Borders & Sth. Share News (BOR)

Falklands Islands-focused oil group Borders and Southern said it is ready to seek partners for its licenses after defining a multi-billion barrel prospect inventory in the South Falkland Basin.The group posted a pre-tax loss of £4.7m in 2008, compared with £336,000.While noting that the price of a barrel of oil fell from $147 to $35 before approaching $60 again, Borders said its projects were likely to be 'commercial' with oil at $35 a barrel.Andrew Parsliffe has stepped down as finance director of the business communications group AT Communications.He will be replaced temporarily by Michael Norris, a non-executive director at the company.Technical adhesive tapes supplier Scapa slumped into losses for the year and scrapped its dividend because of the "unprecedented economic circumstances."Pre-tax losses came in at £9.3m from the profit of £7.4m before on revenues that rose to £174m from £170m. It scrapped the dividend, having paid 0.75p last year. "The Group has taken prompt action to address the substantial volume shortfall in our markets by the introduction of a major restructuring programme and tightening already well-established cash controls," said the group.Africa-focused agricultural group Agriterra has opened a second maize-processing facility in Mozambique.Silver explorer Arian Silver posted a pre-tax loss of $481,000 in the quarter to March 31 after deferring all Mexican silver exploration until it receives new funding.Risk management solution provider Strategic Thought saw pre-tax losses for the year rise to £2m from £1.5m loss before on revenue that increased 22% to £6m. "The ARM sales pipeline remains strong and notwithstanding the difficulties in predicting the timing of the closure of large contract negotiations, we remain confident about stronger ARM licence sales in 2010," it said. China-based food preservatives group Sorbic saw pre-tax profit for the half year increase 36% to £2.59m on revenue that rose 26.4% to £8.5m.Software firm Scisys said results for the first half of 2009 will be consistent with market expectations for the full year.Clean fuel technology group Oxford Catalysts has been awarded a $5m commercialisation grant that will help towards the development of the group's microchannel technology for hydro-processing. The grant covers a period of 30 months.The grant proposal by its US subsidiary, Velocys, proposal was ranked highest out of 32 finalists by an independent review committee from the US National Academy of Sciences.The Local Radio Company's cash flow problems have been eased by a £1m loan facility by its new owner, UKRD Group. The facility has been offered at a fixed interest rate of 9% and runs for an initial term of six months.Acquisitive transport group Rotala moved into the black for the first time, posting a profit before tax of £1,2m in the year to 30 November 2008, versus a loss of £0.7m the year before. Turnover grew 84.5% to £35.7m from £19.3m the year before, reflecting the impact of recent acquisitions which increased its fleet to more than 400 vehicles. The company has not declared a dividend but intends to start doing so in the latter part of the current financial year.There are changes at the top afoot at oil and gas firm Valiant Petroleum with Kevin Lyon taking over as chairman following the annual general meeting on 2 June 2009, when Gordon Stollery will step down. Stollery will remain on the board as a non-executive director.Lyon is currently chairman of Valiant's remuneration committee. He is also chairman of Mono Global Group, an infrastructure support services company operating in the telecoms sector, and of Wyndeham Press Group, a printing and communications firm.