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After showing signs of stopping the rot in the first quarter of its fiscal year flooring specialist Topps Tiles would have kept the improvement going in the second quarter, but for the timing of the New Year bank holiday. LFL sales in the six months to the end of March are expected to be down around 4.5% from a year earlier when the final numbers are in, a deterioration from the position at the end of the first quarter when LFL sales were down 4.2% year-on-year.

In the meantime, the company is "definitely busy with a lot of tenders and new opportunities, and these are coming to fruition at a slightly faster pace than a few months ago," Sylvester said. The last word goes to Chairman Colin Lloyd: "Our five year stated strategy continues to progress to plan, and Motivcom's strong cash balances put the group in an excellent position to capitalise on future opportunities as they arise, both acquisitive and organic."

In the meantime, the company is "definitely busy with a lot of tenders and new opportunities, and these are coming to fruition at a slightly faster pace than a few months ago," Sylvester said. The last word goes to Chairman Colin Lloyd: "Our five year stated strategy continues to progress to plan, and Motivcom's strong cash balances put the group in an excellent position to capitalise on future opportunities as they arise, both acquisitive and organic."

In a familiar refrain, Hocken said it is looking at a few target companies but vendors are still holding out for what Motivom sees as unrealistic valuations. "Historically, 50% of our growth has come from acquisitions," noted John Sylvester, the executive director of Motivcom's Motivation and Incentive Services division, so it looks like a case of 'watch this space

The company has announced a final dividend of 2.85p, which makes the full year dividend of 4.0p 25% higher than 2010's pay-out of 3.2p. Although the company is committed to a progressive dividend policy, it still has plenty of cash for suitable acquisitions. "We are an acquisitive company," Hocken stated, "but the companies have to be in our space and something we understand. It has to be something where we can save costs through synergies or, if it is a stand-alone business, we ask, can we cross-sell and grow its top line?"

Both of the acquired companies, Allsave, in the employee benefits sector, and Goldserve, a digital global events prospecting company, have integrated well. Hocken sounded especially pleased with the performance of Allsave which is "performing exceedingly well". "They are enjoying being part of the group and we are seeing cross-selling opportunities," Hocken told Sharecast.

Headline profit before tax also fell by 16%, to £3.95m from £4.69m the year before. Headline basic earnings per share decreased by 13% to 9.97p from 11.48p a year earlier. Net cash at the end of 2011 stood at £5.64m, down from £6.24m a year earlier, but not bad after the company splashed out £2.52m on acquisitions.

Revenue slipped to £105.95m in 2011 from £115.48m in 2010, as order intake slowed because of tough UK business conditions. Headline operating profit decreased by 16% to £4.02m from £4.76m in 2010 on a gross profit that increased by 6% to £29.50m from 2010's £27.78m.

Things look to be back on a sound footing at Motivcom, the business services group which went through the pain of a profit warning back in September. Finance director Sue Hocken told Sharecast at the time of its profits warning that it had set its full year guidance at a cautious level and that the company had no wish to revisit it, and true to her word, the company has produced figures slightly ahead of revised expectations.

Financial website operator ADVFN has announced an agreement with TheStreet to distribute TheStreet's content through its network of financial websites. ADVFN is expanding its global reach and currently has localised sites in numerous countries including the UK, US, France and Germany.

Stockbroking firm Numis Securities is taking over the RBS Hoare Govett Smaller Companies Index. The index will be renamed "The Numis Smaller Companies Index" with immediate effect. Although no initial consideration is being paid, Numis will be paying ongoing fees and may make royalty-based payments to the compilers of the index. The index covers over 800 companies which make up the bottom 10% of the UK market by value.

21st Century, a supplier and installation service provider of public transport closed-circuit television, reported a leap in sales from £10.8m to £14m for 2011. Profit after tax doubled from £0.6m to £1.2m, while earnings per share rose from 0.61p to 1.31p. Year end cash was up to £2.8m from £1.1m at the start of the year. The firm said if the company continues to progress it will consider proposing a dividend within the next 12 months

Public Relations represented 42% of Chime's operating income in 2011, down from 49% in 2010.

"It isn't logical, and if you start to dismember the management of it, where does that begin and where does that end?" Sorrell asked the Standard. "As an investor in the company, one would rather it stayed together than split asunder," he added.

Sir Martin Sorrell, head honcho at WPP, is reportedly not a fan of a buy-out, having told London's Evening Standrd that such a deal "would set a terrible precedent" for Chime.

The move could be part of a plan to stymie plans by Lord Bell to buy some of Chime's public relations units which include Public Affairs, Sans Frontieres, Pelham Bell Pottinger and Issues & Crisis.

WPP has increased its stake in Chime to 15.54m shares, representing around 19.14% of the issued share capital. Prior to Wednesday's announcement WPP's stake hovered below 18%.

Global advertising giant WPP is slowly increasing its stake in smaller rival Chime Communications, the public relations, advertising and communications group chaired by Lord Bell, said to be Margaret thatcher's favourite public relations man when she was in her iron-booted pomp.

"All of our current projects are progressing to plan, and as we move on in 2012, the company has a clear focus on creating shareholder value through execution of our project pipeline," Madden said. At 31st December 2011 the company had cash of €327,801. In January, the company drew down all of a second €1.2m convertible loan facility from Farmer Business Developments, the company's largest shareholder, which may be what has perturbed the market. Clearly, the sale of the company's 80% stake in the Latvian plant would be seen as a positive development for the company.

Madden remains optimistic about the future, however. As well as the plant in Newry, Northern Ireland, the company is quite advanced with plans for a 12 megawatt gasification plant in Enfield, North London, and has sites lined up in Derbyshire and Rutland. "The important thing for us is getting finance in place for Newry, as it sends a signal to backers looking to invest in the rest of our pipeline," Madden said.