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http://tinyurl.com/qe6xbhv Elizabeth Gooch, chief executive of eg solutions (LON:EGS), discusses the reasons behind the improved performance from the back office software specialist. The company expects to break even in its current financial year after recent investment in sales and marketing. Meanwhile, two new products - eg forecasting and eg mobile – look set to push the firm towards profitability in the medium-term.

http://tinyurl.com/nrk654k Tony Richardson, chief executive Venn Life Sciences (LON:VENN), says the company’s acquisition of Dutch drug consultancy Kinesis allows it to pair early and late-stage drug development together. Venn currently offers clinical trial management, monitoring and biometric data services to customers in the later phases of developing treatments. But Kinesis will allow it to supply more early-stage technical services, such as working out how a drug should be administered or how quickly it has worked its way through the body.

http://tinyurl.com/p29p75x Nik Philpot, chief executive of secure payments specialist Eckoh (LON:ECK), says the firm is focused on investing in its technology as well as expanding in Europe and the US organically and via acquisitions. Eckoh’s technology helps firms take payments more securely, enabling customers to give credit card details without these being stored by businesses. Today the firm revealed it has secured a contract with the Co-operative Group. The three year deal will see Eckoh's CallGuard secure payment solution implemented throughout The Co-operative Group's contact centres in its Electrical, Legal Services, Group Finance and FuneralCare divisions.

http://tinyurl.com/orbn2ku Bill Morgan, finance chief at Anglo Asian Mining (LON:AAZ), says the firm has put last year’s technical issues behind it and is well on the way to turning its Gedabek gold mine in Azerbaijan around. Last year the miner experienced difficulties with lower metal prices, together with the first full year's operational cost of the agitation leach plant at Gedabek, impacting profitability. “There’s been no silver bullet in terms of the turnaround – it’s been hard work,” said Morgan. This week the firm said that Gedabek set a new gold production record with 35,938 ounces in the six months to June 30, compared with 27,054 ounces in the same period of 2014.

http://tinyurl.com/ovzbd7y Darrin Disley, chief executive of Horizon Discovery Group (LON:HZD), discusses plans to scale-up the firm’s product inventory, put in place global sales channels and invest in the R&D side of the business. The CEO was speaking Proactive after releasing a after a positive set of half year results in which products revenue rose 73% to £3mln and services revenue jumped 205% to £5.4mln. AIM-listed Horizon has pioneered a way of editing genes with exceptional precision to produce what it calls ‘patients in a test tube’ or mutated cells. These can mimic thousands of permutations of diseases, against which new drugs can be tested by drugs companies, researchers and academics.

https://youtu.be/xnp6CNITWC4 Shaun Chilton, deputy chief executive of Clinigen (LON:CLIN), says the firm’s purchase of Link Healthcare gives the group access to future growth markets - one of Clinigen’s key strategic objectives. Dutch-based Link distributes niche pharmaceuticals across Africa, Asia, Australasia and Clinigen is paying £44.5mln upfront for the business. A further £55.5mln will be handed out over the next two years, subject to Link hitting certain targets. Clinigen also told investors today that its own underlying EBITDA in the year to June rose a fifth to £32.3mln on a 45% increase in revenue to £184.4mln.

https://youtu.be/Ylp-6oKHJGE Robert Vale, chief executive of employee intelligence specialist ClearStar (LON:CLST), says the company is beginning to focus on larger companies and contracts after recent growth. The AIM-listed firm operates in the background check industry, screening personnel, providing medical information services and technologies that fit into the human resources systems of its customers. Today it said turnover rose by 43% to $7.5mln (US$5.2mln) in the half year to June, as the company screened more than 1.1mln potential employees for 23,000 customers. That led Cenkos to upgrade ClearStar to a ‘Buy’ with the broker claiming that the shares are now unvalued and should be attracting the attention of investors.

http://tinyurl.com/qf9nskg The chief executive of live TV gaming firm Netplay TV (LON:NPT), Bjarke Larsen, explains how a new approach to marketing and an opportunistic acquisition strategy is set to boost the group's performance. The company runs SuperCasino.com, Jackpot247.com and Vernons.com and its TV services can be viewed 24 hours a day live on Sky Channel 862, and every evening on ITV and Channel 5. Like other players in the gambling sector, Netplay has had to deal with the new point of consumption tax that has been levied on all online gaming. To mitigate the impact, the group cut its marketing expenses by 24% to £5.9mln, and purchased Otherside Inc, a digital marketing firm that has been bought to help increase its customer base, for £3.2mln.

http://tinyurl.com/ote8sjf Charlie Clark, chief executive of Rosslyn Data Technologies (LON:RDT), is confident of expanding the firm’s reach into the mining sector after signing up one of the world’s largest players last month. Speaking to Proactive, Clark said the sector is a huge opportunity for the data business and would be a key focus in the company’s plans to scale-up. Rosslyn – which specialises in cloud-based data analytics – today told investors that its performance was in line with expectations set out at the time of IPO last spring.

