Small caps: Avesco, Cyril Sweett, Fairpoint...

15th Mar 2011 09:55

Big screen renter Avesco cut losses sharply in its latest quarter and said activity in its markets has picked up. Revenue rose to £30.5m in the three months to December from £23.8m with losses reducing to £0.5m from £1.8m. "It does appear that a real momentum has returned to the business and that the investments and actions that we have taken in positioning the business for the longer term are beginning to bear fruit. As we move towards 2012 and the London Olympics, we look forward to an exciting period for the Avesco Group, " Civil engineer Cyril Sweett has agreed tie-up agreements with Washington DC based Alpha Corporation and New York City based VVA, as part of a strategy to expand internationally. Personal insolvency consultant Fairpoint says the second half of 2010 and the early part of 2011 saw a reduction in demand for debt solutions after the strong start to 2010, though it expects this to change as a consequence of cutbacks and interest rate rises. Fairpoint made a profit of £5.85m, up from £5.72m, in 2010 on revenues of £29.4m. The dividend for the year is 3.5p.Antenna manufacturer MTI Wireless posted flat sales of $13.5m in 2010, but says sales picked up in the second half. There was an operating loss of $0.65m compared to profit of $0.1m in 2009. "With resumed growth in our key market in the second half of 2010, revenue streams for the business improved and we substantially grew our order book. As a result, we entered 2011 with a record order backlog ($5.4m) which is more than double the backlog we had entering to 2010. This trend has continued so far in the first two months of 2011 in which our order book has grown by a further $2m," MTI said. Scottish gold miner Scotgold Resources saw its loss before tax in the second half of 2010 narrow to £0.56m from £0.61m the year before. Cash and cash equivalents declined to £1.1m at the end of 2010 from £1.6m the year before.