Vernalis PLC Share News (VER)

Shares in electronic components supplier e2v Technologies perked up following last Friday's announcement that its chairman had increased his stake in the company. This comes at a time when e2v has been hit by industrial strife at its Grenoble facility. It anticipates that this will reduce turnover by around £7m in the current quarter. That will significantly reduce group profitability.Chris Geoghegan acquired 123,512 shares at 40p each. He invested just short of £50,000. This takes his stake to 203,512 shares, equivalent to 0.1% of e2v. Net debt was £52.4m at the end of 2009, following the rights issue and placing at 70p a share that raised £55.8m gross just before the end of last year. The company is in the middle of a restructuring of the business in the UK as well as at Grenoble. There was a negative share price reaction to drug developer Vernalis buying back all the rights to royalties receivable from Menarini's sales of acute migraine treatment frovatriptan. Vernalis has paid Paul Capital Healthcare $32.57m (£21m) for these rights. PCH has also been granted 2.1 warrants over Vernalis shares. PCH paid €18.4m in April 2008 for a 90% interest in the royalties. Vernalis gets 25.25% of sales of frovatriptan in the EU and Central America. In 2009, sales were €32.4m. This will give Vernalis a sustainable income stream. FTSE TechMARK - RisersTrafficmaster (TFC) 33.00p +4.76%Alterian (ALN) 149.50p +4.55%Emblaze (BLZ) 45.50p +4.00%Telecity Group (TCY) 406.10p +2.94%Alphameric (ALM) 28.00p +2.75%Kewill (KWL) 105.00p +2.69%E2V Technologies (E2V) 39.50p +2.60%Puricore (PURI) 11.00p +2.33%Biocompatibles International (BII) 255.00p +2.00%Ark Therapeutics (AKT) 13.75p +1.85%FTSE TechMARK - FallersSkyepharma (SKP) 63.00p -5.97%Sepura (SEPU) 47.00p -5.05%Gresham Computing (GHT) 18.50p -3.90%Vernalis (VER) 72.00p -3.36%Morse (MOR) 37.50p -3.23%Axis-Shield (ASD) 377.00p -2.84%Phoenix IT Group (PNX) 280.00p -2.44%Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 11.00p -2.22%Torotrak (TRK) 24.00p -2.04%Renishaw (RSW) 607.00p -1.94%