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New Britain also has scope to improve its efficiency. Having spent £30m on a new refinery in Liverpool last year, it now plans to double capacity there to 300,000 tonnes a year. An adjacent bakery fats plant will be finished shortly, driving market share gains in the UK.

Palm oil has become important in the production of many consumer items, from biscuits to lipstick. Yet the environmental impact of palm oil production remains contentious. Growers have cut vast swathes out of South East Asia's rainforest to make way for palm plantations, destroying the natural habitat of endangered species, such as the orangutan. But not all palm oil producers are unscrupulous. New Britain Palm Oil has spent 14 years developing a more sustainable approach to palm oil production; investment that puts it significantly ahead of most rivals. All of its plantations will be fully certified by the year end. This matters. First, it enables Papua New Guinea-based New Britain to charge a small but useful premium for its output, in the region of $20-$40 per tonne of crude palm oil. Second, it gives New Britain a huge competitive advantage in winning new business, because major food producers that use palm oil want to demonstrate their own 'environmental' credentials

That's helped New Britain win major contracts with the likes of United Biscuits and, more recently, European confectioner Ferrero. Such relationships give New Britain assured revenues and already half of this year's production has been sold at $1,075 a tonne. Quite likely, further sales this year will be at a higher price - global stocks of edible oils stand at record lows, exacerbated by a poor South American soya harvest. So palm oil prices have risen 10 per cent this year, despite a bumper harvest.

Dream Scenario: WPP becomes established as a high growth emerging markets prospect, especially in the run up to the maxi quadrennial events of 2012.

Nightmare Scenario: With shares near year highs, traders take profits after recent very positive news.

Shares in WPP have occupied a rising trend channel on the chart currently based at 830p. While this support is held, upside for the shares is seen towards a four month resistance line projection heading for 900p plus.

On March 1st advertising giant WPP reported stronger revenues and £1bn plus profits as it celebrates Olympic year. The so called “maxi-quadrennial” events of the London Olympics, the Euro 2012 football championships and the US Presidential election have all helped to boost the bottom line at WPP. Revenues hit £10bn, ahead of analysts' predictions of £9.9bn, while profits before tax came in at £1.4bn, 17% ahead of 2010 on a constant currency basis. The company saw growth in all its regions with Latin America leading with like-for-like revenues up by 18%. In its outlook statement WPP says 2012 may be similar to 2011, with companies willing to invest in their brand to grow market share.

Small drop the other day,but recovered well....

AIM listed KBC Advanced Technologies* (LSE:KBC), a leading consultant to the energy industry, reported hugely impressive results for 2011 with a 35% jump in pretax profit and a 22% boost to the dividend. The cash rich group also expects the current high levels of demand for work to continue.

Stilo International, a software and services firm, posted a fall in pre-tax profit from £0.142m to £0.105m for the year ended December 31st. Sales revenue fell from £2.38m to £1.74m, while operating expenses were reduced by 17% to £1.5m (2010: £1.8m). Cash more than doubled at the year end, from £0.49m to £0.93m

Surgical Innovations Group, a manufacturer of medical supplies, has received clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration for is reusable PretzelFlex device. This clearance permits the use of PretzelFlex in the US market for organ and tissue retraction

Powerflute Oyj, a packaging and paper group, has reported a 15% rise in revenues from €105.4m to €121.4m during the year ended December 31st. Pre-tax profit almost tripled from €4.8m to €12.4m. Earnings per share rose to 3.5 cents from -13.3 cents. Cash at the end of the period stood at €43.6m compared to €18.7m the same date the previous year. The directors intend to recommend a dividend for 2011 of 1.3 cents per share (2010: 1.0 cents per share)

Trinity Mirror is launching "happli", a nationwide daily deals business, focused on attracting and retaining loyal, long-term customers for retailers. The launch is supported by a £10m investment over the next two years with the business forecast to deliver net revenues of around £20m by 2014. There are significant opportunities to drive new revenues from this market which was estimated to be valued at around £100m in 2011 and is forecast to rise to over £1bn by 2016.

EKF Diagnostics said trading in the second half of 2011 was strong, with unaudited revenues for the year ended December 31st of about £21.6m, and the board now believes that adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) will be materially ahead of already revised market expectations.

CPL Resources has acquired European Human Resources, a company engaged in providing human resource solutions for companies within the Scandinavian market. The acquisition represents a further step in CPL's strategy of extending the group's international footprint, the firm said.

Siteserv has announced conditional plans to sell its infrastructure, utilities support services and access and formwork businesses carried on in Ireland and the UK to Millington, an acquisition vehicle, for around 45.42m euros in cash

On the operational side, the company said the drilling results from the Block 31 permit continue to offer encouragement. The J-51 well, like J-50 and J-52 before it, was confirmed as a commercial discovery when the results of the drilling in the second half of last year were analysed. The well was shut in on 4th of February, 2012, and an application will be submitted to the relevant regulatory authorities for the well to be granted a Trial Production Licence. This application will be lodged after the gathering of results from the J-53 well, the company's fourth exploration well. The company said it has received approval for Trial Production Licences for the J-50 and J-52 exploration wells, but the company still needs to jump through a few regulatory hoops before it can start production. "Whilst the delays in the granting of the requisite approvals to commence production have been frustrating, the goal of developing Jupiter Energy into a full cycle E&P [exploration and production] company with a meaningful production profile and sizeable 2P reserves base remains on track," the company statement said.

AIM-listed Jupiter Energy said it is making good progress on its evolution from an oil exploration company to a exploration and production firm. The Australia-based but Kazakhstan-focused oil outfit saw its loss before tax narrow to A$2.02m in the six months to December 31st, from A$3.25m the year before. As for the company's top line, it is not yet in a position to earn money from oil sales but seems to be doing OK as an investment house; interest revenue was insignificant at A$0.02m, down from A$0.04m the year before, but the company also booked a A$0.51m paper gain on a financial derivative and a A$0.30m foreign currency gain. Cash and short-term deposits at the end of 2011 stood at A$4.60m, down from A$8.97m a year earlier. Assets increased to A$45.0m (2010: $34.4m) and equity increased to $40.6m (2010: $33.1m).

It is the first AIM initial public offering (IPO) of a mining/exploration company so far this year. Papua Mining holds two exploration licences in the West New Britain province on the Papua New Guinea island of New Britain and one exploration licence in Ambunti which is located in the East Sepik province on the mainland. The company has also applied for a further 11 licences which, if successful, would result in a total area of 4,394 sq km being available to the company for exploration. Hugh McCullough, Chief Executive Officer, said: "We have assembled a very senior and experienced team to carry out exploration programmes in one of the most prospective gold and copper territories in the world. Although Papua New Guinea is the location of a number of significant gold and copper mines, there remain parts of the country which are underexplored, including the areas covered by the licences we hold and have applied for. "We are very pleased with the level and quality of investor support we have received and to have joined AIM. We also look forward to continuing the exploration work programme which is aimed at delineating drill target areas to allow us to commence drilling later this year."

Stadium is unlikely to see its revenues soar in 2012, but better margins should help underlying profits move ahead sharply (2011's profits were flattered by one-off accounting items). According to analysts at broker N+1 Brewin, this should result in EPS rising from 6.4p in 2011 to 9.3p this year and 10.4p in 2013. This means Stadium's shares are trading on an earnings multiple of just under eight times for 2012, falling to seven times for 2013. The decent dividend yield on a payout comfortably covered by earnings is nice, too. For shares in a manufacturing business with decent growth prospects driven by experienced bosses, it's a serious proposition. Buy.