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The proceeds will be used to exploit what it believes are "significant opportunities" that exist following recent hydrocarbon discoveries, as well as developing and expanding its existign business interests on the Falkland Islands. Falklands emphasised that Blackfish Capital Management is supportive of providing further project related equity and debt-finance either directly or via its extended client network.

Falkland Islands Holdings, the AIM quoted international services group, has raised eight million pounds following a subscription for shares by Blackfish Capital, an investment fund. In addition, the company is making an open offer under which the company's existing shareholder can buy one open offer share for every 15 ordinary shares they own, with the aim of raising a further £2.0m. The open shares will sold at 320p each, the same price as which Black Capital subscribed. All of the company's directors are participating and excess application will be accommodated to maximise participation in the offer.

New investors have a week to buy shares in Severn Trent before they trade without the right to a 63p-a-share special dividend. But is it worth it? The shares trade without the right to this payment from June 20. The cash return was announced alongside the company's results two weeks ago. Severn shares offer a yield of 4.2pc rising to 4.5pc next year. The special payment is also an attractive proposition, although the shares are likely to slide next Wednesday when the shares trade without the right to the one-off dividend. It will be interesting to see if the fall is more than 63p a share. Severn shares appear richly priced and the company's exposure to non-regulated businesses in Southern Europe clouds the issue. So, on balance, Questor maintains a hold rating, Questor says.

BPC

You thinking of having a punt there.......

Couldnt agree more rerate looks on the cards.....Have you seen some of the contracts wow....lots of upside there.....

Creston recommended a final dividend of 2.67p per share compared to 2.25p previously, giving a total dividend of 3.50p, up from 3p a year earlier. "With our cash generative businesses, a full year contribution from our recent acquisition and a good new business pipeline, the group is positioned for profitable growth," it added.

The London based company said it is focused on broadening its communication division's international reach. "Naturally we remain cautious in these challenging macro-economic conditions, however we are confident in our strategy, which includes focusing on digital and other high-growth areas of marketing services as well as expanding our offer to meet the international opportunities from our blue-chip client base," said chief executive Don Elgie.

Shares of marketing services firm Creston shot ahead after it said full year profit rose more than a quarter and as it looks ahead to international growth opportunities. Pre-tax profit climbed to £10.8m for the year ended March 31, up 29% from the same time a year earlier. Headline pre-tax profit was flat at £10.3m from £10.4m before. Revenue increased to £74.9m from £67.8m before. International revenue jumped 37% and represented 30% of total revenue, up from 25% a year earlier.

In the past 12 months the company has issued two profit warnings and currently expects full year adjusted operating profits to be £9.3m. Chief Executive Paul Nichols is planning to step down from the board once a successor has been appointed.

Supply chain software company Kewill has received a last-minute bid from Symphony, a US private equity firm, beating off rival bidder Francisco Partners. Symphony, a San Francisco-based company that was founded in 2002, wooed Kewill board members with a £99.6m bid for the company, putting Francisco's £89.5m offer firm in the shade. Kewill shareholders will earn 106p for each of their shares in the loss-making company, whose clients include FedEx and Unilever.

In the Middle East revenue totalled £63.8m (2011: £65.5m), while adjusted operating profits increased by 50.0% to £3.9m (2011: £2.6m), following the firm's investment in key clients.

Chairman Sir Alan Thomas said: "The large proportion of our revenues and profits earned overseas has enabled the group to perform well in mixed market conditions. Hyder's strong order book, balance sheet and prospective opportunities give us confidence for the year ahead." Regionally, in Asia-Pacific revenues were £112.2m (2011: £114.0m) and adjusted operating profits were £14.7m (2011: £14.4m), boosted by a strong performance by the Transport division in the second half, while in Europe revenue came in at £101.2m (2011: £110.8m) and adjusted operating profits were £5.5m (2011: £6.6m), dampened by a challenging highways market.

More positively, net operating costs fell from £272.1m to £260.2m year-on-year, the order book was up 16% to £363m, and adjusted operating profit increased from £20.3m to £21.0m. In addition, net operating margins climbed six percentage points to 8.7%. The dividend payment was increased by 16% to 9p per share from 7.75p, beating expectations of 8.42p.

Investors in Hyder Consulting were clearly pleased on Wednesday after the engineering consultancy company boosted the dividend despite full year revenue and profits coming in below analyst expectations. Pre-tax profit for the full year ended March 31st declined to £17.6m (2011: £18.2m), shy of expectations of £20.79m, on revenues of £277.3m (2011: £290.3m), short of forecasts of £291.75m. Basic earnings per share dropped to 36.48p from 39.29p.

"As long as we continue to deliver the levels of performance we have historically achieved I believe we have the opportunity for substantial further growth in the years to come," he added.

"We also continue to deliver on our strategy of diversifying our offering with the addition of three new teams and strategies, bringing us up to eleven teams in total, and expanding our distribution capability further. "Assuming market conditions do not deteriorate further, we are well positioned for further significant growth in the year ahead." Woolley's boss, Tim Bartlam, seemed to be hinting, however, that a deterioration in market conditions could be on the cards. "It is difficult to envisage anything other than another turbulent year ahead. With the exception of Germany most of the other major European economies are seeing weakness which is only serving to make the debt crisis worse," he noted.

Core operating profit excluding performance fees in the year virtually doubled to £7.1m from £3.6m the year before. Pre-tax profit climbed £0.4m to £9.6m, short of analyst expectations of £11m. Basic earnings per share were up 10% to 9.48p (2011:8.64p). Revenue was stable at £39.9m (2011: £39.1m). The dividend was increased from 7.5p per share to 9p, a rise of 20%. Tim Woolley, Chief Executive, said: "The group has continued to make good progress in the face of challenging market conditions and encouragingly we saw net inflows of over $1.0bn during the year. Investment performance has been strong with seven out of eight long only funds in the top quartile for the year and four out of our six hedge Funds ending the year in positive territory.

Specialist investment management firm Polar Capital Holdings saw net inflows of funds in every quarter in its last financial year, despite turbulent market conditions. Assets under management (AUM) at the end of March stood at $5.08bn, 31% higher than AUM of $3.87bn a year earlier, despite, as Polar's Chairman Tim Bartlam put it, "the markets providing little in the way of help this year." The growth in assets was largely due to continued strong inflows across a number of Polar's products, especially the Japan and Global Insurance funds. The only disappointment was on the UK Funds which finished in negative territory for the year, leading to further outflows from these products. Net performance fees of £4.1m were down on last year's figure of £5.7m although the firm seemed proud of its achievement of eleven successive year of generating such fees.

Smart Metering Systems (SMS) has signed a major new contract with Total Gas & Power, a UK subsidiary of Total SA, for the provision of gas meters and SMS's automated meter reading solution, ADM, for its industrial and commercial customers. The meters range from small domestic sized meters to very large meters and therefore the value to SMS per meter differs markedly across the range. The contract with TGP is for around 15,000 meters over three years. Longer term average run rates are being established; however, initial run rates suggest that the equivalent number of domestic meters would be approximately 250,000 in value to SMS. The firm said it was "absolutely delighted" about the deal.