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Property information firm PSG Solutions has announced a tender offer that will give shareholders the chance to sell some of their shares back to the company at a sharp premium to the prevailing market price. The proposed deal will see PSG's broker, Northland Capital Partners, offering to buy up to 1.84m ordinary shares at 225p per share, with PSG then buying them back at a total cost of up to £4.14m and cancelling them; in other words this is a share buyback that will directly benefit shareholders, rather than just market makers.

"Whilst RWS is not immune to global economic conditions, especially in the Eurozone, the provision of intellectual property support services has proved to be a resilient niche and we are well placed to continue to grow our share of the patent translation and intellectual property services markets," said Executive Chairman Andrew Brode.

The group has drawn attention to the World Intellectual Property Office, which last month published figures that showed a 10.7% year-on-year increase in patent application filings to set a new record, "demonstrating that procuring international patent rights has remained an integral part of many IP strategies despite the economic conditions."

ntellectual property support services group RWS Holdings expects first-half revenue to be just slightly ahead of the same period the year before, held back by a continued weak performance in Berlin. Revenue in the six months to March 31st 2012 is expected to be £33.5m, compared with £32.4m the year before, driven by the performance in RWS's core patent translations business and the initial benefit of strong subscriptions for the high-margin PatBase service.

"We remain committed to investing in the development of market leading technology to meet demand for identity focused services around the world and in the US in particular. As we continue to grow our sales infrastructure and support capability, we are increasingly better placed to exploit this growth potential," Parris added.

"Intercede is in a stronger position than a year ago both financially and operationally despite a depressed global economy; and the orders we have received demonstrate that we remain the technology leaders in our sector," claimed Ricard Parris, who is both Chairman and Chief Executive of Intercede.

Market expectations are for profit before tax of £0.6m on revenue of £6.9m. Cash balances totalled £7.0m at the end of March, which compares to £6.0m at the same time last year. House broker finnCap had forecast end-period cash balances of £6.5m.

Intercede, the identity and credential management software provider which issued a profit warning in February, said full-year profits look set to be in line with market expectations. Although the figures have yet to be signed off by the auditors, the company indicated that sales for the year to March 31st will be higher than the previous year

Copper Development Corporation has discovered a "highly significant" extension of the deposit at hole 50, while an area of previously unknown mineralisation was located at hole 47. The hole 50 discovery "has the potential to double the resource at the Southeast Deposit", while hole 47 is an "important demonstration of the previously unknown extension of this deposit at depth along its western edge, which has the potential to add more substantial tonnage to the resources at Basay," the firm said.

Caretech, the social care service provider, had risen 0.7% by 09:53 after announcing it has managed to increase capacity by 60 places to a total of 2,116. Occupancy levels have been maintained at approximately 92% in established services, with "largely organic" growth. The firm also says negotiations with local authorities indicate it will not be increasing fees significantly in the new fiscal year.

Australian airline Skywest has announced an A$8m investment from Virgin Australia as the firms strengthen their co-operation. In equity terms, the investment would amount to a 10% stake but currently is in the form of a convertible debt instrument. The business model is certainly interesting; the two firms are cashing in on the Aussie mining boom, as commodity companies seek to move staff between different sites around the country.

Geosciences firm GETECH, which specialises in improving the efficiency of exploration activies with the oil and mining sectors, has announced its largest licence of its onshore US gravity data to date, worth $1.2m The firm said delivery is planned to take place by December 2012, although the majority will be delivered before the end of July. Raymond Wolfson, Chief Executive, said: "Gravity and magnetic data are used by oil and gas companies to assist with their exploration programmes and the contract reported here provides further evidence of the value placed by them on our data, particularly in the US domestic market.

ATUK, the cloud e-Commerce marketplace, has announced it is working with Visa to establish a new business-to-business partnership. The aim is to enhance the value of commercial payment solutions in the Asia Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East and Africa regions. Geosciences firm GETECH, which specialises in improving the efficiency of exploration activies with the oil and mining sectors, has announced its largest licence of its onshore US gravity data to date, worth $1.2m The firm said delivery is planned to take place by December 2012, although the majority will be delivered before the end of July. Raymond Wolfson, Chief Executive, said: "Gravity and magnetic data are used by oil and gas companies to assist with their exploration programmes and the contract reported here provides further evidence of the value placed by them on our data, particularly in the US domestic market."

