Small caps round-up: Deltex Medical, Monitise, Avesco...

13th Jan 2011 13:28

Shares in Deltex Medical, which makes technology to measure blood flow in patients undergoing surgery, climbed after it said sales for 2010 are expected to have exceeded £6.25m. Sales increased in all key markets, the company said.Monitise continues to benefit from the increasing trend of shoppers to buy things using their mobile phones. The mobile payments group's shares are higher after it said it reached month-on-month cash break-even in the six months to 31 December. More than 3m users have registered for its live services and adoption of its smart phone apps has been strong, it said.Losses at giant screen supplier Avesco narrowed sharply during the year ended 30 September 2010 as revenue jumped 30% following a noticeable improvement in business over the last six months. Amid signs that the "intensity of the competition may be flattening out in certain markets", full-year losses fell to £1m from £13.7m and sales grew to £117.2m from £90.2m. There was a trading profit of £1.3m compared with a loss of £9.8m in 2009.Debt advisor Fairpoint has traded in line with expectations ahead of final results on 15 March, improving profits from continuing activities and anticipating an increase in demand in 2011 as the public sector sheds thousands of jobs. The company now has 35,300 customers in long term debt solutions, up from 26,342 a year ago, and 12,750 customers on debt management plans compared with 5,539 last time following a number of deals in 2010. Mozambique-focused Ncondezi Coal is raising $36.5m (£23.4m) from a placing at 195p a share. It will use $21.3m to exercise an option, agreed prior to its flotation last year, allowing it to buy 12.2m shares from the Dos Santos family at a 10% discount to the IPO price of 123p a share. That's a 46% discount to the current price. The rest of the money will go on developing other licences in Mozambique, looking at merger and acquisition opportunities, and funding studies on transport solutions.Sound Oil's drill programme of three exploration commitment wells in the Citarum field in Java, Indonesia, has been delayed by at least three months from March to Q3. The AIM-listed company is still confident that the wells will be drilled within the extended first exploration period of the Production Sharing Contract.Chariot Oil & Gas, the Africa focused oil and gas exploration company, has announced an increase of a further 3.1bn barrels in its estimate of gross unrisked mean prospective resources in its 50%-owned southern licence 2714A offshore Namibia. The upgrade brings the resource estimate total up to 13.2bn barrels.Faroe Petroleum, the independent oil and gas company, has acquired a 28% interest from Nexn Petroleum in UK licences P218 and P588 containing the undeveloped Perth oil field.The Perth Field has remained undeveloped since its discovery by well 15/21a-7 in 1983, drilled by Monsanto. Three appraisal wells and one side-track have been completed on the field, the latest of which was drilled by Hess in 1997. "The Perth field has the makings of becoming an important new field development in the near term, with scope to tie-back several additional undeveloped discoveries as well as offering exploration upside in the area," claimed Graham Stewart, chief executive of Faroe Petroleum.Fabric importer Leeds Group moved into the black last year despite a tough second half. Profit before tax in the 12 months to 30 September was £0.31m, compared with a loss of £0.02m the year before. Revenue grew to £27.66m from £25.69m. Net asset value per share (excluding treasury shares) was 43.2p at the end of September, down from 45.2p a year earlier. The company has not declared a dividend in respect of the financial year.Trading in the first three months of the current financial year has been ahead of budget.Phone queue busting firm Netcall traded in line with expectations in the second half of 2010. The cash position at the end of 2010 had improved to £4.8m from £2.5m at the half-year stage, reflecting the placing, acquisition and reorganisation costs and operational cash flow in the period.