Interserve Share News (IRV)

Electronic component maker e2v had a strong first half and expects to trade at a similar run rate over the next six months given its current order book.Profit before tax for the six months ended 30 September leapt to £10.1m from £2.6m in 2009 on revenue up 10% to £105.4m. Excluding a 'one-off' benefit of £10.2m, underlying revenue remained at last year's level.Contractor Interserve is trading in line with expectations and predicts the second six months of the year will be better than the first."While there continue to be uncertainties around the near-term impact of changes to public sector expenditure plans, our substantial future workload of around £5.5 billion, of which approximately £1.4 billion relates to 2011, provides a platform for long-term growth at attractive margins," it said.London Mining has increased estimates for phase one production at its Marampa mine in Sierra Leone to 1.8 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) from 1.5Mtpa previously, and for peak production of 3.6Mtpa, up from 3Mtpa."This has a significant positive effect on the project both in terms of reduced operating cost and lower capital intensity," chief executive Graeme Hossie said.Scotland's ProStrakan continued higher Monday after it revealed revenue for the first ten months of 2010 rose 20% to £76.8m. Growth in sales from the EU, US and from partners had total product revenues up 24% to £74.1m."The last few months have been interesting and challenging. We fully expect that the manufacturing issues with Sancuso and the approval of Abstral in the US will be concluded this year so that revenues from both products will start early in the New Year," said chairman and acting chief executive Peter Allen. "Further we believe that Endo is confident of approval of Fortesta in the US for launch in the first quarter 2011."Real estate investment trust Workspace made an £18m profit in the six months ended 30 September compared with a £39.3m loss in 2009. trading profit grew slightly to £17.8m.The company, which provides space to some 4,000 small and medium sized firms across London, said there'd been a good level of demand for space, with like-for-like occupancy up to 85.6% from 83.9% at the end of March.Stellar Diamonds has started a 20-hole drilling programme at the diamond bearing Droujba kimberlite pipe in Guinea, 50km to the south east of the company's Mandala mine.The Russians gave up drilling there in the 1960s because it was too hard given the technology available, but not before they found grades as high as 200 carats per hundred tonne(cpht), though there's no information on quality.