Small caps roundup: AEC Education, Cryptologic, DiamondCorp...

Asia focused teaching group, AEC Education, has paid £442,000 for the 70% of a pair of Malaysian educational institutes it doesn't already own. The company had snapped up 30% of the IMS Professional Training Services and Kasturi Management Consultancy in April last year.Online betting games and Internet casino software developer Cryptologic has signed a multi-year agreement to license a suite of betting games to Rank Group's interactive unit.It will provide at least 10 of its most popular branded and unbranded slot games for use on Rank Interactive's websites. Two games are already live.Diamondcorp, which is developing projects to mine the gemstone in South Africa and Botswana, is no longer in talks about a possible offer for the company.It is now progressing with plans for a fundraising to finance planned operational expenditure and to provide working capital. It has also found the cash to meet an interest payment due today. Printer technology group Xaar reports trading and margins for the third quarter of the year were in line with expectations and were broadly stable at the levels seen in the first and second quarters of 2009. "The overall trading environment remains unchanged from August. There is still a lack of forward visibility of customer orders which, together with the ongoing uncertainty in the global business environment, contribute to a level of caution when looking ahead," it said. Electronic payments firm Earthport said the company is no longer in an offer period as defined by the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers. The company has been undertaking a review of strategic options, one of which was a takeover by the company. None of the takeover discussions came to fruition, the company said.Shares in Formjet jumped after the software supplier signed an extension of its distribution agreement with Ability Software International, which provides software packages for businesses.Kentz Corporation, the holding company of the Kentz engineering and construction group, through its Australian joint venture operating company Thiess Kentz, has been awarded two contracts with a combined value of around AUD $109m in Western Australia. Xaar