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Negative Points: Latin America is the largest region for sales and profitability at SABMiller, and is seeking to expand in emerging markets as economies slow elsewhere. Sales in the region were held back by a more "modest pace" of economic growth in the second quarter and weaker consumer sentiment, the company said. In Australia, lager volumes declined by 8% for the half year. The decline was partly because of the termination of some licensed brands after SAB Miller's purchase of Foster's in December 2011. Trading for the group's US MillerCoors’ business proved to be disappointing, with sales to retailers down by 1.9%. Industry specific risks include exposure to changing consumer fashion, affordability of its products and spending trends. It is possible that harsher anti-alcohol laws or an increase in beer tax excise could impact on SAB's businesses. With the group's considerable emerging markets exposure, a general slowdown in these economies would impact on group profits.

HL Comment (18 October 2012) Trading statement: SAB Miller revealed a 4% rise in half year beer volumes, benefitting from growth across most regions that offset a slowdown in demand in its key Latin American market. Beer volumes in Latin America, which represent around 32% of profit, grew by 4%, down from 8% in the same period a year ago with the brewer reporting weaker consumer sentiment in recent months. In Europe, lager volumes rose by 9% driven by selective price reductions, with the Euro 2012 football tournament boosting Polish beer sales, and demand for its Peroni brand pushing up domestic volumes by 5% in the UK. Overall, financial performance for the half year was in line with management's expectations

Company overview SAB Miller is one of the world's largest brewers, with more than 200 beer brands and some 70,000 employees in over 75 countries. It is also one of the world’s largest bottlers of Coca-Cola products. The group's portfolio of brands includes premium international beers such as Pilsner Urquell, Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Miller Genuine Draft and Grolsch, as well as leading local brands such as Aguila, Castle, Miller Lite, Snow and Tyskie. SABMiller PLC's primary listing is on the London Stock Exchange, with a secondary listing on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange in South Africa.

Top Director Sells Dunelm Group (DNLM) Director name: Mr David Stead Amount sold: 43,460 @ 679.40p Value: £295,267

Allocate Software (ALL) Director name: Mr Chris Gale Amount purchased: 13,000 @ 77.50p Value: £10,075

New Britain Palm Oil Ltd. (DI) (NBPO) Director name: Mr Tan Sri Dato Seri Arshad Ayub Amount purchased: 10,000 @ 585.00p Value: £58,500

North Atlantic Smaller Companies Inv Trust (NAS) Director name: Mr Christopher H B Mills Amount purchased: 14,525 @ 1,110.00p Value: £161,228

PureCircle Ltd. (DI) (PURE) Director name: Mr Tan Boon Seng Amount purchased: 200,000 @ 242.00p Value: £484,000

Dunelm Group's Finance Director, David Stead, has traded in 43,460 of the 85,215 shares he received after exercising options under the company's long-term incentive plan at no cost. Stead, who joined the homeware chain in 2003, traded in the shares at 679.40p, earning £295,267, which he used to fund the tax and national insurance liability on the options. He then transferred 41,755 ordinary shares to his wife, Jane Stead, at no cost. He is now beneficially interested in 667,181 shares, equal to 0.33% of the issued share capital. The sale was made just a few days after the company announced that it intends to return around £65.8m of capital to shareholders, equivalent to 32.5p per ordinary share, by issuing two types of shares to shareholders, on a one-for-one basis. This will enable the return of capital to be done in such a way so as to satisfy shareholders who want income and those who want capital.

Chief Executive Steve Good commented: "Our key businesses are performing well and we expect to make further progress this year, despite tough European markets and the adverse effects of a weaker Euro. We have continued investing in capacity and capabilities to extend our global reach and support future growth." Year-end net debt is expected to be at a similar level to last year, in line with guidance.

Industrial fabric maker Low & Bonar said it continues to expect full year profits to be ahead of last year, however, owing to the losses in at its synthetic turf business Yarns, profits are expected to be slightly below current market expectations. The group said there was persistent weakness at its Yarns business following a reduction in discretionary public funding for artificial sports pitches. As a result, sales, which account for 6% of the group, have again been materially lower than the previous year. Low & Bonar said despite the restructuring of Yarns, the recent deterioration in market conditions would result in the business making a loss this year. The group said it is currently evaluating options to address this situation. The materials firm also cautioned, that following a strong first half, growth in civil engineering and building products markets has slowed as European construction customers became more cautious. Otherwise the group said trading since May at its key businesses has continued as expected, with sales, profits and margins comfortably ahead of last year on a constant currency basis. Sales growth within flooring, industrial and transport segments has been satisfactory and consistent with the first half of the year, it added.

Revenues in North America, where it recently acquired Matasano and Intrepidus, increased 6%. "The two acquisitions completed during the summer in New York have further widened and strengthened our US information security capability. With our Escrow business showing solid growth and the continued strong demand for all aspects of information security, we remain well positioned to maintain our long term, sustained growth," Cotton noted. The group, which has a revolving credit facility of £35m and an additional £5m overdraft, said net debt rose to £31.7m from £26.7m in October 2011. NCC added that discussions continue with the system providers and lawyers over the failed IT system project, which cost the firm £6.9m. The group said it is following contractual steps before commencing legal action.

