Member Info for jange

International manufacturer and distributor of industrial fastenings, Trifast, saw its share price leap on Tuesday after posting a 6.1 per cent jump in revenue and nearly a doubling of its pre-tax profits. The company also pleased investors by reintroducing a dividend payment, recommending a final payout of 0.5p per share, subject to shareholder approval. The group's Finance Director, Mark Belton, said: "The traditional Trifast (TR) business has performed well and through a focus on margin and 'self-help' applications has returned a creditable result, despite natural disasters and external influences affecting the global economies and commercial marketplace.

Zinc miner Connemara Mining Company posted a widening of losses for the full year at €0.4m (2010: €0.3m), hit by a €0.1m jump in administrative expenses; the firm commented that these are "very difficult times" for exploration companies. However, the groupwas keen to emphasise that it has adequate funds for all its proposed expenditure in the next year, with cash levels at €0.66m (2010: €0.73m). In a statement the firm said: "We believe the long term fundamentals for zinc and gold are very strong. The current extreme uncertainty in the world is having a devastating impact on market values. There is no way of knowing when the bear market in resource stocks will finish, but finish it will."

Revenue for the period increased from 35,668 to 43,299, while the average realised gold price rose from $1,368 per ounce to $1,656 and the cash cost per ounce shipped climbed from $1,297 to $1,609 per ounce.

Fiji-based gold mining company Vatukoula Gold Mines has announced that it generated £4.68m from operations in the nine months ended May 31st, compared to £0.3m in the previous corresponding period. The amount of gold shipped during the period declined slightly from 41,395 tonnes to 41,019 tonnes. The total underground tonnes mined rose from 307,228 to 357,472, while the total recovery dropped from 82.21% to 79.07%

Parallel Media Group, the AIM quoted sports media and digital agency, said its joint venture in South Korea had successfully staged its first Korean Pop - known as K-pop - concert in Singapore. All 5,000 tickets were sold. The firm said said it had further concerts in the pipeline and was delighted by the early success of this venture. Parallel's shares rose 3% after the announcement.

Claims management provider RiIG said it had secured a contract with a bank to help it administer payouts following the payment protection insurance scandal. The firm said initial indications were the deal would bring in over £750,000 in turnover during the second half of 2012. "There is potential that similar contracts could follow in 2013 and the Group is in early stage discussions with a second leading bank with the view to providing a similar service for PPI claims," it added. Investors pushed RiIG's share price up 11% following the announcement.

The firm said management has taken several measures to improve earnings performance in the second half of the year, including cost reduction and proactively promote better sales and marketing initiatives. The weak trading environment was blamed for much of the decline, with the price cut to refined products retail prices unable to turn around and stimulate sales due to weakened demand caused by a slowing domestic economy.

HaiKe Chemical Group, the AIM quoted petrochemical, speciality chemical and biochemical business based in China, saw its share price dive 15.5 per cent after revealing that for the first five months in the current year, the sales volume of HaiKe's major products declined by between 50-70 per cent. This was due to weak market demand and closure of the refineries for planned maintenance occurring earlier than in 2011. The average realised price movement varied for different reasons: diesel and gasoline prices grew by 12% and 26% year-on-year, respectively, pushed up by feedstock costs; chemical product price fluctuations were mainly driven by the varying market demand. As a result, turnover decreased by 13% year-on-year and the accumulated loss increased for the first five months of this year.

Initiated in October 2010, the JIP is focussed on developing a new sub-sea well-head, the HGSS, to address key technical issues and requirements highlighted by regulators following the Gulf of Mexico incident in April 2010. All members of the JIP will be contributing to the design and engineering process with the intention that they potentially become end-users and commercial partners once the well-head has been fully built, tested and commercialised. The project is anticipated to take between 18-24 months from the initiation date at a cost of around £1.5m to £2.0m. Any intellectual property generated by the project will be owned by Plexus.

Plexus Holdings has bagged a couple of big names in the oil business to help on its project to develop and commercialise a new and safer sub-sea well-head in response to the Macondo tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico. The AIM quoted oil and gas engineering services business, announced that Eni, an Italian oil and gas major, and Oil States International, a leading USA manufacturer of capital equipment, have both signed up as additional consulting partners to Plexus's Joint Industry Project (JIP) to develop and commercialise a new and safer sub-sea well-head. The project, which uses Plexus's patented POS-GRIP technology, has already received the support of five other major oil and gas companies who will act as consultants in the JIP.

looking very strong again this morning....lets see if it holds.......

Good contract news should have a nice rise of the back of this gl all.......

the market's focus is likely to be on cash,according to Credit Suisse, when military counter-measures specialist Chemring issues interim figures on Tuesday. "With US defence uncertainty likely to persist for the rest of this year (and amply discounted in Chemring's valuation), we believe investor attention will be on the proposed H2 [second half] share buyback," the Swiss bank said. It is forecasting net outflow of £12m over the first half of the financial year, taking net debt to £275m. "Adding proceeds from Marine disposal announced last week (£32m) indicates a £40-50m buyback looks realistic to us and at 320p share price this could be 4% accretive to earnings (net of the 4% dilution from Marine). While we view the multiple for Marine as low, it is a positive sign that Chemring is willing to divest under-performing assets," Credit Suisse stated. The bank is going for interim sales of £332m, underlying earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of £55m and underlying earnings per share (EPS) of 18.9p. "We view our forecasts as conservative and would be surprised if Chemring misses numbers, particularly given this year's US Continuing Resolution only lasted three months which should support short-cycle orders," Credit Suisse advised.

