Small caps round-up: Mears, BowLeven, Telecom Plus...

1st Oct 2010 11:56

Social housing repairs and maintenance group, Mears, has paid £2.7m for Jackson Lloyd (JL), which mends houses in the North West.JL has an order book in excess of £80m and Mears expects the purchase to be earnings enhancing by the end of next year.Oil explorer Bowleven has agreed a revised option agreement with Vitol E&P Limited (Vitol) in respect of the Etinde Permit, offshore Cameroon. Vitol have an option to acquire a 10% participating interest in block MLHP-7 in return for funding an agreed $50m gross appraisal work programme."With an estimated $80m in cash post Sapele-1 drilling and an additional $35m disposal proceeds anticipated we are well positioned to fund our 2011 work programme," said CEO Kevin Hart. "The higher equity interest we have retained across the Etinde acreage affords the opportunity to bring in additional partners if deemed appropriate." Utility services firm Telecom Plus still predicts interim earnings and pre-tax profits will be "significantly" ahead of last year's figures, as it did in July.It remains "comfortable" with consensus full year market expectations for both earnings and dividends following an increase in customer numbers at an annualised rate of about 6% to more than 356,000.Drug discovery firm Cyprotex has opened a new toxicology facility at its headquarters in Macclesfield. The 90 square metre laboratory houses the very latest technology in multi-parametric automated fluorescent imaging and cellular analysis, considered to be a breakthrough in terms of in vitro toxicity testing.Hardide, the surface engineering technology provider, expects revenue for the year ended 30 September to exceed management budget. Other financial indicators are also expected to be better than internal forecasts, especially cash reserves, which at present are ahead of budget.Human tissue provider Asterand has been awarded a five-year contract with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to supply clinically annotated human bio-specimens for The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project. The base award is valued at $5.4 million over 17 months; with provisions for renewal at the NCI's option. The contract could potentially be worth up to $24.3m.In-vitro diagnostic devices provider EKF Diagnostics is to acquire the entire issued share capital of Quotient Diagnostics for an initial consideration of £3.41m, to be satisfied through the issue of 15.5m EKFV shares. Deferred consideration of up to £2m is payable, in cash, dependent on the number of Quo-Test and Quo-Lab test systems placed or sold.AIM-quoted oil and gas explorer Range Resources saw revenue from continuing operations surge ahead to AU$581m in the year to 30 June from AU$155m the year before. However, loss before tax widened to AU$8.84m from AU$7.38m as the amount spent on consultancy fees more than doubled to AU$3.54m from AU$1.61m, while directors' share based payment stormed up to AU$1.38m from AU$0.05m.