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Environmental support services group Silverdell is to buy decommissioning and dismantling services provider EDS Group for £15m. The firm called the deal a 'transformational acquisition' that was expected to be immediately earnings enhancing and would create a company with scale and global reach, accelerating its planned expansion into Canada and Australasia. Investors were impressed and pushed the stock up 16% in early morning trading.

HiWave Technologies plunged 34% early on after the firm said a development agreement with a major US company had not been finalised and it could not rely on any revenue from this potential contract in the current financial year. This would have an immediate impact on the firm's revenue expectations for the year to September 2012 and would also impact the year to September 2013, it said. The company also announced it had lost £1.76m in the six months to the end of March.

Straight, the recycling products and services group, reported a loss before tax of £0.8m in 2011. Revenues also tumbled after the firm, which has sold 25m recycling bins to local authorities, decided to manufacture its own products. It said the benefits from buying its own manufacturing facility had accrued more slowly than anticipated.

Software Quality Systems, the software testing firm, said it had a substantial pipeline of new business and continued to push further into existing sectors, in a update ahead of its AGM. The company said that these factors, combined with a strategy of focusing on larger contracts gave it confidence it would meet full year market expectations

Straight, the recycling products and services group, reported a loss before tax of £0.8m in 2011. Revenues also tumbled after the firm, which has sold 25m recycling bins to local authorities, decided to manufacture its own products. It said the benefits from buying its own manufacturing facility had accrued more slowly than anticipated.

HiWave Technologies plunged 34% early on after the firm said a development agreement with a major US company had not been finalised and it could not rely on any revenue from this potential contract in the current financial year. This would have an immediate impact on the firm's revenue expectations for the year to September 2012 and would also impact the year to September 2013, it said. The company also announced it had lost £1.76m in the six months to the end of March.

dotDigital Group, the provider of services to digital marketing professionals, has been selected as one of 50 national finalists out of a field of around 15,000 entrants for the UK in the 2012/13 European Business Awards. Environmental support services group Silverdell is to buy decommissioning and dismantling services provider EDS Group for £15m. The firm called the deal a 'transformational acquisition' that was expected to be immediately earnings enhancing and would create a company with scale and global reach, accelerating its planned expansion into Canada and Australasia. Investors were impressed and pushed the stock up 16% in early morning trading

Entertainment One Chief Executive Officer Darren Throop said: "Publishing has always been a crucial category to the licensing programme so we are very pleased to welcome Scholastic and Candlewick Press to the Peppa licensing programme." "With strong broadcast, publishing and toy partners now firmly in place we have a solid foundation to build on and we're focusing on a strategy that will ensure long term growth for the brand in the US."

Scholastic, the US publisher of Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, will be launching its Peppa Pig range with The Story of Peppa Pig picture book. Candlewick Press, the US imprint of Walker Books, will start its line of hardcover and premium Peppa Pig books in September 2012.

Film and TV content distributor Entertainment One announced that Scholastic and Candlewick Press will be Peppa Pig's publishing partners in the US. Both publishers will work with Entertainment One and toy manufacturer Fisher Price on a co-ordinated retail launch in August 2012 when the first Peppa Pig toys, books and DVDs will be released concurrently in the US, the group explained in a company statement.

While not putting much of a dent in the share price's discount to NAV per share, the shares rose 2.5p to 91.5p on the announcement.

By 31st January 2011, the group had written off its investment value in HQB from an investment cost of £35,000 in February 2005. The outstanding loan of £140,000 (at 31st January 2011) was repaid in full prior to HQB entering administration. The group announced its maiden dividend of 1p along with its full year results.

Focusing on one winner and one loser in the company's portfolio, Marsh said its largest holding, Hyperion Insurance Group has forged ahead "with enviable momentum" but, proving that the company is "not immune to the pressure of the global financial outlook," the company's 27.72% stake in HQB Partners now looks worthless, after the proxy solicitation and corporate governance advisory partnership went into administration back in January.

Profit before tax and an extraordinary charge of £30,000 improved to £4.38m from £3.01m the year before. Excluding portfolio movement, the group made a pre-tax profit of £0.11m (2011: profit of £0.15m). The group aims each year to at least break even on an underlying basis, before taking into account any portfolio movement. The company currently has £3.5m of cash currently available for further investments, plus a further £4.325m of funds at its disposal from a loan facility made available by the directors. giving it a total war-chest of £5.5m, excluding commitments to existing investments.

In the year to 31st January, the group booked unrealised gains on the revaluation of its investment portfolio of £4.59m, versus gains of £2.97m the year before, which contributed to an operating income of £6.45m, up from £4.89m the year before. In terms of cash income - dividends, interest and fees received - this rose to £2.11m from 2.02m the year before.

The stoical statement from company Chairman Brian Marsh seemed to hint that the market's apparent indifference to the company might have something to do with its particular area of operation - financial services - lying at the heart of the storm which has engulfed Europe and North America. While the company's share price has been mired, the net asset value of the group has been rising steadily, and stood at£50.1m at the end of January, up 7.8% from £46.5m a year earlier, after making allowance for deferred corporation tax. This equates to a net asset value of 171p per ordinary share as at 31st January 2012 (2011: 159p).

BP Marsh, the venture capital provider to early stage financial services, has seen net asset value far outstrip the value of the company over the last year. As at May 28th, the company's shares were trading at a 48.2% discount to the net asset value (NAV) per share of the company, a substantial discount, even for investment companies, which often trade at a discount to asset value.

"Results in May to date have been in line with our expectations and we remain confident of the outcome for the year.

"Spain is a significant part of the group's European operations and the closure of the website has significantly affected the results. We expect Spanish licences to be issued in early June 2012 which will allow the group to request the court lift the injunction. There is no certainty around the timing of any court consideration of the matter as it is subject to Spanish legal process.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation during the quarter fell from £16.1m to £10.8m. In a statement the company said: "The group remains well placed to drive value through its strong brand presence in its regulated and newly regulating markets.