Small caps round-up: Plus Markets, S&U, 1st Dental Laboratories

21st May 2010 14:08

Plus Markets Group is cutting its costs from £8.75m in 2009 to less than £5m in 2011 and says that it will not need to raise cash in the "foreseeable future". Plus Markets hopes to reach break even within two years. Plus Markets has not completed the second part of its strategic review, which concerns revenue generation. Although Plus-traded has been successful in attracting volumes it has not generated reporting or transaction fees. Plus Markets needs to find a way of generating revenues from this area of the business. The number of new issues on Plus-quoted has been higher than expected so far this year. S&U's home credit business Loansathome4u has increased revenues by 2% in the period since the end of January. Customer numbers have increased by 4% and impairment charges have been reduced by 2%. New motor finance business has increased by two-fifths. Revenues are one-fifth higher and impairment charges increased 11%. Group borrowings are £26.1m and they should continue to reduce in the second quarter. Interim results for the six months to July 2010 will be released in September. The interims will include £350,000 of additional remuneration made before the end of the tax year. This would normally be paid in the second half. One month after selling more than 2m shares in 1st Dental Laboratories Peter Gyllenhammar has bought an additional 450,000. This takes his stake back up to 6.2%. A fall in the share price appears to have triggered further interest from Gyllenhammar. Scientific Data Imaging says that its trading profits will be "a little ahead of market expectations" in the year to April 2010.Indian property developer Hirco has increased its net asset value from 689p a share to 736p a share in the six months to March 2010. The shares are trading at a discount to NAV of more than 80%. Greystar Resources fell Friday as its appeal to reinstate last December's Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for its Angostura gold-silver deposit in Colombia faced further delays.It still hasn't received a decision from the Ministry of the Environment, Housing and Territorial Development (MAVDT), which also has to accept that Greystar has complied with all legal requirements to proceed with development of an open pit gold-silver mine at Angostura.A Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) on Angostura is expected to be published in the second half of 2010, and the firm has begun the process of securing $650m in project finance from international sources. Patagonia Gold lost £7.3m in 2009, more than the £5.8m deficit reported a year ago, reflecting the costs of the grant of new options and the repricing of previous options totalling £1.26m."The remainder of these costs are in line with expectations and highlight the exploration activity that has taken place on our portfolio of Santa Cruz properties,2 said chairman John Craven.Exploration costs were steady at £4.7m, largely financed by a £9.3m fundraising at 7.75p a share in March 2009.