Small caps round-up: White Young Green, Beowulf, Angel Biotech...

19th Nov 2009 11:01

Engineering consultant White Young Green has traded in line with expectations since the end of June, with conditions varying across its markets. "There remains a lack of confidence and liquidity in many areas in which we trade, but there are also some encouraging signs in respect of opportunities and new contract wins," it said. Shares in Beowulf, which owns mineral exploration projects in Sweden, jumped after it said results from tests of its Lulepotten copper-gold deposit in Northern Sweden appeared favourable compared to another of its deposits in the region.Shares in Angel Biotechnology jumped after the biopharmaceutical contract manufacturer said it would be the contractor on three separate grants that have been awarded to consortia active in regenerative medicine.Oil and gas group GeoPark, which has exploration and production properties in Chile and Argentina, has raised $20.5m through a placing of 3.784m shares at 542 cents each.Technical adhesive tapes firm Scapa Group narrowed its trading loss to £1m in the first half from an underlying deficit of £6.4m in the second half of last year. The firm attributed the improvement to recent restructuring exercises, which significantly reduced the cost base, and 6.6% additional sales volume. A pre-tax profit of £2.7m a year ago turned into a £3.1m loss this time.Events and conferencing group Tarsus extended its rally Thursday on news it has traded as expected since the end of July.The firm, responsible for the Dubai Airshow, said attendances at its events are ahead of previous years, leaving it confident of a satisfactory outcome for 2009 at current exchange rates.Marine electronics group Raymarine has slumped more than a third on falling sales and as it racks up "significant" professional and bank fees in an effort to secure long term refinancing.Sales dropped 26% in the four months to 30 October and by 23% in the last 10 months, or 32% on a like-for-like basis.Raymarine's existing banking facilities mature on 31 March 2010 and it is currently unable to comply with certain financial covenants within these facilities. It is reliant on continuing covenant waivers, due to expire on 4 December.ImmuPharma's impressive run has come to an end after a broker disagreed with the drug developer's claim that its experimental lupus drug met its goals in a Phase II trial.Lupuzor achieved a "clinically significant" improvement in patient response rate and was generally well tolerated, but Panmure Gordon said an early end to the trial meant the threshold for proving statistical significance was raised.But fleet management group Trakm8 has travelled higher after swinging back into profit at the half-way stage due to cost-cutting and a focus on higher margin products and customers. It posted a profit before tax of £100,000 for the six months ended 30 September versus a £352,000 loss in 2008 on revenue down 14% to £1.71m.