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Banknote authentication technology firm Spectra Systems said it had boosted its international customer base after buying assets from a gaming software firm. The company has spent $0.75m on buying proprietary source codes, multi-year contracts and long-standing customer relationships from US-based Lapis Software Associates. Spectra said Lapis was a leader in the gaming software industry and had a 15% worldwide market share of the Internal Control Systems (ICS) segment. ICS is a secure, high speed data platform which has an independent security role in auditing online and other gaming systems. It provides tools for fraud detection, money laundering, match fixing, and statistical analysis. "The acquisition of the Lapis ICS Business adds to the international customer list we acquired in the ICS area when we recently purchased the majority of ESI Integrity's assets," said Chief Executive Nabil Lawandy. "With the acquisition of the Lapis ICS Business, Spectra will have over 30% market share in gaming applications of ICS and will be one of the two remaining major suppliers providing such security technology to lotteries worldwide," he added.

"Our primary users have been the Subversion system administrators who maintain the servers in these organisations. Now SmartSVN will enable us to broaden out our solution stack to reach Subversion's millions of end-users, as well as enable us to embolden our efforts to target the important SME market." WANdisco has engaged the vendor to provide consulting and training services to facilitate the smooth integration of SmartSVN into WANdisco's existing product line.

WANdisco, a California-based collaboration software developer with operations in Sheffield, has completed the purchase of SmartSVN software from German company, Syntevo. The $1.0m acquisition was made to enable WANdisco to potentially offer a more complete solution with the provision of a low cost end-user product that can be leveraged to drive sales in WANdisco's target SME market. SmartSVN, which was launched in 2005 and has been adopted by software developers across more than 2,500 companies, has "platform independence", with versions available for Windows, Linux, Unix and Mac OS X operating systems. David Richards, WANdisco Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: "SmartSVN is proven in the marketplace and the feedback from our existing customers who have used it for years has been excellent. Traditionally our products have been used by large global IT organizations to enable their Subversion servers to perform and scale with 24/7 availability.

Phaunos Timber Fund has sold the Cerro Chato plantation, which is part of its Pradera Roja investment and comprises approximately 690 hectares with over 490 hectares planted in various Eucalyptus species, to a private investor. The company has pocketed $2.9m from the sale, significantly above the $2.0m it was valued at in December last year and more than double the $1.3m the firm paid for it in 2009. Cerro Chato represents just under 7% of the Pradera Roja estate of 10,354 hectares, which is worth a total of £32.2m, as at the end of 2011. The sale of Cerro Chato follows the realisation of the Don Chico plantation in July 2012. The buyer of the Cerro Chato plantation is a private investor. After the sale, Phaunos' remaining land ownership in the Pradera Roja estate will be 9,664 hectares, with around 4,500 hectares planted in Eucalyptus plantations.

Film distributor Entertainment One has signed an exclusive four-year output agreement with Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks Studios to distribute its films in all media across the UK and Benelux. Entertainment One, the distributor behind Twilight and Peppa Pig, did not disclose the terms of the agreement. The first film under the agreement will be the remake of Starbuck, starring Vince Vaughn, for release in 2013, Entertainment said. Entertainment One's President and Chief Executive Officer Darren Throop said: "This is an extraordinary opportunity to secure premium highly-commercial titles for years to come and build on our robust international network of esteemed partners." Jeff Small, DreamWorks' President and Chief Operating Officer added: "Entertainment One are an industry leader in the UK and Benelux and we know our films will be handled with the utmost skill and creativity by the eOne marketing and distribution teams."

Marks & Spencer's departing Head of Clothing Kate Bostock has taken advantage of recent bid speculation to sell shares in the company at 371.60p on Friday. In recent weeks there has been on-going speculation that private equity titan CVC Capital Partners is considering a takeover offer for the High Street group. It is thought that CVC is looking at a bid and has approached executives both inside and outside the firm "about a possible management role under private equity control," according to Bloomberg which has spoken to unnamed sources close the matter. Bostock, who is leaving the company by mutual consent on October 1st to pursue other interests, disposed of 249,627 shares for a total of £927,614, reducing her stake in the company to just 64,526 shares. Randgold Resources' Chief Financial Officer and Financial Director, Graham Shuttleworth, traded in a bunch of shares in the mining company on Friday, the same day broker Nomura said it sees better value elsewhere, rating it as 'reduce' with a price target of 6,815p. Shuttleworth sold 9,000 at 7,485.00p for a total of £673,650, lowering his shareholding to 39,938, or 0.04% of the issued share capital.

insurance giant Standard Life said it had taken advantage of favourable markets to issue a substantial amount of debt in Canada. Standard Life Canada announced its first Canadian dollar debt issuance raising C$400m - around £254m - at a rate of 3.938% for five years. The firm said the initiative had 'optimised' the financial structure of the group and built on past actions to re-shape its balance sheet. "It helps to re-leverage the Group and, through our ability to access the debt markets in Canada, provides capital at a very attractive cost," the statement said. "The strong market demand, which was evidenced by a heavily over subscribed order book, has enabled Standard Life Canada to price competitively at the low end of its target range, thereby underlining the attractiveness of Standard Life Canada's credit, the strength of its recent performance and its future strategic direction." In its first half results, the insurer posted a 30% drop in profits in Canada, which it put down to the timing of business restructuring and low interest rates.