"MBE is fully supportive of our company's senior management team, its strategic plan for Hayward Tyler and supporting the development of the group," May revealed. Shares in Specialist Energy Group rose 11.5p to 36.5p in the first hour of trading after the announcement. The group is set to release full year results in the middle of April. Overall revenues for the year are expected to be in the region of £32.1m with trading operating profit of £2.5m and trading profit after tax of £1.5m (before any non-cash non-trading items). The board is currently reviewing the specific uncertainty surrounding the collectability of various receivables which may require a provision of up to £1

Three new directors proposed by MBE will join the board, replacing Christopher Every and Ronald Emerson, who are due to step down on completion of the transaction. The alliance with McNally Bharat will give SEG increased access to key growth markets, especially India, Africa and South America, the company statement said. On the other side of the coin, SEG's Hayward Tyler subsidiary will give McNally Bharat improved access to North American and Chinese markets and a broader portfolio of products and services to market. John May, Chairman of SEG, said the agreements with MBE will transform the group.

The anticipated net debt within SEG after the repayment of debts to its previous bank will be reduced from £9.4m to £8.4m before costs on a pro-forma basis. Standard Chartered will also provide £2.8m of bonds and guarantees to SEG which, combined with the loans, will significantly improve working capital for the company. The spate of share issuance does not stop there, however; SEG intends to issue up to 4m new ordinary share to MBE to acquire a 20% to 24% stake in MBE Cologne Engineering. The German company, a wholly owned subsidiary of MBE, specialises in the manufacture of specialist machinery and components for the material handling and power generation sectors.

Indian engineering, procurement and construction group McNally Bharat Engineering (MBE) is paying a premium price to increase its stake in AIM-listed engineer Specialist Energy Group. MBE subsidiary MBE Mineral Technologies has stumped up 50p a share for 10m new ordinary shares of Specialist Energy; that's well above the 25p mid-market closing price of Specialist Energy Group (SEG) on the last trading date before the announcement of MBE's share subscription. MBE's stake will increase from 25.27% to 41.69% following the share subscription, but SEG chairman John May emphasised that MBE remains committed to SEG remaining a listed company for at least two more years. The UK company has also announced new borrowing facilities of £12m from Standard Chartered bank and MBE, which, together with the £5m or so raised from the share subscription, will be used to pay off its old banks so it can switch to banking with Standard Chartered.

The company also flagged the launch of dotSurvey, the company's new online survey tool. During the beta trial of dotSurvey over 1,000 existing dotMailer clients signed up to test this new product and following positive feedback, the product has now gone live, the company said. "Feedback from the beta trial period is very positive and we now have a clear road map to continue to enhance functionality, as well as delivering versions of the product in multiple languages," Simmonds said. The shares rose 0.375p to 9.625p following the trading update.

Online search marketing services provider dotDigital signed up 465 new customers to the company's email marketing services in the first three months of 2012. "Our business development activity with channel partners in the UK and USA is now starting to deliver firm orders for dotMailer," claimed Pete Simmonds, Chief Executive Officer of dotDigital.

Traynor will act as Chairman of the Red Flag business, which will be managed by the current management team who transfer with the business. Begbies has agreed to continue to provide shared accommodation, information technology, personnel, marketing, administrative and accounting services to Red Flag on a similar basis to current intra-group arrangements. Begbies has negotiated an agreement to retain full access to the database and joint marketing rights for the publication of Red Flag Alert quarterly statistics. For the year ended April 30th 2011, the Red Flag business generated revenue of £0.2m (2010: nil) and an operating loss of £0.7m (2010: loss of £0.6m), reflecting the on-going investment requirements of the division. Net liabilities at the end of April 2011 were £0.03m. The division was reported as a discontinued operation in the group's half year results announcement issued in December 2011.