UK SMALLCAP ROUNDUP: African Minerals Gets $1.5B For Tonkolili

Dow Jones smallcap news is now on Twitter, allowing you to catch up on the news away from your desk. Go to http://twitter.com/DJ_UK_Smallcaps AFRICAN MINERALS LTD. (AMI.LN), an iron ore miner focused on Sierra Leone, Tuesday said it agreed a $1.5 billion investment in its Tonkolili project from Shandong Iron & Steel Group Co., in a deal that underscores China's appetite for raw materials to fuel its economic expansion. At 0804 GMT, shares +55.25 pence, or 14%, at 440.25 pence. INVISTA FOUNDATION PROPERTY TRUST LTD. (IFD.LN), a real estate investor, said it launched a share sale to strengthen its balance sheet and fund acquisitions. Invista said it intends to issue up to 32.3 million new shares to institutional investors in a type of share auction called a bookbuild. At 0804 GMT, shares +0.25 pence, or 0.6%, at 40.25 pence. MONITISE PLC (MONI.LN), a developer of banking services for mobile phones, said it is to raise GBP32.4 million through a share sale and announced an improved strategic partnership with Visa Inc. (V). At 0804 GMT, shares +1.75 pence, or 8.3%, at 22.75 pence. DUNELM GROUP PLC (DNLM.LN), a homeware retailer, said comparable sales growth slowed in its second half, and was marginally negative in the final ten weeks of the fiscal, although it expects full-year operating profit to be slightly higher than market expectations. At 0803 GMT, shares +13 pence, or 3.6%, at 371 pence. LUMINAR GROUP HOLDINGS PLC (LMR.LN), a nightclub operator, said the recent soccer World Cup tournament dented sales in its most recent 19 weeks' trading, with comparable sales plunging 19.9% in the period. At 0803 GMT, shares -1.5 pence, or 13%, at 10 pence. BTG PLC (BGC.LN), a pharmaceutical company, said it is putting the finishing touches on its plans to begin selling two emergency medicines in October. BTG acquired the rights to snake venom antidote CroFab and digoxin poisoning treatment DigiFab when it bought biotech peer Protherics PLC in 2008. BTG said it has hired senior sales and marketing staff, secured distributors and expects to have all the necessary sales licenses in place by August. At 0803 GMT, shares -1.3 pence, or 0.7%, at 200 pence. ARK THERAPEUTICS GROUP PLC (AKT.LN), a biotechnology company, said it is in talks with potential buyers of its wound care business. The company, which launched a strategic review after its experimental brain cancer medicine Cerepro was rejected by European drug regulators earlier this year, said a number of companies are completing due diligence on its wound care unit and negotiations are in progress. It added it is also in talks with potential strategic partners keen to make use of its Finland-based manufacturing facilities and said it is drawing up a plan for a U.S. clinical trial of Cerepro and is seeking a partner to pay for it. At 0802 GMT, shares flat at 4.88 pence. LOW & BONAR PLC (LWB.LN), a supplier of yarns and fabrics, reintroduced an interim dividend following a swing to a first-half pretax profit on the continued improvement in sales. At 0802 GMT, shares -5 pence, or 12%, at 38 pence. PROTEOME SCIENCES PLC (PRM.LN), a diagnostics company, said it developed two tests focused on aspects of Alzheimer's disease. At 0802 GMT, shares flat at 21.75 pence. INDIAN ENERGY LTD. (IEL.LN), a developer of wind farms in India, reported a wider fiscal-year loss due to the cost of joining the stock market, and said it is on track to hitting its target of being able to generate 300 megawatts of electricity by 2013. The company said it is evaluating new projects. Indian Energy added it agreed a GBP2 million loan from shareholder Utilico Emerging Markets Ltd. (UEM.LN) to pay for options on new wind projects. It said it is looking at ways to raise extra capital. At 0809 GMT, shares -4.25 pence, or 8.8%, at 44 pence. DTZ HOLDINGS PLC (DTZ.LN), a property consultant, posted a narrower fiscal-year loss following its strategic review and restructuring program, and said it plans to buy the remaining 20% stake of DTZ Asset Management Europe SAS that it doesn't already own. At 0809 GMT, shares +2 pence, or 3.3%, at 62.5 pence. DJ UK Smaller Cos +0.1% AIM +0.5% -By Jason Douglas, Hannah Benjamin and Rachael Gormley, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0) 20 7842 9272; uksmallcaps@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 13, 2010 04:30 ET (08:30 GMT)