Small caps round-up: Costain, James Fisher, GVC

5th May 2011 16:24

Engineering group Costain is trading in line with board expectations in 2011. The order book has expanded to £2.3bn and the group has preferred bidder positions of more than £400m.To date over £850 million of revenue has been secured for 2011, the group said, leaving the board confident of further progress in 2011.Marine services provider James Fisher is another company cruising along in line with management expectations, though UK markets are flat."Our Specialist Technical and Offshore divisions continue to benefit from their focus on developing markets, particularly the Asia Pacific region. The North Sea markets in both Norway and Scotland are improving, although the main benefit will probably be in the second half. Our Submarine Rescue activities continue to do well with a strong order book," the group said.James Fisher Everard, the group's coastal tanking business, continues to be affected by the lack of economic growth in the UK and particularly the Republic of Ireland which historically has accounted for up to 30% of the unit's volumes. "The progress noted in 2010 has marked time so far this year and our policy remains to reduce our fleet size so that it matches our contract cover," the group said.Online gaming firm GVC has seen a chunky increase n the gross margin on its sports book this year to 14.8% from 10.9% in 2010.Total Net Gaming Revenue (NGR) over the first 123 days of 2011 has averaged €168,000 per day, which is 10% ahead of the same period last year. During the period NGR at CasinoClub has been 3% higher than 2010, whilst Betaland was 4% lower, however Betboo, the group's Latin American and Emerging Markets brand, has seen its daily NGR increase by 138%.---jh