Small caps round-up: Billington, Blackrock Commodities, CBG ...

14th Sep 2010 14:51

Structural steel supplier Billington has reported a sharp fall in profit in the first half of 2010 but this is in line with its expectations at the time of the 2009 figures. Revenues fell from £29.7m to £21.3m in the six months to June 2010, while pre-tax profit slumped from £2.62m to £1.09m. Net cash is £6.94m. The interim dividend has been cut from 3.25p a share to 2.75p a share.The structural steel market has effectively halved in recent times but few competitors have left the market. Billington says that it is more optimistic than six months ago but there is little real chance of a significant upturn until 2012.Blackrock Commodities Incomes Investment Trust, which primarily invests in the mining and energy sector, saw its net asset value dip by 1.1% in the third quarter of 2010. Net asset value per share on a capital only basis was 119.90p at the end of August, while with income included it was 120.8p. Latin American power plants developer and operator Rurelec has raised £425,000 at 10p a share. This will help to finance the international arbitration process with the Bolivian government, which nationalised Rurelec's controlling stake in the main power generator in Bolivia back in May. Rurelec is pursuing a compensation claim. Rurelec's Argentinian subsidiary Energia del Sur should be in a position to refinance its loan with Standard Bank in a couple of months. It will then be able to start repaying Rurelec's loans. Rurelec will require this additional cash, or at the very least the extension of its existing bank facilities, in order to have enough working capital for its medium-term requirements. Cost cutting has helped offset the decline in insurance broker CBG's revenues from £4.63m to £4.09m in the first half of 2010. Underlying pre-tax profit improved from £39,000 to £332,000. There has been no hardening of insurance rates and this does not look like changing in the short-term. Net debt was £666,000 at the end of June 2010. There is no more deferred consideration payable so the cash generated from operations can go towards paying off borrowings. House broker Daniel Stewart has cut its 2010 revenue forecast from £8.8m to £8.1m. That means that the profit forecast has been reduced from £1.5m to £1.1m. AIM-quoted drugs distributor China Medical System Holdings says it expects to switch to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 28 September. It is offering 170m new shares and 30m existing shares at a price range of HK3.60 to HK$5.06 each. The final price will be determined on 21 September. East European Property Fund said things are finally starting to look up in its Turkish markets but conditions in Bulgaria and Romania remain tough.In the first six months of 2010 the company reported net profit of £0.19m versus a loss of £3.5m in the first half of last year, after a gain on the revaluation of investment properties of £1m (2009: loss of £5.3m). Net asset value at the end of June stood at £21.3m, or 109.91p per share, versus £20.4m (105.42p) a year earlier and £21.4m (110.44p) at the end of 2009.Energy industry consultant KBC Advanced Technologies expects an improvement in trading conditions in the second half of 2010 after a tough first half.Revenue dipped to £25.6m from £27.1m in the first half of 2009 while underlying profit before tax tumbled to £1.4m from £2.4m the year before. Despite this, the interim dividend has been cranked up to 0.55p from 0.45p. The workload backlog is valued at £39.8m and is little changed from the figure at the end of 2009 and is up 14% from the figure of £35.0m from a year earlier.