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Planet Payment, an inernational payment processing provider, has completed the purchase of Branded Payment Solutions (BPS), an Irish payments company based in Dublin for €3.1m (around $4m) consisting of €1.4m in cash and 488,337 shares issued between BPS shareholders. The number of consideration shares to be issued to BPS stockholders was determined based on a price of around $4.50 per share. These shares cannot be sold for a period of up to 11 months. At the same time the company has established Planet Labs, from which it plans to develop new services and solutions, to be offered through existing and new channels to market.

Porvair, a specialist filtration and environmental technologies group, has reported a good start to 2012 and said it expects to report interim profits well ahead of 2011. Microfiltration and Metals Filtration have both grown strongly and group revenue is expected to be more than 10% above the first six months of 2011 at constant currency rates. Order books and the pipeline of potential projects are "encouraging" in Microfiltration, the firm said, while market share gains have been made in Metals Filtration. Operating cash levels remain "healthy".

Veterinary products group Animalcare has warned that the impact of the weak revenue trend in companion animal identification means that profit before tax is now expected to be materially below market expectations, with second half pre-tax profit now expected to be similar to the first-half. This is partly the result of the fact sales in its companion animal identification business in the year-to-date are around 32% lower than the comparable period and that it expects sales in this area will remain subdued for the rest of the current financial year. The core veterinary business is performing in line with expectations, with revenues in the year-to-date around 4.0% higher, and excluding the effect of the temporary supply disruption of Buprecare ampoules, the progression in veterinary medicines is around 15% above last year. The group retains a confident outlook and has implemented several measures to improve gross margin in 2013 and beyond.

Netcall, a customer engagement software provider, has continued to trade strongly in the second half of the year, seeing growth across all markets. In particular, the company says it has seen a strong increase in cross and up sales, reflecting the growing value attributed by its customers to its enlarged product portfolio. The company continues to benefit from cost management and efficiency programmes and the board expects the trading results for the year to be at the top-end of market expectations.

Cash and equivalents at the end of the period leapt from £9.1m from a debt of £4.2m the same date the year previous.

"Confidence remains strong in the technology and within the strategic review we are considering all options. In light of the P&G decision we need to make significant and carefully-costed decisions in targeting the right applications, partners and customers to produce meaningful revenue growth." The firm has decided to speed up a strategic review already underway to help it deal with P&G's decision.

Loss before tax remained steady at £7.78m compared to £7.2m the corresponding period. The company was keen to emphasise that it has reduced its costs by 25% from 2010-11 levels. Basic losses per share were the same year-on-year at 10.21p. Interim Chief Executive Officer, Jeremy Pelczer, said: "As noted in the P&G update on May 21st, there is no doubt that the company is disappointed with the decision by P&G. The challenges and opportunities we face will be addressed within the current strategic review, the findings of which will determine the next stage in the company's development.

Earlier this week, the company saw its share price dive 77% after Procter and Gamble (P&G) ended an agreement to use the former's technology, prompting the company to warn that revenue and profit for the full year will be materially below earlier expectations. During the six months ended March 31st, revenues increased year-on-year from £0.1m to £0.5m while operating expenses increased from £5.1m to £7.5m

Pursuit Dynamics, a fluid technology firm, gave its investors a much needed cheer with the announcement of its half-year results, which saw revenue more than quadruple and losses remain stable following the execution of a cost reduction programme.

Coal producer ATH Resources has disappointed investors after revealing its decision to defer the start of the planned Glenmuckloch Eastern extension following a further fall in the international price of coal. The reduction to coal prices will also affect the company's expectations for its trading performance. The miner plans to review the investment case to either proceed or begin final restoration of the current site towards the end of this calendar year. The deferment will have little impact on production levels in the current financial year, but if ultimately a decision was made not to proceed with the site at all, volumes would be reduced by around 500,000 tonnes in total over the subsequent two years.

Griffin Mining has continued to deliver 'excellent' results from underground diamond drilling at its Caijiaying mine in northern China. Some of the best results so far include 37.4 metres (m) at 6.55g per tonne gold and 4.33% zinc, 45m at 5.23g/t (grammes per tonne) gold and 4.47% zinc and 28.5m 3.42g per tonne gold and 1.92% zinc. Better zinc results included 25.4m at 15.5% zinc and 30m at 10.91% zinc. Drilling will continue during 2012 to evaluate what is a highly prospective corridor of mineralization.

AMEC is riding high on the back of a strong order book and said in April that it expected to deliver double-digit underlying revenue growth in 2012. A strong first quarter of 2012 led some analysts to forecast that the firm would seek not only bolt-on acquisitions, but also 'transformational opportunities' this year.

The deal was confirmed in a separate announcement by FTSE 100 Serco, although neither firm revealed how much the deal might be worth. Both added that there was no certainty that the transaction would go ahead and said a further announcement would be made in due course.

International engineering company AMEC announced it was in discussions to buy Serco's nuclear Technical Consulting Services (TCS) business. TCS works primarily with the UK civil and defence nuclear markets and has annual revenues of approximately £70m

On taking up his new position Jensen will also join Wolseley's Executive Committee and will report to the group's Chief Executive Officer, Ian Meakins.

Jensen, like Weirsoe, joined Wolseley as a result of the DT Group acquisition in 2006. He has been in his current role since 2009, and previously held a number of senior management positions in sourcing and supply chain within the Nordic region.

Steen Weirsoe, Chief Executive Officer of the Nordic and Central European operations of Wolseley is to retire at the beginning of August. The building materials supplier said he will be succeeded by Ole Mikael Jensen, who is presently Managing Director for Central Europe.

"Our intention is to continue to build upon the momentum which the business has developed over the last few years, to further increase both the quality and quantity of new customers being gathered, and we anticipate service numbers this year will grow by around 20%," he added.

We have seen strong growth in the number of services we are providing and an improvement in the quality of our customer base, which gives us good visibility over future revenues and margins, and confidence that our earnings for the current year will be comfortably ahead of the level we have just reported, notwithstanding the increasing investment we are making in growing the business," said Executive Chairman Charles Wigoder.

The company added that it we expected to see a modest further reduction in churn over the course of the current year as the overall quality of our customer base improved. However, the firm said rising energy bills meant it was reducing its gross margin guidance, which was now expected to be within a range of 13% to 15%, below the 14% to 16% range it had previously indicated, for the foreseeable future.