Small caps round-up: New Britain Palm Oil, Baobab, Rockhopper

8th Oct 2009 09:02

New Britain Palm Oil, which produces the oil in Papua New Guinea, has signed a five-year agreement to supply palm oil products to Ferrero, the firm that makes Ferrero Rocher chocolates.Baobab Resources is up following a "very encouraging" scoping study undertaken for its Tete magnetite (iron / vanadium) and ilmenite (titanium) project in Mozambique."The project is rapidly evolving into a robust, multi commodity asset with significant upside. Baobab looks forward to continuing to deliver shareholder value as it drives further exploration at Tete," said Baobab's technical director, Ben James.Rockhopper has confirmed speculation that it is mulling a fundraising to finance the cost of a drilling campaign North Falkland Basin, including a placing of equity. The oil and gas explorer said last month it hopes to drill a minimum of two wells on its operated acreage as part of a larger campaign with Desire Petroleum.Technical recruitment firm Matchtech reported slightly lower full-year profits but said it is well placed to deal with short term market conditions and to capitalise on opportunities in the medium term. Profit before tax dropped to £11.3m in the 12 month ended 31 July compared with £12.8m last time while revenue rose 4% to £269.6m.Begbies Traynor and US firm Mesirow Financial Consulting have formed a joint venture - to be named BTG Mesirow Financial Consulting - to become one of the largest insolvency and restructuring practitioners in the world.Ocean Power Technologies has signed an exclusive agreement with a consortium of three leading Japanese companies to develop a demonstration wave power station in Japan. The Japanese consortium comprises Idemitsu Kosan, Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding and Japan Wind Development.Shares in Platinum Australia moved higher after it said it had received a positive outcome from a pre-feasibility study at its Kalahari Platinum Project in South Africa. Platinum Australia also announced that it has completed a share placement of 37.5m shares at $0.81 a share.Peel Hotels, which operates nine hotels in provincial towns in the UK, posted higher turnover due to the opening of a new hotel in Bournemouth, but saw profits fall amid tough economic times.In the 28 weeks to August 23, turnover climbed to £7.2m from £6.8m, but pre-tax profits fell to £483,000 from £521,000.China-based healthcare group Hutchison China Meditech has formed a joint venture with NASDAQ-listed The Hain Celestial Group to develop natural and organic consumer products in Asia.The joint venture will develop and sell food aimed at the baby and infant market.