North Falkland Basin exploration company Desire Petroleum has seen interim losses reduce sharply following the completion of drilling and seismic activities. The group, which has an estimated 4% share of Rockhopper Exploration's Sea Lion discovery - the only worthwhile project in the Falklands area discovered so far - saw its operating loss for the first half of 2012 contract to $1.51m from $39.39m the year before. Last year's figures have been restated to reflect a change in accounting policy regarding exploration costs. Loss before tax narrowed to $1.54m from $39.32m the year before, as exploration and evaluation expenses tumbled to $0.72m from $39.65m. Despite making a loss, the tax man still grabbed $0.45m this year, pushing the post-tax loss up to $1.99m. The tax charge represent estimated provisions for the settlement of corporation tax liabilities arising in respect of investment revenues in prior years. Loss per share was 0.58 cents versus 11.49 cents in the first half of 2011. The group's cash resources at the end of June amounted to $12.7m. "Recent developments have highlighted the exciting potential of the North Falkland Basin and it is Desire's intention to seek a high quality farm-in partner to help us capitalise on this potential, with our share in recent discoveries, material positions in well defined prospects and the exploration potential across our remaining acreage," said Stephen Phipps, Chairman of Desire. A competent person's report covering the full prospect inventory derived from the total merged three-dimensional seismic data has accumulated will be available in the fourth quarter of 2012, with the company expecting this will continue to enhance its prospect inventory.

"This overlap will help ensure a smooth transition," Kapoor said.

Medical technology business Smith & Nephew has lost its Chief Financial Officer to consumer goods multi-national Reckitt Benckiser. Adrian Hennah will leave the company at the end of December, with the search for his successor already underway. Chief Executive Olivier Bohuon thanked Hennab for his "outstanding commitment and dedication to Smith & Nephew over the last six years", saying he had made a significant contribution to the company's performance and strategy. The split appeared rather more amicable than the departure of Reckitt's CFO, who is making way for Hennah. Rakesh Kapoor, chief executive at the brand giant, which sells everything from kitchen cleaner to condoms, said he and incumbent Liz Doherty had "agreed that RB's and her way of working are not as well matched as either of us would like, and now is the right time for her to move to a new opportunity". He said Doherty would stay with the business until March 2013, with Hennah joining as soon as he left Smith & Nephew.

David Atkins, Chief Executive of Hammerson, said: "We are absolutely committed to the delivery of our plans for Croydon, and we are confident that the development of the Whitgift Quarter will play a key role in the regeneration of the town. This transaction with Royal London is a key milestone in the development of our plans and our strategy to deliver a new retail core for Croydon. We are seeking to work collaboratively with all the owners and other stakeholders to bring forward this exciting scheme."

Real estate investment trust (REIT) Hammerson is acquiring Royal London's 25 per cent interest in the 155 year head-lease of the Whitgift Centre, Croydon. The £65m purchase will offer "significant asset management and development potential" for the centre and will strengthen Hammerson's ownership interest in the area. Hammerson already owns the adjacent Centrale centre and earlier this year revealed plans for the Whitgift Quarter, a 150,000m² development which it believes will "restore the town to its rightful place as one of the UK's leading shopping destinations". The company is planning to develop the Whitgift Quarter, which will incorporate the extended Centrale and a revitalised North End as well as the redeveloped Whitgift Centre site. A public consultation programme on the Whitgift Quarter plans began last week and the latest version of the plans will be presented to Croydon Council's Strategic Planning Committee in October. Subject to planning consent, work will start on site in the first quarter of 2014 with completion expected in 2017.

Cable & Wireless Communications, the international mobile communications networks operator, has confirmed press reports that it is in talks over a possible disposal of its Monaco & Islands business unit. The Financial Times (FT) reported that the Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco) made an approach for the business unit which, as well as Monaco, includes operations in various islands, among them the Maldives, Seychelles and the Falkland Islands. The FT has speculated that the long-mooted sale of the business could raise as much as $1bn for C&W Wireless, which bit the bullet earlier this year and announced plans to halve its dividend, as it struggles against strong headwinds in its Caribbean market. C&W Wireless released little information about the potential deal. "Further to recent press speculation, Cable & Wireless Communications Plc today confirms that it has received an approach from Batelco Group regarding a possible transaction involving its Monaco & Islands business unit," the statement said, before adding the usual caveat about there being no certainty that the discussions will lead to a transaction.

