Small caps round-up: Albany Capital, Scott Wilson, Chariot Oil...

15th Jun 2009 08:47

Pre-IPO investment company Albany Capital posted a pre-tax loss of £3.14m against a profit of £727,000 in the same period last year. Consolidated net assets per share at 31 March 2009 was 39.0p (31 March 2008: 55.9p)Due to the current economic climate and market conditions, there was a loss on investments at fair value as at 31 March 2009 of £2,882,411 (31 March 2008: Gain of £1,035,866), said the group.International design and engineering consultancy firm Scott Wilson will be awarded the Design Package C152 contract for Pudding Mill Lane Portal by Crossrail. The contract to Scott Wilson is £4.15m over one year. Hugh Blackwood, group chief executive, said: "Scott Wilson continues its strong partnership with Crossrail and is very pleased with this appointment which restates our long-term involvement, capability and commitment to the success of the Crossrail project."The boss of Chariot Oil & Gas, Kevin Broger, has resigned for personal reasons with immediate effect.James Burgess, currently the firm's commercial director, will fill the CEO role on an interim basis.Island Gas continued its rally Monday after starting commercial sales of electricity generated from coal bed methane (CBM) gas into the national grid.Initial volumes of electricity generated from CBM gas at its Doe Green site in Cheshire are being sold to a major European utility under a three-month fixed contract.Turkey-focused gold and copper explorer Kefi Minerals has eased a touch on news it placed 36m shares at 1.25p to raise £450,000. The shares closed at 2.38p Friday.It will use the extra cash to fund on-going strategic initiatives and further exploratory work in Turkey and Saudi Arabia. EMED Mining also wants to subscribe for an extra £100,000 of shares at the placing price, while Fox Davies Capital intends to subscribe for £40,000 worth.NHS healthcare software specialist Advanced Computer Software's £15.5m offer for Business Services Group has been declared wholly unconditional.Marine transport company Hellenic Carriers has entered into a time charter agreement with SwissMarine for the M/V Hellenic Sea for a period of minimum four to about six months at a gross rate of $16,500 per day. Stratex International has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with NTF Insaat Ticaret Ltd Sti, a major Turkish construction and mining company, to form a Joint Venture in order to develop and fast-track the Inlice and Altintepe gold projects into production. Bingo operator Top Ten Holdings said it will cancel its listing from AIM as its market cap is only £220k and it does not see the benefit of paying to list with its trading volume so low. The unaudited management accounts for the year to 31 March 2009 show sales of £22.3m (2008: £25.8m). Loss before tax came in at £15.1m (2008: £8.9m).Gable Holdings, the insurance and reinsurance provider to commercial businesses across Europe, said a French insurance broker had executed an agreement with it to provide a programme of property and liability related risk insurance.The directors expect the initial programme of insurance to be provided to the company over the next three months ill generate gross annual premium revenue of approximately €2m.Electrical products manufacturer Cinpart has won a contract for the supply and installation of a number of its VoltageMaster units to an unnamed but well known international retailer. The contract is worth £1.18m.In-vitro diagnostics firm Axis-Shield has inked a global agreement with Sweden's Hansa Medical for exclusive rights to a diagnostic assay for heparin binding protein (HBP). Axis-Shield will develop tests for HBP and find commercial partners to incorporate the assay on high-throughput laboratory systems.'The urgent medical requirement for better and earlier diagnosis of sepsis is well recognised and we will accelerate the development of the HBP assay to enable test commercialisation as soon as possible,' claimed Axis-Shield's chief executive officer Ian Gilham.Energy saving products developer VPhase, a subsidiary of Energetix Group, has achieved CE certification for its Smart Voltage Management product. The CE certification will enable Energetic to start selling its product in the UK and mainland Europe.