struggling retailer Home Retail which owns Homebase and Argos. "We expect that the poor weather in April will have impacted both Argos and Homebase, the latter in particular. Argos should have seen some benefit from the digital switch over and generally decent consumer electricals' sales, but industry conditions will not have been helpful," the broker said. It predicts a LFL sales decline of 4% and flat gross margins. "This is in line with early consensus, although the range is wide, from -1% to -6%," Panmure Gordon notes. DIY chain Homebase will not have been helped by the wettest April in 100 years, prompting Panmure Gordon to forecast a like-for-like sales decline of 5% in this division, assisted by an improvement in May and June. "Consensus is for -8% but, again, the range is wide, from -4% to -12%," the broker informs. "We look for flat gross margins, compared with a consensus for 25 basis points [a quarter of a percentage point]. Overall, falling like-for-like sales and high fixed costs means that profits will be down for the group," Panmure Gordon predicts.

Credit Suisse's current estimates assume Whitbread's margins will fall by one percentage point in fiscal 2013. "It seems unlikely consensus numbers will change after the Q1 [first quarter] update and we see greater upgrade potential elsewhere in the sector," Credit Suisse said, citing sector peers Accor and InterContinental Hotels Group as better picks. As for the second quarter, Jefferies thinks trading could be a lot more volatile. "We think that the timing of the Diamond Jubilee, the Euro 2012 football tournament, and the Olympic Games could all cause volatility in trading (with the continued wet weather as an added factor) - with the risk that people just stay at home and lost trading is not made up," the broker said. Panmure Gordon, meanwhile, is going for 2.0% LFL growth at Premier Inn, 1.0% LFL sales growth in Restaurants and 3.0% LFL sales growth in Costa.

Credit Suisse, however, says that with revPAR growth in the UK still subdued, it is not expecting the update to lead to earnings forecast upgrades for Whitbread. RevPAR in Whitbread's fourth quarter was down year-on-year by 1% but the Swiss bank thinks that in the March to May quarter it will turn positive by a similar amount. For the group's Costa Coffee chain, Credit Suisse has pencilled in like-for-like (LFL) sales growth of 4.0%, down from +5.2% in the preceding quarter. Jefferies, however, sees no reason for Costa's momentum to have slowed, and it is tipping LFL growth of around 6%, aided by the recent wet weather. The pubs & restaurants division is seen by Credit Suisse achieving LFL growth of 1.5%, little changed from the fourth quarter, "but the issue remains the recovery of cost inflation given growth has been volume not price driven," Credit Suisse says. Jefferies is once again of a more optimistic bent. It points to relatively solid numbers by competitors which indicate LFL sales growth of between 2% and 5%, although it does concede that Whitbread's pub-grub dispensers will probably achieve growth at the lower end of that range.

Whitbread holds its annual general meeting on Tuesday, and is likely to give shareholders an update on trading in its first quarter. Aided by relatively easy comparisons from a year ago, broker Jefferies thinks Whitbread will pour out like-for-like (LFL) sales growth of around 3%, with the Premier Inn hotel chain returning to "slightly positive" LFL growth, with Jefferies citing data which shows revenue per available room (revPAR) in London and the provinces rebounding strongly in April, after an indifferent start to the year.

Commenting on the results chief executive Steve Lewis said, "Majestic has a clearly differentiated operating model, with a focus on delivering exceptional customer service that has proved resilient in a challenging economic environment." In the ten weeks from 3 April to 11 June 2012, UK like for like sales up 0.6%. A final dividend of 11.8p net per share has been offered, bringing the total dividend for the year to 15.6p, an increase of 20% on last year.

Wine merchant Majestic Wine served up record annual pre-tax profit as consumers celebrated events such as the Royal Wedding with a good bottle of wine. Pre-tax profit rose to £23.2m in the 53 weeks ended 2 April 2012 from £20.3m the same time a year earlier. Total sales were up 8.9% to £280.3m, just below forecasts of £281.4m. Like for like sales in UK retail stores rose 2.6%. The price of an average bottle of still wine purchased at Majestic is now £7.34, up from £6.94 a year earlier. Majestic in France saw profit before interest and tax of £1.4m, up from £1m the year before while profit at Lay & Wheeler, its fine wine merchant, climbed to £1.9m from £0.7m before.

German business park operator Sirius Real Estate came in slightly ahead of estimates after boosting rents on its properties and keeping tenants for longer. Total income for the year was flat at €45.7m with adjusted earnings before tax coming in at €2.9m. Occupancy increased to 78% from 76% the year before, while average rates increased to €4.21 per square metre from €4.13. However, the poor economic environment hit its portfolio, which was revalued at €485.7m, compared to €505.5m the previous year. Sirius said this was down to the valuer DTZ taking a more negative stance towards the German economy. "Whilst GDP figures in the first quarter of 2012 have shown steady growth in the Germany economy, the wider difficulties in the Eurozone make economic forecasting difficult" the firm said. "Our experiences indicate that the German SME market remains resilient with demand for flexible work space reasonably constant.