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Focus shifts to commercial milestones With WANdisco delivering swiftly on its technical milestones, focus now moves towards commercial development. The first step on this path will be to secure channel partner agreements with systems integrators, software and hardware vendors well established within the enterprise big data market. We would hope to see the first of these secured over the course of H1. Deployments with customers will follow, and are likely to start with relatively limited trials before being rolled out in a major way thereafter. Initial deployments are likely to start in H1, with H2 being a prudent timescale for the move to larger implementations.

The platform WANdisco Distro (WDD) is the underlying data management platform upon which a forthcoming suite of other products, scheduled to be launched thick and fast over the course of February, will be based. This schedule will culminate with the release of non-stop name-node solution product which uses the company’s patented active-active technology, eliminate single points of failure in Hadoop and enable distributed architectures. To seed the market, WDD is being made available for free download while the other products will incur subscription charges. The company is also launching paid for support services with this launch.

8 February 2013 WANdisco is a research client of Edison Investment Research Limited WANdisco’s rapid rate of development continues, with its first Hadoop product, Distro, launched well within schedule. With more Hadoop products scheduled for release during February, development risk is starting to wane. Focus now moves to commercial milestones, where agreements with major channel partners would prove a further significant endorsement of the company’s credentials in big data.

Chairman Jeff Chatfield said Avation showed strong performance, particularly in its delivery of ATR72 aircraft. "Looking forward, we are confident that our business provides for continued and sustainable growth in 2013 and beyond," he added.

The fleet comprises of 19 commercial passenger aircraft including ATR72s, Airbus A320s, Airbus A321s and Fokker 100s. They are currently 100% utilised and generate a rental yield of 14.6% from a current customer base of airlines in Australia, Europe and North America. During the six month period, the group increased the number of aircraft in the fleet from 15 to 19 - a value of 174m. By year-end, total assets increased by 46.64m to 204.77m. Corresponding liabilities rose by 43.17m to 148.78m resulting in a net asset incline of 6.6% to 55.99m.

Singapore aircraft leasing company Avation on Monday reported a 38.7 per cent rise in net profits for the last half of 2012, buoyed by fleet deliveries. The group posted 2.85m consolidated net profit after tax for the six months to December 31st. Earnings per share grew 21.7% to 6.44p. Revenues climbed 2.6% to $12.71m for the period, in line with expectations as a result of its investment in the ATR72 fleet. Avation delivered 10 of the aircraft to the Australian Regional Airline Network Alliance with five more scheduled for distribution this year and another four in 2014. The company secured $82m funding to cover senior debt requirements for five ATR72 deliveries in 2013 and is well positioned to purchase seven further aircraft in 2014.

Mother and baby products retailer Mothercare confirmed that Chief Financial Officer Matt Smith, whose appointment was announced in November, will be joining the company at the end of March. Matt has spent ten years as Finance Director at Argos, part of Home Retail Group. Prior to that, he worked at KPMG in London and Sydney as a director in its Corporate Finance Department. Interim CFO Dominic Lavelle will be leaving the business in due course, Mothercare said. Chief Executive Simon Calver said: "His appointment adds significantly to the commercial and financial expertise of the company and is vital for the delivery of the Transformation and Growth plan." In January the baby and maternity retailer reported a decline in sales following poor performance at UK stores. In contrast, International sales rose strongly.

Customer numbers at the club increased by 41,156 and service numbers have increased by 210,237 over the last 12 months, representing year-on-year growth rates of 13% and 18% respectively. The number of services taken by these members continues to climb, and has now reached an average of 3.76 (2012: 3.58). "This reflects the continuing high proportion of new members taking at least four major services, which remained at over 55% for the quarter. These high quality members now account for 38.1% of the residential Club, up from 33.8% at the end of our last financial year," Telecom explained. Opus Energy Group, in which Telecom has a 20% equity investment, is performing ahead of budget and is on track to deliver record turnover and profits for the current financial year.

"The high levels of distributor activity we have seen since the beginning of January, and the increased interest being shown by new distributors in taking advantage of this exciting business opportunity, bode extremely positively for the year ahead." "Our confidence that we will announce record results when we report our full year figures in May is reflected in our commitment to a substantial increase in the total dividend for the year." The company said that since the beginning of the year, distribution channel activity bounced back strongly after the traditional Christmas lull, with a significant increase in the number of new distributors joining the business over the last few weeks. It also said that it has made "good progress" developing its online presence, and has begun to see encouraging results from marketing additional services to existing members of its residential club.

Telecom Plus, the FTSE 250 utilities services provider, said Monday that it was confident that it will report full year profits in line with market expectations, following a period of continued strong organic growth. It said underlying cash generation has continued to be strong, while total group services were up by 55,488 during the quarter ended December 31st to 1.54m. As such, it plans to increase its total dividend by 15% to 31p for the current financial year (2012: 27p). Chief Executive Andrew Lindsay said: "The business has delivered another strong performance over the period and I am particularly pleased with the sustained improvement in customer quality and the strong growth we have achieved in the number of services we supply."

