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"The growth in our constant currency Contractual Services base of 9.4% to £595.0m (H1 2011: £544.0m) is at a strategic level, very positive and has already helped performance in the UK during the period, with a more material contribution to come in the second half of the year and beyond. In addition, the current pipeline in the UK is particularly strong, which bodes well for contract base growth in the second half of the year," Lock revealed. In the UK, Services revenue grew 14.2% year-on-year (yoy), a sharp acceleration from the 0.7% yoy gain in Services revenue in the first half of 2011. In contrast, the IT supply chain market has been relatively flat, resulting in only a marginal improvement in Supply Chain revenue for Computacenter in the UK. Germany saw revenue increase by 7.5% to €718.7m from €668.6m the year before, with Services revenue up 16.0% to €240.1m. Somewhat surprisingly, the German employment market is not rife with candidates who have the specialist skills Computacenter is looking for to handle the clutch of business wins it landed in the second half of 2011, but nevertheless the company is making a significant investment in additional people to deal with the increased workload.

The first half of the year saw Computacenter suffer growing pains, particularly in Germany, but it is putting its hand in its pocket to ensure it does not suffer a G4S-style delivery failure. "The challenge of implementing multiple contracts simultaneously and delivering what our customers want, is leading us to spend an incremental £7m on additional staff and related costs to ensure our future success," revealed Greg Lock, Chairman of the provider of information technology (IT) infrastructure services and solutions. After first half headline profit before tax dropped to £24.0m from £26.6m the year before, primarily because of the impact of start-up costs associated with new business wins, the group is hoping this is a case of taking a step back in order to take several steps forward in the future. Strategically speaking, the group's increased emphasis on growing its Contractual Services base appears to be paying off, with the group seeing double-digit percentage organic revenue growth (in constant currency terms) in Services in all countries.

Bus and train operator Go Ahead Group (GOG) has appeared a dull plodder in comparison to sector peer First Group (FGP) and the wrath of Sir Richard Branson over the West Coast rail franchise, or the Megabus potential at Stagecoach (SGC). Go Ahead Group has focussed on the reportedly tough conditions in its rail business, also a factor at the time of the last major update at the end of June. At that time though, Go Ahead expected to deliver full year results in line with company expectations, and the rise in the share price from under 1,100p to 1,300p over the past three months suggests that this is what investors are currently banking on.

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after appointing former Barclays (LON:BARC) boss Peter Middleton as its non-executive chairman. Investors cheered the news, sending shares in the stockbroker up nine percent to 0.36 pence by 9:45am, valuing the group at £1.55 million. In addition to his five year tenure as group chairman of Barclays Bank, which ended in 2004, Middleton has served as chairman of water group United Utilities (LON:UU.) and chairman of Camelot Group. He is currently UK chairman of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Marsh Ltd, Mercer Ltd, and of the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution. XCAP has also appointed Jonathan Freeman as an independent non-executive director. “Sir Peter's experience speaks for itself and the board is delighted to be able to draw on his colossal experience and expertise in the financial services industry,” said senior non-executive director of XCAP Buzz West. “Sir Peter's and Jonathan's industry and corporate finance expertise will prove invaluable as we seek to grow the business in challenging and consolidating market conditions.”

Stephen King, an Independent Non-executive Director of electronic component and sensor technology firm TT Electronics, has doubled his stake in the company with the purchase of 50,000 shares. King, who joined TT in October last year, handed over £74,125 for the shares, which he purchased for 148.25p each. The transaction comes just one week after the company saw its shares plummeton the back of declining first-half revenues amid tough market conditions. The Surrey-based group, which supplies electronic components to manufacturers in the automotive, defence, aerospace and medical industries, saw revenue fall 3.8% to £271.2m from £281.8m the same time a year earlier "reflecting more difficult market conditions and the planned exit from certain lower margin projects". Last year's period also benefitted from a pull-forward of orders following the Japanese earthquake. Adjusted for a foreign exchange loss of 0.9%, the underlying decrease was 2.9%. The share price is now around 21p lower than it was prior to the publication of the half-year results, having regained around 14p in the last week.

Mattioli Woods has proposed a total dividend of 5.55p, up from 4.95p in 2011. The IFA and Sipp provider said its financial position is strong with net cash at period end of £5.14m compared to £4.61m the year before.

