Small caps round-up: Zoo Digital, City of London, Galleon...

24th Nov 2010 12:26

Film software firm Zoo Digital posted a maiden interim profit in the half year to September as its main clients kept spending. Revenue was flat at $8.1m, but operating profit rose 36% to $880,000 reflecting a switch to higher margin work. Interim profits came in at $388,000 compared with a loss of $232,000. Cash balances rose to $1.9m.Finance firm City Of London Group has formed a subsidiary, City of London Confirming House to acquire a 51% interest in Trade Finance Partners. COLG will invest £150,000 and provide £300,000 of working capital to own 80% of COLCH, with the remaining 20% owned by Paul Tinkler, an experienced entrepreneur with extensive import knowledge. Media rights group Galleon has not been able to agree acceptable terms on £2m worth of deals it had expected to complete this year. New discussions have been initiated for these rights while discussions for other expected contracts are still ongoing, Galleon said. Property investor Alpha Tiger Property Trust is to make a £4m cash short term investment in he Freehold Income Trust, an open-ended unlisted fund that owns over 62,500 freeholds in the UK with a gross annual rent income of £7.3m. The forecast yield on the investment is expected to 4.4% per year, after tax.Global data capture and processing solutions provider DRS Data has seen an acceleration in revenue growth in the second half of the year on the back of new one-off contracts to conduct censuses in Zambia and Pakistan.In the first ten months of 2010 education revenue was up 5.2% to £12.04m from £11.45m a year earlier, while non-education revenue shot up 175.5% to £2.80m from £1.02m. As a result of the census contract wins the board expects full year results will be ahead of market expectations.Glass fibre insulation developer Superglass announced full year results in line with expectations. Revenue in the year to 31 August dipped to £31.4m from £38.1m, due to a significant decrease in carbon reduction activity. Profit before tax and amortisation fell 26% to £3.7m from £5.0m last year, after a major failure on one of its furnaces restricted output for two months, and dented profits by an estimated £0.9m.The board has elected not to propose a final dividend.South America-based oil and gas group Amerisur Resources has announced that poor weather conditions have "complicated access" at its Platanillo contract in Colombia.Unprecedented flooding has resulted in a delay of the "3D3C seismic programme", however daily oil production has averaged 573 barrels of oil per days over the last 15 days with recent operations continuing without interruptions.Clyde Process Solution, the provider of pneumatic conveying air filtration solutions, has announced that pre-tax profit declined 45% to £1.7m from £3.1m previously, reflecting a £0.9m recovery of Turkish debt plus interest, the group says.Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation fell by 27% to £3.3m from £4.6m, despite order intake rising by 28% to £38.5m from £30.1m.Aerospace and engineering group Hampson Industries has seen a dramatic fall in pre-tax profit of 91% in the half year to September to £1.3m from £14.8m previously, after lower volumes and "efficiency issues" at its tooling an engineering company Odyssey.Earnings per share reduced by 94% to 40p, from 6.63p previously, as reduced profits were diluted by the further issues of ordinary shares in February. Revenues grew 4% from £92.8m to £96.1m.The group also thinks it is "prudent to retain financial resources" and not issue interim dividends to shareholders for the half, compared with an 80p dividend in 2009.