Property services group Veris posted a pre-tax loss of €6.7m versus the €4.8m profit last year due to the €11.3m write off of assts in the Moving and Storage division. Turnover grew by 29% in the year to €84.3m."We anticipate that any new business wins in the short term will be offset to a greater degree by the effects of margin pressure in some areas and a significantly slower client decision making process which is affecting our pipeline conversion rate," said the group.Hightex reported a wider pre-tax loss but said it looks forward to the future with confidence.The loss before tax increased to €3.1m in the year ended 31 December compared with €2.4m last time. However the loss includes several significant or non-recurring items, including the full year's expenditure on SolarNext (about €1m before amortisation expense); accelerated amortisation of intangible assets (€534,000); and foreign exchange translation losses (€836,000); and other provisions of €210,000.Hightex's membrane business generated a 20% increase in revenue to €15.7m and the solar cooling business generated maiden sales of €0.5m. Aggregate revenues in 2008 were therefore $16.2m.Bio-degradable implants developer Inion said today is its last day listed on the stock market. Shares will be cancelled from the official list from tomorrow. "2009 has been difficult for Inion given the operational progress the Company made during 2008, particularly in the US. We are pleased with the way discussions are progressing across a range of strategic options, which, if they come to fruition, will allow us to refocus on operational activities to build the business," said CEO Chris Lee. Financial software firm First Derivatives said it still has a strong pipeline of business for its real time performance Delta software, capital markets consulting division and technology sales.Focus Solutions, also a provider of financial software, has launched focus:enterprise which is designed to help retail banks cope with increased regulation and heightened scrutiny.Shares in Gasol moved higher after the Africa-focused gas company announced it is in a direct joint venture agreement with Sociedad Nacional de Gas, the national gas company of Equatorial Guinea, to produce gas in the country.Kiotech, which makes additives for aquaculture feeds, said its strong start to the year has been maintained. "Sales are running at levels well ahead of the comparable period in the previous year. We are encouraged by this trading performance and look forward to continuing this progress through the rest of the year," said the group.Independent Resources saw interim pre-tax losses narrow to £127,836 from £396,793 in 2008 due to higher net financial income. Theme park queuing system provider Lo-Q cautioned today that trading at the theme parks it serves has been variable this year, partly due to most parks experiencing poor weather conditions.The company said that on days when attendance at parks has been high, demand for the company's Lo-Q devices has been higher than normal. It added that the levels of trading in its 4 new parks using the company's VQ2020 system have been encouraging.Motion capture film specialist OMG saw profit before tax ease in the six months to 31 March 2009 to £0.9m from £1.1m the year before on revenue that grew from £12.7m to £13.6m. Excluding restructuring costs pre-tax profit dipped to £1.1m from £1.2m.The company remains debt free and had net cash at the end of the reporting period of £2.1m, down from £2.9m at the end of March 2008."The pipelines for our businesses, including in the US with government R&D stimulus packages are encouraging but the timing of these opportunities remains difficult to predict,2 the company said. OPG Power Ventures, the developer and operator of group captive power plants in India, has contracted India's largest private power utility, Tata Power Company, to provide operations and maintenance services at its 77 megawatt coal fired power station development near Chennai and to provide project management services for its 300 megawatt Kutch development.Computational systems biology model developer Physiomics has received a third round of funding to finance the next stage of research in the three year "TEMP" programme, which looks into the effect of the body clock on cancer cell proliferation.The finding was triggered by a positive evaluation by the European Commission of the results from the second year of the programme.Anglo Asian Mining took an early pasting Tuesday after the gold producer reported a pre-tax loss of $4.47m for 2008. The 2007 deficit of $14.68m was exaggerated by write-downs.But it did say that if production at the Gedabek gold-copper mine in Azerbaijan goes to plan, the firm should announced "significant turnover" for 2009 and future years. Ant, a provider of software and services for the delivery of digital TV, says Korean digital multimedia devices maker, Kaonmedia, has licensed the ANT Galio Client.A new range of set-top boxes will be targeted at the retail and operator markets and is due to launch in last quarter of 2009.Biofuels firm D1 Oils lost £33.6m in 2008, better than the £46.1m reported the year before, although revenue fell to £7.1m from £10.6m.The firm, which has interests in 25% of the global planting of Jatropha, said it will be cash positive until end 2010 and is in talks with BP to dissolve Jatropha joint venture.Scottish telecoms company Pinnacle Telecom saw pre-tax loss in the six months to 31 March 2009 widen to £0.51m from £0.43m a year earlier on revenue that rose from £0.73m to £1.08m.Record and FTSE Group have signed a co-operation agreement for the creation of a new range of innovative currency Forward Rate Bias (FRB) indices. The indices will aim to provide investors with a passively managed and transparent benchmark for currency FRB returns, used for portfolio construction, index-tracking and benchmarking.Theo Fennell, founder of the jeweller to the rich and famous that bears his name, is increasing his holding in the business and is re-joining the board as Creative Director.Rupert Hambro and Alasdair Hadden-Paton have both acquired holdings in the company which will give them, in aggregate, a 29.9 % interest in the company. Richard Northcott, Chairman, and Viscount Cowdray - Non-Executive Director, have both resigned from the board, with immediate effect although both will remain as shareholders in the company.Finance house Private and Commercial Finance's profits tumbled from £934,000 to £263,000 after a £427,000 charge for adjustments for interest rate derivatives and lower sales of PPI products. Turnover increased 22% to £62.9m (2008: £51.7m).Funding banks continue to be supportive of PCFG, providing committed facilities to support our current plans. Terms for the renewal of the bank facility with RBS/Lloyds now agreed. The business we are currently writing is of exceptional quality which augurs well for the future, it added.
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