Small caps round-up: Ark Therapies, Pangea, Shore Capital ...

9th Mar 2010 09:51

Shares in Ark Therapies fell back after the drug developer said it would consider approaches it has received following a recommendation that a further clinical trial would be needed before its brain cancer treatment Cerepro could be approved.Shares in Pangea Diamonds sparkled after the diamond producer announced it had sold its wholly-owned subsidiary Dimbi Diamonds, which operates the Dimbi project in the Central African Republic, to an unnamed 'senior employee of the company.'The project was sold for a 5% royalty payment based on future gross sales revenue from the sale of diamonds from Dimbi plus a payment of US$500,000. The extra payment is to be funded from the proceeds of the first sales of diamonds if the new owner chooses to operate the project or from the proceeds of asset sales should the purchaser choose not to operate the project.Investment banking group Shore Capital moved into profit in the year to December 31 after seeing strong performances from its equity capital markets and asset management divisions.The company, which has since the year-end been involved in advising on the takeover of the football club West Ham United, posted a pre-tax profit of £14.6m compared with a loss of £1.3m the previous year.Mobile email, instant messaging and data synchronisation provider Synchronica has signed a contract worth $1.05m for its mobile gateway product to be included in Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola and LG mobile phones, as well as Synchronica's own MessagePhone, in Indonesia. Drug developer Plethora's revenue for 2009 soared to was £17.7m (2008: £640,000) including £15.3m of licensing income arising on the US and Global license agreements Total Operating expenses were £8.2m (2008: £14.2m), a decrease of 42% compared to the previous year. This cost reduction was seen in all areas of the group's operations. Over the course of 2010 the company expects to see Shionogi file PSD502 for approval, rapid development of revenues from The Urology Company and further reductions in R&D expenditure.Miner Stratex says all potential opportunities for growing are constantly under review, both by the board and through the input of our various financial advisers. While Turkey continues to provide superb opportunities for Stratex, Ethiopia is also proving to be an exciting country to explore and there are also various projects across the African continent that it is currently reviewing.