US investment bank Morgan Stanley has upgraded its rating for Tesla Motors to 'overweight' from 'underweight'. It also raised the price target for the electric car maker to 50 from 45 dollars per share. Morgan Stanley analysts believe that the market has priced in the fear that the launch of Tesla's S model will be delayed. They point out that the stock has recently underperformed the market.

Rentokil Initial, the laundry and pest control conglomerate, is to raise half a billion euros through a bond issue. The bonds will carry a coupon of 3.375% and will have a life-span of seven years. Application will be made for the bonds to be listed in the official list of the UK Listing Authority and to be admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange. Jeremy Townsend, Chief Financial Officer of Rentokil Initial, said the issue "secures a significant element of our debt at a coupon of 3.375% and extends our maturity profile." Shares in Rentokil were little changed on the news, which was flagged in the company's interim results in August.

Contract wins from house-building and construction firm Galliford Try have been trickling out steadily in September. Too late, of course, to affect results for the year to 30th June, to be announced on Tuesday. Panure Gordon expects the group to "report an extremely strong performance within its housebuilding operations, whilst construction, although difficult, is likely to have outperformed the wider industry." According to Panmure Gordon, "dividend growth will also be a key theme of results, with the group set to almost double its dividend payment in the year." Panmure Gordon's guess is that the full-year divi will be hiked to 30p. The broker has pencilled in a figure of 2,788 for the number of units completed in the year, and predicts an average selling price of £214,781. "Net margins are also likely to have shown considerable improvement to 11.7% ... as the group feels the benefit of the large amount of new land purchased post-2009," the broker predicted. "In Construction, we expect a 3.9% decline in revenues whilst margins are likely to fall by 30bps [3/10 of a percentage point] (to 2.1%) reflecting the difficult market conditions," Panmure Gordon suggested.

From a company with M&A action on the table, to technology giant Smiths Group (SMIN) – where break up deals or takeovers have long been rumoured, but have so far never come to fruition. Such speculation has certainly supported the share price, with the most recent newsflow highlight at the beginning of August when we, Galvan Research countered Investec’s May assertion that Smiths Group is ‘boring.’ Our view is that the company is ‘resilient’, warranting a buy rating. All should be revealed one way or the other in the forthcoming Finals.

The UK division has responded well to the firm's strategy of boosting performance through enhanced sales and marketing and a focus on yield management. Total revenue in the UK for the third quarter was up 5.8% compared to the same period the previous year. Trading in Paris remained "robust", reflecting what the firm described as its "strong competitive position amid the challenges of the Eurozone economy". Total revenue for the period was up 5.6% over the prior year in constant exchange rates, but down 3.4% in sterling, reflecting the significant fall in Euro exchange rates. Looking ahead the company added: "We have seen a slower start to the fourth quarter in terms of new lets, particularly during the London 2012 events. However, this is traditionally one of our softer trading periods and revenue growth remains solid, with August revenues up 5.4% on last year in constant exchange rates and up 2.7% in sterling."

Safestore Holdings, a self storage retailer, posted a 3.4 per cent rise in third quarter revenue, boosted by further occupancy gains, but warned of a slower start to the fourth quarter. Revenue for the three month period climbed from £24.1m to £24.9m year-on-year (y/y), while year-to-date revenue grew 5.4% from £69.6m to £73.4m y/y. This was despite a 5.9% decline in the average self storage rental rate, from £25.91m to £24.37m y/y. Peter Gowers, Chief Executive Officer said: "While macro-economic conditions remain challenging, we are making good progress as we implement the 'More Space' strategy outlined in January 2012. During the quarter, we delivered strong constant currency revenue growth, as well as further progress on our strategic priorities to strengthen the brand, drive operational excellence, build a powerful team and create value. "As we progress through the fourth quarter, our scale and strong competitive position leave us well positioned to withstand the short-term headwinds of adverse foreign currency movements and the introduction of VAT on UK self-storage." The company added that it has continued to focus on driving organic growth by striking the right balance between occupancy and rate growth to maximise revenue per available foot.

"From a strategic perspective the transaction allows Unite to accelerate its investment in London development activity at a time when potential returns are particularly compelling and the scale of opportunity is greater than Unite could fund alone," the firm said. The share price rose 2.96% to 261p by 08:42.