Small caps round-up: McKay Securities, Agriterra, Iofina ...

25th May 2012 11:55

McKay Securities, a commercial property developer, has re-let its 100,000 square foot large office property in Glasgow city centre to the Student Loans Company, which now occupies the building as its main head office and administration centre. Its existing leases were due to expire in December 2013 and it has now agreed with McKay to enter into a new lease for the whole building, extending its occupation for up to 10 years. In December 2013 the Student Loans Company will pay an annual rent of £1.97m, subject to a 15 month rent-free period. Agriterra, a pan African agricultural company, has announced that following its instigation of international arbitration proceedings, the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining of the Republic of South Sudan has agreed to pay just over £11.37m in compensation, which will be paid within one year. The compensation is partial recompense for the work undertaken and the substantial investment made by the company on the Block Ba oil concession area in Southern Sudan, when the company was known as White Nile, an oil and gas exploration company. The firm still holds a 20% stake in the area, where initial results have been "highly positive". Iofina has placed over 11.5m shares at 37.5p each to raise proceeds of $4.3m. Stena Investment, already a substantial shareholder, has agreed to acquire over 10.22m of these. Following the placing the company has just under 127.3m shares in issue. The company also unveiled its full year results, which saw revenue rise from £8.86m to £10.0m and pre-tax losses narrow from £3.32m to £1.74m. Basic losses per share came in at 1.47p compared to 3.16p the previous year. Cost of sales rose by £1.1m to £8.6m. Cash at the end of the year rose from £3.7m to £4.3m. Manroy, a UK defence contractor, doubled its revenues, but more than quadrupled its losses in the six months ended March 31st after costs and expenses soared. Revenue increased from £0.32m to £0.63m year-on-year, while cost of operations rose from £0.18m to £0.39m, admin expenses jumped from £0.27m to £0.94m and the company incurred relocation costs of £0.27m. Loss before tax climbed from £0.24m to £1.33m. Basic losses per share were 4.8p compared to earnings of 12.5p the corresponding period. During the reporting period the company experienced increased demand for its expanded product range, giving it confidence that the future looks "encouraging". Full year results will be adversely affected by a delay in the receipt of a major contract, however this will positively affect 2013 earnings.