line with market expectations, delivering strong revenue and profit growth. It's also upbeat about the current year thanks to a high proportion of recurring revenue and higher activity overall.Hazardous waste services group Silverdell has secured four major contracts, including phase four of the Shell Tower renewal project on London's Southbank.There are also framework contracts for a London Borough and two contracts with borough councils in the South East of England that run through to 2015. Egdon Resources has reached agreement to farm-out 10% interests in its Nottinghamshire licences PEDL118 and PEDL203 to subsidiaries of Angus Energy. Formjet has appointed Peter Joy as Group Finance Director with effect from 1 February. Peter Joy, aged 52, is a Chartered Accountant and was previously Finance Director of Astaire Group (formerly Blue Oar).Healthcare support services group Synergy Healthcare has unveiled Gavin Hill as its new finance director, to replace Ivan Jacques, who announced last year his intention to retire from the company.Hill is currently corporate finance director of Serco Group. He takes up his new job on 26 April, 2010. Financial software systems provider Brady expects to report a better than expected 30% rise in full year revenues.Jeweller Theo Fennell said it had a good Christmas, with like for like (lfl) sales up 25% on a year earlier in the first 24 days of December. Sales in the second nine months to end-December were up 9% on a lfl basis, but the company said sales in the New Year have been slowed by adverse weather conditions, and it now expects to make a small loss for the year to 31 March 2010. In the previous year it had made a loss of more than £3m. Test results at Victoria Oil and Gas's well La-105 at the Logbaba natural gas project in Cameroon have indicated the presence of more than 65 feet of very good quality gas-bearing sandstone reservoir plus at least an additional 260 feet of gas-bearing sands that may prove to be productive when tested.The well will be flow tested in early February. The company intends to start drilling on the next well in its programme, La-106, in early February.'The logs show us that the well will be able to produce more than sufficient gas to meet the demands of the local industrial customers that we have signed up,' Kevin Foo, chairman of Victoria said.