Small caps round-up: Ark Therapeutics, Hambledon, Nighthawk ...

Drug developer Ark Therapeutics has sold the majority of its wound care business to Crawford Healthcare for up to £2.7m, comprising £0.77m upfront and up to £1.93m in milestone payments.The value of the gross assets being sold was put at £1,153,000 as at 30 June 2010. The losses on ordinary activities after tax attributable to the sold businesses was £428,000.Hambledon is increasing planned output from an underground mine currently being built at its Sekisovskoye operations in Kazakhstan.First ore is due to be extracted from underground in December and the extraction rate is now expected to grow to 850,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) over five years compared with the initial plan for 500,000tpa. Gold production from the underground mine alone is targeted to incrementally reach 65,000 ounces in 2014 and 110,000 ounces in 2016. Net production at oil company Nighthawk fell to 3,086 barrels of oil in the fourth quarter of 2010 from 4,092 barrels during the previous three months.It blamed the decline on more work-overs and recompletions in the period and said first quarter output will be broadly in line with December's number.Byotrol, the developer of anti microbial hygiene technologies, has extended its pact with own-label producer McBride to jointly develop and sell residual action liquid disinfectants in the European market. It is now expected that the first product will be launched in the first half of 2011. Byotrol and McBride intend to enter into full licence agreements, with UK product launches of Byotrol-based household care products expected in the third and fourth quarters of 2011. Home care operator Southern Cross Healthcare saw revenue dip in the final quarter of 2010 to £236.3m from £240.5m (restated) the year before, while the average occupancy rate on a like for like basis declined to 87.6% from 90.7% a year earlier.Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation tumbled to £5.0m from a restated £14.4m in the corresponding period of 2009. Net debt during the quarter rose £14.1m to £21.4m. The group continues to engage with Landlords in pursuit of a restructuring of its lease terms and will provide a further update on this subject in due course.