Small caps round-up: Churchill, COE, Stratex...

29th Mar 2010 13:12

Indonesian-focused coal miner Churchill Mining narrowed pre-tax losses to $3m or 3.91c per share in the half-year ended 31 December from $13.8m or 20.61c per share. CCTV developer and supplier COE Group reported a 37% drop in first-half revenues, but said it expects revenues to grow over the second half. Shares in Stratex International gained after the gold and base metal explorer reported 'encouraging' geochemistry results from its Ethiopian gold discovery, Megenta, in the Afar region.Shares in ZOO Digital jumped after the entertainment software group announced the launch of its automated authoring software for producing regionalized Blu-ray discs.The software allows ZOO's customers to produce Blu-ray titles for different languages.Home shopping group Findel has had to review its results for the year to 3 April 2009 after accounting entries that appeared not to have been be properly substantiated came to light.It estimates that the pre-tax profit figure will have to be reduced by £5m.Fabric distributer Leeds Group said it expects operating profit for the first six months of the year to be ahead of expectations after sales at its Chinese subsidiary beat expectations.Cyan, which makes semiconductors used in wireless utility metering and lighting control products, is hopeful that it will see increased revenues as customers using its technology in their products receive more orders.The company, which saw pre-tax losses narrow to £3.1m in the year to 31 December from £4.4m the previous year, said it 'expects that in 2010 a growing number of these customers will win tenders and commence production deployment, although we remain aware that the current economic climate means that it is not easy to predict precise timing,' the company said.Architects and design business Archial Group moved deep into the red in 2009 after taking £16.25m in exceptional charges.The charges covered provisions against amounts recoverable on long term contracts (£7.8m) and trade receivables (£2.8m), restructuring costs (£3.8m) and a write down in the value of intangibles (£1.8m).Excluding these exceptional items, the company made a profit before tax of £1.49m in 2009, down from £1.53m the year before. Revenue tumbled to £33.94m from £42.47m. The company has not proposed a final dividend.The Niche Group, the private equity investment group, took a £110,000 bath on its aborted acquisition of Ely Management Operations (EMO), which pushed the company's operating loss up to £182,000 in the six months to 31 December 2009, compared to an operating loss of $77,000 in the corresponding period of 2008.After paying a £0.2m premium on the redemption of loan notes and writing down the value of its EMO investment by £0.28m, the loss before tax widened to £0.66m from £0.08m the year before.The share price of Sovereign Reversions shot up Monday after the equity release firm said it has received a preliminary approach which might possibly lead to a bid being made for the company.