Small caps round-up: Europa Oil, Rugby Estates IT, Dunedin Enterprise...

13th Nov 2009 14:52

Europa Oil & Gas is up after starting drilling at the Hykeham-1 exploration well on the PEDL150 licence near Lincoln in the East Midlands.The well is testing the potential for up to 20 million barrels of oil in place in two target horizons. Target depth of just over 1,000m is expected to be reached by early December.An external assessment of Rubgy Estate IT's property portfolio, prompted by the 41p per share bid from Terra Firma, has valued it at £63.5m, which represents a 12.6% increase since June.NAV has consequently increased to 72p per share on a pro forma basis and REIT's board again reiterated it believes Terra's offer substantially undervalues the company and it recommends strongly that shareholders reject the offer.Private equity fund Dunedin Enterprise's net asset value per share at 30 September 404.6p, down 0.9% from the level at end June.Based upon the net asset value per share of 404.6p, the discount of the share price to the net asset value per share decreased from 30.7% to 23.4% in the quarter. When cash is excluded from net assets then the discount increases to 48.8%. The market remains challenging and our efforts remain focused on protecting value in the portfolio. There are however some encouraging signs of increased activity in new business opportunities, Dunedin said.Red24 has signed agreements with two major insurance underwriters in the United States to provide special risk consulting services. The company anticipates that these will add a minimum of $700,000 of additional revenue over the next calendar year.IT services group Parity reports overall trading during the second half of 2009 has been in line with management expectations. "We are seeing no material change in the economic or market conditions, with clients remaining cautious about spending decisions thereby providing us only short-term visibility of revenues" it added.Asian Citrus says its Hong Kong Listing is progressing well after the exchange's listing committee considered an application from the biggest orange plantation owner in China. Barring any disaster, dealings in the company's shares on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will begin on 26 November. Chairman and CEO Tony Tong believes the Hong Kong listing, alongside its London quote, "will enable us to expand our shareholder base as well as improve the liquidity of the company's shares".The net asset value of Graphite Enterprise Trust, which invests in unquoted companies through specialist funds, rose 1.9% to 407.4p in the quarter ended 30 September The rise in value of foreign currencies against sterling, mainly the euro, accounted for an increase in the net asset value of 3.1%. Graphite shares rose 18% during the period to 330p compared with 21% for the FTSE All-Share Index, reflecting the narrowing of the discount to the net asset value per share from 30% to 19%. The shares rose 76% in the first nine months of 2009.