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Industrial project management and construction group Wood Group has won a contract for an offshore oil & gas production facility in the Norwegian part of the North Sea. The contract, awarded to Wood Group Mustang (WGM) by Singapore-based peer SMOE, will see the company provide detailed engineering and design for the offshore plant that will be operated by Det norske. It will require staff at a peak period of around 200 people and will be performed mainly through WGM's London office. "Receiving news of this project award was extremely gratifying," said Steve Knowles, the President of WGM. "We are looking forward to starting work on Det norske's first major facility and developing an excellent relationship with them, in addition to enhancing our existing relationship with SMOE."

On a brighter note, Aspinwall added: "In recent months there has been a marked and positive change of sentiment in the market, with the weekly flow of funds into the equity markets reaching one of the highest levels ever recorded." "Looking further ahead, we believe that we will see stability and opportunity returning to the markets and that reduced headwinds, coupled with further openings as our multi-asset initiative gains momentum, will enable us to return to growth levels closer to those we have seen in the past," Fidessa said in a statement. An annual dividend of 37p has been offered, up from 36.5p the year before. A special dividend of 45p has been recommended.

Trading systems developer Fidessa said financial market conditions in 2012 were more difficult than expected as it reported hardly changed profit and revenue for the year. Revenue fell 1%, on a constant currency basis, to 278.6m for the year ended December 31st 2012. Adjusted pre-tax profit also fell 1% to 42.7m during the period. Chief Executive Chris Aspinwall said: "For the financial markets, conditions in 2012 were more difficult than expected with the global value of equity trading falling by around 20% on top of the already depressed levels seen in 2011." Against this background, Fidessa said it has maintained its strategy of helping its customers reduce their costs, extending the range of asset classes it supports and extending its regional coverage.

The Australian Competition Tribunal has ruled that FTSE 100 mining company Rio Tinto's Hamersley and Robe rail network should not be opened up to other users. The move, announced on Monday morning, retains Rio Tinto's exclusive and unlimited use of the the railway lines. Paul Shannon, Rio Tinto Iron Ore Acting Chief Executive, said: "This is great news. Rio Tinto runs a highly efficient railway that is fully integrated with our port and mine operations. "This would be severely hindered if third parties were allowed to run trains on our rail network, not to mention the knock-on negative effect on the Western Australian and national economies from creating such inefficiencies."

British Land's Head of Retail Charles Maudsley said: "We are delighted to have bought Ealing Broadway Shopping Centre. It is a highly attractive retail destination which meets the needs of today's consumers for convenient, well-located shopping. "We believe there are significant opportunities to grow and develop the shopping centre as a retail destination both as we further improve the retail mix and increase the leisure offer and as the area benefits from residential development and the completion of Crossrail." The rest of the acquired portfolio includes five retail and office properties in Baker Street, Chiswick High Road, Putney High Street, Fulham Road and Great Portland Street, which were bought for 41.3m.

British Land has expanded its London portfolio with the purchase of a number of properties from Dutch real estate group Weraldhave, including the Ealing Broadway Shopping Centre. The acquired portfolio cost the FTSE 100 company 183.8m, with the Ealing retail asset being worth 142.5m alone. It has 300,000 square feet of retail and leisure space, 800 car parking spaces and a multi-let office over a 7.5-acre site. "Ealing Broadway is an attractive convenient shopping destination in West London, well located in the centre of Ealing and close to the train and tube station," British Land said. The firm added that the shopping centre "dominates" the retail offer in the town centre with an annual footfall of around 15m. Of the 1.6m people who live in the area, over a third are in the key retail spending group of 25-44 year olds, the firm added.

The current price gross refinig margins (CPGRM) of oil and gas produced at the Vadinary plant stood at $9.75 per barrel, 246% more than the $2.82 in the same quarter a year earlier. Throughput during the quarter was 36.32m barrels, up 77% against 20.5m barrels in the same quarter a year earlier. Oil and gas production was down 9.0% at the Stanlow plant during the quarter. Some 18m barrels were produced compared to 19.7m barrels in the same quarter a year earlier. The group stated that the reduction in production reflected a planned shutdown.

Third-quarter power generation almost doubled for the period ending December 31st at India-focused integrated energy company Essar Energy. Power generation rose 93% to 2,862m units compared to 1,481m units in the same quarter a year earlier. The high increase was related to the commissioning of Salaya 1 - the Essar Energy's imported coal plant- in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2013 and production levels at the group's oil and gas units in the second and third quarters. Oil and gas production also experienced significant increases over the corresponding time frames.

