Member Info for jange

CSS Stellar, which has moved its business into the natural resources sector, has reported a very positive assessment of its 49%-owned investment in Gold Mines of Wales, which holds the licensce over the prospective Dolgellau gold-belt in County Gwynedd, North Wales. The global exploration target for the entire gold-belt is between 500,000 - 2,000,000 tonnes at 3g per tonne gold and 15g per tonne gold for 130,000oz gold and 500,000oz gold.

The post-period purchase of the Wellman companies for £10.75m ought to be a major boost to Corac, as the purchase comes with established clients and revenues. The new compression system announced today has led to patent applications for "14 new inventions" with the firm saying it will develop the product "in collaboration with a number of energy industry operators".

Revenues for 2011 were £0.32m, broadly in line with the consensus forecast of £0.34m, while losses before tax were less than expected at £5.67m (consensus £6.16m). Corac has, up until recently, been a research outfit so the losses are not unexpected; total R&D spend for the year was £3.35m as the group continued to develop high speed compressor and power electronics.

Corac, the engineering technology company, has risen sharply in morning trading after revealing reduced losses and emphasising the potential of its recent purchase of Wellman Hunt Graham and Wellman Defence. A new design for a modular compression system also appears to have boosted hopes for the firm.

"By completing the intended transaction, Playtech would gain access to a broad range of social gaming platforms and products and believes it would be uniquely positioned as a leading B2B provider with the ability to supply cross platform capabilities for a full suite of products including social casino, poker, bingo and rummy." If the deal goes through Playtech will receive a 20% stake as a result of the transaction, creating an additional earnings stream for the group in one of the fastest growing segments in the gaming industry, the company said

At the same time it also announced it had signed a further non-binding memorandum of understanding with Sagi to provide advisory services to the company for a nominal fee of one euro a year. "Playtech has been monitoring social gaming activity operated by various companies through social networks and mobile platforms and has been analysing a number of ways to penetrate the social gaming arena," it said in a statement.

Online software development firm Playtech is to splash €95m on "certain B2B real money gaming and B2B social media assets" as it looks to enter the social gaming arena. The undisclosed assets are to be bought from a company linked to Teddy Sagi, Playtech's largest shareholder. The company has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding regarding the potential acquisition but said deal would be subject to a vote by shareholders.

The contract awards include £4.9m of M2 heavy machine gun barrels and bolts as well as a further £1.6m of M16 weapons. Glyn Bottomley, Manroy's Chief Executive, said: "The (exchange) of these contracts to MUSA and the accreditation of its production capabilities is a major step forward in our planned expansion into the US defence market.

Manroy, the UK manufacturer of machine guns, has revealed the US Department of Defense has exchanged contracts worth a total of 6.6m pounds with Manroy USA (MUSA)in which Manroy owns a 49 per cent interest. The new agreements replace unfulfilled contracts placed by the DoD with Sabre Industries, whose assets were acquired by MUSA in March 201

The company added: "In 2012, the group will invest aggressively to develop and market our new talent management system and seed this new offering in our global markets. We are confident that the NetDimensions Talent Suite will become a substantial group business over time." House broker Panmure Gordon commented that NetDimensions' results were "gobsmacking" and said the sector has witnessed "a slew of M&A [mergers & acquisitions] activity of late", the result of an increasing awareness by companies that human capital management is increasingly important in a slow economic growth environment, where work and staff dynamics are changing, something that "makes for an exciting growth market".

The company is currently in the process of refocusing itself as a talent management company, rather than simply staff training, and is looking to boost revenue through its local after-sales services. NetDimensions said that it has been a "straightforward step" to align itself with the talent management and human capital management markets as they offer bigger deals within a bigger market. The transition is occurring through the addition of further programmes, known as the Talent Suite, which includes motivation for continued performance, which is being released in May, and career progression and learning growth, both due to be released around August 2012.

"The board expects future growth to be funded by the group's strong financial position and future positive cash flows from existing business." The firm added that while it is "actively looking" for appropriate acquisitions, none are currently in the pipeline. Cash at the end of the year increased to $6.9m from $6.0m the year before.

Chairman Roger Durn told Sharecast: "Although the acquisitions were successful, they were not as good as they could have been. We certainly learned from our acquisitions and next time we will be firmer. "While revenue is not likely to see the percentage levels of growth it did last year we are cautiously optimistic of another good year.

With a view to paying an annual dividend hereon in, the company paid 0.5p from profit and a special one-off dividend of 1.5p from the premium share account, which the firm said was to "reward shareholders for their patience now the company is strong enough". Year-on year pre-tax profit rose from $0.12m to $0.64m on revenues of $12.3m (2010: $8.3m), partly the result of deferred revenue from two acquisitions made in 2010. Basic earnings per share were 1.4c from 0.4c the previous year. Selling expenses jumped $1.9m to $5.2m, largely because of increasing staff numbers.

NetDimensions, a firm that develops software for staff training within the market of talent management, doubled its revenue in 2011. The company reported top-line growth rates of 133% in the USA, 64% in China and 28% in Asia Pacific, took on 135 new clients and is to make its first dividend payment.

Good rns today with more growth for the company,looking forward to see end of year results,they should be very good........

The sector is currently trading at 12.5 times 2013 earnings on average; AMEC is trading below this despite a sector-leading earnings per share (EPS) outlook.

Meanwhile, Jefferies reiterated its buy recommendation for GKN on Thursday as well, saying that the read-across from last week's takeover of Umeco (from US-listed Cytec Industries) "is perhaps a timely reminder that within GKN, the Aerospace division may represent a store of significant incremental value for shareholders at some point."

Credit Suisse upgraded its rating on the firm on Thursday (April 12th) from neutral to outperform, highlighting the stock's recent underperformance. The group has made headlines in recent months due to the rumoured acquisition of aircraft engine group Volvo Aero, however over the last month (prior to Thursday), the share price had fallen by 11% and underperformed the sector by 4%. The broker said that any concerns surrounding the acquisition are now discounted in the current price.

Shares in automotive and aerospace engineer GKN were performing strongly ahead of the firm's trading update later this week, providing a lift to the automobiles and parts sector on Monday afternoon.