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After more than a decade in the chair, company Chairman Neil Johnson is to step down from the board no later than the time of next year's annual general meeting. There are also to be changes to the group's dividend policy, with the board recommending that half of retained earnings should be paid out in the form of dividends. What this means for the financial year just ended is a full year dividend of 3.7p, down from 5.0p the year before.

Net debt at the end of the period was £6.3m, up from £6.1m at the end of March 2011. "We are pleased that sales of our London 2012 merchandise are gathering momentum. We expect this unique licence opportunity to contribute positively to profits in the short term and, through the increased distribution that we gain as a result of our involvement with London 2012, to provide an ongoing legacy benefit in substantially increasing our presence in mass market retail outlets," said Frank Martin, Chief Executive of Hornby.

Gross profit margin improved to 48.3% from 46.2% the year before, while the underlying profit before tax margin held steady at 7.0%. The increase in gross profit margin was primarily a result of changes in the product mix of sales in favour of higher margin model railway products. Overheads increased year on year, due largely to the effect of variable selling costs increasing in Hornby's UK concessions and European subsidiaries as a result of higher levels of sales, and with incremental promotional activity associated with the London 2012 Games.

Sales in the UK were down 4% at £45.5m from £47.3m the year before, despite sales of model train sets holding up. Sales of Scalextric went into reverse while Airfix sales were slightly below the previous year. Sales via Hornby's European subsidiaries in total were 21% above the previous year at £16.2m (2011: £13.4m). US sales rose in dollar terms to $4.4m from $4.2m but were unchanged in sterling terms at £2.7m.

Pre-tax profit before amortisation of intangibles and net of foreign exchange adjustments on inter-company loans was £4.5m, up £4.4m the previous year. Broker WH Ireland had pencilled in a figure of £4.8m for pre-tax profits. Statutory profit before tax dipped to £4.0m from £4.1m the year before, while turnover for the year was up 1.7% to £64.4m from £63.4m the year before. WH Ireland had hoped for sales of £68m.

Hornby. best known for its model train sets and Scalextric racing kits, has cut its dividend after a tough year, and is now also looking for a new Chairman. The company, which said earlier this year after a profit warning that underlying profit before tax for the year to March 31st would not be less than £4.5m just about kept that promise.

He added that mortgage would only be introduced once the current accounts and banking were running smoothly.

By comparison, Tesco Bank has 6.5m customers and Sainsbury's Bank has 1.4m customers. Colin Kersley, who is the Chief Executive of the new M&S Bank, described the move as "an evolution into current accounts and banking".

Mortgages will become available "at a later date", with the initial focus of the business being current accounts. The company's existing money business, known as M&S Money, was purchased by HSBC in late 2004 and is run an a joint venture; it currently has three million customers with deposits totalling £3.2bn. The bank's profits will be shared between HSBC and M&S equally.

Rumours of plans by retail heavyweight Marks and Spencer to launch an in-store banking service this summer, backed by HSBC, have been confirmed. The retail chain is set to open 50 branches of the bank in its stores over the next 24 months, with the first due to open in firm's flagship store in Marble Arch, London, in July.

The publisher has reported that the firm's Resource Director, Dileep Srivastava, said: "The sales contract is 67% of our 75-million-ton output guidance for 2012." He is also reported to have said that the company has plans this year to spend $350m on capital expenditure.

Mining firm Bumi leapt into the top spot on the FTSE 250 on Friday after reportedly signing a contract to sell 50m metric tons of coal. According to Dow Jones Newswires, the coal will be sold at an average price of $80 per ton this calandar year.

The share price fell 0.57% by 278.10p, in line with a 0.62% decline in the Aerospace and Defence sector.

The assets will be sold to E. I. du Pont de Nemours for a cash consideration of $18m. The sale is expected to close in the third quarter of the current calander year

BAE Systems, the FTSE 100 defence, security and aerospace group, has entered into an agreement to sell the assets which form the BAE Systems Tensylon High Performance Materials business, which develops and manufactures a leading protective material.

"These deals represent logical continuation of our efforts to maximise the value of our stake in Polygon and ensure the availability of financing for the development of Veduga," said Vitaly Nesis, CEO of Polymetal.

Also affecting the reduction, Polymetal sold 230 of its shares in Polygon to Sibproekt, a private Russian investor, for a total consideration of $8.0m.

The reduction has occurred partly as a result of an increase in Polygon's share capital by 471 shares to 1,571 for $14.2m, the proceeds of which will be used to finance the Veduga project and repay part of Polygon's debt. In addition, Gazprombank has expressed an interest in providing project financing to Polygon to develop Veduga into a producing mine.

Mining heavyweight Polymetal International has announced that its equity ownership in Polygon Gold, which owns the Veduga gold deposit in the Krasnoyarsk region of the Russian Federation, has decreased from 81.8 to 42.6 per cent.

Some good buys gone through lately........