The long stop date for public relations company Dentsu's acquisition of digital communications group Aegis has been extended from February 28th to March 28th. An update issued by Aegis on Monday stated that all antitrust clearances has been identified with the exception of clearance from the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China. It stated: "In light of the Chinese New Year holiday and with a view to allowing MOFCOM [Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China] to complete its review period in the ordinary course, Dentsu and Aegis have agreed, with the consent of the panel, to extend the long stop date for the acquisition."

Graham Picken, Chairman of HICL Infrastructure, said: "The directors are pleased with the operating performance of the business and the formal completion of our last remaining asset in construction, the M80 motorway in Scotland. "With seven new investments and one disposal since 30 September 2012, the investment portfolio now comprises 79 social and transportation infrastructure projects in the UK, Europe and Canada. As such, the company offers investors access to not only the largest and most liquid listed social infrastructure investment vehicle of its kind in Europe, but also a portfolio of assets positioned at the lower-risk, lower volatility end of the infrastructure spectrum."

The net asset value (NAV) of listed infrastrcture investment company HICL rose 1.6p per share to 115.8p in the period from October 1st to February 11th, an interim management statement has shown. The company reported that the NAV grew to 115.8p per share from 114.2p per share compared to in the predeeing quarter, driven primarily by increases in market prices for UK private finance investments and public private partnershuip investments. During the period, the group reported having acquired seven new UK investments and two additional stakes in existing investments for a total consideration of �143.8m. It also completed its contract on the M80 motorway in Scotland.

Bull • Largest independent with pure GoM shelf focus. • Compelling economics for horizontal wells with high CoS%. • Oil focused drilling programme. • Shallow water targets generally not technologically challenging.

Bear • Difficult to maintain growth trajectory through exploitation alone. • Recent production/drilling issues have strong negative impact on margins.

Business Energy XXI operates or has an interest in six of the 11 largest oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico. The core properties are located

Consensus estimates: Plenty of scope for upside Analysts have spent FY13 nudging down estimates while shares have dropped 15% from a Q113 high of $37.4. With $1.1bn of net debt the EV of $3.6bn trades at a 16% discount to end of FY12 PV(10) based on proved reserves. However, at $30/ boe, the EV is still well ahead of the $20/boe paid for the 2010 Exxon assets. Current target prices average c $40 per share, suggesting analysts remain bullish about reserves and production growth. However, the next six months are key for Energy XXI to deliver its production targets and restore confidence in its growth strategy.

Strong H2 required to get growth back on track Hurricane Isaac derailed the growth trajectory in the three month period to September 2012 and Q2 results to December 2012 have indicated only a partial recovery with production for the quarter at 44.6mboepd. Recent drilling problems with wells targeting oil have temporarily nudged the hydrocarbon mix more towards gas further depressing margins. However, an oil focused H213 drill programme should redress the balance with 95% of revenues continuing to come from oil. The original FY13 production target of 58-62mboepd will not be met, with company guiding us towards an oil production exit rate of 36-38mbblpd and overall production of around 51mboepd. This would mean production is flat year-on-year.

Largest pure GoM shelf play by some distance Energy XXI operates or has interests in six of the largest Gulf of Mexico oil fields, making it the largest independent by some distance focused uniquely on the shallow water shelf. The company has a very clear strategy to target oil developments (over gas) driving up Expected Ultimate Recoveries (EUR) through horizontal well completions. Conservatively this approach more than doubles new well EURs for only a c 10-20% uplift in capital costs vs vertical completions.............

Energy XXI is the largest of the pure Gulf of Mexico (GoM) shallow water shelf plays. A growth strategy based on “acquire and exploit” has driven >40% pa production growth in recent years, the majority from acquisitions including a $1bn mega-deal with Exxon in 2010. However, the focus is now on stabilising the production base ahead of further organic growth. Well performance, ageing infrastructure and hurricane damage have all affected production in recent months. With margins and cash flow generation highly sensitive to both on-stream utilisation and hydrocarbon mix, Energy XXI needs a strong six months to get growth back on track.

Business description WANdisco is a distributed computing company. It has applied its proprietary replication technology to open-source tools to claim a strong position in the software version control market. It is now targeting the big data infrastructure market.

Valuation: Hadoop credentials continue to grow At 17x 2014 EV/sales the market is clearly now pricing in some commercial traction in Hadoop and an acceleration in growth beyond our estimates, which currently do not factor in any contribution from these products. However, success in bringing on board major commercial partners should project the company into a select group of four or five independent companies at the core of Hadoop, one of the key technologies underpinning the structural growth of big data. Given the strategic value and growth potential which such a position would make capable, we can therefore see upside potential to the current share price. Cloudera, one of the leading independent Hadoop software and support providers recently raised $65m, purportedly at a $700m valuation.