Small caps round-up: LSL Property Services, MacFarlane, Oxford Biomedica ...

2nd Mar 2011 13:31

Estate agent and surveyor LSL Property Services said it is cautious on the market for 2011 given the shortage of mortgage finance and other economic challenges but confident it can continue gaining market share.For the year to 31 December, revenue at LSL, which operates Britain's biggest estate agency Your Move, increased by 31% to £206.6m, while pre-tax profit before exceptionals climbed 52% to £25.8m"With a very strong balance sheet, we are well placed to grow both organically and through further acquisitions in the current market and deliver further substantial growth when transactions volumes recover," said chairman Roger Matthews.Packaging firm MacFarlane Group said 2010 was a year of dealing with unprecedented increases in raw materials prices. Group turnover increased by 9.6% to £135.5m from £123.6m in 2009 while adjusted profit before tax edged up to £3.4m from £3.2m. There was also good news on the pension fund front, with the deficit cut by 23% to £15.7m, while net debt was trimmed to £6.3m from £6.4m at the end of 2009 and £8.9m at the end of June 2010. The final dividend has been hiked by 5% to give a full year payment of 1.55p.Petroceltic, the upstream oil and gas exploration and production company focused on the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean, said its AT-4 well on its Isarene Permit in Algeria has successfully tested gas from two zones in the Ordovician reservoir at a maximum combined flow rate of 1.35m square cubic feet per day and 450 barrels of water per day on a 48" choke.The next well in the appraisal drilling campaign, AT-5, is targeting one of several structural pop-up features in the field with the intention of carrying out multiple fracture stimulations in a horizontal well to improve productivity and ultimate recovery factor for the field. "We do not see this test rate as particularly significant, as the well appears to have been sub-optimally positioned and stimulated for successful testing. However, we do not expect the market to be impressed by a relatively low headline flow rate from a 'fracced' well," said broking group Matrix. "The next news should be from the AT-5 well, which will be drilled horizontally. Current operations are logging the vertical pilot hole prior to drilling the horizontal section. This well should give a far more indicative potential development flow rate, in our view," the broker added.