Small caps round-up: Quintain, Leed Petroleum, Solomon Gold...

2nd Nov 2009 08:18

Quintain Estates is weaker Monday after the property developer confirmed it is considering an equity issue, thought to be about worth about £180m.It said no formal decision has been made and a further announcement will be made when appropriate.Oil and gas explorer Leed Petroleum has completed wire-line operations on the Eugene Island A-7 well and returned it to production following the shut in during September.Well tests indicate a gross production rate of 3.1 millions of standard cubic feet of gas per day and 458 barrels of oil per day, or a combined 977 barrels of oil equivalent per day.Solomon Gold is lower again after it emerged that Barclays has reduced its stake in the Australasia-focused gold and copper miner to 7.59m shares, or 8.93% of the business.That's 746,162 shares less than the figure reported on 13 October.South African platinum producer Sylvania Resources and Jubilee Platinum have agreed a strategic partnership to provide a total capability solution for the processing of platinum group metals (PGMs) to the secondary PGM sector. "This alliance brings together Sylvania's demonstrated ability to retreat surface tailing stockpiles for recovery of PGMs into concentrate and Jubilee's industry accepted ConRoast smelting flexibility," read a statement Monday. Namibian mining company Weatherly International has entered into an option agreement with South Africa's Cubenco whereby Cubenco has the option to buy the Kombat mine from Weatherly for $3m.The group said the Kombat mine was flooded late in 2007 and although the mine and plant has been kept on care and maintenance, it is not part of Weatherly's future development plans. Weatherly added it is focussing on the reopening of the Otjihase and Matchless mines and the development of the Tschudi open pit.Profits at MTI Wireless Edge, a maker of flat panel antennas, remain depressed and forward order book visibility is still uncertain, as spending on telecommunications infrastructure remains subdued.Pre-tax profit in the first nine months of 2009 collapsed to €0.34m from €1.12m in the corresponding period of 2008, on revenues that slid to €10.29m from €13.61m.Cash and cash equivalents at the end of September had eased to $13.5m from $13.7m a year earlier. Cryptologic, the developer of branded online betting and casino games, said one of its top-performing slot games is now being carried on Unitbet.com, one of Europe's leading online gaming sites.Alternative energy group Alkane Energy has won a 12 month tolling contract with energy supply company GDF SUEZ Energy UK. Under the tolling contract Alkane will assign 7MW of excess capacity to GDF SUEZ, provided by its sites at Markham and Shirebrook. The agreement will generate revenues for Alkane of approximately £300,000.Gaming software group Probability slipped into a loss of £255,000, against a profit of £166,000, in the half year to September, after increased investment. Sales fell to £2.48m from £2.62m. "Net gaming revenues were 4.7% better than the six months to March 2009 and we have been able to increase investment in our technology and business development capabilities," Probability said.Vertu Motors has bought the assets of Lichfield Vauxhall for a cash consideration of approximately £2.78m from Steve Thompson Cars Limited. This includes the purchase of a freehold property for £1.675m. The acquisition increases the number of Vauxhall dealerships held by the group to seven.Marketing management software provider Alterian has added 125 new customers for its content management products since acquiring Mediasurface in July 2008.Mediasurface's web content management packages have been integrated into the Alterian Content Management suite.