Small caps round-up: Armor Designs, Borders & Southern, Park Plaza...

30th Sep 2010 11:28

Armor Designs, which develops lightweight armor, admits there's "much work to be done" after net losses grew from $6.8m to $7.8m in the first six months of 2010 despite an increase in sales to $577,000."We continue to pursue new capital in order to allow us to move quickly to improve our results and move in the direction of financial stability," it said.Borders & Southern Petroleum is also struggling. The oil and gas group still hasn't managed to hire a rig to drill its Darwin and Stebbing prospects in the South Falkland Basin.There's been huge competition for equipment in the region this year and Borders' targeted window for operations during the fourth quarter of 2010 and first three months of next year has slipped."Consequently we will not be drilling in 2010, but remain optimistic that we will sign a rig for drilling in 2011," it said Thursday alongside news last years interim profit of $1.4m had turned into a loss of $672,000 this time.Hotel owner Park Plaza Hotels grew revenue by 38% to €54.7m in the six months to 30 June, though losses before tax increased from €3.5m to €5.3m.It's seen some signs of improvement since the period-end, but warns that visibility remains low as the trend towards last minute booking continues into the second half. "In light of this, it is still too early to assess whether there is firm evidence of a sustained recovery," said the group. Half-year losses grew to €1.7m from €0.8m in 2009 at San Leon Energy, the oil and gas company with interests in Poland, Ireland, Morocco, Albania, Italy, and the Netherlands.Shares in Bahamas Petroleum advanced after the oil group focused on the waters around the Caribbean country said it was continuing to make advances in its portfolio while seeking targets that could be ready for drilling by 2011.It also posted a pre-tax loss of $2m for the six months to June 30, against a deficit of $545,000.Discovery Metals posted wider losses in the half year to June 30 as it worked on its goal of having the Boseto copper project in Botswana commissioned by the first half of 2012. Pre-tax losses widened to A$4.7m from $4.4m over the same period the previous year. Revenues rose to $763,000 from $553,000. Global Petroleum moved into profit in the half year to June 30 as revenues soared at the Australia-focused oil company. Pre-tax profits totalled $2.3m, against a deficit of $7.2m over the same period the previous year on revenues that rose to $1.2m from $224,000. The company drilled new wells at its Leighton project and brought them into production. It also benefited from finance income.Latin American oil group PetroLatina posted a pre-tax loss of $2.2m in the six months to June 30 against a profit of $99,000 over the same period the previous year despite revenues that rose by 111% to $9.6m due to higher production and better prices.Malaysian palm oil plantation company Asian Plantations expects to harvest more than 20,000 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) in 2012, with a target of up to 375,000 tonnes per annum, as all three of its existing fields fully mature.Revenue has started to trickle in, with the company banking $0.1m in the first half of 2010, having registered no revenue in the first half of 2009. Loss before tax soared to $2.0m from $0.08m the year before. Cash and cash equivalents at the end of June stood at $1.74m, down from $4.17m at the end of 2009.Specialist discovery and development pharmaceutical company Immupharma had £20m of cash left after a pre-tax loss of £77.4m in the first half of 2010. That was a sharp turnaround from a pre-tax profit of £13.65m in the first half of last year when the company enjoyed revenue of £21.57m as a result of the Lupuzor licensing agreement, against this year's revenue of just £0.12m. The company's pipeline now includes five drug candidates, including Lupuzor. The next priority programme is IPP-204106 for the treatment of cancer. It has been awarded grants totalling €1.15m by French government organisations. Three other earlier stage programmes are in preclinical development for: inflammatory disorders, moderate to severe pain and serious hospital infections. Bus builder Optare saw turnover slump by 48% in the first half of 2010 to £27.1m from £52.1m the year before, due to a significant reduction in UK market demand. Losses before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation narrowed to £1.4m, however, from £1.8m.Better times could be just around the corner, however, as the current order book stands at £24.4m, a significant improvement compared to the £8.8m reported at the time of the 2009 interim results.