http://tinyurl.com/prkxsmn Michael Dickerson, chief executive mobile payments specialist Mi-Pay (LON:MPAY), believes the company has turned a corner following investment and restructuring efforts last year. A half-year update today revealed improved revenues, margins and a reduced loss. The focus now, the CEO explains, is on growing the client list and moving towards profitability. In simple terms, Mi-Pay’s technology helps clients – large phone networks operating in pre-paid mobile markets across in Asia and Europe – simplify payments and prevent fraud.

http://tinyurl.com/phvj7om Ignacio Salazar, chief executive & director of Orosur Mining (LON:OMI) (TSE:OMI), explains the steps being taken by the Latin American miner in order to deal with the weaker price of gold. With the precious metal trading around the US$1,130 an ounce mark, the company told investors today it is conducting a review of its operating and exploration plans. Its aim is to preserve cash and maximise profitability at is San Gregorio site in Uruguay, which produced 53,485 ounces of gold during the year to May 31. Meanwhile, the firm looking for opportunities in Columbia and agreements with Codelco and Asset Chile means Orosur is set to start drilling Anillo in Chile by the end of this year.

http://tinyurl.com/qxv7jeg Ian Harebottle, chief executive of coloured gemstone specialist Gemfields (LON:GEM), says cautious and prudent growth will lead to long-term success for the company in China, the world’s major consumer of luxury goods. Although the People’s Republic is not officially in recession - its growth rate has been slowing leading to a devaluation of the yuan. “Our biggest challenge is the global economy. China has been a very good consumer of luxury goods for a while, so we are aware of what’s going on in that economy and the potential knock on effects globally.” Gemfields, for whom Mila Kunis acts as brand ambassador, is one of the stand-out performers in the mining space on the London market. The firm owns luxury jewellery brand Faberge. Today, it reported encouraging figures on production and grades, with cost increases offset by the increased scale of exploration, processing and mining activities at both its Kagem and Montepuez mines.

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Andrew Newland speaks to Proactive http://tinyurl.com/o2lowus

http://tinyurl.com/p9cfquc The chief financial officer of Caledonia Mining, (LON:CMCL), Mark Learmonth, believes the firm’s reworked preliminary economic assessment will appease regulatory body - the Ontario Securities Commission. Caledonia has been working hard to firm up the longer term future of the Blanket gold mine in Zimbabwe. It has modified a preliminary economic assessment, ‘PEA’, for the mine’s expansion after the Ontario Securities Commission asked it to consider expansion below the 750 metre level as a standalone project. The original PEA calculated the project economics on the basis of the combined values of the mine plan based on the reserves and resources above and below the 750 m level. The revised PEA shows an estimated NPV for the extension project of US$65mln and an IRR of 42%.

http://tinyurl.com/ne8ah3m The chief executive of Action Hotels (LON:AHCG), Alain Debare, says the company remains on track to open 16 hotels and 2,820 rooms by 2017. “There’s a lot of focus on making sure we get these hotel deals complete on time and to budget,” said the CEO. “But we’re on track to meet that target. Today the firm told investors that adjusted gross operating profit was up 11% at US$11mln in the six months to June 30. Earnings before interest, tax and depreciation advanced 14% to US$8.7mln on total revenues of US$21.6mln. Its three and four star chain, which is focused on the Middle East and Australia, said occupancy rates at mature operations were above 80%.

http://tinyurl.com/nctn59s The chief executive of Keywords Studios (LON:KWS), Andrew Day, discusses the company’s acquisition of Kite Team and potential growth for the gaming market in Latin America. Keywords will pay a maximum of €2.3mln for Kite, a specialist in game localisation for Latin America and Spain. The deal includes Kite's audio recording and localisation studios in Madrid, Spain, as well as a new facility in Mexico City. It comes on the back of recent growth for Latin America’s gaming sector, with some industry forecasts predicting the market will grow to over US$2bn by 2018, from US$1bn in 2013.

Roland speaks to Proactive after planning permit news http://tinyurl.com/pms6b7r

http://tinyurl.com/p3q8t5e Charles Clark, chief executive of Rosslyn Data Technologies (LON:RDT), says he is in talks with ‘one or two more very, very large, substantial partners at the moment’. The company sees the ‘huge increase’ in revenues carrying on after strong growth in the back end of its financial year. The data analytics specialist today revealed it expects revenues to be no less than £2.8mln, which represents a year-on-year rise of 35%, although it reckons sales growth was closer to 50% in the second half. Clark discusses the partnerships that have helped drive the growth, as well as the departure of CFO Francis Reid.