Computer security and software escrow firm NCC said group revenues in the first four moths of the financial year rose seven per cent from the same time last year as it continues with legal advice over its failed IT system project. Revenues at the Manchester-based firm rose to £29.6m from £27.5m in September 2011 while group escrow saw organic revenue rise 3% in the four-month period. NCC said group escrow renewals are now forecast to be £17.9m for the current financial year. The Assurance division saw a 10% increase in revenue, helped by an increase in operational response, managed services and forensics. Chief Executive Rob Cotton commented: "We have continued to trade well, in our traditionally quietest quarter and are on course to deliver strong levels of growth and profitability, in line with our expectations for the financial year to May 31st 2013."

Consensus estimates for the full year, ending December 31st 2012, are for pre-tax profits of £19.58m on revenues of £89.24m.

AIM-listed Brightside, a specialist insurance broker, has launched a new underwriting facility with Markerstudy, the Gibralter-based insurance group. Under the terms of the agreement, Brightside has been granted delegated authority to determine premium pricing and to bind Markerstudy for up to £80m of premium, which will be written through the eCar platform. Subject to the results of this initial agreement, the board anticipates that additional agreements will follow, which is expected to further boost the capacity available. Martyn Holman, Chief Executive of Brightside, said: "The board sets itself a target of broadening its underwriting panel in order to ensure sufficient and diverse capacity is available across its entire product range. The additional capacity being supplied by Markerstudy is part of this process and we look forward to making further announcements in due course." Brightside's business model involves providing underwriters with a reliable source of quality business, mainly vehicle insurance, so it carries no underwriting risk itself. In July it launched car insurance policies for the High Street retailer Debenhams.

Clearly, it still isn't in the bag until the FDA sings but it is close. Very close. Writing on October 15th when the price was 101p, she commented: "Our investment case is based on Lombard receiving FDA approval for Aorfix at the end of the fourth quarter. We expect a positive FDA outcome to result in a rerating; the current price only assumes a 20-40% chance of a positive result." That re-rating higher appears to be happening. Nevertheless, the recent spike in Lombard's share price has occurred on very low volumes given the tightly held nature of the company's stock. Moreover, US approval when it comes (and it must surely be 'when', not 'if', in my humble opinion) would open up a huge market for Lombard Medical's aorfix stent. This is Julie Simmonds view: "The opportunity for Lombard is substantial. Aorfix is designed to treat patients with high angle abdominal aortic aneurysms, no other device is approved in the US for this indication. An approval with labelling for this patient group would make Aorfix the only FDA approved product for these complex patients, circa 30% of the $1.1bn AAA repair market, 54% of which is in the US. We believe this would result in a rapid adoption the US (the device already has an 8%+ market share in the UK), and ultimately bring Lombard to the attention of the medical device majors." Ultimately this is the end game, to be taken out by one of the majors. US approval when it comes should bring this one step closer.

Analyst assessment So what does Simmonds have to say about the latest development for Lombard? She believes it "marks the closing stages of the FDA process." She continues: "We are encouraged that a date has been set for the manufacturing audit as we believe this signals that the remainder of the submission is in order. With this due to be completed in late October, 2012 approval is certainly still possible, though likely late Q4/ early Q1-13. The timing of the final FDA decision is particularly critical to Lombard as it triggers a second tranche of funding (£13.6m) from existing investors if it occurs prior to the year end. After this date the funding falls away, but discussions with investors lead us to believe that they would remain supportive." Make no mistake, it has been a tortuous process that has taken years. Without the support of long term investors, such as Invesco Perpetual, which holds 39.28% of Lombard, this story would not be likely to have a happy ending. "Our investment case is based on Lombard receiving FDA approval for Aorfix at the end of the fourth quarter. We expect a positive FDA outcome to result in a rerating; the current price only assumes a 20-40% chance of a positive result," she adds.

Announcement For those who missed the announcement: the Aim-listed company has received written feedback from the FDA asking a couple of questions, which the company says are "relatively straightforward". Lombard Medical intends to answer them within two weeks. In addition, the FDA has scheduled a Good Manufacturing Process audit of the company's UK facility in late October. The company states that such audits are "typically part of the final stage of the FDA's review process."

This week has seen a 40% rise in the share price of Lombard Medical Technology, following an update on October 15th that had well respected healthcare analyst Julie Simmonds pushing out a Buy note, maintaining her price target of 332p. Admittedly, she works for the house broker Canaccord Genuity, but anyone who has followed her recommendations over the course of a few years will take note of her views on a company. In a 14-year career she's been Head of Lifesciences Research at Evolution Beeson Gregory, an Equity Analyst at Nomura, Senior Research Analyst at Piper Jaffray and is now Healthcare Analyst at Canaccord Genuity. With a a Phd in Microbiology she can also assess the science as well as crunch numbers.

Top Director Sells Beazley (BEZ) Director name: Mr Adrian Cox Amount sold: 13,071 @ 165.20p Value: £21,593