Small caps round-up: Tinci, Nasstar, 600 Group...

30th Nov 2010 13:34

Environmental engineering group Tinci Holdings jumped after it announced contracts worth 45.4m Chinese Renminbi (£4.34m) to provide paper desulfurisation technology to two subsidiaries of the Dongguan Jiulong Paper Group. These projects are expected to start shortly and last for about six months.Nasstar, a provider of 'cloud' computer technology, reduced losses in the six months to September 30 as sales picked up. Pre-tax losses fell to £0.3m from £0.94m the previous year as sales climbed to £2.4m from £2m.The company is pinning its hopes on more workplaces adopting its technology to allow staff to work away from their desks. 'Patience is a difficult but important quality to maintain when you are early to market with a product that has large potential but which takes time for mainstream acceptance to catch up with the early adopters,' the company said.Engineering company 600 Group moved into profit in the six months to 2 October as it continued to recover from the downturn. Pre-tax profits totalled £1.5m, against a loss of £5.8m over the same period the previous year.Shares in Associated British Engineering surged after it moved into profit on the back of a jump in orders in its only subsidiary, the diesel engine maintenance specialist and spare parts supplier British Polar Engines, over summer. Pre-tax profits totalled £341,000, against a loss of £43,000 the previous year on revenues that climbed to £2.15m from £1.41m. 'The board continues to keep central costs at a low level and also continues in its quest to identify a suitable corporate transaction to take the group forward,' the company said.Carbon trader Trading Emissions has received an unsolicited approach to acquire its private equity portfolio. The board has now also initiated a formal sale process for the portfolio, to be managed by Liberum Capital, and will be soliciting for offers from interested parties.Software group First Derivatives has signed a joint venture with Trading Cross Connects US to produce a software and infrastructure solution for the high frequency trading community. Biomarker specialist Proteome Sciences says concluding licensing/commercial contracts may now occur later in the fourth quarter than expected and may not be fully reflected into revenues until 2011. In these circumstances it is unlikely that the profit before tax excluding non-exceptional items in 2010 will reach breakeven.Oncimmune Limited the lung cancer licensee is also removing Proteome Sciences annexin 1 autoantibody biomarker from its assay. Proteome does not anticipate that this will have a material effect on revenues in 2011.