Small caps round-up: Sopheon, Hargreaves Services, Global Energy,...

15th Jun 2010 10:10

Hargreaves Services, which provides support services to the energy sector, said overall results are expected to be in line with management expectations. "The board remain confident about the prospects for the group. The board is particularly excited by the prospects of the Tower project and pleased with the progress that is being made in developing the European business and will continue to focus efforts and investment at developing this market presence," it said.Software specialist Sopheon said full year revenue visibility for 2010 from contracted business and recurring revenue streams has risen to £6m.The group said since the start of 2010, Sopheon has closed a total of 14 new and extension license orders. The total number of licensed customers to date now stands at 173."We continue to work on several prospect opportunities which have the potential to close by the end of the quarter, and if concluded, would enable us to exceed the first half revenue performance of last year," it added.Shares in Global Energy Development plummeted after the Latin America focused oil and gas producer reported that it had failed to find commercial quantities of hydrocarbons from the Rio Verde 2 exploration well.Kazakhstan focused peer Max Petroleum is also sharply lower after it said it would plug and abandon its KZI-1 well.Engineering firm MS International saw full-year pre-tax profits drop to £3.34m compared with £4.92m last time as revenues fell to £41.04m from £51.56m.Component supplier Avingtrans still expects to be profitable in the second half of the financial year. "The board expects further improvement in the group's performance over the next 12 months and will update shareholders further when the audited accounts are published," the group added.Central America-focused gold and silver miner Condor Resources narrowed full-year losses to £551,741 from £3.48m last year.System C Healthcare expects to report an increase in annual revenue of some 75%, compared with the previous year. Profits before tax are expected to be in-line with current market expectations of £5.4m for the year ended 31 May 2010 (2009: £4.1m).Electronic manufacturing services group Stadium has sold its branded plastics business for £2.5m to concentrate on expanding its electronics operations.The company also announced that revenue growth in the five months to May 31 was 'very strong.'Shares in China-focused oil and gas infrastructure group Fortune Oil climbed after it announced that Tee Kiam Poon will replace Mdm Li Ching as chief executive.Shares in ITM Power shot ahead after the energy storage and clean fuel company said it had completed the roll out of the manufacturing system for its products.Germ killing technology company Byotrol more than tripled its revenues last year and trimmed its losses. Revenue in the year to 31 March rose to £3.15m from £0.93m the year before, while loss before tax narrowed to £1.83m from £2.93m. The company ended its financial year with £0.77m in cash., down from £2.86m a year earlier. "The current outlook is promising, despite the continuing general economic uncertainty," claimed Byotrol chairman Ralph Kugler.Interim results from Innovise were well received by the market as the IT services and workforce management software provider said trading conditions stradily improved throughout the period.Revenue in the six months to 31 March was £7.94m, up from £4.94m in the corresponding period from a year earlier, as its three strategic acquisitions bedded down. Profit before tax eased to £0.26m from £0.47m a year earlier."While the economy generally and the market for IT services specifically have been improving in recent months, trading conditions are still challenging and are expected to restrain our short-term profit," said chief executive officer Mike Taylor. Maghreb Minerals has raised £100,000 through subscriptions for 6.67m shares at 1.5p. All subscribers for shares under the placing are directors of the company.Recruiter ReThink reports overall net fee income for the first four months of 2010 is in excess of 15% higher than the comparable period in 2009. Permanent recruitment income has seen a 44% increase compared to the corresponding period. ReThink has also been engaged by a major UK retail client to outsource all their contract recruitment needs; a contract expected to generate in excess of £3m in annual revenues. GMA has begun a reverse circulation (RC) drilling programmme at the Amesmessa gold mine in Southern Algeria and is still in talks with potential backers about an injection of fresh cash.The group, which said in May it had enough cash to meet its operating obligations until the end of June, is in advanced talks with both holders of loan stock and a potential provider of new equity capital. "The board expects these discussions to be concluded shortly and a further announcement will be made before the end of the month in conjunction with the publication of the company's results for the year ended 31 December 2009," it said.