Small caps round-up: Plastics Capital, Vislink, Westminster Group ...

25th Apr 2012 13:54

Plastics Capital, a niche platics products group, has said it expects its result for the full year to 31 March 2012 will be in line with market expectations, despite sales continuing to be affected by the aftermath of the Thai floods. The firm said profit margins have remained good, cash flow has been strong and its debt continues to reduce in line with expectations. The company was also keen to emphasise strong progress in both the US and China, and said its packaging division has seen an 'encouraging' conclusion to the financial year with fourth quarter sales being the strongest of the financial year. Vislink has traded profitably and in line with management expectations for the quarter ended March 31st 2012. Group revenue for the quarter was £13.7m (2011: £8.5m), with orders received during the period worth £13.4m (2011: £9.4m). At the end of the period that group has £8.7m cash, slightly lower than £10.1m at the start of the period, partly the result of having paid a deferred consideration of £0.5m. The international division of security solutions firm Westminster Group has secured a new $128,000 contract for the supply of airport security screening equipment to a governmental client within Saudi Arabia. Under the contract, Westminster will provide specialised airport screening equipment for scanning both people and baggage. The contract is expected to be completed in the second half of the current calander year. The firm said the contract could lead to further contract awards once successfully implemented. Following the inspection of Ark Therapeutics' manufacturing site, Finnish Medicines Agency has extended Ark's Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification to include the company's newest and largest production facility, GMP 3. The certification will ignificantly increase the company's manufacturing capacity, Ark said, including an automated "fill and finish" line capable of handling up to 2,000 product units/hour. It is the first ever facility to receive regulatory approval to manufacture adenoviral gene-based medicines for commercial supply in Europe. Property developer Orchid has returned to the black with a pre-tax profit of €0.3m (2010: loss €22m), while net asset value remained stable at €73.1m (2010: €73.3m). Revenue from the rent and operation of the Grand Mall Varna, flagship development totalled €8.0m (2010: €4.4m). "In light of the economic downturn and the lack of funding available, the group has limited its on-going developments to three projects, which the board believes have the best prospects in terms of market demand and financing availability," the company said. Sinclair IS Pharma, a skin treatments supplier, has amended the terms of the lock-up arrangements with the ex-shareholders of Advanced Bio-Technologies (AB-T), meaning that around 11.478m, or 57%, of the 19.990m shares issued as consideration for the acquisition of AB-T have now been released four months post completion, two months earlier than originally envisaged, with 10,000,000 of these being placed with investors. The remaining 43% will be released on December 15th, as per the original agreement. Ceres Power, a fuel cell technology developer, has formed a new commercial partnership with Itho-Daalderop Group, which will commit technical resources to the Ceres programme for the development of its mass market CHP product, which will be trialled in 2014 and launched in 2016. Under the agreement, Itho-Daalderop has exclusive distribution rights for the Ceres CHP product in the Benelux countries for a period of four years from initial sales, on the condition Itho-Daalderop orders the minimum volume of 78,000 units over this period. The company will also sell the product into the residential mass market within the Benelux countries. Aseana Properties, a Malaysia and Vietnam-based property developer, has posted a 56.8% leap in revenues from $179.3m to $281.1m for the year ended December 31st, helping to turn a loss of $15.4m in 2010 to a profit of $33.1m in 2011. October 2011 saw the completion of SENI Mont' Kiara, the group's largest and most significant project, which along with the sale of several completed properties led to a significant increase in earnings. Earnings per share were 7.56c, compared with a loss per share of 9.51c the previous year. Fairpoint Group, a provider of advice and solutions to 'financially stressed' consumers, has signed a new enlarged £13m asset-based revolving credit facility, replacing its existing facility of £8m, which was due to expire in December of this year. The facility has a four year maturity, and draws down £4.5m against the existing facility. Annual financing costs under the new facility are expected to be around £0.2m higher than those of the old facility.