Pension and wealth management consultancy specialist Mattioli Woods said full year revenue rose by a third while wealth management revenues increased by nearly 50 per cent. The group, which provides financial advice to professionals, said revenue rose 33.3% to £20.48m for the year ended May 31st 2012, of which recurring revenues represent 63.2% compared to 67.5% in 2011. Assets under administration and advice rose 31.3% to £3.02bn. The figures include £4.27m revenue from last year's acquisition of employee benefit and wealth management specialist Kudos. Wealth management revenues rose to £6.62m during the year, up nearly 50% from the previous year. The group said it would provide restricted advice on its SIPP and bespoke investment products and may give restricted advice in other product areas. Adjusted pre-tax profit rose to £5.06m during the year from £4.95m previously. Adjusted earnings per share rose to 22.02p from 21.17p. Executive Chairman Bob Woods said he was pleased with the group's strong progress with both organic and acquired growth despite challenging economic conditions. "I believe the group is now better-positioned than ever to compete in the post-RDR world and we will continue investing in the business to secure further profitable growth, underpinned by strong recurring revenues," he said.

"For this reason we have committed to hold a continuation vote of the company at each annual general meeting, commencing in 2014 (allowing 50% of shareholders to require the company to enter a managed wind-down) and annually thereafter (in each case allowing 25% of shareholders to require the company to enter a managed wind-down)," said George Baird, Chairman of ALS. "We were delighted to receive such strong support from our shareholders at last month's AGM, and believe ALS is now well positioned following the restructuring to acquire and actively manage illiquid secondary hedge fund positions," Baird said.

Alternative Liquidity Solutions (ALS), an investment company which hoovers up secondary hedge fund positions, has revealed a sharp drop in its net asset value (NAV) following a big adjustment for fair market and recovery values. Even before the adjustments for fair market and recovery values, the NAV per share eased by 2.3% to 56.47p at the end of June from 57.80p at the end of 2011, despite the company buying back 58,526 shares for cancellation - about 0.16% of the company's total shares in issue - during the period The net assets before adjustments stood at £15.4m; unfortunately for ALS, after it factored in its ability to get rid of its holdings on the open market, that figure fell to £11.3m, resulting in a NAV per share drop of 22.4% to 44.84p. This change was brought about because ALS bought in specialist advisers, who created a "revised valuation methodology", which the firm believes is more conservative than normal industry practice. The company, formerly known as Saltus European Debt Strategies, recently got the go-ahead from shareholders at the firm's annual general meeting (AGM) to change its investment objective and policy to generate a gross internal rate of return on investments of at least 20% per annum by buying up secondary hedge fund positions at a discount to fair value, but the board admitted there is likely to be a limited window of opportunity for picking up post-credit crunch bombed out funds.

Chime's Chief Executive, Christopher Satterthwaite, said: "We are reporting strong income and profit growth in our continuing businesses whilst evolving into an international communications and sports marketing group. We are now well positioned in these high growth sectors, especially sports marketing, which has become the leading way for global brands to engage their audiences as the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games have demonstrated." At 11:09 Chime shares were up 1.3% and have now climbed 17% since the start of the year.

Chime Communications has posted first half results significantly ahead of 2011, boosted by the contribution of its sports marketing division. Operating income for the six months to the end of June was £73.7m, up 33% on 2011. Profits before tax were £10.9m, 47% ahead of the prior year while earnings per share increased 32% to 9.3p. The interim dividend has been increased by 1% to 2.1p. Over the last six months Chime has disposed of several legacy Bell Pottinger businesses, raising £19.6m, while retaining a few to complete contracts. Chime makes no secret of its desire to cash in on the sports marketing boom, quoting figures from PwC forecasting global sponsorship growth of 5% per annum and the £800m raised by the London 2012 Olympics. Apparently Brazil is attracting even higher levels of interest than London - which makes sense for a high growth economy which corporates are desperate to establish themselves in. Chime has made 10 acquisitions in the sports marketing universe and the unit now has operating income of over £55m.

Although operating profit of £1.0m was £0.6m below Numis's forecast, the broker thinks there is room for significant upgrades in 2014 "if sales of the Unity knee can grow as well as the newer hip systems," although the broker acknowledges that the need to invest in sales infrastructure will hamper "the drop-through margin" for a while. "We are lowering our assumed discount to Corin's small orthopaedic peers to 30%, from 40%, increasing our price target from 65p to 74p," Numis said, which rates the shares as a "buy".

The group saw a rise in the number of litigation claims and potential claims concerning its MoM products during the first half. In the majority of these claims, very little information has been provided so far by the claimants, making it very difficult at this early stage for Corin's management to judge just how large or small any liabilities are likely to be, Hunter told Sharecast. In the US, the first MoM litigation case taken to court was successfully defended with a motion to dismiss the case, based on the Investigation Device Exemption study and Class III PMA approval of Corin's Cormet hip resurfacing system in that market. The legal expenses incurred in administering and defending MoM product liability claims, during the first half, were £0.1m. The group also has insurance on commercial terms in place against product liability claims. No interim dividend has been declared, as flagged at the time of the company's full-year results. Numis Securities said: "Overall, we are impressed that [2012] sales of new hips are likely to be over double where we expected them to be two years ago, although declining LARS sales have hurt group growth."