The brokers downgraded the Danish stock to 'hold' on November 6th due precisely to their caution on the outcome of this issue due to "the negative stance from the FDA itself" back when the briefing documents were published. Jefferies maintained its 'hold' recommendation and a 960 kroner price target. Novo Nordisk plummeted 11.92% to 942.50 kroner on Monday morning

US regulator FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has denied approval for Novo Nordisk's insulin Tresiba due to the need for more data that assesses heart risk. Shares in the Danish company tanks on Monday morning after it admitted that it is unlikely it will be able to provide the requested information this year. Novo Nordisk has been working on the long-acting insulin for type 1 diabetics to compete with rival Sanofi's Lantus product. In a note published after the news came out, analysts at Jefferies commented that they expect Sanofi to benefit the most and they indicated that the decision could result in up to a five-year delay for Novo Nordisk product's approval in the US.

A strategy of growth through increased geographical representation and product innovation will continue as the group moves into the fourth quarter. "Our enhanced sales team has introduced a number of new customers during the year and we expect these to generate further revenue growth in the future," Latchways added. "Our balance sheet and cash flows remain strong and we are well placed to benefit as and when the economic climate improves."

Latchways received record orders during the third quarter, boosted by strong sales of its Wingrip and Vertical products, the fall protection company announced Monday. The group, which develops safety products for people working at heights in aerospace, power transmission, utilities and telecommunications, reported strong performance in the three months to February 10th. Business was buttressed by sales of Wingrip, a vacuum anchor fall protection system for use in aviation maintenance and manufacturing of aircraft, and of Vertical safety systems for use on towers, masts, monopoles and steel lattice structures. "We therefore expect the second half to be considerably stronger than the first," Latchways said in a statement. The company said while the underlying business climate remained challenging and customers were cautious over spending plans, the opportunities arising overseas were encouraging.

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Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial, which owns a third of Heathrow Airport Holdings, is looking to land in the US airport market and has set eyes on the Chicago Midway, one of Chicago's three airports. Illinois' largest city had already put up for bidding the operations and maintenance at Chicago Midway in 2008. A winning offer at that time had reached $2.5bn but the financing of the deal had fallen through. Now, Chicago has launched an express auction with a qualification phase ending on February 22nd. The goal is to grant the contract by the end of 2013 for a maximum concession of 40 years instead of the initial 99 years. Sources close to Ferrovial acknowledged that the Spanish company is interested, according to Cinco Dias. Ferrovial is said to be holding advanced talks with financial partners in order to form a consortium. According to company data, passenger traffic rose by 0.3% year-on-year at Heathrow Airport in January. Capacity utilisation rose by 2.1 percentage points to 70%.

With regard to its trading activities, the company stated that as of January 31st, the trading activities of the portfolio were valued at 1,600. As of the same date, the company stated that it had cash resources of approximately 2,000. The updated concluded by stating: "The company continues to operate without access to income from its portfolio and limited cash. Accordingly, the board continues to make progress in reviewing two possible investment opportunities, each of which would, if consummated, provide additional funds for the company. "The board expects to know shortly whether or not either of these opportunities can be consummated and will therefore make a further announcement at such time." The net asset value per share of the company was 0.04p per share as of January 31st 2013.

Shares in AIM-listed investing company Alexander David Investments fell sharply on Monday after the company announced that its investing activities had been completely written down. In a quarterly update on its trading and financial position, the company stated that the board of Evergreen Oil had written to shareholders on October 23rd saying that it had "taken the decision to propose to shareholders that a vote is taken to place the company into voluntary liquidation". The company update stated: "This proposal was carried at the general meeting on November 20th 2012. Therefore investing activities have been completely written down."

Meiklejon said Standard Life anticipates average annual returns before acquisition costs of 7.0% to 9.0% on the city's commercial real estate in the long-term taking it "toward the top end of our return expectations in Europe over the next three to five years". The news come in the wake of concern the home prices are unstable in Sweden with the country's National Housing Board saying that the market is experiencing a bubble. Home prices could drop by as much as 10% in the next 18 to 24 months, according to Jens Hallen, Director for Financial Institutions at Fitch Ratings. Sweden's economy is also at risk as Europe's debt crisis hits a number of companies including Ericsson AB and truck maker Volvo AB which slashed thousands of jobs. Standard Life's European Property Growth Fund targets a total return of 10% annually over a five-year period and owns real estate in Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Prague and Stockholm

Standard Life Investments intends to buy commercial real estate in Stockholm, saying Sweden's market is among the best in Europe, reports said Monday. Real estate investment director Mark Meiklejon said the company, which manages of �205bn of assets, may spend a further �100m to double its holdings in Sweden, according to Bloomberg. The group will buy offices rather than retail as consumer spending declines, he added. "For international companies wanting to locate to the Scandinavian region, Stockholm is probably the top pick," he said. "It's a very transparent market; it's liquid and pretty large; there is fiscal independence and a strong banking system."