Small caps round-up: Angel Bio, AFC, Seeing Machines...

13th Apr 2010 14:06

Contract bio-manufacturing company Angel Biotechnology saw an almost four-fold increase in the value of contracts signed in 2009, as its revenue surged 55% to £1.48m from £0.95m in 2008.Loss before tax narrowed to £0.75m from £1.09m the year before."The business development activities are delivering a quality pipeline and we are making good progress at turning these into contracted manufacturing programmes," the company's chairman Dr. Paul Harper said.Shares in AFC Energy, the developer of low cost alkaline fuel cells, charged higher after a review by the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) recognised "he substantial strides we have made over the last 5 months, the significant headway achieved in commercialising our system and delivering on our partner's expectations." Seeing Machines , which develops operator fatigue recognition systems, has won a contract from US mining giant Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold to supply driver monitoring equipment to the Safford mine in Arizona.It's the second Seeing Machines contract win relating to the Safford mine and means that the whole of the haul truck fleet at the mine will be fitted out with the company's monitoring system.Property investor Standard Life Investment Property Income Trusthas purchased a retail warehouse in Bury for £5.3m, representing a net initial yield of 7%. The warehouse is currently leased to B&Q, the DIY outfit, on a lease expiring in June 2022.Yangtze China, the investment company focused on unlisted small and medium-sized growth businesses within the consumer sector in China, held out the prospect of a partial exit from one of its major investments, Aesthetic International, with the latter contemplating a stock exchange listing in Chiona.Spa franchise operator Aesthetic has raised around $8.8m through the sale of shares to Chinese venture capital fund Green Pine Capital Partners. Yangtze China's chairman, Wilfred Wong, welcomed Green Pine's investment. "We are delighted that Aesthetic has received a second round of funding following Yangtze's initial $5m investment into the business in July 2008 which has seen a substantial appreciation in value since that time," Wong said.