"The next phase is to roll out our new Unity knee system. The knees market is growing faster than the hips market, and this presents a big opportunity for us," Huntley said, adding that "knees are really the story from 2013". For the time being, however, sales of Knees products are in the shadow of Hips, with first half 2012 sales down 5% to £3.5m from £3.7m. Geographically, the group saw the top line dip in its biggest market, Australia, but otherwise it saw sales growth in all of its regions, including the key US market. The 10% decline in sales in Australia to £5.6m was not altogether a surprise, Huntley explained, as previously the company had enjoyed good sales of LARS ligament augmentation products down under, whereas sales have dropped off as Aussie health-care professionals debate the validity of the use of LARS in anterior cruciate ligament surgery. That decline, along with the fact that Mako will not be placing any orders in the second half after completing its restocking initiative. has persuaded management to take a cautious view of the rest of the year, with sales likely to be down year-on-year. Another factor that has caught the attention of the bears is the threat of litigation relating to Corin's legacy metal-on-metal (MoM) products.

After a good run recently hip and knee replacement specialist Corin saw a bout of profit-taking after a set of interim results which struck a note of caution about the rest of the year. First half operating profit was £1.0m, up from £0.9m (excluding exceptional items and discontinued operations) the year before, while reported profit before tax jumped to £0.9m from £0.2m, excluding discontinued items, in the corresponding period of 2011. Group sales in the first six months of 2012 were up 15% to £25.0m from £21.8m (restated) in the first half of last year, and were 13% higher year-on-year on a constant currency basis. Excluding sales to US customer Mako Surgical, which has been going through a major restocking exercise, the top line grew 9% on a constant currency basis. Hip product sales were the main driver of growth, up 38% to £15.9m from £11.5m last year, as the group's new cementless hip system gains traction in the market, but it is the company's new Unity total knee system which is set to carry the hopes of restoring some of the former glory of this company, which was once valued at more than ten times the price it is now. "We are pleased with the progress on our hip portfolio," Corin's Chief Executive Peter Huntley told Sharecas

This compared with the average monthly production of 110,000 metric tonnes achieved in the same period last year and 135,000 metric tonnes achieved in the second half of 2011. Chairman Michael Heller said he saw the strong demand for his firm's coal which continuing for the rest of the year.

South Africa-focused coal miner Bisichi Mining jumped back into profit in the first half, driven by a third opencast at its Black Wattle Colliery. Revenues grew to £16.5m, from £13.2m the year before, with profits coming in at £1.1m. This compared with a loss of £1.8m in the first six months of 2011. Earnings per share were 10.9p, up from a loss per share of 11.5p the previous year. The turnaround at the Black Wattle Colliery was largely attributable to the opening of a third opencast pit early in the second half of last year and the selling of Bisichi's coal into new, lower quality, markets. This allowed the firm to mine coal that would otherwise be unsuitable for supply to its traditional, higher quality market. As a result of the opening of the new pit, the mines' monthly production for the first six months of 2012 increased to an average of 150,000 metric tonnes

Stockbrokers Charles Stanley said this focus, in part, explains the recent outperformance versus the rest of the UK car retailing industry "The strong interims attest to the established resilience of the business model, whilst management now seeks to increase the model's strength and diversity through multiple strategic growth initiatives," the firm said in a note. "We initiate with a Buy and a 70p price target, giving around 40% upside." Ferrari new car sales increased significantly as a result of the opening of a bespoke Ferrari atelier at The Berkeley in Knightsbridge in June last year. The launch by Lamborghini of its new Aventador also benefitted the group with strong new car deliveries during the first half and forward orders held for deliveries throughout the second half of the year and into 2013. Used car volumes, on a like-for-like basis, were broadly in line with the comparative period.

Luxury auto dealership H.R. Owen released strong first half figures off the back of strong sales of Ferrari and Lamboghini super cars. Revenue from continuing operations for the period was up to £128.4m from £93.1 the year before, also aided by the acquisition of Bentley specialist Broughtons in August last year. Profit increased by 23% to £2.1m, representing earnings per share of 5.9 pence. The firm also said it expected strong sales in the second half. "The group's profits have historically been weighted towards the first six months of the year and this trend is expected to continue in 2012," said Chief Executive Joe Doyle. "With significant investment in marketing and IT planned for the second half, the board's expectation for the full year remains in line with current market expectations." HR Owen is the only quoted UK car retailer exclusively focussed on the prestige/luxury car segment.